Dwc and topping off ?

My question is about how I should be topping off my dwc buckets. I feed them on Thursday and Friday when I don't flush the buckets(when flushed all old water is drained and new water/nutrients added)

thursday and Friday I use appropriate week nutrient solution in a gallon jug. One jug each day. The rest of the week I top off using ph balanced water. My plants are in veg until I have room in flower room so I feed them week 4 nutrient schedule.

I have 5 gallon dwc buckets with 10" net pots. It takes about 2 gallons to fill up so that the water is 1" below the net pot. I use fox farm complete hydroponic nutrients.

Fox farm says to top off with ph water but it doesn't seem that my plants are getting enough nutes because I have leafs dying on the bottom. (Turning brown then falling off) there is no root rot or any other problems. And after adding nutes on thurs/Friday lower leafs stop dying.

Should I be adding nutrient water to top off daily?

that one of the tricky things in DWC and Hydro in general! it depends on ur experience and some chemistry. check pH and PPM on the reservoir and prepare a blend to balance it. if you cant do that just top with balanced water and drain once a week! me personally i only drain my res. when im experiencing problems. so far after several hydroponic grows. never had to empty the hole res.

Gee, the form the question....

I can't address most of that. At 4 weeks a bottom leaf or 2 are often used up in the rooting process. The leave are mined for nutrition, before the roots are in I sometimes see.

In fact, that can often be right before a growth spurt after the roots set in. So, what you are thinking is possibly quite opposite of the problem.

Humans are the problem. This stuff will grow on it own in almost any natural environment. It will flower regardless of it's treatment. Treatment is all about yield and quality.

You could be falling for the curse of humans, to do something. And if "do something" to you means to save every leaf or even every plant, it can't be done by "doing something." Usually the cure is to do a lot less and wait.

It is almost always the case we do too much. For me, certainly and many, many beginners here.

We read these nute schedules and think a clone can take 400 ppm in hydro....no way. So, I don't know what the FF schedule is, but I am familiar with quite a few. I use Dutch Masters and for me at least, these nute schedules are a big lie. A ganga clone can't take even 100 ppm in my experience.

I'm on week 5 with some TW clones that when I went from 150 - 200 ppm they stalled. Stop growing. And so I made a note to cut back even farther. I went back to 120 for a week and they started again.

I'm writing all this so you don't get distracted when you start to Flower and at 5 weeks your plants will begin to get ragged looking....hey we aren't feeding much Nitrogen what did we expect?

I would really be worried about over feeding if I were you. Each time I stall them....a big problem for me early on..it takes 2 weeks unless I am really on the ball and spot the overfeeding signs. Overfeeding burns the leaf tips first.

So, post a picture?

Follow FF feeding schedule for run to waste. Just like your doing. Feed, and top off with water until you drain, clean your system every 7-10days
Sometimes those lower leafs turn yellow, and die, The tiny ones close to the shoot. The rest of your plant is healthy right?

Try bumping up your nutrient solutions PPM a little bit.
or
Try foliar feeding in veg.

Your overall plant should be a nice green color. If your leaves are dark green, your plants getting to much Nitrogen. If your leaves are a pale green not enough Nitrogen.
The picture is a leaf that's just about the perfect color.

GanjaHome said:

that one of the tricky things in DWC and Hydro in general! it depends on ur experience and some chemistry. check pH and PPM on the reservoir and prepare a blend to balance it. if you cant do that just top with balanced water and drain once a week! me personally i only drain my res. when im experiencing problems. so far after several hydroponic grows. never had to empty the hole res.

Click to expand...

Yeah, at first I got mixed up with the term "drain to waste." I thought at meant dumping the hydro ponds each week. No DtoW has nothing to do with hydro! It has to do with the big holes in the drains and to waste, is often just the dirt in the hole.

DtoW is a weekly feeding of soil plants. So, in hydro I'm now on a 2 week schedule for a more simple approach. Also, I won't put the girls into hydro until they have fully rooted a Dixy cup...almost root bound.

I want visible roots everywhere before I top drip the roots into the water pond.

And to facilitate the transitions between Clonex, Grow and Flower nutes, I only 1/2 pump each week. Makes it much more gentle.

The part about the water topping up. I am constantly monitoring pH and PPM, for trouble, but I don't constantly adjust them. Trouble can be a rising pH and that can mean rotting material in a pump inlet, for example.

So, IDEALLY, we get these girls so they are drinking water, and when they do they tend to concentrate the nutes. They use more water than nutes.

So a good week for me is when I start the week with a 1/2 pump and reset what nutes to what ppm, and then the level goes down and the nutes ppm goes up. And when I top off, with DO water, I get a little less concentration. That means the girls ate and drank.

topfuel29 said:

Follow FF feeding schedule for run to waste. Just like your doing. Feed, and top off with water until you drain, clean your system every 7-10days
Sometimes those lower leafs turn yellow, and die, The tiny ones close to the shoot. The rest of your plant is healthy right?

Try bumping up your nutrient solutions PPM a little bit.
or
Try foliar feeding in veg.

Your overall plant should be a nice green color. If your leaves are dark green, your plants getting to much Nitrogen. If your leaves are a pale green not enough Nitrogen.
The picture is a leaf that's just about the perfect color.
View attachment 2789720

Click to expand...

Yes, yes. Forgot to say, I foliar feed with Liquid Light and Satuartor. That means I need to keep a lower nute sched.

They are healthy otherwise and have been vegging for about 5 weeks. one is critical kush one is a white widow clone. Foilage feeding does sound like it would be the best solution. Ill try it out over the next few weeks spraying 30 minutes before the lights come on.