I am topdripping into ez roots aeration frames hanging in the lid of 27 gal totes, with an inch or slightly over of water at the bottom of the tote due to drain placement.

I drain to waste with nutes I made myself. Like any topdrip chow dtw gig.
But then the roots will follow the drip down into the water, which I aerate.
So standalone shallow water culture too.
Cap's bennies in a tea topdressed in once or twice a week.
Pond enzymes, dip n grow.
End of wk 2 all good.
No rot.
I call them "hater buckets". Same 20% runoff as you get using smartpots or whatever.
But the 20% runoff, a couple gallons of it at a time, hangs out at the bottom of the tote so other roots can feed on it.
You were going to pour that 20% runoff down the drain anyways.
Still get your 20% runoff.
As long as you do not recirculate this runoff, you will be golden.

Topdrip chow reliability and rot prevention, dwc growth rates/size.
There you go.

Cap's bennies and artificial nutes at 1/4 - 1/3 strength. I put about 1 g of root bennies in my bubble buckets 1x/week. Irrelevant for me because I'm quitting hydro for self pruning buckets with chow mix. Sort of a hempy/hater without the airstone in the bottom and close fitting bottom trays for a runoff res. If something gets funky "down there" I'm thinking h202 for for the absolute kill in the bottom 2". I really doubt it would come to that. With the plant count thing I don't know if it's worth having fertigation or not. I can hand water/feed. On the other hand a simple system would make the op more autonomous. Thoughts?

BillyB said:

I'm using RE in my rez, but I'm still seeing these darker roots.
Where do you get Fongorid, is it available online somewhere?

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yeh sorry bro im down under. u can get fongarid everywhere here. u can prolly order it online pretty easily tho

In UC I dont c y people run bennies. Zone seems like the only reasonable option. Use a water chiller to like 68 degrees. Also I dont understand why UC growers dont utilize UC-C water sterilization systems. They could put it in the one tank they use with the floater valve in it. Im no UC grower I use coco but this seems the right path from my point of view!

kushsmoker30 said:

don't forget bout caps bennies, u may want to give them a shot 1st. i had probs like that in my res n used Great White n things got way better, now imagine what can happen with caps packs + ur plants will love it.

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wont flushing with tap water between feeds kill the bennies ?

thebossman said:

wont flushing with tap water between feeds kill the bennies ?

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if ur making teas it shouldn't matter, as u can reapply them weekly. i think lots of things kill em including salty nutes, thing is there's a shit load of em when u brew teas.

in the Nutrient's sec. there a forum for Capulators Bennies check it out

listen my guy, i have haf many run ins with pythium or rootrot, the only thing tht worked for me was something called hydro sparkle. goolge it i swear by it, if i ever run any type of dwc i use it as a preventative measure but i first used it to fight my rr. i have tried everything these guys are talkin about but u really just need a chiller and the hydro sparkle. try it i promise u good results. and its not chlorine based like alot of pythium products so u can run ur caps and bennies without killin em

also 4 what it's worth, i use tap water n bubble it for 24 hr's normally b4 doing anything with it teas, feed or just plain waterings rule 4 me is let it sit 24 hr's

if ur doing dwc use ro water, some will disagree with me but im telling u get a reverse osmosis water filter, not just a sediment and chlorine filter the r.o filter. nothing isbetter fir dwc

tap water is no bueno regardless of how long u bubbke it

eastcoastseeds said:

tap water is no bueno regardless of how long u bubbke it

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i really think every city's water's diff, my tap water with a sediment filter is like 110-170 ppm. H16 rec.s ro to b used with there line, where i said shit like 110-170 reply was " ur good we put that on there cuz some city's have like 400+ ppm, but ur waters good just let it sit.

Here, the city water runs ec .05 (no, that's not a typo), pH 7.1 and for 8 months of the year, about 50 degrees. Paradise! RO is a simple waste of time. I have to add cal-mag as a base just to get things started!

To get rid of chlorine, aerate. To get rid of chloramines, add a pinch of sugar. Seriously.

On to the thread's original subject; root rot. Contrary to what some said up above over a year ago, it IS possible and very desirable to combine dwc and chow mix- and recirculate it.

I run 8" net pot bucket lids with 50/50 coco/hydroton, with top feed irrigation on a timer. This water comes from the RDWC beneath, and the excess from the net pots drains down the roots and returns to it. On its way through the chow mix, this water picks up bennies and enzymes from the microbial life I inoculate and topfeed, and this attacks anything below. Moreover, pythium and algae getting sucked up through the irrigation system get harmlessly beached on top of the chowmix.

Just for fun, I intentionally left a batch of water in an empty RDWC for a month, only aerating it. No cooling, no lids. Trust me, it was green and had that thick, sluggish look of trouble. Then, WITHOUT changing the water, I plopped a dozen ladies in, added nutes, dropped in the cooling coil, and... nothing. The girls settled in fine, and after a quick adjustment of pH, took off.

The combo of RDWC and topfeed coco is nothing short of magic. Add anything you like, anytime- and it's immediately available. Make a mistake? Dump the water, flush if needed, and start fresh! Try that with soil. Speaking of organics, add all you want to the chow mix- you can taste the difference!