Beneficial bacteria assistance

[Lazarus13]

I put this question in the DWC section of these forums. It has a lot of views but no answers yet so i figured i would try it here as there seems to be a lot of traffic in faqs.
I have a 12 gallon top-fed dwc system currently with 2 seedlings getting ready to enter the 1st week of veg. Rez temps fluctuate between ~ 65° to ~72°(lights off/lights on) I'm not using nutes yet because they are so young but i am using beneficial bacteria and humic acid to take a pre-emptive stand against pythium and other hydro icks.
My question is how often do i need to add benes and humic acid? Is it at top offs? Rez changes? The directions on the product say "add x amount of product to x amount of water" but do not mention frequency. I don't want to over use it and waste money but i don't want to under use it and render it useless. Anyone have any info at all? Thanks in advance
Stay green...

 

[Papageno]

Straight bennies like Orca or voodoo juice wont really be problematic to over do. They don't stay alive forever and the less food they have the faster they die. In your res they may die fast like in a few days or less. But that said adding them more than once every 2 weeks is usually not necessary to keep things in order. If things get out of order then you may need to do it every 4 days or so.

The humic is something I wouldn't really worry about more than once every 2 weeks. In early growth you shouldn't need to add more of that until the res change. I go usually at least 4 weeks to a res, sometimes longer if it is an early one like you are on that isn't getting much use. I have a friend who knows his stuff and doesn't need to dump his res. the entire grow.


So that stuff matters as well. But not such a big deal.

And remember to add the bacteria to the res through the net pots. I don't know what method you are using but if you have a ganged system with say 4 buckets. dilute the amount you want into a gallon of res water then put 1/4 gallon into each basket. so you get a concentrated dose where the system needs it most.

P.S. Yes the Hydro area is dead. I used to spend all my time there. Now I am here and check that about once a week at best...and usually still find nothing in DWC and near nothing in general Hydro. So glad you found this area and thanks for the reminder... I will go run through there right now.

 

[Lazarus13]

I appreciate the input, brother. I have been monitoring my rez closely and am not planning on changing it until something seems amiss. I am not one to act rashly or freak out about every little thing so I'm just going to keep an eye on pH and not worry about minor fluctuations, keep my sniffer on it and make sure it smells healthy and most of all watch my babies for any sign that they are unhappy. It is a top fed recirculating dwc so is it that important to add the benes to the netpots or will my pump take care of that? I figured with not much going on i wouldn't need to change my rez for a bit.
So far i am loving every aspect of dwc so we will have to see if we can revive that section of this amazing site. lol thanks again, man.
Stay green...

 

[Papageno]

Yeah the DWC section used to be non stop action and is just dead now. Yours is the first real post in 7 days...the only other one is this guy from many months ago who was so confused and lost that I never expected to hear from again. then he randomly updated that thread 3 days ago with more rambling.

You don't have to add the bacteria to the pots. It is just the best way to do it that way. It is one of those tricks experienced growers do.

At some point, depending on the type of recir system, you may end up shutting it off because it actually can be detrimental. At that point it really becomes beneficial.


Each to their own. I am glad that you are at least not trying to fight nature. That is a tough battle that eventually almost everyone looses.