I'm thinking of going with a deep water culture. I've got a 3x4x6.5 for room. My first question is what size containers I should use? The 3.5 gallon gives me more space to grow upwards, but are the smaller containers going to allow the plants to get a big as the space? I'm going for 4 plants in the space.
A larger bucket has more room for roots and there's also the fact that the larger bucket will be far more stable than a smaller bucket in terms of in terms of pH and EC changes. A larger bucket will also mean that you don't have to top off as often.
A three gallon bucket ≠ 3 gallons of nutes. If roots are ½ gallon and if the water level is ½" below the bottom of the net pot, you've only got ~ 2 gallons of nutrients. A cannabis plant in flower will take up a gallon per day so you're going to have to refill the bucket every day and you will tend to get more rapid pH and EC changes. If you go to a 5 gallon bucket, that two gallons more of nutes means that you've got
double the nutrient solution that you have in a 3 gallon bucket. That's a huge win.
Between 3 and 5 gallon buckets, go with a 5, hands down. You will make your life easier if you go to a 7 or 8 gallon size.
I have no affiliation with
these folks but, if I was buying a new hydro system, I'd buy from them (I
did place an order for a 2 bucket 13 gallon system but I had to cancel the order, unfortunately).
