Shallow dwc system?

Mattsmith1871

Mattsmith1871

Active Member
Hi all, would a shallow recirculating dwc system work? (kinda like a deeper nft system) as long as the roots were touching the water? (I was going to use a wick from seedling, netpot to water, so the roots can make their way down and keep the plant watered). I thought in theory this should work, wanted other people thoughts?

I will be able to Upload actual pics in around a week if this doesn't make enough sense.
My next run I'm going to run a recirculating drip system next to it to see what's better.

I can't find anything online about this. Maybe not many have tried it or it's a waste of time? Who knows.
Any info welcomed :)
 
Thanks for the reply but it didn't really answer my question, I wanted to know if an inch of running water is enough to sustain a full sized plant. Until my roots get down to that level (around a 10cm gap) they will have a Wick supplying the water and guide the roots downward until it reaches the water level.
 
It's like a rdwc system but with only an inch of water, with the addition of a Wick (as the "air gap" is bigger than an NFT system and will take a little while to grow that far down).
 
I would be concerned with low water volume and the lack of system stability that comes with it.

What’s the reasoning for this madness?

I wouldn’t think a inch of water is really “DWC”, can’t see that working, sure wouldn’t when I did rdwc, wouldn’t even be enough volume to submerge a root ball imo, be pure ph hell.

Typically rdwc drains are 2” plus, wouldn’t even cover the drains. Have you done dwc before successfully?
 
No I haven't done dwc before perhaps I should have titled the post more of a NFT system. Anyway the idea was to make a kind of NFT system to have a constant film of water (in this case it would actually be deeper) flowing along the bottom of a container with net pots suspended above. The water would be constantly recirculating giving the water a constant flow. The roots would sit on top of the thin layer of flowing water, as it does in NFT. was the idea anyway. As for ph it would be connected to a 20l reservoir and recirculating so I can monitor the water from there.
 
You can see the roots sat on top of a thin layer of water here, just the first pics I found on google.
 

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The inlet and outlet are on the bottom of the container instead of each end like a normal nft system. I have fittings that don't allow any rootmass to grow down them at all. So blockages shouldn't be a problem.
 
This diagram explains the system I'm talking about. The only difference is that the inlet and outlet are on the bottom instead of the sides. Any help from anyone with diy NFT experience welcomed.
 

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Yeah your idea is not dwc, maybe a NFT guy can chime in, never done any variation of it myself, not sure if there would be any advantage over just doing a normal NFT, Good luck!

I will add, 20L is not a lot of volume, 4 plants in rdwc can eat that in a day, stability would still be a concern imo, but I’m not a NFT guy.
 
I believe what I'm trying to make is actually a DFT system. Same as NFT but holds more water at once, so if your pump dies for whatever reason or clogs, your plants won't die from lack of water.
 
Mattsmith1871 said:
puregreensaz-com.cdn.ampproject.org

How Deep Flow Technique (DFT) Hydroponic Systems Work - Pure Greens: Custom Container Farms

The Deep Flow Technique (DFT) is similar to two other hydroponic systems, but it ultimately works in it’s own way. In this article, you’ll learn how DFT
puregreensaz-com.cdn.ampproject.org puregreensaz-com.cdn.ampproject.org
Click to expand...
If anyone's interested this explains what I'm talking about perfectly. You get the best of DWC AND NFT! Air stone dies, your safe until you fix it, pump fails your still good! Lot less room for error I'd say.
 
J232 said:
Yeah your idea is not dwc, maybe a NFT guy can chime in, never done any variation of it myself, not sure if there would be any advantage over just doing a normal NFT, Good luck!

I will add, 20L is not a lot of volume, 4 plants in rdwc can eat that in a day, stability would still be a concern imo, but I’m not a NFT guy.
Click to expand...
Yeah thanks for the tip, might make the rez bigger, gonna run some tests soon as it only take around 3 litres to run :neutral:
 
If you remove both the air pump and the airstone from the DFT system you pointed out, you have just created a tried and true flood and drain system (and adding a timer to schedule the floods).
 
Mattsmith1871 said:
Hi all, would a shallow recirculating dwc system work? (kinda like a deeper nft system) as long as the roots were touching the water? (I was going to use a wick from seedling, netpot to water, so the roots can make their way down and keep the plant watered). I thought in theory this should work, wanted other people thoughts?

I will be able to Upload actual pics in around a week if this doesn't make enough sense.
My next run I'm going to run a recirculating drip system next to it to see what's better.

I can't find anything online about this. Maybe not many have tried it or it's a waste of time? Who knows.
Any info welcomed :)
Click to expand...
Swc
 
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