New to growing and thinking of going DWC? Don't

[DaFreak]

Ice man it’s not hard. But grow for a decade. Your pumps are going to fail, you’re going to replace countless air-stones. You’ll upgrade to rdwc. You’ll have a leak or two. Might even lose a cycle (I never did but I didn’t go away for a week either). You may end up wasting money on either chilling your Rez or buying shit to put in it to prevent rot. Or you could do dtw and skip all that.
Not to mention the sound. God I do not miss that god awful air pump sound.

 

[iceman2494]

I see your point . Still a pref. Your not right or wrong .

 

[Gquebed]

Well i for one dont miss mixing nutes 2 or 3 times a week or filling buckets with promix, transplanting, twice each run, dumping buckets of promix after harvest etc etc.

Now i mix nutes once a week when i change the res and add a bit of water once a week. 2 hours work total unless i have a prob. Compared to 5 hours or so with promix. Plus i harvest more from the same space.

 

[DaFreak]

Yes, total preference. But majority of beginners will save a lot of heartache by choosing wisely. Everybody who ever had root rot, everybody who ever had a flood, would have avoided it with dtw. Anybody who uses a chiller is insane.

 

[DaFreak]

Well i for one dont miss mixing nutes 2 or 3 times a week or filling buckets with promix, transplanting, twice each run, dumping buckets of promix after harvest etc etc.

Now i mix nutes once a week when i change the res and add a bit of water once a week. 2 hours work total unless i have a prob. Compared to 5 hours or so with promix. Plus i harvest more from the same space.

If you harvest more then you missed something because any style you master should pull the same weight. Tonight I fed 12, 5 gallon dtw plants in under 30 minutes including using the wetvac to empty my run-off. When I was in dwc it would take me a few hours to clean the system, boil the hydro-balls etc. how long does it take to fill a 5gallon pot with material? 5 minutes?

 

[Gquebed]

If you harvest more then you missed something because any style you master should pull the same weight. Tonight I fed 12, 5 gallon dtw plants in under 30 minutes including using the wetvac to empty my run-off. When I was in dwc it would take me a few hours to clean the system, boil the hydro-balls etc. how long does it take to fill a 5gallon pot with material? 5 minutes?

Boil the hydroton? Why?

I used to water 8 x 5 gals. 20 mins to mix and ph the nutes. 20 mins to water all 8 buckets. And a good 30 mins to wait for them to drain and suck out the run off with a wet vac (the bucket were in those saucer things), plus clean up. Every 3 to 4 days depending on how fast they were drinking. Plus... you have to watch they dont dry out or youre fucked. They stall and take a while to get going again. Cant water too early either... or overwatering probs... and again your fucked till they come back. Youre a slave to their clock. You gotta water when they want it.

No such probs with flood and drain anyway. Cut the work by 65% or more.

Plus... you do yield more in hydro. Its not even a debate. Its a fact. They just grow faster in the same amount of time. I havent experienced that myself yet as im only on my second hydro run, but ive witnessed first hand other dialled in grows and the difference is amazing. Amost got there this run. Ill get there next run. Cant wait.

I agree about dwc though. Too much work if you do more than a couple plants. Thats why i didnt go that way.

 

[DaFreak]

So I hear you saying it took you a lot longer to do something that shouldn’t that that long. For reals, shouldn’t have taken nearly that much time.

And you’re right, people can fck up anything, you have to make sure you don’t let them dry out. But I’m sorry, that is just a really bad, lazy grower who does that.

Also shouldn’t take 30 minutes to drain. 5 maybe.

I have done over 300 cycles in dwc. Don’t hate it, don’t disrespect it. A guy with over 300 cycles in dwc who was very successful at it and I am telling you, dtw is the best choice for 90% of the people who want to do hydro.

 

[ttystikk]

Noobs don't need to be in DWC.

 

[DaFreak]

The biggest baddest grows the world over are dtw. Growing has evolved, dwc was for a time before we had mediums like coco/pro mix etc.

Unfortunately we have beginner growers, and even worse experienced growers who believe dwc will get them more because its “hydro”

There is no level experience where dwc will give you better or more weed. Only growers who couldn’t figure out how to grow right. You’ll have them on all sides, people who think aeroponics is will grow more, dtw will grow more. They are all wrong. Everything is the same. You pick the style that best meets the needs.

Here is my checklist for who should consider dwc, and I am not being mean, straight up honest.

1) lazy growers who aren’t going to really take care of their gardens and don’t want to be tied down on checking them daily or even weekly.

2) people who for security reasons can’t dispose of your grow medium.

3) people who live in countries where you can’t buy good medium.

And a note about mediums. I know people rock coco, but they also have to water it up to twice daily from what i understand. I use coco for mothers sometimes and once every 3 to 4 days works but under the bright lights they water it so much. That’s why I think pro mix (peat moss) is the clear winner when it comes to medium for dtw. Experience is limited on this though, somebody might know a better medium out there.

 

[OldMedUser]

I have always been lousy as a dirt farmer and basically invented DWC for myself back in '01.

Have done around 50 DWC grows since and it rocks when it fits your growing style like it did for me.

Some people have the green thumb for dirt farming and some like me grok the nature of hydro. So much more precise. I have a diploma in environmental chemistry and my mom taught me how to cook when I was 5 or 6 so measuring and calculating are strong in this one.

To just throw a blanket around who should or should not get into DWC depending on nOObness is ridiculous.

 

[70's natureboy]

It's a dog eat dog world out there. I'm killin' it with DWC and I hope my competition doesn't do DWC.

 

[OldMedUser]

It's a dog eat dog world out there. I'm killin' it with DWC and I hope my competition doesn't do DWC.

They will.

 

[DaFreak]

To just throw a blanket around who should or should not get into DWC depending on nOObness is ridiculous.

Well I’m saying basically nobody should be doing dwc, but not worried about changing the minds of people already doing it. But people starting out should skip, save money, time, problems.

 

[DaFreak]

It's a dog eat dog world out there. I'm killin' it with DWC and I hope my competition doesn't do DWC.

So they guys growing better weed then you in dtw? You’re not worried about them?

 

[70's natureboy]

So they guys growing better weed then you in dtw? You’re not worried about them?

I haven't seen it yet. Waste is not a part of my vocabulary. It sounds like a hassle dealing with the waste or plumbing for the waste. I'll still need timers and pumps and plumbing and hope none of it fails. I have yet to have an air pump fail (hate to jinx myself). I'll just KISS.

 

[Gquebed]

So I hear you saying it took you a lot longer to do something that shouldn’t that that long. For reals, shouldn’t have taken nearly that much time.

And you’re right, people can fck up anything, you have to make sure you don’t let them dry out. But I’m sorry, that is just a really bad, lazy grower who does that.

Also shouldn’t take 30 minutes to drain. 5 maybe.

I have done over 300 cycles in dwc. Don’t hate it, don’t disrespect it. A guy with over 300 cycles in dwc who was very successful at it and I am telling you, dtw is the best choice for 90% of the people who want to do hydro.

I always made sure not to leave any moisture in the saucers... im ocd about mould. So no... 5 mins isnt enough. Also, i didnt mean to suggest 30 mins for each pot. 30 mins total for all 8 pots to drain... cause obviously the first pot watered would be almost drained by the time the last pot started getting water.

 

[Logan Burke]

totally agree. i like the more technical aspect of hydro and also that you can see and fix problems much faster. i started with DWC and would never think about going to soil. that's for the tomatoes outside.

Exactly the way I feel about it, I'd never go back to soil! I've seen some really killer grows in soil, but it just isn't for me is all. I would be interested in trying out coco at some point in the future though.

I do dwc . I ran soil for a while . Switched to dwc to be more in tune . This is my first crack at it and it’s not hard at all . I do 3 buckets a tent . One veg one flower . Yes like any start up it cost .. a bucket and some air line and a pump oh and hydrotron . I can reuse all of it for Future runs . I’m not disagreeing or agreeing to any side . It’s a choice . I DO agree with dude above . Don’t shun dwc because of your run . It’s a people’s choice thing .

Yes I would say that one of the biggest startup costs, IF you don't do waterfalls of course, would be the air pump and airstones. Waterfalls are far more efficient for sure, but where I currently have all standalone dwc buckets I just use an airpump. In the future I'd really like to setup a RDWC with waterfalls though. As for the buckets, I found a website selling solid black 5 gallon buckets for less than 10$ a piece if I can find where I bookmarked it...but anyways, point is, DWC can be a really simple endeavor when you keep it simple. Don't do a million additives, and figure out how to keep water temps in check and you're good to go..

 

[DaFreak]

Trick of the trade, put a garden stepping stone, brick, under your pot so it’s never sitting in run-off. 50 cents per

Making sure your water temps stay low is a huge challenge for many people. They spend hundreds on chillers and extra electricity etc or on additives. Dtw all you need is a pot/medium and your good to go. I used to use 250 amps on a chiller and then thought “fck this” and instead got a little 250 light and got an extra 3 pounds a year.

Dwc is simple, not as simple as dtw is all. Take the challenge. Do one round in dtw, I’ll tell you everything you need to know, you’ll get awesome results and change your mind

 

[5BY5LEC]

If you are a new grower doing under 10 plants and thinking of DWC let me save you a lot of problems, just don't do it. Do Drain to waste with your medium of choice. I could bore you with why and if you are a new grower you aren't going to really get it anyway, but just don't, believe me.

I'll answer a few questions if anybody has any, but my target are new growers who are on the fence, I'm just telling you don't. Some are going to believe me and be thankful (although they will never know it because they won't dick around with DWC) and others aren't and are going to go on to become great growers in DWC (although they could have done it easier, cheaper, with less hassle if they just took my advice). Either way you win in the end.

My first grow ever of ANY PLANT was a homemade RDWC. It was a smashing success. I could not have asked for more.
I think hydro for a beginner is good in the sense that if you fuck something up, you know it the next morning and you can relate that problem to an input.
In soil, it seems like your shit fucks up a week later and you are left wondering what input caused this. Just my .02$

 

[5BY5LEC]

Noobs don't need to be in DWC.

Agree and disagree.
If you need to ask something like "how to build an rdwc" and people have to tell you how to screw a fucking fitting into a bulkhead, hell no.
Someone with basic plumbing skills and some knowledge of chemistry, sure. That person has a fighting chance of taking it to harvest.
Its a steep slope though, and not for everyone. I will go with ya on that.