Rdwc vs ebb n flow vs aeroponics

bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
xX24nuggetsXx said:
well I live in aus so my hourly rate is high at $0.30c per kWh I have solar though which definitely makes a difference. So are you saying a top feed recirculating system doesn’t require a chiller? Or do you just have to use more bennies? Does the pot socks just hold the root ball in?
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By hourly rate, I mean how much your time is worth per hour hahah. Some of these things take hours a week in maintenance to be 'more efficient'. I was doing my top feed in Brisbane in summer with ridiculous temps in the garage (over 40 degrees celsius). I sit the res on the concrete outside the grow space but never had an issue, just change it once a week. No chiller, no bennies, just a res on the concrete pumping through feeder rings and back to the res. Cheap to setup, just use two pots, one filled with clay balls and some holes in the bottom sitting in another sealed pot with a hole drilled for the pipe back to the res. Fishtank pump for the feeder rings and thats it. I'm running RDWC now but tbh it's not that much faster (maybe a few days quicker in veg?) and needs a lot more dialling in. And yeah, the pot socks just keep roots out of the return pipe
 
bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
It's basically flood and drain. Most of these chiller and bennies are only needed if the roots are sitting in the nutes 24/7. Never had an issue with a warm res when top feeding through a fast draining medium (clay balls).
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
bubblescrogs said:
By hourly rate, I mean how much your time is worth per hour hahah. Some of these things take hours a week in maintenance to be 'more efficient'. I was doing my top feed in Brisbane in summer with ridiculous temps in the garage (over 40 degrees celsius). I sit the res on the concrete outside the grow space but never had an issue, just change it once a week. No chiller, no bennies, just a res on the concrete pumping through feeder rings and back to the res. Cheap to setup, just use two pots, one filled with clay balls and some holes in the bottom sitting in another sealed pot with a hole drilled for the pipe back to the res. Fishtank pump for the feeder rings and thats it. I'm running RDWC now but tbh it's not that much faster (maybe a few days quicker in veg?) and needs a lot more dialling in. And yeah, the pot socks just keep roots out of the return pipe
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Yeah I guess that makes sense hahaha! Yeah I’m from down Coffs Harbour so I definitely know what it’s like with 40 degree days I’ve only done coco and soil before so the higher temps never really stress me out to much. Nice would you say you enjoy Rdwc more then the flood and drain? I don’t know why but I just feel like it’s a hard choice haha! Nice I’ll have to have a look into the pot socks if I go for the Rdwc! Did you build your own system or did you purchase a pre made one? I’m currently looking at the alien Rdwc system but the current culture looks so good
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
xX24nuggetsXx said:
Yeah nice I’d definitely rather just get all tops and not have to worry about any larf it would make life so much easier! So are you saying that you would get between 2-3 pounds in your grow cycle? And do you mean 2 weeks veg from when the clones were taken or 2 weeks from when the clones started to root? So your plants total height was 7-8 inches?
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that’s the yields I would get from the whole tray. I ran my system on a perpetual cycle so I always had 4 batches in my tray At a time. I harvested every 2ish weeks and yielded about 1/4 the total weight each time.

The 2 weeks of veg on the clones was from when they were rooted in starter cubes. They went into 6 inch pots of hydroton at that point for about 2 weeks. They went into flower at 7-8 inches tall and I would trim off the bottom set or 2 of branches to encourage upward growth. When they finished flowering they would be between 24-30 inches usually.
When I harvested I’d strip off the big leaves, chop the stem and hang the whole little plant.
 
J. Rocket

J. Rocket

Well-Known Member
xX24nuggetsXx said:
What size would these plants get to though? Would this be more of a sea of green type of method?
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about any size you want, any training method.
ive had them up to 6' (my height limit at the time) and maybe 10 oz. (red congolese auto)
larger plant = more frequent watering
in flower im running 2 feeds/day of 6 and 7 minutes.
under 1/2 gal run-off/day for 4 blocks.
 
bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
xX24nuggetsXx said:
Yeah I guess that makes sense hahaha! Yeah I’m from down Coffs Harbour so I definitely know what it’s like with 40 degree days I’ve only done coco and soil before so the higher temps never really stress me out to much. Nice would you say you enjoy Rdwc more then the flood and drain? I don’t know why but I just feel like it’s a hard choice haha! Nice I’ll have to have a look into the pot socks if I go for the Rdwc! Did you build your own system or did you purchase a pre made one? I’m currently looking at the alien Rdwc system but the current culture looks so good
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Depends if you like to tinker. The recirculating top feed was a good next step (I started in coco too). I could experiment with different feed schedules, like flood for 5 minutes every hour or 15 minutes every three. Couldn’t kill em though no matter what I tried. The RDWC is much less forgiving at the start and you need to have constant ec/ph monitoring while you figure it out. Fun experiment but I don’t know the extra hassle is worth it. Mine is home built system that is pretty different to most. I run a drainage pipe up the middle of the root ball and pump water from the bottom to fill the pot. Got a journal here if you want to see my struggles hahaha.
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
Y
Thundercat said:
that’s the yields I would get from the whole tray. I ran my system on a perpetual cycle so I always had 4 batches in my tray At a time. I harvested every 2ish weeks and yielded about 1/4 the total weight each time.

The 2 weeks of veg on the clones was from when they were rooted in starter cubes. They went into 6 inch pots of hydroton at that point for about 2 weeks. They went into flower at 7-8 inches tall and I would trim off the bottom set or 2 of branches to encourage upward growth. When they finished flowering they would be between 24-30 inches usually.
When I harvested I’d strip off the big leaves, chop the stem and hang the whole little plant.
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Yeah nice this definitely sounds like something I’d like to do for sure! It’d be nice to just get top quality bud only and not have to worry about any airy low quality bud!
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
bubblescrogs said:
Depends if you like to tinker. The recirculating top feed was a good next step (I started in coco too). I could experiment with different feed schedules, like flood for 5 minutes every hour or 15 minutes every three. Couldn’t kill em though no matter what I tried. The RDWC is much less forgiving at the start and you need to have constant ec/ph monitoring while you figure it out. Fun experiment but I don’t know the extra hassle is worth it. Mine is home built system that is pretty different to most. I run a drainage pipe up the middle of the root ball and pump water from the bottom to fill the pot. Got a journal here if you want to see my struggles hahaha.
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Yeah nice I just think I’d enjoy the challenge I mean we obviously all do it for the purpose of good quality bud and I think I’d get that from Rdwc more then anything else. Yeah I’d get the proper equipment to help with maintaining ec/ph. I just had a look at your little grow then your plants look super happy and healthy! I’ll keep watching as you update!
 
bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
xX24nuggetsXx said:
Yeah nice I just think I’d enjoy the challenge I mean we obviously all do it for the purpose of good quality bud and I think I’d get that from Rdwc more then anything else. Yeah I’d get the proper equipment to help with maintaining ec/ph. I just had a look at your little grow then your plants look super happy and healthy! I’ll keep watching as you update!
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Main thing I've learned with the RDWC is not to use PH up and down to control the PH (if you can help it). Was chasing my tail a bit at the start with it bouncing all over the place. Use a good quality phosphoric acid based PH down (if needed) but try to control it by adjusting your EC when topping up the res through the week. If it drops, I'll add some tap water at PH 7 to bring it up. If it starts creeping up too high, add some more nutes with the top off water. Haven't used any PH up or down for a month now. This chart is a decent start but it's not a bible, see what works for you

PH-PPM_Chart for DWC.jpeg
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
bubblescrogs said:
Main thing I've learned with the RDWC is not to use PH up and down to control the PH (if you can help it). Was chasing my tail a bit at the start with it bouncing all over the place. Use a good quality phosphoric acid based PH down (if needed) but try to control it by adjusting your EC when topping up the res through the week. If it drops, I'll add some tap water at PH 7 to bring it up. If it starts creeping up too high, add some more nutes with the top off water. Haven't used any PH up or down for a month now. This chart is a decent start but it's not a bible, see what works for you

View attachment 5213146
Click to expand...
Yeah although completely different I definitely had problems with Ph/ec growing in coco so it’s definitely something I really need to work on but I guess it’s all about learning! I’ll follow that guide and see how everything goes. I gotta wait until after Christmas to get my set up ready so I’ll be able to do a fair bit of research prior. Do you veg your plants for a certain period of time or until a certain amount of space is taken up by the plants?
 
bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
xX24nuggetsXx said:
Yeah although completely different I definitely had problems with Ph/ec growing in coco so it’s definitely something I really need to work on but I guess it’s all about learning! I’ll follow that guide and see how everything goes. I gotta wait until after Christmas to get my set up ready so I’ll be able to do a fair bit of research prior. Do you veg your plants for a certain period of time or until a certain amount of space is taken up by the plants?
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yeah definitely need to find the sweet spot for when to flower. I'm running a new strain now. Thats why they are in the tent while I figure out how much they stretch, so I know when to flip when I do the next run in my proper flower room (it's very height restricted - lights are only 1.2M off the floor). I had to go away for a week so I flipped them a little earlier than I planned. Lucky I did because they packed out the tent completely. But yeah definitely go off space, not time. The ones in my journal were only about 4 weeks from seed when I flipped the lights. They were short with really tight internode spacing so I didn't expect them to stretch as much as they did. Good idea to run a plant or two less than you'd think until you've done a run with a new strain. Using a scrog helps - I've done some big sativas in that 1.2M high room. Just had to use less plants and train them longer into the stretch
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
bubblescrogs said:
yeah definitely need to find the sweet spot for when to flower. I'm running a new strain now. Thats why they are in the tent while I figure out how much they stretch, so I know when to flip when I do the next run in my proper flower room (it's very height restricted - lights are only 1.2M off the floor). I had to go away for a week so I flipped them a little earlier than I planned. Lucky I did because they packed out the tent completely. But yeah definitely go off space, not time. The ones in my journal were only about 4 weeks from seed when I flipped the lights. They were short with really tight internode spacing so I didn't expect them to stretch as much as they did. Good idea to run a plant or two less than you'd think until you've done a run with a new strain. Using a scrog helps - I've done some big sativas in that 1.2M high room. Just had to use less plants and train them longer into the stretch
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Yeah I’ve just bought some super lemon haze seeds to see how they go looks nice. So do you start training them straight away to prevent the height issue? One of my last plants had extremely tight internode spacing which I didn’t really like I feel like it struggle to bud well cause of poor light penetration but I honestly could of just been my growing experience. I’m not gunna be growing in a tent it’ll be in a room so I’m not gunna be to limited by space but I will be using a scrog net if I go the Rdwc route.
 
bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
Nice! Yeah I scrog even without the height limitations of this room. Just get a heap more yield. 2 x 400w hps in that little room under the stairs is good for nearly 2 pounds. That’s plenty for me and the missus. I use the approach from this guide. Top at the 5th node and start training them to grow out rather than up. Builds a good structure for scrog.

www.growweedeasy.com

LBH's Famous 4-Way LST Tutorial (plus topping sub-tutorial) | Grow Weed Easy

by LBH - ScrOG and LST expert - View original article by LBH on Rollitup 4-way LST - Building the perfect plant for Scrogging
www.growweedeasy.com www.growweedeasy.com
 
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bubblescrogs

bubblescrogs

Well-Known Member
It’s not just for light penetration, if you train them early enough you’ll trick the plant into making multiple mains rather than little side branches
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
bubblescrogs said:
Nice! Yeah I scrog even without the height limitations of this room. Just get a heap more yield. 2 x 400w hps in that little room under the stairs is good for nearly 2 pounds. That’s plenty for me and the missus. I use the approach from this guide. Top at the 5th node and start training them to grow out rather than up. Builds a good structure for scrog. You can still run out of space quick in a tent, height isn’t always the problem if you have too many big plants for the size of tent

www.growweedeasy.com

LBH's Famous 4-Way LST Tutorial (plus topping sub-tutorial) | Grow Weed Easy

by LBH - ScrOG and LST expert - View original article by LBH on Rollitup 4-way LST - Building the perfect plant for Scrogging
www.growweedeasy.com www.growweedeasy.com
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Yeah I’ve topped at the 5th node for both my gross but I definitely didn’t flatten them out enough when scrogging them. I have a 800w led and got 2.2 pounds off my last grow which Is plenty. I think my issue was the fact the I let the plant grow tall before I put the net in so then I couldn’t push the plant back down without damaging it. Would you say you yield more from Rdwc vs coco?
 
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xX24nuggetsXx

Active Member
bubblescrogs said:
Doesn't make much difference if you do either properly IMO. Just a bit quicker in veg. If that's 800w from the wall, that's a stonking LED!
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These were a few photos that I got of during the grow and when curing grown under that light
 

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