Is DWC supposed to be this temperamental?

Hi, I bought a DWC about 12 days ago. Against better judgment, converting a healthy soil plant to DWC, by removing much of its root structure, initially produced amazing fast growth, which after about 6hr, slowed, as the plant leaves began to droop. Over the course of one week, a few more leaves continued to develop slowly, and the plant has held its healthy green colour (so far). Amazingly, a lot of new healthy roots have now emerged from the bottom of the net pot. I had always expected the new roots to improve things, but they havenâ??t. I had an idea that the water temp had increased, effecting dissolved o2, due to submerged pump, instead of external pump, but no luck when changing for fresh nutrients and colder water this time. I have the water level low, and had initially had some success with this approach. I'm still waiting for some massive growth, but I guess I must have something wrong? In a soil system, I'd say itâ??s lacking oxygen. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong here are more than welcome! cheers.

Let me get this right and make sure I understand what you have done.

You had a plant growing in soil and you took it out of soil and trimmed the roots then washed it and put it into hydroponics?

Is that what you have done?

If that is the case cut a clone or two of that plant right now to save the genetics and get them to root quick.

I will wait for a reply before I comment any more.

Could possibly be due to the huge shock of havin roots violated .
Next time start out in a rapid rooter or rockwool cube . Don't try to switch growing methods midstream -N- see if there's an improvement .
Peace
Crispi:jointsmile:

The new roots are probably playing catch-up for you since the root chop.
No idea what to suggest other than dont tweak too many things at once.
Also, if you trimmed roots, did you trim some leaves as well? Perhaps that would help equalize things, perhaps not. Good luck though.

Cheers for the reply. I did try cloning as a kind of insurance, but despite what I thought were good clones (with rooting gel, a propagator, top notch soil and a week in temp of 22 degrees C), I had no rooted plants, they died when I threw them in the bin. Maybe I should have waited longer, and used higher temperature, as I thought I had the moisture and light right.

I disposed of most of the roots of the main plant, as they were, as you can imagine, caked in soil, and I figured the remaining roots would recover due to the highly aerated medium of DWC. The roots are recovering, and the plant is still green, but itâ??s drooping (itâ??s up and down â?? touch and go)! In soil, it usually happens when insufficient o2 reaches the roots, but I'm new to hydroponics. I have ph right and followed instructions on nutrients.

The strangest thing is that when I first put my plant, with only a tiny fraction of its remaining roots, in the DWC, it took off! The leaves where the straightest I've ever thought possible, and could really smell the plant (my guess is that a lot of photosynthesis was going on at that point!), but given a mere 6 hours or so, all this disappeared, and the plant started to droop in a way that got progressively worse until it was really bad! Reducing water level did improve situation somewhat, but only fractionally. I donâ??t think the plant is dying (at least I really hope not!), as its still growing some good roots day by day, but that in itself isnâ??t helping the drooping, that I know is significantly putting a hold on productive growth (growth was what DWC was all about to me).

I thought, maybe temp rise caused o2 drop, but cold water later didnâ??t help the second time around. Maybe its shock and now itâ??s picking up.

I would like to get on top of this cloning technique to be honest though, as the only successful clone Iâ??ve had was weeping willow (a plant famous for its ability to clone).

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Originally Posted by MisterE

The new roots are probably playing catch-up for you since the root chop.
No idea what to suggest other than dont tweak too many things at once.
Also, if you trimmed roots, did you trim some leaves as well? Perhaps that would help equalize things, perhaps not. Good luck though.

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Nice idea about trimming leaves. It is something I did when I got rid of roots. I figured that would reduce the plants need for oxygen. I'm not sure if it did, but I can totally share your logic there.

Well, today I've witnessed what I've been waiting for, as the plant has totally recovered (1 week later, and very suddenly)! I guess it was a combination between the unforgiving nature of a hydroponics system (in my novice hands!), and the shock of being transferred from soil (the way I did it), that made my plant look so sorry for itself.

Thanks for all the advice and I hope this thread helps others afflicted with similar issues.

the more u cut, the more u shock the plant, i wouldnt cut anything personally, not even roots just to switch to dwc. I would have finished it in soil got great bud and start over in dwc. There is no point in killing your yeild becuase u "think" switching to hydro will be better, the initial sock is bad enough cutting roots, cutting leaves isnt going to help probably make it worse. how would u like you legs cut off, and then to equal it out u take off your arms...

Why didnt u just wait until thenext grow around? i mean u just killed your yeild possibly.
Also obviously your plant is gona hate you, u just cut half its body apart, thats not the dwc's fault, and i think it was mentioned in another thread it wasnt good to switch from soil to hyrdo mid grow.

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Originally Posted by JackdaWack

the more u cut, the more u shock the plant, i wouldnt cut anything personally, not even roots just to switch to dwc. I would have finished it in soil got great bud and start over in dwc. There is no point in killing your yeild becuase u "think" switching to hydro will be better, the initial sock is bad enough cutting roots, cutting leaves isnt going to help probably make it worse. how would u like you legs cut off, and then to equal it out u take off your arms...

Why didnt u just wait until thenext grow around? i mean u just killed your yeild possibly.
Also obviously your plant is gona hate you, u just cut half its body apart, thats not the dwc's fault, and i think it was mentioned in another thread it wasnt good to switch from soil to hyrdo mid grow.

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Well, I know what you mean, this was a gamble! I know where youâ??re coming from on this.

I think me and my plant probably fell out for a week, and it wasnâ??t growing, but seriously, now when I pick it up, the once devoid-of-roots stem is now invisible due to the large mass of healthy white roots hanging down! The leaves are straight as! I think its doing better than in soil at this present time (no telling how long this will last though).

It may be just the strain of plant that can handle it (having its roots chopped), or it may still have a few nasty surprises in store for me, but right now, its back in overdrive (for the time being)!

Itâ??s amazing how quickly things change in hydroponics. Soil is a great buffer though, and that can be really handy. I believe good soil is better than hydroponics, when one wants less hassle and some good results, but hydroponics is more of a challenge and seems to do what soil does, but much better (if conditions are right)!

I think, you're absolutly right, in that, If I was an athlete, running the 400M race, and at the end, I was completely out of breath, then some bloke came up to me, asking me if I wanted my legs chopping off, reducing the oxygen debt (to my body), thereby decreasing my recovery time, I'd decline, on the grounds that it would most likely hurt, and I would probably never walk again. My belief was that the oxygen would be needed by the leaves, and that chopping off the roots would decrease the available oxygen, therefore chopping off a few leaves would balance it out, but to be honest, it was a gamble, as I've not done it before. It could easily have swung the other way (and still could).

Right now, the plant is growing much faster that it would have ever done in soil, but I canâ??t say whether it will be as healthy, or what other factors may result, however it does, at this time, appear to have landed on all fours, and bounced back strong.

Pure shock thats all it was.

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Originally Posted by GodBud

Pure shock thats all it was.

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Think your right about that.

Well, itâ??s much better now (in comparison to what it was), with a considerable root mass hanging off!

The only issue I have is that more growth seems to equal more smell! I only have the one, so am not about to start drilling holes in my wall, and installing massive carbon filters with extraction units. What would be really handy would be a simple small mat carbon filter, which fits to the back of a standard air circulator (of the small ones). They donâ??t seem to sell it though.