RDWC first run—am I on track and healthy..?14 days in,any advice welcome on what to expect/avoid and/or early signs to look for to avoid any problems.

[DoubleGsGarden]

Hi there fellow farmers..

Running my first RDWC in many many years..
8x4 ac infinity setup with custom 8 pot system,I’ve plumbed the res to be outside tent for easier access and less disruption fir the girls
Starting from seed and running with in-house genetics Platinum Gelato
First seed popped 14 days ago,2 more 2 days later and another the following day
Was only gunna run 4 but then decided I wanted the full 8 so I put down remaining seeds which are now a good week behind..
Everything looking ok atm but any advice or thoughts please feel free to share..
Currently running with the Athena Blended program

Current parameters are as follows..
And aussi grower so it’ll be degree Celsius

Day temp 25
Day hum 60/65
Night temp 23
Night hum 55/60
Leaf temp 23.5
Vpd .8 +- .1
PPFD 350
Water temp 21
Ph 6.2/6.25
Ec .23

Res changes every Sunday

 

[DoubleGsGarden]

Thoughts?

 

[THCosmic]

Everything looks great!

You growing photoperiod or autoflower?

Your PH is a bit high for RDWC. You are currently at the mark where you would want to give it the next batch of solution, which should naturally drop the PH. No need to use PH Down. During veg the plants like the PH closer to 5.8, then during flower they like it closer to 6.2, but during the entire grow you should be letting the PH start at 5.8 and let it naturally rise to 6.2, then next batch of solution drops it back to 5.8. If done correctly, you will never need to adjust PH with other chemicals. Personally, I ride 5.7 to 6.0 during veg and 5.9 to 6.2 during flower. 6.0 for them seedlings and clones.

Since you have half your plants a week behind, I'd suggest draining a bit of solution and then re-adding fresh solution so the PH drops without the EC raising. You will have to baby your big girls until the little ones catch up a bit. Otherwise you deal with one half getting deficiencies or one half getting burned. In RDWC it is essential that all plants are roughly the same age. I found that out with my current grow as one plant struggles since I started it a week after the other 3.

I love how you have an external reservoir. That was a game changer for me. So much easier to deal with.

Check out my grow diary in my signature. You can see all the random BS I dealt with in my current RDWC setup. Much smaller tent, but all the concepts still apply.

 

[THCosmic]

Forgot to mention water level. It is important to let this fluctuate as well. No need to refill every day, until the plants are late in flower and need it every day (depending on size of system).

Are you running a sterile system or you using bennies? If you are able to maintain those low water temps, you can opt in for the sterile route. If you suspect your water temp may ever go above 23c or so, then you may want to get some bennies added. Root rot can kill all your plants in RDWC if any plant gets it. Easy to spread in RDWC.

 

[DoubleGsGarden]

Everything looks great!

You growing photoperiod or autoflower?

Your PH is a bit high for RDWC. You are currently at the mark where you would want to give it the next batch of solution, which should naturally drop the PH. No need to use PH Down. During veg the plants like the PH closer to 5.8, then during flower they like it closer to 6.2, but during the entire grow you should be letting the PH start at 5.8 and let it naturally rise to 6.2, then next batch of solution drops it back to 5.8. If done correctly, you will never need to adjust PH with other chemicals. Personally, I ride 5.7 to 6.0 during veg and 5.9 to 6.2 during flower. 6.0 for them seedlings and clones.

Since you have half your plants a week behind, I'd suggest draining a bit of solution and then re-adding fresh solution so the PH drops without the EC raising. You will have to baby your big girls until the little ones catch up a bit. Otherwise you deal with one half getting deficiencies or one half getting burned. In RDWC it is essential that all plants are roughly the same age. I found that out with my current grow as one plant struggles since I started it a week after the other 3.

I love how you have an external reservoir. That was a game changer for me. So much easier to deal with.

Check out my grow diary in my signature. You can see all the random BS I dealt with in my current RDWC setup. Much smaller tent, but all the concepts still apply.

Hey,cheers for your reply mate
It’s nice to hear of someone else’s thoughts as we tend not to talk a lot about our gardens lol..

I’m running photoperiod 18/6 atm
Also have had thoughts that my ph may be to high,but plants seem happy so not to sure.
The Athena RDWC schedule has a PH of 6.2/6.3 right through the whole veg stage
Which sorta makes sense on the ph chart,although I’m far from an expert on the topic lol
Have you encountered any calcium issues at the lower ph.?
Which nutrients are you running.?
Is your system sterile or live..?

I checked out some of your pics
Very healthy garden I can see.
genetics.?

 

[THCosmic]

Hey,cheers for your reply mate
It’s nice to hear of someone else’s thoughts as we tend not to talk a lot about our gardens lol..

I’m running photoperiod 18/6 atm
Also have had thoughts that my ph may be to high,but plants seem happy so not to sure.
The Athena RDWC schedule has a PH of 6.2/6.3 right through the whole veg stage
Which sorta makes sense on the ph chart,although I’m far from an expert on the topic lol
Have you encountered any calcium issues at the lower ph.?
Which nutrients are you running.?
Is your system sterile or live..?

I checked out some of your pics
Very healthy garden I can see.
genetics.?

Ah, if your specific nutes say to go with that PH then you should follow it. Always best to follow the nutrient schedule for your first run. You can always make adjustments after that.

Calcium issues in the beginning, but mostly due to bad PH pens. I also slowly dialed up the calcium through veg stage, since you don't want to overdo the calcium as it will cause deficiencies to look like excess and vice versa. This throws off your ability to identify problems.

I'm using General Hydroponics 3-part series with CaliMagic since I use RO water. I also use Southern Ag for bennies. No water chiller so I can't guarantee to always be at optimal water temp. While I am home, water temps are great, but if I leave the house I don't want to risk the problems.

Unknown genetics. Random bag seed. A few seeds were from dispensary bags, but me being high at the time of finding the seeds I never marked what they were.

Another thing, if heat ever becomes an issue during veg, you can switch to a 6/2 light cycle. This will still give you your 18/6 and I actually think it helped promote more growth. Didn't do a side-by-side grow comparison, but the plants seemed to like having less heat and more breaks from the light to grow.

 

[DoubleGsGarden]

Forgot to mention water level. It is important to let this fluctuate as well. No need to refill every day, until the plants are late in flower and need it every day (depending on size of system).

Are you running a sterile system or you using bennies? If you are able to maintain those low water temps, you can opt in for the sterile route. If you suspect your water temp may ever go above 23c or so, then you may want to get some bennies added. Root rot can kill all your plants in RDWC if any plant gets it. Easy to spread in RDWC.

Cheers mate,running with beneficials
Not to keen on the sterile,seems like a real pain in the ass lol
Amd yes I’ve seen alot on the root rot
It seems to be dwcs worst fear lol
And yes,it’s real

And seriously,a 6/2 cycle works?
I never would have imagined that it would lol
Buy it definitely makes sense on keeping temps down
Not an issue for me at the moment as we are on the back end of winter,but it’s only a matter of time
Heat and humidity control is going to test me I feel in the Australian summer lol
Where are you from?

 

[THCosmic]

Cheers mate,running with beneficials
Not to keen on the sterile,seems like a real pain in the ass lol
Amd yes I’ve seen alot on the root rot
It seems to be dwcs worst fear lol
And yes,it’s real

And seriously,a 6/2 cycle works?
I never would have imagined that it would lol
Buy it definitely makes sense on keeping temps down
Not an issue for me at the moment as we are on the back end of winter,but it’s only a matter of time
Heat and humidity control is going to test me I feel in the Australian summer lol
Where are you from?

I used 6/2 for my veg stage with my current grow. The plants loved it.

I am near Chicago, so I am currently dealing with the summer heat and high humidity. My house is currently at 55-60% RH. Good curing humidity, but not ideal for flowering . Only these past 2 weeks have been bad. Temps will finally be going down a bit with upcoming rain, but that means humidity will go up again.

I plan to try and avoid growing during July and August from now on. Moving away from tent grows and will use my entire closet instead. I will do 2 big grows a year instead of the 4 week perpetual cycle (13 grows per year) I had planned with the 3 tents.