DWC for beginners

Awesome man! Make sure u neatly tape some black garbage bags around those tanks until no light gets in b4 u put water in um!
Guess from my own experience, back to the original reason i started this thread is the amount of effort, time and the ease of hydro growing is whats going to benefit you!Not including how much less of a mess soil is and the ease of maintaining and being able to completely control ur grow environment.
Production, Quicker, amount differences. Yes u can expect veg times to reach 2 weeks depending on the hieght requirements of ur grow room, the strain types ur growing and plant types ur trying to grow(cloning or seedlings).For example,if u keep a constant veg room at 1 foot which takes about 2 weeks in my system, u can move them into ur flower room and depending on strains u can expect anther 6 - 10 weeks flowering!In most cases u can expect an entire grow thru flower in at the most 3 months. If setup like this u can harvest every week if you wanted to so amount differences = space.But u can easily flower 8 plants in a 24 gallon rubbermaid tub about 2 by 2 sqaure. Beats having 8, 3 gallon pots with soil to have to worry about.

Better in my own opinion yes if flushed properly (last 2 weeks strictly water no nutes).As far as stronger i would say no i had some bomb bud grown in soil, but the major benefit to growing in hydro, is the ease and amount of time versus the problems that go with soil i guess. For me it was like putting a supercharger on my grow!

Setup ur tanks and let peeps know! I look forward to hearing about it!

THANX FOR YOUR TIME,,, YOUR VERY GOOD AT EXPLAINING SO ITS EASY TO DO,, SO KEEP IT UP AND LET US KNOW IF YOU TRY TO MOVE THIS THREAD,, IVE BEEN GROWIN FOR MORE YEARS THAN I CARE TO REMEMBER, OFF AND ON, BUT NEVER DID ANYTHING BUT SOIL.. CANT WAIT TO DO THIS....

Much respects to u sir, for u were prolly growing in soil 4 i stopped suckling me mommas teet lmao. I am very interested in hearing what someone like you has to say about the transition from soil to hydro.Please keep us posted!

caddy said:

Thanks for the response - i've followed your grow as well, very nice work! Where did you get your buckets and net pots? Also, do you run multiple air pumps to the two air stones or do you split them at a T and still use one air pump?

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i got my complete setup from ebay
4x 5gal buckets with 12 3in net pots
4x 3in circular airstones
1 20 lt bag of clay balls
1x digi ph tester
1x digi ppm meter
1x 4 way air pump
all connections
canna veg + flora nutes (2 part)
canna p/k 13/14
all for £70
also got a 400watt hps + ballest for £45
at the mo there are 3 plants in my grow
you dont want anymore than 2 plants per bucket
as the roots will just fill it

Bifta im suprised u only have one pump on yer girls. THat would suck if that pump went down and u didnt catch it quick enuff!

This is such a cool thread, good job so far...so to clarify some things about the nutes, regardless of the brand.... you start your clones or seedlings and after they are good an rooted in Rock Wool you put them in this system with NO nutes for what like the first few weeks and then what? Do you slowly go to 50% strength an then to full strength and then just top off with water when it gets low...until I assume your PPM falls then you totally change the water out and refresh it up with new nutes?....if so I need to change my setup because after im rooted in rockwool I go directly to 25% for a week or so and then to 50/50 nute strength but my system is different...sounds to me like im wasting nutes for the first 2 weeks or so...

so could you clarify...when and what you do after you add them to the final bucket they will flower in?...im curious about the nute thing an im determined to create a very similar system...

onthedl0008 said:

Bifta im suprised u only have one pump on yer girls. THat would suck if that pump went down and u didnt catch it quick enuff!

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Just my 2cents. I have lost power for hours and not had my plants die in dwc. Now... Longer than several hours and Im sure they would be drowning. Ive been thinking about one of those computer Battery backups for my air pumps to prevent this possibility... losing power for a few hours wont kill them but a full on pump failure or kinked air line are death if not caught in time. I am way more worried about pump failure... I think the idea of a redundant back-up pump is great.

how powerful do the air pumps need to be? for a 20 gal bubbler i made that i want to grow two plants in, i got a pump rated for a 10-30 gallon aquarium. is this sufficient or do i need more?

oh, and misterdogman, from what i gather ppm will actually rise most of the time in hydro as time progresses, because the plants drink faster than they eat so to speak.

Once ur root system starts hitting the water u need to start nutes on clones.I suggest following the directions on ur nute bottles for seedlings or cuttings. They all have it. And make sure u change ur water on time and increase ur doses as suggested as ur clown grows into mature veg state.Usually my nutes blend for veg maxes out at about a foot ( about 3 weeks of veg )at 3/4 strength max see what im saying?..
FOR a 20 gallon tub i would say to add a small water pump to the res for water circulation and def add another 10-30 gallon air pump and stone to the sytem, U cant have enuff air really. And having a backup pump at all times is reccomended.

Hope that helps out.

wow, thank you for the advise it was definitely an eye opener; instead of running two of those bubblers and 5-6 in soil it looks like i'm only gonna run 1 and 7-8 in soil.

So I'm about to start my detailed grow and start germinating and unfortunately due to being a rookie have over looked one part about the vegetation and flowering process.

I'm not sure how it slipped my mind, assuming its easy, but after thinking more I'm unsure and want to get advice from you guys. I initially was going to sprout the seeds as normal in a paper towel on a monitor or semi-warm area and then move them to rock wool to veg them.. My question is how do i transplant from a vegetation room to my DWC? Remember I use 5 gallon buckets with 5" net pots and hydroton clay pellets.

Do I start these in rock wool and leave them there and then put them in a bigger rock wool cube until they reach about 18-24 inches in vegetation? Or do I put them in a 5" net pot and veg them there then put that net pot in the bigger 5 gallon buckets? I underestimated how I go from vegetation to the bucket without harming any roots (stupid of me I know) but learning none the less.

What are the common ways you guys start a DWC bubbleponic grow from vegetation stage? I have a separate flower and vegetation room setup, they're completely isolated so I will be constantly moving from one room the other (not necessarily SOG, but definitely perpetual).

I really didnt have a vegetation hyroponic method in place as I was just going to slightly water the rock wool and let them grow then just place the rock wool into my flowering DWC buckets when I was ready and surround them with pellets as to not get the rock wool to close to the water to soak it. Am I ok using the standard 1" rock wool to finish sprout, then move that 1" rock wool to a 4" rock wool cube and let it grow to 18 inches or so with the roots coming out of the bottom? And at that point when I move to flower I just lift the whole thing out roots dangling and all and just set it in my 5" net pot in the 5 gallon buckets? This would allow the long roots to just hang down direclty into the bubbling water at that point.

Help me, my veg method is flawed and would like some opinions. Much appreciated.

If i were to use a rubbermaid system and veg the plants to 18-24 inches am i able to pull those out of 3" net pots with rock wool and insert them into the 5" ??

Now i'm frustrated.. erm.. I want 2 rooms, one for veg one for flower but am afraid if i start in 5" net pots in the veg stage the roots will lock together from other plants if i veg to 18-24 inches in plant size.. If this would work i would just pull these pots out as a whole and drop them into the 5 gallon big bucket DWC without removing anything from the net pot...? is that failed thinking?

Lol the way i germ seeds is simple. First i get a couple paper towls and fold them up neatly until about 3 inches square then i put my seeds in and moisten it. Once the seeds are in the paper towel, get a coffee cup with a half inch of water in it, place the paper towel in the cup and simply put it in a dark cupboard and forget for 48 hours. When you get back to them im almost sure u will be germinated, but could take another day and only keep the paper towl moist if it drys up a lil waiting for germ..At that stage when you get ur tap root u should place ur seed directly into a jiffy plug, they have holes cut into them and just drop the seed in with the tap root down, dont push it down, the root will find its way!

Next put that under ur light, a few days from there u will have roots popping out of the jiffy cup which is then ready to be placed directly into hydroton. I have also set my plugs directly into the hydroton without establishing root formation and the seedling still takes. Make sure u place an inch or so of hydroton in ur basket before the plug and place ur water level a half inch below the net pot its that simple.I reccomend jiffy plugs because they come already ph'd so u dont have to worry about ph,ing water or getting the damn wool to wet.Excellent choice for dwc .

The hieght u are going to want to veg ur plant at is going to depend on the hieght requirements of ur grow room. If u are groing an unknown strain then i would suggest no more than a foot in veg, some plants triple in size during flower.

U can put at least 6 plants in a rubbermaid 20 gallon tub, i do that all day every day. With proper water changes once every 2 weeks or so u will be fine.Use 5 inch pots.
However its also possible to put at least 2 cloned tops per pot as well making ur total plant per tub 12 but i only veg me tops till about 10 inches as well, then directly into flower room which i do all day long as well.

Hope that helps. Glad to see this thread actually got attention! Waiting for some pros to stop in and give some input!

Haha i wish i knew how to attach links to my posts. It took me about 3 minutes to type this with 2 fingers lmao.

caddy said:

If i were to use a rubbermaid system and veg the plants to 18-24 inches am i able to pull those out of 3" net pots with rock wool and insert them into the 5" ??

Now i'm frustrated.. erm.. I want 2 rooms, one for veg one for flower but am afraid if i start in 5" net pots in the veg stage the roots will lock together from other plants if i veg to 18-24 inches in plant size.. If this would work i would just pull these pots out as a whole and drop them into the 5 gallon big bucket DWC without removing anything from the net pot...? is that failed thinking?

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Caddy,

I started in rubbermaid, then pulled them all out and in to my buckets. I didnt transplant until the third week I believe. Some roots will pull off of each other, so dont worry, get them going, transplant and let them grow. You will be all good

I have flowered several plants in the same tub so you dont really have to worry about root entanglement to much, Usually ends up as one huge root mass in the tub to be honest. I keep a 24 gallon rubbermaid tub in my flower room. And have started vegging my plants in 5 and 3 gallon buckets. One pot per bucket but sometimes start up to 3 plants per 5 inch pots. It makes transplanting much more simple staying one pot per bucket in veg cuz all ya have to do is lift out that pot but add it to ur flower tub.Dont wait to long to transplant cuz ive also vegged in tubs to long and once it goes to far its going to be almost impossible to seperate ur pots and get a huge root ball untagled.

Well what I did was this.. went to Walmart (what a crazy selection of tub sizes!) and got two 30 gallon tubs. They measure about 31" long and a typical width/depth for a tub. I was able to perfectly space four of the 5" net pots in 2 rows, so each tube has a total of eight 5" net pots. This way like you said I can veg for a few weeks then before its a hassle just pull the pots out of the tub and drop them into the existing 5 gallon buckets with holes already waiting for a net pot and continue the flower process like this.

This also gives me a good chance to have that spare 8 pot tub (bought 2) to throw in the flower room and do a strictly SOG method on those particular plants. This effectively raised me from 10 plants in 5 gallon buckets to 18 total plants.. 10 in 5 gallon buckets and 8 more smaller SOG plants in the tub. Now this is gonna get fun I appreciate all of your advice Long Horn & OnTheDL! (as well as everyone else of course!)

U are on the exact right path sir and im sure u are going to have some awesome growing! All u honestly have to do after u set up is make sure u change ur water once every 2 weeks and follow the instructions on ur nute bottles bro, u are going to be amazed and happy with the results.Did u start a journal yet? keep me posted.
Heres a seperate grow that i started a journal on cuz 2 weeks into flowering my buds are starting to turn bright flourescent pink. Never seen anything like it before. Got lucky and saved some seeds out of a dank bag of bud that was floating around.

5 gallon bucket
2 pumps
2 stones
2 70 watt hps fixtures from home depot
and a few 42 watt 2700k cfls i had just laying around lol

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/127741-interesting-dwc-bagseed-grow-juicy.html forgot to leave the link case u wanted to watch it.