New to DTW!

Never thought this section would be so quiet considering DTW is the most popular growing method in te world! <I think> Rain is more or less DTW right

Trying out some completely alien methods to me; rockwool sugar cubes rather than coco and LED rather than MH and high pressure sodium. As well as a gravity fed watering system opposed to hand watered.

I decided to go with a self styled CapN style grow! But rather than having those pumps in the totes I'm going for a large resevoir tank, to stop PH fluctuations, gravity fed with a water release timery thing. Totes will just collect run off.

What I'm wondering is is this a total waste of nutrient<sorry my question mark and brackets are broke due to beer damage>

The CapN would let his tote reservoir recirculate <though only watering once a day> for a few days at a time, and topping with water to reduce ppm and PH adjusting. So Im wondering should I get a pump and take the water from each tote back into my reservoir

Or is that defeating the beauty of fresh oxiginated measured nutrients,depending on its stage, for the plant to decide what to take and leave at its leisure. 20%+ run off just seems like such a waste.

Advocates <question mark>, any advice.

You're either DTW or not. Taking the water from the totes back to the res is simply recirculating. I don't run DTW, but the beauty in it is knowing that your PPMs and PH are pretty much dialed. And because res water isn't shared between plants, it minimizes the chances of diseases such as pythium. It's a good idea to really dial in your timer in DTW so as not to waste too much water.

Also, reuse the "waste" water on landscaping, lawns, etc., if you have them. My neighbors are always impressed that my palm trees and bougainvillea flower year round.

Oh, and I think I've fried two separate keyboards. IPAs make for a shitty keyboard cleaner.

Johnny Lawrence said:

You're either DTW or not. Taking the water from the totes back to the res is simply recirculating. I don't run DTW, but the beauty in it is knowing that your PPMs and PH are pretty much dialed. And because res water isn't shared between plants, it minimizes the chances of diseases such as pythium. It's a good idea to really dial in your timer in DTW so as not to waste too much water.

Also, reuse the "waste" water on landscaping, lawns, etc., if you have them. My neighbors are always impressed that my palm trees and bougainvillea flower year round.

Oh, and I think I've fried two separate keyboards. IPAs make for a shitty keyboard cleaner.

Click to expand...

Yeah think I'll run with the DTW this time. Must be some logic in not recirculating crap your plants have already rejected. Haven't run the numbers yet but guessing a proper run off won't be unaffordable. And the benefits you outline are pretty priceless. Unfortunately I live in a built up city, so the most use I could put the runoff to is carrying gallons up to the local park lol, so drain in the literal sense haha.

Palm trees, sigh, how the other half live.

Yeah I've replaced the keyboard on this laptop twice at least, and have a stack of them with fried motherboards. Don't drink and go live !

i do auto feed dtw hempy buckets. i set my pH in my res and i can go out of town for days (14 is the max so far) and it's the same as when i left.

i'd rather have that then try to save on nutes.