DWC Water Level?

Hey guys, so I've been growing up until now, decided to switch to bubble buckets. Can't seem to find out much info on how high the water level should be. From my understanding, when adding a clone with relatively short roots to a 5 gallon bucket, the water level should be about an inch or 2 from the bottom of the basket so the roots are partially in the water and partially out.... is that correct?

What about when the root system has matured and they are resting at the bottom of the bucket. How high should the water level be then? About halfway up the bucket?

....I've been growing in soil up until now

With DWC, when you first transplant your clones, the water level should come about half an inch up the bottom of the net pot itself so water can wick up through the hydroton and get to the roots.

After the roots establish themselves in the system, keep the water level an inch or two below the bottom of the net pot and always keep pumping oxygen at all times.

Cool, thanks so much Khyber that makes sense!

You're quite welcome!

Use a floater that can properly support your plants hanging above your nutrient solution. You can either cut the floater in exact measurement of the reservoir that would float on the nutrient solution or you can cut the floater individually so that each floater supports each net pot.

If 5 gallon bucket them 3 gallon watter. Next property... 10 gallons=6-8 gallons water.

Thanks guys :-) I feel like such a noob but by floater, do you man floater valve that controls water level?

I just thought of another question! I hope you guys know the answer. I was checking out these net pots on a hydro shop website which are already in a lid that fits a standard 5 gallon bucket. There were a few different ones, a 6 inch net pot, 8 inch, and 10 inch, all fitting the same bucket size. I called the store but the guy didn't seem to know his ass from a hole in the ground. I mean, really what's the difference between the sizes? The roots are going to grow down into the bottom of the bucket and form a big mass under there anyway. Is there a point to having a bigger basket? Does it really make much of a difference?

Bigger baskets would be for plants that are going to be larger in size. Like if you were going to veg longer than usual. Stability is the reason for the different size baskets. Example: if you were to veg a plant for 8 weeks in a six inch basket, your plant might over grow the basket creating an unstable base. Whereas you veg for 8 weeks in a ten inch basket, the plant would be stable. Less veg time - smaller basket. Longer veg time - bigger basket. Make sense?

CGI::::::

Ohhh, that makes a lot more sense than what that guy told me, that a bigger net pot means a bigger root mass. Thank you for explaining. I'm going to be using the DWC for my moms so I guess 10 inch would be the best.

Ok, I just came across another dilemma. I plan on cheaping out and using the orange Home Depot buckets that are a quater of the price as the black ones. Aside from light getting through the orange plastic (I'm going to cover them to block light penetration) is there any reason I shouldn't use them? I read before that it's best to use buckets made from food grade plastic, and I doubt these are. Is it a really bad idea to use them anyway for DWC?

Thanks again, I really appreciate everyone's help with my noobness

If you're going to use the HD buckets for DWC, just buy two of them, put holes in one, fill it up with hydroton/hygromyte, slip an air line and air stone down into the bucket without holes, slip the bucket with holes into the other bucket (after a proper rinsing) and fill with about 2.5 gallons of your desired strength nute solution.

Essentially, your top bucket is your basket. Air bubbles will rise from the bottom bucket/res and aerate the root mass above, with the hydroton/hygromyte helping to further break up the bubbles and provide better oxygenation.

Be wary of pumping too much air, or else you will get spillage from between the buckets.

This is called the Krusty Bucket and you can get mad plants from this sort of setup.

Cool, thanks :-) So it's ok to use then even though they're not food grade plastic?

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Originally Posted by smileyface

Cool, thanks :-) So it's ok to use then even though they're not food grade plastic?

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I've never had an issue with them, ever.

Thanks again for all your help guys! My girls have been in for about a week now and doing well. The roots haven't grown into the water yet, so I've been manually spraying the hydroton with nute solution. I carefully moved some of the hydroton to check the roots and their white and pearly, and hairy :-) I kind of expected the roots to be showing out the net pot by now, but I guess I just have to be patient. The bottom of the rockwool is about 3-4 inches from the bottom of the net pot, so maybe it'll take a while. I'm already liking hydro much better than soil. A hell of a lot cleaner, looks nicer..... can't wait for the explosive growth

When you say spraying do you mean foliar feeding?? If so that isnt really going to do what you want. Either continue to hand water or have a temp drip system to water plants till roots come out of basket. once roots are out of basket you can stop the drip/hand watering.

Thanks, no I've been spraying/watering the hydroton. Although in the beginning I was foliar feeding with Canna's Rhizotonic which speeds up root development.