Lynch_Ironside
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You would think more people would’ve tried this route. Maybe it’s a height restriction thing, who knows. Your journal was invaluable and I would’ve never even thought to grow using this setup had I not followed along through that grow. I tip my hat to you siri tried to be as thorough as possible with documenting things since I couldn't find shit anywhere in regards to cannabis in dutch buckets. glad that journal served as a resource for someone.
you also went with the right buckets so you should avoid a lot of the hassles I ran into later in the run. but like you said, you just have to stay on top of the res. the plants consume a lot, especially during the first six weeks of flowering. I was going through ~3 - 5 gallons a day at that point as well, and you've four times the number of plants so it won't surprise me one bit if you're going to be going through 10+ gallons a day here soon. Keep an eye on your EC and pH, and you'll be golden.
i think that's really the biggest benefit this style has over RDWC and other DWC style grows. The massive surface area introduced by the media encourages stupid root growth and subsequently, you end up seeing water consumption skyrocket, which translates to crazy growth. It falls on the grower to either stay on top of shit with multiple daily checks (I was checking/adjusting 2x a day at minimum mid flower) or automate as much as possible.
EDIT: with the one caveat being a larger RDWC is capable of running trees. last run I grew trees and 3 gallon buckets simply aren't meant to support that. dutch buckets are prime for a turn and burn op, not someone willing to burn time and fill a 4x4 tent with two plants lol
I ended up tearing the system down and will be using it outside at some point, and am working through getting the next round's configuration set up. Was going to go RDWC, but those plans got put on hold as one cannot easily tear down such a system and move plants if the opportunity arises. 10/10 I will run another dutch bucket system at some point though.
hopefully with you running a larger scale setup, it'll get more eyes on this technique and bring more people that are afraid of hydro into the fold. it's so damn easy as long as you're not fighting pH like crazy. sometimes back breaking when all the girls wanna do is sit on their asses and drink all day, but it's a labor of love at the end of the day.
I think the clones rooted in a week but they sat in there much much longer. I think I was pushing 4 weeks on those clones before I transferred them. One of em closer to 5( this one took place of a mutant seedling that refused to grow more than one leaf). I pulled them from a flowering plant so they had to reveg.Growth looks good for the time. How long did it take you to root them clones again?
So I like the concept due to the aeration method. I have some issues with it but overall it seems it could be one of the most effective methods. If waterfalls turn the water, and perlite and Hydroton are porous, well the roots will would have the same dissolved O2 regardless of debth. Like my goal with Fallponics is get o2 at the bottom of my water column, or bottom of my roots also. Seems this method along the same lines.
What I don't like is that if the power or pump goes out for more than two hours your toast.. Perhaps 5? Same with aero. I also worry about the cost of Hydroton and it taking up space water could be using.
I basically boil my Hydroton in the tub lol.. Never had ph swings. You can rinse it till the waters near clear if you want. It also would kill all bacteria/fungi left on it given the water is chlorinated tap.
Anyways your growth is great for 8 days.. A+
running close to 500 L of hydroton currently. It's got it's pro's and con's, just got to figure a way around themSo this hydroton is a real pain in the ass. @tobh i think I remember you having a problem with your Dutch buckets and ph going up and had concluded that it was due to a bacteria or old buffers. Can’t remember. Anyway I’ve been having the same problems. I decided to let the system cycle for a few days in case there were any kinks to work out. As I let the system cycle I continually monitored ph and ppm. Now I know hydroton is inert and shouldn’t affect ph but I don’t give a wet shit what anyone says on this subject it most definitely does. I added close to 80ml of ph down over the course of a few days. At one point I even dropped it to 4.9, the next day it was 6.5. So I did some research and another farmer recommended in an old thread to soak the hydroton in ph 5 water for 3 days. So I went through the absolute hassle of removing all the hydroton, putting it in spare totes and soaking it, even running the ph to 3.5 in 36 hours it was above 6 again. Now add in the absolute fucking nightmare of washing this shit and the expense…. in my book it’s not worth the hassle. Now I’ve got 120L of hydroton that I’m not gonna use so that’s fun.
and yes I washed it thoroughly… I spent hours spraying this shit. And I still had silt running into the res, so I rinsed it again, still had silt, so I ran around 20 gallons through each bucket and let it drain. Then refilled the res with fresh water and let it run. I think I’m total including today I drained that res at least 5 times. By the time I was done the water was crystal clear I assure you. Washing hydroton in that volume is a fools errand.
Now as I’ve learned in the past to have a back up plan and I ordered some perlite a few days ago while the hydroton soaked. So after another increase in ph I decided to go with perlite instead. It took me about 20 minutes from opening the perlite to washing to setting the buckets back in. So not only was it about a 3rd of the price it takes about a 10th of the time to prepare for use.
have fun with that bud. if you can just pull the problem buckets off the return line, and dig out as much root as you can from the drain pipe. ime pulling the whole rootball out with the paint bag led to an entire other issue of getting it back into the bucket. It's kinda stupid how heavy wet media is. Granted, I was also locked in due to the scrog net and i had trees, so your situation looks mildly more optimistic. I would still suggest try with one, if it turns into a clusterfuck, just attack the drain pipes and set reminders on your calendar for weekly maintenance.What’s up everybody, sorry for being mia, between work and getting a wicked chest flu I’ve had to dig deep to find enough motivation to check reservoirs…. Not much gas left in the tank for posting.
so with that said I haven’t done anything yet to solve this problem. @tobh ’s solution is the only one that seems viable. I have paint bags in every bucket, if the roots grew through one they’ll surely grow through two.
@Cashmeh yeah I see how in theory this may look good but keep in mind these roots already made their way up a 2” drain pipe.
I’m gonna pull the problem plants tonight when the lights come on. I plan on hacking off some roots and dropping them back in. Since they are sitting in these paint strainers I should be able to just pull the whole “bag” out of the bucket. Idk, we’ll see tonight. From what I could see there was only a few plants whose roots decided to go on a walkabout. Fingers crossed.
It wasn’t too bad, I did have to pull the net off which kinda sucked but pulling the plants was relatively easy. I cleared the drain pipes and pulled off any roots near the drain. It’s not a permanent fix but with any luck I won’t have to do it again.have fun with that bud. if you can just pull the problem buckets off the return line, and dig out as much root as you can from the drain pipe. ime pulling the whole rootball out with the paint bag led to an entire other issue of getting it back into the bucket. It's kinda stupid how heavy wet media is. Granted, I was also locked in due to the scrog net and i had trees, so your situation looks mildly more optimistic. I would still suggest try with one, if it turns into a clusterfuck, just attack the drain pipes and set reminders on your calendar for weekly maintenance.
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