Using a pre-made bucket system that is 5 gal per plant bought at a hydro shop…using an airstone in each bucket…is that what you mean?
I tried to download pics…But not figuring out how…sorry
so it doesn’t have a drip ring then? and each plant has it’s own bucket? how high are your water levels in the buckets and what is their ph?
There are several different kinds of DWC units some house several plants in same bucket some are connected together and water is circulated between them others have drip feed or ring attachments.
Yours is simply a net pot bucket and air stone much like mine so I don’t put plants in mine until they have roots coming out of the rockwool, simple reason being rockwool holds water and can hold too much causing trunk rot or damping off.
As for posting a picture upload is the answer
Yes they each have their own buckets. Water is about 1/4 of an inch on bottom of bucket. Since I have already put them in there… Should I leave them or do something else?
have you checked to see if they are rooting into the leca yet? if not put them back in a starter tray with dome wrap side of roockwool with alluminum foil put a thin layer 1/2" of leca in tray place the wrapped cubes on top of leca. Use a cfl or t5 add enough water ph’d around 5.8 to just float the leca this will keep the bottom of the rockwool damp not wet and encourage roots to grow down into the leca in the tray.
What is happening is you likely have too low humidity too strong light for a plant that is just starting out
when you see visible hardy roots coming out of wool into leca then transplant into basket set water level right into basket so it is bubbling through leca right where you will have your plant/rockwool sitting in the basket pull off foil add plant then gently fill leca around it.
When you fill the buckets to the level I suggested add 1/4 dose of grow and bloom nutes and a root formula rapid roots LK something of that nature. Bloom nutrients tend to promote root growth and plant structure when in hydro it’s all about the roots don’t forget hydro ph is 5.8 with a 5.5-6.1 swing being acceptable.
hope this helps
Thank you so much…will probably be in touch soon
Hey @donaldj, I’m going to start my first hydro grow. I built my own 5 gallon bucket, with a drip system as well. I got everything up and running, and have just been watching to make sure everything works without leaks. I would love some help and advice on getting started though. I have a bunch of seedlings growing, as well as plants that are one foot tall. Could I/should I transplant one into my DWC? If not, I already germinated a seed yesterday that should be ready to be transplanted by tomorrow. Now, if I’m using a germinated seed, can I then put it into a rapid rooter plug? Then, with the plug, should I grow it in my humidity dome? I know once roots grow out of the plug that I can put it into my DWC, but what I don’t know is the best way to get this done! I grew clones that lived, but my most recent cloning attempt failed horribly. I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to clones haha, although I got lucky with some monster cropped clones! Any links or tutorials would be amazing! And basically I just need an instructional on how to get my nutes correct in the DWC. I already have it pHed to 5.8, but I don’t know how much nutes to put it just yet. Any help would be appreciated!
if you are working with hydro you better have a ppm meter because you want to know what your water is before adding nutrients after adding nutrients and after setting ph in the seedling stage you will be mostly focussed on root promoting. So though you will add very little to your water it will all be aimed at root growth Rapid start voodoo juice LK all good nutrients to get you started rooting focussed on humic and fulvic acid any one of the products I meantioned will be your additives of choice for first several weeks but try and match to your product line LK mixes with any but AN and GH products don’t always play well together. If you have a drip ring than getting roots to the water shouldn’t be as nerve racking bring water lvl up to 1/2-3/4" from the bottom of your root plug so it barely splashes it through the leca and fill around plug with leca you don’t want plug submerged but you also don’t want roots drying before getting through leca. As more roots get through leca you can start to lower water level so it is under basket.
Keep in mind less is more in hydro your plant will absorb anything it needs as long as it is there but too high ppm and you’ll get nute burn faster better to slowly raise rather than fry your plant
Thank you so much! And yes I have both a ppm pen and a pH pen! I have pH up and pH down. I’m going out today to get some root nutrients from my hydro store. But currently I have fox farms trio nutrients, I was wondering if I could use them in hydro or would I need to buy the hydro nutrients as well?
Depending on formulation some nutrients are for soil some are for hydro and Liquid Karma LK plays well with most nutrient lines in general but if you are going to hydro you want to get a line up they have everything for in your shop a Silicate Cal-mag etc. 3 part systems are nice because you can tailor them but A&B systems are simpler
What would you personally recommend for nutrients to use for a newbie hydro grower? And still a newbie grower all around haha
General hydro 3 part flora series or Grow and Bloom flora nova line Rapid start totaly worth it but LK is less expensive Cal-mag and armor si liqiud kool bloom
http://www.generalhydroponics.com/feedcharts/
plants in hydro lack 2 things silicate (abundant in soil) Cal-mag the above link should help the system closest to DWC is recirculating
Roots…help
Ok guys… last time we talked you suggested pouring these babies back under the dome. …We’ll the next morning went to check on them and amidst all of them were growing the next set of leaves…so we left them exactly as they were…when I checked their roots all of them have beautiful roots hanging. …added bio grow…bioroot and calmag…today the leaves on a couple are slightly turned under and…the roots are turning the color of the water??? Wth??? What did we do wrong? Getting a little discouraged. …what do you suggest? ??
You shouldn’t have fed your plants yet, for first 3-4 sets of true leaves your plant will make use of it’s stored energy cal-mag is a very strong nutrient if you added nutrients to the water should’ve been around an 1/8 or 1/4 of bottle recommendation. Rinse tray add ph’d water with around 1 teaspoon 5ml peroxide per liter this will oxygenate the water hold off on feeding until 3rd set of true leaves by then they will be ready to go to hydro buckets.
If you have good healthy roots bursting out the bottoms we can get you into your buckets which product line are you using so I can help you get a start recipe and what’s the water you plan to use ppm? @samandmaria70
Well go visit our girls and get this info and send it to you…thanks so much. …be back soon
Ok I went to change the water in the buckets and it looked like scum…dumped them…added my water and peroxide…5 no per Ltr like you said…now…can we rinse off the baskets with tap water tho get the scum off??? The nuts name is gerneral organics.
Right now ph is 5.8 and ppm it’s226-233…
then you are at about the right ppm for the line
Though I might add this is a organic line and you will have lots of scum in your water but yes cleaning the baskets won’t hurt
sorry for delayed response have my own ladies to care for as well
Thanks For the advice…well see how it goes the next few days…and thanks for the chart. …will chat soon