Hellooo,First time growing Dwc and first time using Advanced nutrients, all's well so far except i didnt expect it to get so big its now around 55 in tall and ive been doing bucket changes every week or so and now its at the point where i moved it and branches started to snap and i cant clean the bucket out anymore. Im just wondering how long you can go before you really start ruunning into problems with the roots and is there an easy way to clean out that bucket. Shes 25 days into flower and its in a 4 x4 tent. Thanks~
First time DWC!
GreeenFingers
New Member
A good way to clean is to have a second bucket on hand that you can fill with the correct dose of nutes.
Lift the lid and plant from the old bucket and place it in the new.
This will be your new bucket and you can clean the old one
I built individual SCROGS on my DWCs to solve the breaking branches problem.
GreenFingers
Lift the lid and plant from the old bucket and place it in the new.
This will be your new bucket and you can clean the old one
I built individual SCROGS on my DWCs to solve the breaking branches problem.
GreenFingers
It's a great idea to train your plants to control height. If your tallest plant is 55" tall, but your other plants only average 30" in height, you'll probably be in a situation where you have had to raise your light in order to accomodate the tallest one - whilst ensuring that it is ~15" farther away than optimum for the others.
It is generally best to begin training your plants when they are still young, because - as you have noticed - mature plants that haven't been trained can be more on the brittle side of the scale than the bendable side. Most times, the grower can gradually train even mature plants, a little bit at a time.
Five-gallon buckets sure are handy, lol. They're easy to find, cheap, and... probably not the best choice for a DWC reservoir. At most, they only hold five gallons of nutrient solution. I've seen Rubbermaid (et cetera) totes that were no taller than a five-gallon bucket - but which had upwards of a 20-gallon capacity. I've also seen a plant's roots grow to pretty much fill them, so of course you'll end up with less real-world capacity than your container size, whatever you use.
There are various ways to change your reservoirs' solution even if you cannot easily move them. There are hand-/battery-/electric-pumps that will work. If you have a hardware store locally that sells kerosene or other liquid-fueled heaters or even just gasoline cans, it will probably also sell those simple hand siphon/pumps, which are basically just comprised of a rigid plastic tube on one end, a flexible tube on the other, and a squeeze-bulb in the middle that a person squeezes a few times to get the flow going and then allows the liquid to continue siphoning on its own. For that to happen, the "drain to" container must be lower than the one that you are pumping out of. If it isn't, well, you have to continue squeezing
. Those things are only two or three dollars. (NEVER use a used one from your garage :roll3: .)
It won't hurt a plant to pump out all of the solution for a short time, especially if your roots are healthy. And the key to healthy roots in a DWC is having mad amounts of DO (dissolved oxygen) in the solution. Achieving this should always be a goal for anyone who grows using the DWC method. Many people use aquarium air stones (of various designs) and one or more air pumps. I also recommend adding an aquarium "power head" to each and every reservoir. Those things can be a BIG help. Here is what one looks like:
They pump your solution up through the bottom (they come with a short tube which will help draw the solution from the bottom of the reservoir) and pump it out the orifice just behind that deflector shield on the right side of the image. The act of doing so causes air to be drawn in from outside of the reservoir via that clear tube and mixes it with the solution that it is pumping up and blasting out towards the middle of your reservoir. Bubbles, lol! The one I have pictured can be found for around $20-$25 (I am told that even WalMart sells them in their "pet" department), so you don't even have to go to a hydroponics store and pay <COUGH>special interest<COUGH> prices.
I have seen people rig up a meter on their DWC reservoir using a tube and the "water level" principle so that they could tell at a glance what the level of the solution was. That is an imperfect solution, because if the tube is translucent enough (or clear) to be able to easily see the level of liquid in it, it is also likely to be a good environment for growing algae. I suppose one could use a green tube, which will help retard this tendency... But, anyway, if that is done correctly, it may be able to be used as a siphon/drain.
It is generally best to begin training your plants when they are still young, because - as you have noticed - mature plants that haven't been trained can be more on the brittle side of the scale than the bendable side. Most times, the grower can gradually train even mature plants, a little bit at a time.
Five-gallon buckets sure are handy, lol. They're easy to find, cheap, and... probably not the best choice for a DWC reservoir. At most, they only hold five gallons of nutrient solution. I've seen Rubbermaid (et cetera) totes that were no taller than a five-gallon bucket - but which had upwards of a 20-gallon capacity. I've also seen a plant's roots grow to pretty much fill them, so of course you'll end up with less real-world capacity than your container size, whatever you use.
There are various ways to change your reservoirs' solution even if you cannot easily move them. There are hand-/battery-/electric-pumps that will work. If you have a hardware store locally that sells kerosene or other liquid-fueled heaters or even just gasoline cans, it will probably also sell those simple hand siphon/pumps, which are basically just comprised of a rigid plastic tube on one end, a flexible tube on the other, and a squeeze-bulb in the middle that a person squeezes a few times to get the flow going and then allows the liquid to continue siphoning on its own. For that to happen, the "drain to" container must be lower than the one that you are pumping out of. If it isn't, well, you have to continue squeezing
. Those things are only two or three dollars. (NEVER use a used one from your garage :roll3: .) It won't hurt a plant to pump out all of the solution for a short time, especially if your roots are healthy. And the key to healthy roots in a DWC is having mad amounts of DO (dissolved oxygen) in the solution. Achieving this should always be a goal for anyone who grows using the DWC method. Many people use aquarium air stones (of various designs) and one or more air pumps. I also recommend adding an aquarium "power head" to each and every reservoir. Those things can be a BIG help. Here is what one looks like:
They pump your solution up through the bottom (they come with a short tube which will help draw the solution from the bottom of the reservoir) and pump it out the orifice just behind that deflector shield on the right side of the image. The act of doing so causes air to be drawn in from outside of the reservoir via that clear tube and mixes it with the solution that it is pumping up and blasting out towards the middle of your reservoir. Bubbles, lol! The one I have pictured can be found for around $20-$25 (I am told that even WalMart sells them in their "pet" department), so you don't even have to go to a hydroponics store and pay <COUGH>special interest<COUGH> prices.
I have seen people rig up a meter on their DWC reservoir using a tube and the "water level" principle so that they could tell at a glance what the level of the solution was. That is an imperfect solution, because if the tube is translucent enough (or clear) to be able to easily see the level of liquid in it, it is also likely to be a good environment for growing algae. I suppose one could use a green tube, which will help retard this tendency... But, anyway, if that is done correctly, it may be able to be used as a siphon/drain.
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Thanks, im going to try to find some kind of cheap pump to at least get the extra nutrients from the bottom and i will be definatly be switching to a tote if theyre the same height . Im more worried about not being able to clean out the bucket right now tho anything that might stick to the bottom, does it matter even if my plant drinks the entire bucket, i dont want algae im so closeeee :''(
