Thinking of starting another DWC, do I have what I need?

Good morning kids! I'm doing a greenhouse grow, I have a few plants in promix and some in FFOF. I wanted to try another DWC run, Ive done a few runs in the past with good results, using Supernatural brand. But I would like to try using more natural ferts. I've got a little collection, I was curious if what I had would suffice for a DWC bucket.
General Organics:
Black Diamond
Bio Weed
Biothrive Grow
Bioroot
CaMg+

Botanicare
Hydroguard
Rhizo Blast

Biobizz fish mix
Roots Organics Phos bat guano, Oregonism and uprising foundation

DWC or RDWC? Chilled or not? How big is the reservoir?

I mean you can dump as much organic stuff into water as you want but it wont be available without a wide species of microbes to digest it. With that said Id shoot for a ZHO or Great White Shark over Hydroguard. Hydroguard is just bacillus amyloliquefaciens. In english that is....

"B. amyloliquefaciens is considered a root-colonizing biocontrol bacteria, and is used to fight some plant root pathogens in agriculture, aquaculture and hydroponics. It has been shown to provide benefits to plants in both soil and hydroponic applications. It takes action against bacterial[12] and fungi pathogens, and may prevent infection though competitive exclusion or out-competing the unwanted pathogen."

Meaning it could swing your variety of microbes off. Could cause def's later in the grow if microbes aren't making nutrients available to the plant.

From all the things I've researched and learned, probably safer to go with a sterile, clean res in DWC, than organic, murky res. especially if you aren't able to run a chiller, things might get nasty. Gonna have to change the res more frequently and keep a close eye on the roots. I'm interested to see how this goes for you if you go the organic route.

GeneralGrower said:

From all the things I've researched and learned, probably safer to go with a sterile, clean res in DWC, than organic, murky res. especially if you aren't able to run a chiller, things might get nasty. Gonna have to change the res more frequently and keep a close eye on the roots. I'm interested to see how this goes for you if you go the organic route.

Click to expand...

You could run a chiller at 80 degrees and still run a RDWC hydro that doesn't have a "murky" effect. This would keep the temps just right for breeding the microbes you want (assuming one is experienced with this) while keeping the heat below 85-90 where plants might be too stressed out. Just have to keep a decent water flow active.

Vumar said:

You could run a chiller at 80 degrees and still run a RDWC hydro that doesn't have a "murky" effect. This would keep the temps just right for breeding the microbes you want (assuming one is experienced with this) while keeping the heat below 85-90 where plants might be too stressed out. Just have to keep a decent water flow active.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that. I'm running a sterile res and no chiller and my temps can get up into the high 70's, do you think I'll be ok? Roots look healthy still and I've been running H202 to keep things at bay. And I'm doing a res change ever 10-14 days and cleaning the system really good. I think since I'm running a 600gal/hr pump and a lot and air stones things are flowing good and I'm getting a lot of dissolved oxygen which is helping them thrive.

Organic nutrients require bacteria and fungi to break it down to plant available nutrients. As your plant grows and as you continue to use H202 (which is killing off the micobe species you need) the need for N-P-K will be greater than the rate the microbes can produce. It isn't practice to go sterile and organic. Contradicts itself. You are pushing and pulling the door at the same time, you know? Dont mix h202 products with beneficial bacteria as this is counter productive and just a waste of money.

Yes, I've heard of that, I'm not running any beneficials, synthetics only, however I am interested in using some beneficial bacteria in my cloning process, that with a root booster, using 1 inch rockwool plugs, then going into coco & perlite mixture in a solo cup. I've seen just bloom used at 1/4 strength as well, such as fox farms. What have you been most successful with for cloning? Medium? Method? Nutes?

Vumar said:

You could run a chiller at 80 degrees and still run a RDWC hydro that doesn't have a "murky" effect. This would keep the temps just right for breeding the microbes you want (assuming one is experienced with this) while keeping the heat below 85-90 where plants might be too stressed out. Just have to keep a decent water flow active.

Click to expand...

How do you know the amount of microbes in your DWC? Is there anything on the market to quantify the counts?

Years of biological and microbiology research with an overrated microscope? Truthfully no idea. I think the unit of measure is in spore count.

Vumar said:

Years of biological and microbiology research with an overrated microscope? Truthfully no idea. I think the unit of measure is in spore count.

Click to expand...

Will it be worth the cost to send a water sample to a lab if they are able to tell me for example how much Trichoderma or B.amyloliquefaciens are in my DWC? of course if they are able to do it in a 1 day turnaround.

It just seems to me we are blindly adding the beneficials without knowing the optimal threshold.

Wedum Boise said:

Will it be worth the cost to send a water sample to a lab if they are able to tell me for example how much Trichoderma or B.amyloliquefaciens are in my DWC? of course if they are able to do it in a 1 day turnaround.

It just seems to me we are blindly adding the beneficials without knowing the optimal threshold.

Click to expand...

This is correct. The amount of each bacteria and fungi species is listed on ZHO and Great White Shark. Currently to my knowledge there isn't a way to measure "microbe" life like we do TDS/EC/PPM. Furthermore you bring up another good point, what species are left after day 2, or say day 4 of adding. I personally just do a constant wide species consistently (consistent... not constant) and let mother nature take it from there. If you are worried about which micro-organisms and what levels they are at... You've gone too far down the rabbit hole. IMO

Vumar said:

This is correct. The amount of each bacteria and fungi species is listed on ZHO and Great White Shark. Currently to my knowledge there isn't a way to measure "microbe" life like we do TDS/EC/PPM. Furthermore you bring up another good point, what species are left after day 2, or say day 4 of adding. I personally just do a constant wide species consistently (consistent... not constant) and let mother nature take it from there. If you are worried about which micro-organisms and what levels they are at... You've gone too far down the rabbit hole. IMO

Click to expand...

When you say you "do a constant wide species consistently" does that mean you do a top off with more or start fresh with DWC? In terms of cost/volume how much are you replenishing for each plant? To my knowledge liquid cultures are more expensive right? I saw a small packet of freeze dried microbes from Mammoth for $12.99, I'm guessing I would need whole bunch of these to constantly add into my plant. Thank you for your replying to my questions!

I would not add any of that to your dwc, i tried with the same nutes and boy oh boy did it not go well. Also my res never gets above 69°f. I threw every bit of it out and had to start over. If you have nice air stones do not even attempt to use those nutes they will never be the same.

bignugdoug said:

I would not add any of that to your dwc, i tried with the same nutes and boy oh boy did it not go well. Also my res never gets above 69°f. I threw every bit of it out and had to start over. If you have nice air stones do not even attempt to use those nutes they will never be the same.

Click to expand...

Yeah I don't advise going organic hydro vs sterile. Sterile is easier to maintain and monitor (in my personal experience anyways). Microbe levels are a complete guess to be blunt and honest. ZHO and Great White Shark are both powdered products. Both expensive but does well to improve plant health if you aren't going completely sterile/chiller/h202. Some macro-nutes like Roots Organic contain microbe life already but the powders just ensure variety and quantity. In no particular means of measuring or hurting your plants it would just be applied to liberally and be wasted money. H202 & chillers are the answers to *most* of your problems in hydro when dealing with bacteria.


I just splash ZHO/GWS once a week into the feed reservoir to ensure populations are semi-stable and things are being broken down for the plant to uptake. Only done for soils as hydro doesnt *need* bennies to function.