DWC: Looser, airier final product?

Hi, all. Longtime listener, first time caller...

I've grown a number of ways, in a number of places. Dirt, coco, dirt/coco mixes in pots, both hand watered and not; rockwool cubes on flood and drain tables; coco slabs; flood and drain buckets, with coco and with hydro rocks; etc. At present, I'm using homemade DWC 5gal buckets, each with a large airstone and a recirculation line for safety and redundancy. The plants are grown very large and then scrogged to hell and back.

They're under LEDs, mostly the BML Spydr 600s, although some are under the newer Fluence Spydr 600s that are a bit bigger and nicer in every way.

So here's what I'm getting at: ever since I started using DWC methods, although the yields are still OK, the finished product dries fluffier than I am accustomed to. These are the same plants, from the same mothers, grown under the same lights with the same nutrients (although PPMs are sometimes higher than I'd feel comfortable watering a pot with) and the same CO2 enrichment. Same temps, humidities, etc. The only other major difference, apart from the DWC method, is that they are being scrogged maybe a little more extremely. I don't mean they're being manhandled and stressed, just that they're being cranked a little lower and spreading a little wider than the somewhat smaller plants I'm more accustomed to working with.

I've noticed over the years that my pot-grown plants, when watered the day of harvest, seem to dry fluffier than my pot-grown plants that were NOT watered on the day of harvest. Is the nature of DWC such that I will never see heavy, rock-hard nuggets again?

sgt d said:

Is the nature of DWC such that I will never see heavy, rock-hard nuggets again?

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no.
fluffy stuff is usually lack of light.

This DWC also seems to call for a bit of pruning, at least with this Blue DreamxCheesequake I'm working with. The present round has been pruned a bit better than some others. Maybe that will affect the quantity of bigger, denser ones, in the sense that not only will it be free to devote more energy to tops, but there will be more room there at the top for light to get through to the stuff just below the tip top of the canopy.

I've only grown in DWC, my nug density depends on the strain, I've had rock hard nugs and fluffier nugs. By pictures I've seen I would agree, DWC plants usually look a lot bushier and have denser foliage.

Same only have grown dwc.

It depends on light penetration, strain, temperatures and pruning skills. Mostly strain and light unless temperatures are crazy high.

Anon Emaus said:

I've only grown in DWC, my nug density depends on the strain, I've had rock hard nugs and fluffier nugs. By pictures I've seen I would agree, DWC plants usually look a lot bushier and have denser foliage.

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very true strain is important. but dwc vs soil, dwc by a landslide. do it right and it will be fantastic.

Thanks for your input, everybody. DWC is new-ish to me, and has required learning/using some pruning techniques that are also new-ish. A scrogged plant is not pruned like one that stands upright, that's for sure. I don't think light's an issue in my room, they get plenty of it, but temps definitely soared in there this past summer. We'll see what the winter brings, denser nugs maybe.

When growing is dwc if you don't keep your ph in the sweet spot it will greatly affect the uptake into the plant more so than other growing types. I would say every other day I'm adding a little ph down to keep between 5.7 and 6.0 also do you know the temperature of the water? That plays a big role as well. When you look at the roots at harvest are they nice and white or is there discoloration?

I grew a strain of cherry gorilla. Mom seed in soil, clones in hydro. Mom seed was denser, rdwc was fluffier, but equal high. My theory is that strains that like to stretch will stretch even more in dwc, elongating the node spacing making for a fluffier bud. It was quite a big difference in my experience. I have 2 phenos of the fuzz in there now and one of them is a big time stretcher, I'm paying attention to see how they compare to the mom's that were in soil.

motoracer110 said:

When growing is dwc if you don't keep your ph in the sweet spot it will greatly affect the uptake into the plant more so than other growing types. I would say every other day I'm adding a little ph down to keep between 5.7 and 6.0 also do you know the temperature of the water? That plays a big role as well. When you look at the roots at harvest are they nice and white or is there discoloration?

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Root rot is not a problem for me, as I live in a cooler climate. In the winter I have to use an aquarium heater to keep the res up to temp, and in the summer it's perfect (we only have two seasons here lol). I use a ph controller (worth every damn penny) that keeps it between 5.9 and 6.1. I wind up using lots of ph up, as the co2 seems to cause the ph to drop when pulled thru the airpump and into the water.

blackforest said:

I grew a strain of cherry gorilla. Mom seed in soil, clones in hydro. Mom seed was denser, rdwc was fluffier, but equal high. My theory is that strains that like to stretch will stretch even more in dwc, elongating the node spacing making for a fluffier bud. It was quite a big difference in my experience. I have 2 phenos of the fuzz in there now and one of them is a big time stretcher, I'm paying attention to see how they compare to the mom's that were in soil.

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I find your ideas intriguing, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter...yes, I'm def finding less stacking than I did with the same plants in different media. Perhaps some light pruning at the right time (early-mid-stretch) would cause them to take a pause in stretching and stack nodes a bit more?

ive run all types of hydro, airo w/no medium, dwc with grow rocks,coco, rockwool, nft,undercurrent, and flood n drain.. ive had dense buds and fluffy, i think it depends on the strain..clones off the same plant run in different hydro methods seem to produce the same, however i did find plants in the 5 gallon dwc buckets do get larger than plants vegged the same amount but put in flood n drain,, because the root growth isnt inhibitted in the buckets wile on the table roots only get as big as the medium...