Deep water culture

Indoor Growing
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Thinking about switching to dwc or at the very least coco, soil is too slow and too absorbent is dwc that difficult?

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Ive never done soil for cannabis but have done dwc for lots of veggies and herbs and now cannabis. I think hydro is super easy personally. However, temps can be an issue for root rot without a water chiller. You can use beneficial bacteria etc but thats not always enough. Quick turn around for deficiency fixes is also very nice.

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Autopots with coco-coir is my favorite by far, hydroponic growth rate, wider ph range then dwc, no worries about chillers or pumps, no waste water, lots of pros.
Only con I see is the need for growing media (coco-coir and perlite) where dwc is just water so no dealing with any media.

Even just hand watering coco-coir is leaps ahead of soil but the automation of autopots useing coco-coir and perlite makes it truly “set it and forget it”
I fill my reservoir about once a week and i set ph at 5.6-5.8 and make no adjustments between refills.
Every time the ph drifts upwards to 6.5 or higher before i refill and drop ph to 5.6-5.8 with no issues at all.
You want get that kinda range with dwc, with dwc you will have issues fast if the ph isn’t kept in the 5.8-6.2 range and sometimes even a 6.2 drift is to high :sweat:

I’m not knocking dwc because it’s awsome, but theres no easier way to grow cannabis then useing autopots and I’ll die on that hill :rofl:

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I get all the reasons you cite, but how much attention expressed in days/hours does this grow take? Just curious.

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With autopots the first month (germination, seeding, and first couple weeks of veg) is basically typically daily hand feeding like a hand watered coco grow.
Basically you need to hand water untill roots get good an established in the pots then at that point is when the reservoir is hooked up and the rest of the grow is just refill the reservoir when it gets low, so depending on the size of the reservoir as to exactly how often that is.
Once they are plugged in to the res, I spend 10mins a week if that mixing nutrients and dump it in the reservoir.

That time dosen’t count trimming, training, or defoliation. I do alot of that when I have time but it’s not necessary of course so I don’t know how to really figure that in :man_shrugging:

Here’s one of my past grows and theres others under my profile.

I think theres clones in that grow both in autopots and soil, some in dwc to but they didn’t get flowered as I couldn’t keep up with work and my grow, the dwc was just to demanding, the autopots didn’t miss a beat and the soil was ok I guess :sweat_smile:

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I’ll second that statement and I run a little hydro but only in the winter to keep the res temps down. Auto pots are definitely a game changer, I fill several gallons in the res on Sunday morning and work out of town all week with no issues :pray::love_you_gesture:

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Thanks man.

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So I got the airbase and air dome bc it suggested it. Do I grow the coco and plant in that container with them in it til it’s ready to be hooked up to the reservoir?

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Here’s what I got btw. Pretty good setup I’m tired of slow soil. I already got really good coco mix

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Yep, there’s tons of good videos on YouTube on setting them up and lot’s of people use them so you shouldn’t have much trouble.
Like everything new theres a learning curve but you’ll round it pretty quickly with a few videos.

For me i use air domes if im useing plastic pots.
If I’m useing cloth then i don’t use them as I feel they get adequate air through the cloth bag.
I also make my own buy just putting holes in solo cups and an air stone in it, i have a few of their actual air domes but ive got way more trays then domes so rather then pay like $15 a pop, a 10 cent plastic cup works the same :sweat_smile:

But I put a couple inches of expanded clay pebbles in the bottom of my pots, and mix coco-coir and perlite about 50/50.
Some use 70% coco-coir and 30% perlite and I’d would go under the 30% on the perlite but over is fine.

You’ll learn all this quickly though, they send instruction and examples of ways to set them up…
And many on here to help out when you get them if ya need it.

You want regret it :blush:

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Your time and knowledge is much appreciated. Gonna germinate some royal gorilla 4 and veg it a little in a 3 gal airpot til it gets here then you’ll be hearing from me!

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Forgot to mention, you can use any pot that will fit in the trays also, it doesn’t have to be their pots and they don’t have to fit exactly perfect.
I use regular 3 gal grow bags and sometimes 1 gallon, as well as random flower pots that fit :sweat_smile:

Autopots branded stuff is expensive and really their patented trays and “aqua valve” floats is they imported bits, everything else can be picked up alot cheaper else where if you find you ever need hoses, fittings, or different size pots.

Another example is a reservoir, I got a 30 gal trash can for $20 and drilled a hole in it to plug the line in. A 30 gal reservoir from autopot is a few $100 probably :sweat_smile:

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I appreciate the appreciation but no thanks necessary my freind, I enjoy talking about growing and definitely nerd out on the autopots :sweat_smile: i a big fan of them if you hadn’t figured out :blush:

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