I am about to start my first deep water culture grow (I have done several grows with soiless mixes) I know how to check and maintain the ph, ppm and temperature levels. What I don't know is what kind of nutrients I should include in the water. Also, the main guy I learned from told me to change out the water once a week, but should it be more often? I heard it's good to let the plants' roots out of the water to dry out a bit (into a empty bucket) for a couple hours here and there. Does this have to be on a set schedule or can I just do that when i have time? I know many deep water culture growers don't do this at all. Any other tips are also welcome. I am mostly going this way because it is cheap, simple, and I've been wanting to experiment with hydroponics.
First deep water culture grow, please help.
- Thread starter Nikdax
- Start date
tallen
Well-Known Member
Any decent synthetic nute will do. You don't have to take them out to let them dry, and when they get big it may even be impossible, but then again it won't hurt anything if you do. Just don't let the roots dry out too much and they'll be fine. Res changes once every week to 2 weeks is good, the only time I'd go sooner than a week is if I had an issue that prompted it (root rot, lockout, ext.). Tip-Get the stuff to make Heisenberg Tea and run it from the start! At least run some kind of beneficial bacteria, but definitely have the ingredients for the tea on hand in case you need it.
PLATINUM777
Well-Known Member
Check out house and garden nutrients. Change water about once a week. Make sure you got white roots. Don't go over 900 ppm.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Any brand name hydroponics fertilizer will work just fine. Stay away from exotic supplements. They can cause nutrient lock out and they don't really do much. All you plant needs are base nutrients. Don't go over 650 ppm in vegetative stage and 1000 in flowering. Changing out once a week should be fine. Plants love fresh solution. The plants like occasional half change outs too where you just dump half of the reservoir then refill with fresh nutrients.
Do not dry out the roots. That can only harm them. There would be no benefit at all to that.
What system design are you using?
legallyflying
Well-Known Member
^ what he said.
Popular DWC nutes include dutch master, house and garden, heavy 16, and GH. I ahd problems with botanicare in DWC, just too many organics. I would highly highly highly advise you to run the EWC tea. Despite what people say, simply adding h2o2 or zone is not the cure all of the century. the tea will keep things nice and healthy. Make sure to invest in a decent air pump and like green thumb said, keep your PPM low.
Popular DWC nutes include dutch master, house and garden, heavy 16, and GH. I ahd problems with botanicare in DWC, just too many organics. I would highly highly highly advise you to run the EWC tea. Despite what people say, simply adding h2o2 or zone is not the cure all of the century. the tea will keep things nice and healthy. Make sure to invest in a decent air pump and like green thumb said, keep your PPM low.