DWC questions!

[SAP420]

I have been growing for a while now and have use the whole waterfarm setup to grow my plants. My question now is that I'm setting up a DWC system using 4 5 gallon buckets with 5" net pots and each bucket has an airstone in it and I need to know how high should the level of nutrient/water solution be? Right at the bottom of the net cups or will my plants just learn that they need to extend their roots down to get the nutes? I have 4 clones that I will be putting in them and I didn't know exactly as to how they are going to feed if they aren't sitting in the nute solution. Anyone that can... please help! Thank you in advance!!! :wtf:

[herbie the love bud]

Ok, plop your WELL rooted clones in the BOTTOM of your net cups with hydroton around your rooter. Now set the water level just a small bit below the bottom of the net pot and set the bubbler right in the center. That should splash the water up to the roots in the net cup really slightly and inspire them to come down.

Once they do you want to keep lowering hte nute level leaving 1/3 or more exposed to air.

Luck!

[SAP420]

Anything that I should add to the nutrient solution other than the nutes? Or will it work just fine? I have some stuff from advanced nutrients called jump start which I heard is best to add to deep water culture grows to encourage root growth. Anyone know of this?

[herbie the love bud]

there are lots of great additives. depends on your budget.

[socialistpete]

are you using bucket lid net pots? or custom fitting them to lids? any pics?

[SAP420]

I haven't placed them in their bucket systems yet. I still have all 5 of them in their bubble cloner waiting for longer deeper roots to form. But I have the lids custom cut to fit my 5" baskets.

[macnasty]

hey sap,

maybe you're just over anticipating. i use jump start too, both for cloning as well as part of the regular feeding schedule, especially at the plant's infant stages. the kelp has gotta do the plant some good. i use a bubble cloner too, and i've noticed that some clones grow a singularly long root or 2, while the rest lag behind. once i see that extending root i transplant to a system with higher concentrations of nutes. i figure this allows the rest of the roots to catch up more speedily than they would if left in the cloner. so far so good, they usually explode in growth after this. good luck.

[willonia]

Another DWC newbie here. My question is how often should you change the water/nutes from the reservoir.

[macnasty]

hey willonia,

the easy answer is once every week to two weeks. but that doesn't really help you understand why. go to this link if you want a more comprehensive answer. enjoy.

http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponics/166314-nutes.html

[stinkyattic]

Frequency of res changes depends on the ratio of res volume to biomass supported therein.
When in doubt, change every 1-2 weeks like MacNasty said. But if your plant is ginormous, and your res is a teacup, plan to have problems, lol!

[SAP420]

hey sap,

maybe you're just over anticipating. i use jump start too, both for cloning as well as part of the regular feeding schedule, especially at the plant's infant stages. the kelp has gotta do the plant some good. i use a bubble cloner too, and i've noticed that some clones grow a singularly long root or 2, while the rest lag behind. once i see that extending root i transplant to a system with higher concentrations of nutes. i figure this allows the rest of the roots to catch up more speedily than they would if left in the cloner. so far so good, they usually explode in growth after this. good luck.

Thanks for the answers! I am using jump start right now in the bubble cloner and do intend to use it in my dwc buckets since a little bit goes a very long way, I should not have to worry about running out too often.

[willonia]

Thanks for the info fellas.