BadlyDrawnBoy
Active Member
I don't have terribly much trouble lifting the plant and roots from old bucket into the new bucket, my main difficulty is the air stone tubes entwine heavily with the roots, which grow all around them, and there is a lot of difficulty getting the stone and tubes separated from the roots.
There must be an easier way to do this. I hold the heavy plant by the net pot lid with one hand, and with the other I work to move the tube down through the roots until it is in the bottom of the bucket entirely, so I can then pull the tube and stone out along the sides of the bucket, safely by the roots. But it's very tiring, as it takes me 2 minutes or so to untangle each tube, all the while holding the plant up with one arm.
Is there a proper way to keep the roots from tangling up with the air tube? I'd be able to just pull the tube straight up and out of the roots if the airstone wasn't connected to the bottom. But with the stone there, it pulls the roots up along with it, and if I kept pulling up it would rip apart the roots. So the only option is to push the tubes all the way down through the roots. I cannot disconnect the tube from the stone, that isn't an option.
First grow and still trying to get a grasp on all this. Feeling like I may want to try something other than dwc next time around. Not sure what though, because I'm not growing more than 2 plants, and I don't want the same res for each plant, as one feeds much heavier than the other. I just need to come up with a better system for removing the tubes and changing buckets a bit easier.
I wasn't even going to change the res at all anymore until flush time, but I've been getting strong ph down spikes the last few days, and it seemed time to switch them out. Seems they last about 2 weeks before the res begins spiking down and it becomes difficult to stabilize the ph.
No root rot or anything. Can't believe those roots! Just got a good look at them again while changing buckets, I'm just amazed looking at them. Big hulking mass of roots. If these plants were much bigger I wouldn't be able to lift them out with one arm so I could untangle the tube with the other hand. So there must be a better way, because I see people with much bigger plants than I doing dwc, and I can't imagine you all would be having the same troubles.
Everything is working pretty well though so far. I'm going to post a few pics in here tomorrow. Tomorrow will be day 29 of flowering.
Thanks for your time
There must be an easier way to do this. I hold the heavy plant by the net pot lid with one hand, and with the other I work to move the tube down through the roots until it is in the bottom of the bucket entirely, so I can then pull the tube and stone out along the sides of the bucket, safely by the roots. But it's very tiring, as it takes me 2 minutes or so to untangle each tube, all the while holding the plant up with one arm.
Is there a proper way to keep the roots from tangling up with the air tube? I'd be able to just pull the tube straight up and out of the roots if the airstone wasn't connected to the bottom. But with the stone there, it pulls the roots up along with it, and if I kept pulling up it would rip apart the roots. So the only option is to push the tubes all the way down through the roots. I cannot disconnect the tube from the stone, that isn't an option.
First grow and still trying to get a grasp on all this. Feeling like I may want to try something other than dwc next time around. Not sure what though, because I'm not growing more than 2 plants, and I don't want the same res for each plant, as one feeds much heavier than the other. I just need to come up with a better system for removing the tubes and changing buckets a bit easier.
I wasn't even going to change the res at all anymore until flush time, but I've been getting strong ph down spikes the last few days, and it seemed time to switch them out. Seems they last about 2 weeks before the res begins spiking down and it becomes difficult to stabilize the ph.
No root rot or anything. Can't believe those roots! Just got a good look at them again while changing buckets, I'm just amazed looking at them. Big hulking mass of roots. If these plants were much bigger I wouldn't be able to lift them out with one arm so I could untangle the tube with the other hand. So there must be a better way, because I see people with much bigger plants than I doing dwc, and I can't imagine you all would be having the same troubles.
Everything is working pretty well though so far. I'm going to post a few pics in here tomorrow. Tomorrow will be day 29 of flowering.
Thanks for your time