Absolutely @Bamarayne . Surf through some youtubes on RDWC and you’ll see lots of bucket systems. I’m running a few right now, but I’m doing something slightly different and a bit experimental.
As far as water volume at the grow bucket, it’s more about root volume. For the check reservoir, some people use a large volume tote, some just another inline bucket of the same kind. Most put the res outside of the tent. I’m trying to work with as little water volume as possible, so I’m just using another pail half full as the check res. pH drift is harder to control with a small water volume, but waste at changeouts is less… it’s a compromise.
So I’m no expert at all but heres my idea and understanding of the 3 questions anyway
Basically we want a certain concentration at any given stage. We measure that concentration with ppm, so you add regular npk mix at whatever ppm you’re aiming for to keep water level where it needs to be. Now if any nutrient deficiency show then changeing ration or added just whatever is missing can sometimes be needed.
Its said to change water weekly but that’s easy for small systems and not so easy for larger ones like the 50gal you’re talking about. From my experience, I only change water completely when something goes wrong like slime or when things stink to bad. Imho, you can run the same water forever if you’re lucky and it holds up over time…
I’m definitely not a good mentor but I’m willing to help
Where you’re familiar with coco all ready, have you considered autopots?
Way easier then DWC and absolutely no waste water so never dumping reservoir.
As far quality and yeild, its right on par with dwc, dear i say it can be better as way less chances of something going wrong and slowing them down.
As you know already, coco-coir is extremely forgiven with ph and dwc is not so much .
Just an idea, I played with DWC when moving from soil and it was ok.
But once I got my first autopot, I was hooked.
Who knew growing cannabis could be so easy
I have 4 plants growing in coco coir right now.
One is 5 weeks old
Two are 3 weeks old
One is 2 weeks old
What do y’all think about transplanting them in to the hydro system once set up?
Ive ran a few plant that i basically made a SIP (sub irrigation planter) out of and they worked out well.
Plants was in 3gal grow bag of coco and I basically set then in DWC bubble buckets. The roots grew through the bags into the buckets.
Something like this would work easily…
Actually removeing them from the coco and into DWC maybe more trouble then its worth but could be possible I guess
What size / type containers is your coir in ? Seems like it might be a bit of trouble to transplant…if in small containers it would be easy to set right in a net pot…transplanting is usually alot easier than we think its going to be…my experience…
Coco literally is hydro, so no prob, bigger issue would be if these are all of the same strain or how compatible they’d be in the same nute mix if they’re not.
They are not the same strain. 2-Wedding Cake 1-Gelato & 1-Zkittlez.
I am concerned about the nutes, but I think I’ll go for a medium between the youngest and oldest plants. Kind of slow down the oldest and speed up the youngest to get them all on the same page. lol.
What about sediment? Is there anything like that I’ll have to worry about in the planters?
I’m thinking of putting the gravity drain in the bottom of the planters to send anything back to the reservoir for easy filtering.
Or am I just way over thinking this?
By the way, before my first grow I spent 7 months reading everything I could find about how to grow in coco coir and what types of equipment to have and a grow room set up. Then I started buying hardware.
So, I apologize for the ton of questions. I really like hearing the opinions and experience of other growers before making my decisions.
Bro if you are in 5 gal cloth pots with coir/perlite…why would you change anything? I would run them in the coir with a drip set-up and feed em 3 times a day once they get going. …those pots will grow all the plant you want…
Just curious…
I’ve done both…with the RDWC yes the plants can get very large…but you are running autoflower plants I wonder if you will see much difference…interesting experiment…I will follow along…
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