Bubble Bucket Nutrients

hello , i want too start a dwc bubble bucket grow , i have read a fair bit on them but honestly i still kind of dont understand exactly what nutrients i will need, so i was hopeing someone can help me out and explain this
thanks

For a DWC bucket grow I recommend a synthetic nutrient system. Organics are possible in DWC but it is very involved, time consuming and requires experience. For synthetic nutes I can reccomend two brands.

General Hydroponics three part system is tried and true, and works very well in a DWC system. GH is a cheap option that will still give you good results.

Dutch Master is a little more expensive, but offers an excellent product that helps guard against mistakes. It works beautifully with DWC systems. I feel that if you use Dutch Master, you will have a much easier and less worrisome experience.

I can recommend these because I have had success with them. Whatever you decide, keep it simple.

if u go for dutch master gold make sure u do a very good flush constantly as it is very high in salt. i love it in soil but have not tired in hydro yet!

I have no problem with salt buildup in a DWC. I change nutes every 7-10 days and do a quick flush which consists of pouring 4 gallons of water over the roots. I do this mainly to ensure the water is flushed of old solution as my pump leaves some in the bottom, and not really to rinse the roots of buildup. I can not speak for drip systems, ebb and flow, ect.

For veg I use advance range, no additive. For bud I use gold range and the add27.

thanks , i am going to go with dutch master advanced, there is a kit on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com.au/DUTCH-MASTER-ADVANCE-NUTRIENTS-1L-NUTRIENT-KIT-/230597922268?pt=AU_Seed_Starting_Hydroponics&hash=item35b0b50ddc should that be all i need to get started in a bubble bucket?

stickyfingerz said:

thanks , i am going to go with dutch master advanced, there is a kit on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com.au/DUTCH-MASTER-ADVANCE-NUTRIENTS-1L-NUTRIENT-KIT-/230597922268?pt=AU_Seed_Starting_Hydroponics&hash=item35b0b50ddc should that be all i need to get started in a bubble bucket?

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That kit would be a bad purchase...

Silica is optional. It will make your plants bend without breaking, and help them resist stress, but that's about it. I don't use it.

Zone is used to sterilize the water, but since I use beneficial microbes I can not use it. I have used it in the past and it is a great product, but did not keep me from getting brown slime algae. To be fair, none of the other many sterilizing products I tried would kill brown slime algae either, which is why I switched to beneficial microbes, and have been extremely pleased ever since.

If your plants do not spend much time in veg, you don't need the veg add27. I use only advance for my two week veg, and the plants are beautiful when they enter the flower room.

I recommend getting the advance veg A and B, which cost $10/liter. (both included)

I recommend the gold range flower A and B, which is $16/liter (both Included)

I recommend the Add27 flower, which is $18/liter

So 10+16+18= $44 + ~15 shipping = $56

I also suggest not using a huge res, or you'll be wasting nutes. I like 1 1/2 gallon of water per each plant sharing the res. If you used a 20 gal res like some, it would take nearly half a bottle of dutch master nutes to fill it just once. Using 6 gal buckets (5 gal water) and changing nutes every 7-10 days, one 'round' of bud nutes will last me about 1 and 1/2 grow cycles, veg much longer.

With the money you save you should purchase Dutch Master liquid light, which is a foliar spray that puts your plants into overdrive, I spray every 3rd day. I also highly recommend the Saturator, which can be combined with any spray to make it more effective. These sprays are what help me get better yields than my friends who also grow DWC. Liquid Light + Saturator combo is about $60. I have had my bottles for just over a year and they are just under half full.

To give my foliar spray a boost I also use a product called snow storm ultra. This encourages trich production. A small bottle lasts forever, you only need a few drops in the with the liquid light + saturator.

Using the system I described above I am able to get very nice results, such that other growers often ask me what my secret is. All Dutch Master products have an indefinite shelf life.

Lasty I would recommend using some sort of beneficial microbes. Aquashield + ZHO powder is pretty cheap yet still very effective.

This is where I get my nutes. Shipping takes about a week. http://www.hydroponics.net

Interesting, you use the liquid light every 3 days? I just use it at water change and have wondered about using it more, got 1.5L of both liquid light and saturator (and silica, zone, add .27 Grow and add. 27 flower) for free at the indoor gardening expo, already a DM user, decided to try out the LL, which has always been too pricey for me.
Why do you not use add .27 veg? No difference in using it and not? Do you use Max then?
I have found that bigger buds are able to be produced and held stable by using the silica (plus you use soo little its worth the cost) you did not see the same results?
About the whole flushing thing, i will grow plants from start to finish not flushing at all until the final 2 weeks, and never had any bad experiences with the salts, they do get on the tubs and lids, a little bit on the cocoa cups i use (to keep light out of the res), but never any issues with the plants, possibly just my system though.

I just noticed that my prices are US vs your prices which are AU, but it still looks like you would save money. You might look for a local source since Dutch Master products are manufactured in AU.

TruenoAE86coupe said:

Interesting, you use the liquid light every 3 days? I just use it at water change and have wondered about using it more, got 1.5L of both liquid light and saturator (and silica, zone, add .27 Grow and add. 27 flower) for free at the indoor gardening expo, already a DM user, decided to try out the LL, which has always been too pricey for me.
Why do you not use add .27 veg? No difference in using it and not? Do you use Max then?
I have found that bigger buds are able to be produced and held stable by using the silica (plus you use soo little its worth the cost) you did not see the same results?
About the whole flushing thing, i will grow plants from start to finish not flushing at all until the final 2 weeks, and never had any bad experiences with the salts, they do get on the tubs and lids, a little bit on the cocoa cups i use (to keep light out of the res), but never any issues with the plants, possibly just my system though.

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I use LL every 3 days because I don't find any benefit in using it more than that, although DM says aggressive growers could use it every other day. I also use it up until 2 weeks before harvest, as I have excellent air flow and am not worried about bud rot. I used to stop using it after buds appeared, as the directions state, but it really swells up the buds if you use it longer, and also makes more foliage which can make manicuring more difficult, but it makes for some great hash fodder. I find saturator makes a real difference.

I used snow storm in the res and saw no real difference. I started adding it to the LL+ Sat combo and it makes a noticeable difference in crystal production.

My plants go directly from the cloner at the first sign of roots into veg. (I use DM APS for clone spray) They spend at max two weeks in veg and grow excellent, so I feel they can afford to go without the veg add27. At this point the beneficial microbes put the roots into overdrive which gives them a great start for the bud room and makes the foliage explode once they get stronger light. (my veg is CFL)

I have never felt the need for silica (although it does have many benefits) but I find what you say interesting. I have recently introduced C02 to my room and my cheese strain is having trouble holding up the huge buds. It seems elementary that silica would help this now that you mention it, but I didn't think of it before. I will try a bottle soon.

One other question while we are on subject, (i am assuming you follow dm's calculator here) do you do the aggressive or normal schedule? I personally saw an unbelievable difference between the two, apparently with DM less is not more, your experience the same?
I am pretty glad to hear that you don't use add .27 in veg, i plan to for starting my perpetual (starts this week!!!!), but i plan to veg for 2 weeks also (once rooted) and any costs i could drop would be great as i have done a little number crunching on how much nutrient i am going to use each week with the 45 gallons of water i am going to use every week.
Thanks for your help on this, have noticed you are about the only one on here willing to say that you are using DM and love it, good to have someone to compare notes with.
One of these days i am going to try your bene's, but trying to get things dialed in right now, and Zone takes care of basically all of my issues.

thanks for the great info, this will be my first hydro i have done . so if i get the veg and flower ab and the add .27 flower, what should i get for the roots?

TruenoAE86coupe said:

One other question while we are on subject, (i am assuming you follow dm's calculator here) do you do the aggressive or normal schedule? I personally saw an unbelievable difference between the two, apparently with DM less is not more, your experience the same?

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With new strains I use in between the aggressive and normal. So if it calls for 12 standard and 16 aggressive, I'll use 14. If I find the strain is still hungry (through keeping ppm records) i'll up it to full aggressive. Most of the indicas I've grown can take aggressive just fine. I also find it's very hard to burn the plants with DM.

stickyfingerz said:

thanks for the great info, this will be my first hydro i have done . so if i get the veg and flower ab and the add .27 flower, what should i get for the roots?

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I recommend brewing a microbe tea. You can find info through the link in my sig. If you use the tea regularly you can be sure to have healthy robust roots.

Heisenberg said:

I recommend brewing a microbe tea. You can find info through the link in my sig. If you use the tea regularly you can be sure to have healthy robust roots.

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i have not looked at your link yet but whats the differance between benis and using something like bloom roots then au60?

im not saying anything bad about dm i do like there stuff!

my mate is using advanced grow then flower a&b and au60 and liquid lead and getting good results!

I think the main difference would be cost. The microbe tea is only pennies per gallon; one gallon of tea will inoculate 15+ gallons of res water. Incidentally you could use bloom roots in the tea which would make the product last longer, and add the au60 to the tea as a booster.

For most setups microbes are optional, and the tea is just one way to inoculate. The only time I would stress using the tea over 'shelf' microbe products is in a DWC.

I don't want to kill my great white... I'm holding off on hygrozyme because my air house felt slippery when changing my Res... Roots felt fine Burr i'm paranoid

I use general hydro...i run a modified version of the lucas system with some advanced nutrients products...but if your just starting out i would just run the plain lucas system its super easy,cheap,and you get great results!