Newb DWC feeding questions

[penor]

I'm swapping to DWC for my next grow and will be using Advanced Nutrients SensiGrow 2 part grow & bloom.

I am a bit confused on feeding and can't seem to find the answers to some super basic questions about how to feed plants in a DWC setup or how to use nutes in a hydro setup in general.

In a DWC setup, how often do I add nutes?

How often should I change my water in my bucket?

When using SensiGrow A&B, do I just add my A to my water first and then my B?

Do I need to wait between adding the two parts?

My current understanding of how to feed is this - I feed when I change the tank, which should be about once a week to once every two weeks. To feed, I measure my waters PPM and try to increase it to whatever I think the plants can tolerate slowly increasing the amount of nutes over time.

Do I go with veg nutes up to say 600ppm, and then swap to bloom nutes?

Am I supposed to be using veg and bloom nutes at the same time throughout the entire grow? At any point during the grow?

I have my own ideas about these questions from my readings on the internet, but I was hoping to get some confirmation from experienced growers.

Gimme a hand bros

 

[sexyroots.for.all]

Alright penor, lets begin from the beginning! There is a lotttttt to know

Your basic understanding of feeding is correct, but there are many things along the way that if you know now will stop you from making the same mistakes that many people make. To begin though, your water quality is very important for DWC, meaning chlorine and chloramines have to removed before being placed in your DWC system. This can be done with chlorine removers you can find at petsmart or filters that are specifically meant to clean water.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752324&utm_source=googleproduct&utm_campaign=5037834&utm_medium=cse&mr:trackingCode=7BDC2C64-C881-DE11-B712-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/eliminatorreverseosmosisfilter100galday.aspx

Most people neglect this step and the difference it makes to your harvest / growth rate / overall health of the plant is immense! When you take out these chemicals, you are removing metals and solutes that seriously damage roots and plant growth, just many growers do not realize how detrimental it is to their garden. Nutrients can be made useless almost instantly by chlorine, and roots may have trouble absorbing other elements with certain metals in the water. (We can get more into this if you are curious but long story short, if you are using tap water it needs to be 'cleaned' first).

Now, when you are making your solution, assuming that your water is clean, fill up your DWC system as you would normally so that the netpots sit about 1-3" above the bubbling water, and then add your first nutrient (part A) according to details on the bottle to the bubbling water stream. Then, in the same bubbling solution, add your part B and test your ppm. For beginning guys, 600 ppm should be fine, but remember that your water ppm has to be added to the total. So, if you made a 600 ppm solution with your nutrients and your water is already at 100 ppm when it comes out of the tap, your total solution will be at 700 ppm. However, if you are using a reverse osmosis machine, you will have such low ppm in your water that you won't need to worry about what is in your tap already! (trust me, a very worthwhile purchase).

As for nute changes, you will notice that as your plants drink, they will take out salts out of the water and your ppm will lower (assuming you are continually refilling the DWC system with just plain water to keep the amount of solution equal). If you let your plants drink without refilling, your ppm will keep rising because your nutrients are being concentrated in the solution. After a week, your nutrients should be eaten for the most part and it is time to make a new one! Increasing your ppm by 100-200 each week is a good beginning level considering it is your first time in DWC.

What kind of pumps and airstones are you using? And are you interested in adding a vitamin additive to make your yields that much more flavorful and grow faster while preventing deficiencies before they happen? Hope to hear back and if you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask!

 

[CLOSETGROWTH]

I'm swapping to DWC for my next grow and will be using Advanced Nutrients SensiGrow 2 part grow & bloom.

I am a bit confused on feeding and can't seem to find the answers to some super basic questions about how to feed plants in a DWC setup or how to use nutes in a hydro setup in general.

In a DWC setup, how often do I add nutes?

How often should I change my water in my bucket?

When using SensiGrow A&B, do I just add my A to my water first and then my B?

Do I need to wait between adding the two parts?

My current understanding of how to feed is this - I feed when I change the tank, which should be about once a week to once every two weeks. To feed, I measure my waters PPM and try to increase it to whatever I think the plants can tolerate slowly increasing the amount of nutes over time.

Do I go with veg nutes up to say 600ppm, and then swap to bloom nutes?

Am I supposed to be using veg and bloom nutes at the same time throughout the entire grow? At any point during the grow?

I have my own ideas about these questions from my readings on the internet, but I was hoping to get some confirmation from experienced growers.

Gimme a hand bros

Ill give you some great advice,

Go to your hydro store and buy the full line of fox farms nutrients, and use their feeding schedule.

Here I'll post a link to it>> http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/hydrofeed.pdf

Follow the feeding schedule religiously and you will have some Bad Ass plants before you know it.

Here's my DWC Bubbler thread and Fox Farms is all I use. https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/286449-closetgrowths-1000-watt-dwc-bubbler.html

My plants are in great health, and FF made it so easy.

Good luck

 

[sexyroots.for.all]

Hey closet, while foxfarm is good, in my experience while both formulas (advanced and foxfarm) have their benefits, advanced is formulated under very strict conditions (as in pharmaceutical grade) and a company that is specifically involved with hydropoinics and very little soil. On the other hand, while I cannot say much for foxfarms practices of producing their nutrients, they specialize in soils (which are very effective and highly recommended) but their experience in hydroponics is lacking immensely. Their 3 part may be able to produce in most systems, but in the same way you pay for what you get, advanced has a reputation of being more stable in solutions, in addition to better formula ratios that are specific for marijuana . Those canadians and their amazing results (but also the opportunity to test their products on marijuana, rather than vegetables). In addition, foxfarm has very little in the way of additives for hydroponic systems and advanced clearly has a wide range of additives that will do wonders (particularly B-52 and Bud Candy I <3)

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/b-52fertilizerbooster1l.aspx
http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/budcandy1l.aspx

 

[CLOSETGROWTH]

Hey closet, while foxfarm is good, in my experience while both formulas (advanced and foxfarm) have their benefits, advanced is formulated under very strict conditions (as in pharmaceutical grade) and a company that is specifically involved with hydropoinics and very little soil. On the other hand, while I cannot say much for foxfarms practices of producing their nutrients, they specialize in soils (which are very effective and highly recommended) but their experience in hydroponics is lacking immensely. Their 3 part may be able to produce in most systems, but in the same way you pay for what you get, advanced has a reputation of being more stable in solutions, in addition to better formula ratios that are specific for marijuana . Those canadians and their amazing results (but also the opportunity to test their products on marijuana, rather than vegetables). In addition, foxfarm has very little in the way of additives for hydroponic systems and advanced clearly has a wide range of additives that will do wonders (particularly B-52 and Bud Candy I <3)

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/b-52fertilizerbooster1l.aspx
http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/budcandy1l.aspx

Well, all Im trying to do is give you good advice, whatever road you may take is all up to you.

AN does not have the best reputation like you may think. The fat fuck that owns that business is a complete scam artist, and living high on the hog from overcharging inexperienced growers.

He's basically just a used car salesman, who laughs hard at all the newbies who pays 400 dollars a gallon for his so-so products while he's suntanning in Hawaii, he's worked alot of people.

Did you see his recent AN video?

He's seriously almost crying because a few hydro shops will no longer sell his products and he wants the public to help him out! Boo hoooo!

Can you explain this?


I think he should come down with his outrageous unheard of prices, and have a much easier feeding schedule for newbies.

He wants you to buy 20 different items just for the grow phase alone!


Anyways, Iam sure the products(AN) may work well, but the prices are off the chart.

By the time you harvest, you pretty much break even(if your selling it) .. Heehee!

Fox Farms have been around a good long time, and honestly, I have never heard much negativity with their products in soil, or Hydro.

They use mostly organic ingredients.

They have a very simple feeding chart that requires only 3 products and they have a nice line of additives.

The prices are fair, and the support is 5 stars.

Try emailing AN for any support.
They will not email you back.

Heard this from many growers.

And there feeding chart is unbelievable hard to understand.

Gotta mix this and that, and that and this..and...

I have seen alot of plants grown with foxfarms(Made in Humboldt County, Cali) and they look superb, and the price tag is very reasonable.

My grow has been completely trouble free since day #1, and I like it like that.

Shouldn't it be easy? Or do you like to spend big bucks, and have a scientific degree to grow cannabis?

Fox farms does not advertise as much as AN, that should mean something too.

They dont have to..they are established and have a great reputation.

If you go to the AN site, they ask you for your email, and continuously spam your ass forever.

If I honestly thought that AN was fair to the consumer, and thought their products were so spectacular, dont you think I would of tried em out first?

I got money.. I aint broke.

I research nearly everything that I do.

Dont get suckered into everything you read, or hear.

The pretty marketing labels dont make your plants grow better, and thats a fact.



Anywho, I wish you the best in whatever decision you make.

Take care, CG

 

[penor]

All the advice is very much appreciated gentlemen!

I will be using AN this time around... I thought I said that somewhere in this post, but it might be somewhere in my others. The local shop stocks all their stuff and is knowledgeable about it's use.

I have a friend who swears by fox farms as well, but he uses soil. I would definitely use it for soil, and it's one of the possibilities for my next setup.

I currently have one fish tank air pump going. It's one of the $25ish petco ones with 4 hoses. I have two 6 inch air stones and two of the little round ones it comes with. I also have one of the whisper air pumps I could hook up.

I think I'm getting enough water onto the bottoms of the net pots, as they are moist to the touch and are covered in drips when I lift the lid. The hydroton in the net pots is obviously moist towards the bottom, and the failboat clones I have sitting in my tub right now have moist rockwool.

I'm not sure if the pumps are providing enough bubbles IN the water. These pumps were just cheap and easily purchased on a routine trip to petco, and I'm definitely up for tracking down a more powerful one if need be.

There's a pic looking into my tub. Let me know if a better pic of the amount of bubbles from above the tub without a top would help.

Also... it might be me as I haven't showered yet today, but when I opened my tub something smelled a bit like... cheese and feet? Which leads me to my next question...

H202... When, why, how much, and do I need plant grade stuff or do I just pour in some of that brown bottle full of stingy shit in the medicine cabinet?

Hope to hear back soon!

 

[sexyroots.for.all]

Herrrrroowwwww all again! So, I come bursting with information regarding everything!

To begin, I would like to discuss a good debate about nutrient pricing / the effectiveness of them. While advanced nutrients is pricey, there are a few reasons. For one, they are imported over borders so transportation costs are eaten by the consumer. In addition, while they may have some odd marketing tactics, and their prices are higher than most, the reason is because their products are !NOT! meant for the grower who wants to put his nutrients into a poorly managed ebb and flow, wait a few days, and hope it works . Advanced Nutrients (AND General Hydroponics / Gen. Organics) has products that are specifically formulated for every week of a plants life, in addition to a solid base formula. I agree, that Fox Farm for the basic grower is ample, but with a simple 30 minute read through how ppm works, anyone can use the basics of either of the two companies and get great results. In addition, the additives that go with advanced nutrients and general series are all designed to work in conjunction, and having worked in a hydroponic shop teaching classes, i promise that the results are astounding. Many people still use tap water in their systems which kills many of the benefits of additives, so I am not surprised that these two companies get bashed online. As for the company owner himself, I have never met the man but its a business and I don't think its fair to bash him, especially when most people swear by it and don't go back to Fox Farm, humboldt, botanicare, etc. after using these.

As for you penor, after using gear from pet stores when i first started DWC a couple years back, I cannot recommend using them over professional hydroponic gear because you are paying a little more now, for much more improved results later and translating to much more happiness on your end . If you choose this route, I have listed some quality parts below that I have used and have a solid track record of great oxygenation to the root zone.

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/commercialairpumpwith8outlets70ltperminute.aspx
http://www.wormsway.com/detail.aspx?sku=MPAD530&AC=1

Also, for most DWC systems, since the plant is sitting in its own dead root mass and secretions, it is always good to have some kind of enzyme breaking down dead proteins, and keeping your system clean. There are few products which are easy to use (just add to reservoir) that can do this and have very proven records.

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/hygrozyme500ml.aspx
http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/sensizym1l.aspx

I personally am never a fan of H202 because these products will do the job, and are beneficial to your system rather than chemical derivatives.

As a final note, just because its marijuana doesn't mean that chemistry is not involved or that its a simple plant. In the same way a human thrives in the perfect environment, your plants will as well and these companies are allowing growers to achieve that level

 

[penor]

Once again, thanks for all the great info. I didn't know that those enzyme mixes were doing the same thing as H202. Looks like another trip to the hydro store is in order... I think I'll just pick up one bottle of everything as I keep finding out I need all these bottles that looked useless when I was there