Please help me with my first setup

Hello everybody,

I am currently growing in coco and autopot but I want to switch to hydro.

I can't wait for the current grow to finish because I want to try the DWC, reservoir, air pump and stone recipe.
I just fell in love with it on YouTube. The budget is big and I want to grow 4 plants per "season" , fast and easy.
My plan is to buy :

- a single reservoir (20 gallons) for the 4 girls. I heard 1 plant per pot works best because of root entanglement, but others say that if you pull out the netpot once every few days the roots don't have time to tangle. Even if roots tangle, what is the bad aspect of it? I don't get it...
I already have the autopot valve which can help top off with fresh 5,8PH water from a second reservoir (I already have a plan to implement it). The reason for this is I leave home for 3-4 days occasionally for work. I can do 1 pot per plant thing, but it will be a hassle I think. This is the main question guys. What do you think? 1/4 vs 4/4 . Would I be sorry I didn't start in 4/4 in the first place?

- a big pump. As I said, for me the money are not a problem, but noise is. I heard big pumps are less noisy. I'm thinking about a Eheim 400. Nice reviews about that pump. What do you think?

- some big airstones. I guess 2, good brand ones should suffice.

What I don't get at all is :

- do I need a second pot/reservoir for seeds/clones, or I just need to tweak a little the main reservoir until the roots start? I suspect I can do it in the main reservoir but would be a waste of nutrients, no? How do you do it?

-for a bushy, 1,3-1,5 meters plant, do I need a certain net-pot in terms of volume, so I can be sure it can withstand the weight of the plant, or a 1/4 gallon one (with hydroton) will suffice?

- this is the second main question. How do you feed the seedlings and how do you feed the clones in DWC, especially in the first part of their lives?
Like:
first solution is plain water;
first change in nutrients (7-10 days) you have to have ? ppm or Ec
etc
first change of nutrients in bloom should have ? ppm or Ec
- I heard that you change your reservoir after the same amount of water as the reservoir has been added to it. I suspect this water has to be PH 5,8 but I'm not sure if it has to contain nutes !?

Please post your thoughts or a useful link.


PS. I already have a grow tent, PH and TDS/EC meters, lights. Am I forgetting something?
Sorry if my english isn't perfect.

Hey

about to mess with dwc myself in a little bit

look at like this ...............get yourself 4 dwc system (good one all pumps drain value/lvl checker each will run yah about 40-50 bucks ) why get them like that ......this way u are able to run exps on them and not mess up the others/ controll plant

u can invest in a air pump with 4 connectors or use the 4 that come with the system (if u do not use them count as back up )

later one u can go to a home depot/lowes/ace and buy the fittings and make the 4 go into a system u want

adv reasoning ..............with 4 dwc buckets u can go on different times ( auto plants ) start one wait 3 weeks start one ....by the end of the first cut u will be on a premit cycle if u want ...................auto plants becuase they can all be in the same room same light do not need that extra invest ment yet they make some strains medically and some just to make ppl like us happy happy happy and save a bunch of money

Thank you justugh !

Hi. Can't help with the res part.

The only problem with one air pump is, "single point of failure". I use the smaller diaphram aquarium pumps,
and a 70L/min pump.

The big pump puts out a shit-load of air, but is a lot nosier and produces much more heat. So imo, it's a trade off.

If you're not worried about the roots getting tangled go for the multiple plants in one pot, but have a back up in case you need to seperate them. I have my mature girls in individual 5gal bucketrs, that's just me.

Clones/seedlings DO NOT WANT NUTRIENTS, do them seperately and with less light, I have my cuttings under 39W CFL's. Plain old tap water will do fine, change it every few days. I don't give nutes until after roots are growing, and I've moved them to veg, then 1/2 strength at first.



I built my DYI Buble Cloner for about $35.00 (air-pump included), you might want to do something similar.



Hope this helps.
Good luck.

P.S. - What language do you speak?

each plant is its own "soul", If 1 plant gets sick and you have roots tangled. It is possible for the disease to spread much easier! Or if one dies then you have decomposing roots tangled in your good roots, you don't want that! If you try the whole pulling the net cup out every few days let us know how it works out for you! I prefer 1 plant per bucket because each plant may want different amounts of food, and It makes lst/pruning easier, more space, easier to move plants around to work on. Good luck let us know what you try and results!

Check out undercurrent DWC, solves both your problems.