So whats the difference from auto pots with coco and rdwc? Other them buying and dealing with substrate?
I feel like if I’m going to switch I’ll go all the way…
I see the advantages of coco over soil. But what is the advantages of coco over a dwc setup?
With RDWC if you run into a PH issue or nutrient issue bad things can happen very quickly with the potential to lose your crop. With Autopots and coco, the coco acts as a buffer so if you have a PH or nutrient issue you typically have a bit more time to correct it before it becomes a critical problem. With that being said issues can also take a bit of time to surface in coco before realizing you have an issue. What I do know is that Autopots have made my growing life much easier. I’ve never done RDWC but after doing a fair amount of research when deciding to get away from soil I decided that RDWC is not a grow method for me.
So after a few hours on YouTube.
I will be starting a couple kratky buckets.
People are growing 6 foot sativas in a 5gal bucket and only filling it 3-4 times over the grow. Some using nothing but General Hydroponics maxibloom 1 part nutrient, with great results…
That hasn’t been my experience, truthfully. I “set it and forget it.” My PH drifts all the time, but I do check it once or twice a week. When it comes to nutes they’re quick responders but it goes both ways - they’ll let you know if something is off early before it becomes critical and you can fix it sometimes before the leaf damage is permanent. I sort of think that a lot of the weird rep that RDWC/DWC gets is from growers not thinking they need to understand their plants’ needs in order to grow. IMO unlike aeroponics, ebb & flows, etc, RDWC doesn’t suffer a “catastrophic failure” very easily. My water chiller could break tomorrow and I’d be fine. It’d suck to go back to frozen water bottles but my plants would live. My air pump could break and everything would be fine for a few days I’m sure. My water pump could break and I guess that would…. Not chill my water? See above. If everything broke all at once, my plants would suffer (but not in a way that they wouldn’t recover), but just ensuring stuff is operational once every couple days is not hard by any stretch.
Good luck, report back how it goes for you. I’d be anxious about root rot. But I believe there’s a method for everyone. 
I’m amazed from what I’ve seen on YouTube…
I been trying for a week to find an experienced grower that has tried the kratky method and found flaws in it…
But all I find is growers running experiments expecting it to fail, and it doesn’t… it’s one surprised grower after another…
A plant in a bucket of nutrients with no air stone, no chiller, no moving water… and it actually works…
If you look into the method,
You fill the bucket all the way up the first fill, after the plant uses the water, the level drops. Causing tap roots to Chace the water. Since there is little to no air in the water, the plant grows smaller roots that never actually touch the water so they get air from the moist air space above the water. With each refill, you only fill it about half way so it doesn’t drowned.
If anyone can find an experienced grower that has tried it and it not turned out good, I’d really like to here there experience 
https://ilgmforum.com/t/my-first-indoor-grow-start-to-finish/37075/248?u=graysin
https://ilgmforum.com/t/my-first-indoor-grow-start-to-finish/37075/277?u=graysin
Search the Forums for “kratky”
There’s plenty of threads with people who embark on a similar journey. One of the fatal flaws is the bigger your root structure, the more frequent the feed is going to be. Makes sense to me. It actually has me stressing I need to go top off my own 5gal res for this beast
)
The roots appear to grow differently in water that has no air and doesn’t move. It’s like the “ball” stays up high out of the water and only long tap roots go straight down deep into the water, most the roots aren’t even in the water it appears pretty much the exact opposite of an aerated dwc. Kratky is dwc, if you took your air stone out and only filled your bucket halfway, it’d be a Kratky…
Don’t do this though as your plant will probably drown cause it didn’t develop the right roots structure for that environment…
This seems to be a very important part of doing it correctly. Making sure you don’t drown it when topping off.
I like the system I’ve got rigged up now, if unconventional at best. Although I see the theory behind the Kratky method. I’ll be interested to follow along with your grow.
I wish I had time, I’d go right now yo the hard ware store and get it started.
I got some seeds the supposed to be seed to harvest in 65days and only yeild an oz or 2.
I’ll do 4 of them. I’m thinking each one get a different nutrients line up but all will be simple 1-3 parts.
If the small fast plants work, I’ll try something medium sized.
Or maybe one nutrient series and 3 plants, 1 small to bigger…
Any suggestions what would be more interesting?
It’s literally just bucket and nutrients so I should be able to get them tomorrow and get the beans in some rock wool 
I’m super excited 
Honestly, a straight Kratky and a Katky w/ an air stone would be a curious compare.
If it works, it could possibly be modified to automatically refill the bucket from a separate reservoir keeping it halfway full after the first full fill using a simple flout switch.
Kinda like a toilet works.
Effectively with a large enough reservoir it would truly be set it and forget it all the way through, using a bloom nutrient from start to finish, running auto flowers of course…
That’s been done on YouTube and it appears the air hurts the roots from to much movement, does better without the air. It’s actually a hot topic
The roots don’t form the same when you add air to the water it appears… I’m still researching but I think I got a good grasp of how it works, I just need to move on to the next step which is just do it and see what happens.
So I ordered 2 kratky buckets today and I first thought I’d go with a single 1 part nutrient but since I will have to refill at least once I ordered GH Maxigro to start them in and GH Maxibloom that I’ll refill with.
Running autos by time the grow solution is used up they should be flowering just in time for the boom solution.
I may not have a tent to put them in though so that sux. May have to be an open grow for first half. I really want to separate 3 Gorilla Glue and 3 Girl scout cookie extreme and 1 Bruce Banner. I got a feeling that going to outgrow the space they are in so 2 of them need to go in the 3x3 really 
Just got a tent and need another one 
I use the kratky method in my rdwc system…
Water level decreases by 1 inch every 3 weeks in flower…
I’ve written on here about it before…
This place won’t let me share pic’s anymore or I would show you…
Can tag you to my thread tho…
Just sharing a lil somthin , somthin …
It’s my thread… 
They are lying to you. A big flowering plant drinks gallons of water daily. Your 5 gallon bucket holds maybe 3 1/2 gallons after net pot and gap for roots.
Good luck.
Yeah I don’t think it’s them lieing but rather I think I misunderstood at first.
So many people that haven’t tried it say it want even work or it will need refilled daily…
But no one I’ve seen or talked to that has actually done it has said it will be that bad…
I’m am still very excited to see how it turns out. .
I keep mine small but that’s always been photos that I can heavily manipulate and a long grow cycle though…
I’m new to autos so I will be choosing my strains wisely staying with small fast strains first… from what I see from reputable growers online that use this method.
I should expect to water my sized plants once every 5-7 days…
But we will see how it turns out
