I’ve been growing indoors with organic soil for the past few seasons using several grow tents, and I’m getting an itch on trying out hydro, more specifically DWC or RDWC. Besides the recirculating part, how much more effective is RDWC from DWC? What would you guys prefer using if it was up to you and why did you choose it? Regarding nutrients, I was thinking about the 3 step that General Hydroponics offers (micro, gro, bloom). I wanted to just dip my toes in hydro and see if it’s something I want to play around with.
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I just grew my first hydro-tote plant to flower this past grow. Next grow I’ll be using either 2 setups like this, or some bigger tote setups. There’s a small usb powered water pump in there, like 5w-10w, and air stones / air pump. It worked really well, and was really low maintence. I used Coco A/B and hydroguard. Then a Part C pk booster for flower.
This is a 12 gal tote, with 15 x 3" net cups, and clay pebbles. no rockwool.
I had one of these outside last summer, with a solar powered air pump. It kept a dozen clones alive. It’s back out there right now, with another batch of the same clones, keeping my Luxor’s Chocolate CBD alive for a 2nd year now.
One of the biggest things is keeping the reservoir cool. not much of an issue on my cold cement basement floor.
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I have an ultra simple DWC set-up. I have 1 big tank that I can grow up to 9 plants in.
I change the reservoir every few weeks in veg and then every 1 or 2 weeks during flower depending on conditions.
Changing the reservoir takes about 30 mins in total.
I have a EC, thermometer and pH meter woth a panel on the wall so I don’t need to take any readings with a pen i just glance at the panel.
It’s super straightforward and low-effort. I’ve literally gone away for 2-3 weeks, come back and everything is fine.
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With all 15 cups filled, how big was the plants? Looks kind of crowded, how was your final harves weight? Did you stick with a 2 or 3 part nutrient line up? Anything you wish you have done differently?
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Just get some autopots my dude. Its like hydro without all the hassle.
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I’ve been running a DWC system for over 20 years. It’s just a bucket with an air pump and a T to distribute the air. I can easily crank a kilo of dried buds from 4 plants under 400 watts.
…etc.
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Rdwc isn’t more effective its just less toil than dwc
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Yeah I agree, start with dwc and if you run into pH problems or other issues with stability, you can upgrade to rdwc.
The only advantage is that rdwc is a larger system with more water and thus have a better stability.
Pz 
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Oh yea that too. 30 gallons of water will hold ph longer than 6 gallons.
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If dwc is simpler than rdwc, then another step back would be the Kratky method to give you a feel for hydro. If you like it, it wouldn’t be hard to convert your Kratky method buckets to dwc or rdwc after that first run.
Or try coco, I still think that’s the most logical transition step for a soil gardener wanting to try hydro.
I found RDWC easier. You can have the res bucket outside of the tent and no plants/roots to lift out. Just lift the lid and dump it in. Easy to top off. pH stays stable longer. A BlueLab guardian or something along those lines makes it really is to keep an eye on. Best of luck!!!
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I’ve recently switched to ebb flow tables. Love em. So low maintenance. My only gripe is that they limit vertical height. In a prior life I was running a rdwc system for two tents that used a shared drum res outside both tents. Worked incredibly well, the advantage of that design was having the res outside the tent made it super easy to fit a chiller inline. If you’re doing rdwc for damn sure get a chiller.
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I ended up flowering with 6 plants in there. not a full 15. That’d be super crowded in the roots, too. I think about 5 gal of water per plant is about good, size wise. These were a bit crowded. I ended up with 12 gallons of roots. The 2 bigger plants were 2.5" and squeezed the netcups, crushed clay pebbles.
Next grow I’m thinking of using a couple 27 gal totes, and 6" net cups. All my soil growbags are outside now, and I really do NOT want to bring those back inside.
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As a light jab; y’all touting “simple” systems with $700 worth of monitoring equipment? Wild!
I like my octopots
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I was thinking the same thing!
Buy one octopot for $75 and give it a try. You’ll be amazed at how simple passive-hydro can be. And the yields are impressive!
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Even these things have been great for solo cups & 4" round planters. I have a bunch of catnip growing in them right now.
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I was leaning towards RDWC for that simple reason. Res on the outside would be cool and convenient enough to refill or drain the liquids, right? But I do see a downside too. If one plant gets sick, all the plants will get affected. Everyone has some good points and all are valid. Gives me more to think about, lol.
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