Saying bye bye to hydroponics….

[Biggbudzlova]

I’ve wasted over 2years trying to get this method down and working. To end up with the same problems. My roots start looking brown. I thought it was food built up because I can never get my ph to stay set or close to set. So I’m building a ew grow room and this will be soil and coco blend. Bye hydro world I really wanted this system to work, I’ve always wanted to grow hydroponically but this has me beat for now…. I’ll be back when I can afford to completely rebuild my system from scratch. All new everything.

 

[Deleted member 2835]

What kind of hydro were you doing?

 

[H.A.F.]

I’ve wasted over 2years trying to get this method down and working. To end up with the same problems. My roots start looking brown. I thought it was food built up because I can never get my ph to stay set or close to set. So I’m building a ew grow room and this will be soil and coco blend. Bye hydro world I really wanted this system to work, I’ve always wanted to grow hydroponically but this has me beat for now…. I’ll be back when I can afford to completely rebuild my system from scratch. All new everything.

Have you already made an investment in new stuff, or is that in the works?

 

[H.A.F.]

If you have a 2' square space to keep a worm bin indoors then living soil would be really easy to get into. It can have a lot of the same rabbit holes you can wander down, and stuff you can buy to make it 'better', but it is also something where you can just add water and stuff you've grown or produced at home. The success rate is pretty good so far.

I am not a salesman, but I spent $100 on a nice worm bin, $300 on a "take-n-bake" soil kit from build-a-soil that had everything but the worms, and 1000 red wigglers from Uncle Jims worm farm. By the time the soil was ready after being mixed together the worms had started producing and I jumped in with both feet. Been about 4 harvests now and each one is getting better.

 

[Biggbudzlova]

Have you already made an investment in new stuff, or is that in the works?

Not yet. I’m building a new grow ‘room’ in the back of my shop. I well start a soil/coco run in about a month. I will my truck paid off by may and then I’ll stack that $$ until I can make one mass order.

 

[Biggbudzlova]

If you have a 2' square space to keep a worm bin indoors then living soil would be really easy to get into. It can have a lot of the same rabbit holes you can wander down, and stuff you can buy to make it 'better', but it is also something where you can just add water and stuff you've grown or produced at home. The success rate is pretty good so far.

I am not a salesman, but I spent $100 on a nice worm bin, $300 on a "take-n-bake" soil kit from build-a-soil that had everything but the worms, and 1000 red wigglers from Uncle Jims worm farm. By the time the soil was ready after being mixed together the worms had started producing and I jumped in with both feet. Been about 4 harvests now and each one is getting better.

Ohhh WOW!!! To tell you the truth, the past week I’ve been talking myself into trying another hydro run. And I kinda settled on soil/coco but I’m try a single hydro setup until I can get more experience and knowledge on hydro. But I truly feel I would do much better with soil. So this living soil. You grow your own worms. And as they poop you mix that with a good soil (Ocean Forest, or Gaia Green) or do you mix it with straight coco?

 

[Biggbudzlova]

What kind of hydro were you doing?

I’ve been trying to run RDWC.

 

[Joebud]

I’ve wasted over 2years trying to get this method down and working. To end up with the same problems. My roots start looking brown. I thought it was food built up because I can never get my ph to stay set or close to set. So I’m building a ew grow room and this will be soil and coco blend. Bye hydro world I really wanted this system to work, I’ve always wanted to grow hydroponically but this has me beat for now…. I’ll be back when I can afford to completely rebuild my system from scratch. All new everything.

Root rot is from the roots suffocating/over watering. Adding hydrogen peroxide to your hydroponics adds oxygen and keeps your plants breathing and kills bacteria. Use a timer on your pump. Check the time and turn the pump off. Watch your plants when they start to droop turn your pump back on. If it was six hours then cycle your pump every four and a half hours. Thirty minutes on, four hours off. If you are not airating your reservoir it can become stagnant. Make sure to airate the reservoir. Don't give up.

 

[H.A.F.]

Ohhh WOW!!! To tell you the truth, the past week I’ve been talking myself into trying another hydro run. And I kinda settled on soil/coco but I’m try a single hydro setup until I can get more experience and knowledge on hydro. But I truly feel I would do much better with soil. So this living soil. You grow your own worms. And as they poop you mix that with a good soil (Ocean Forest, or Gaia Green) or do you mix it with straight coco?

Pre-edited: sorry for the ramble, High as Fuck... separated it into bullets you can piece together in whatever order makes sense

I have what started as a peat-based mix. But I got come coco bricks to use as worm bedding so some of that gets in there.

What I liked about the "take-n-bake" kit was it showed up in about 7 different boxes with over a dozen components all in the proper ratio. I know exactly what is in it. I can now make my own.

$300 got me ~70g of soil. One month of resting after mixing, soaking, then letting it dry out. No worms or anything for that month - which made it a great time to get a worm bin started. Started last summer and I have more soil than I need right now.

A handful of worms will become hundreds in the pot easily. If you can keep a worm bin you can let a plant grow in it. That is basically my theory.

The starting "food" in the soil was a Clackamas Coot's mix of natural stuff, but once your plants are going it's all about feeding the worms and microbes.

I have a cover crop that I "mow" every watering. Each pot is like a little tree in the front yard.

It came with compost and castings which is what starts changing the dirt into soil, but as you add mulch, and castings, and top-dress you add soil volume over time.

 

[Deleted member 2835]

I’ve been trying to run RDWC.

Did you use a chiller?

 

[Biggbudzlova]

Did you use a chiller?

Yes I made a franken chiller. It worked very well. Kept the water at a constant 68*. Problem is I live in a very crazy weather environment. So in November when it started get cold, I broke down the chiller and cleaned it up. Making it ready for the spring. Longer story short. Yesterday it was 82* today it’s 85* This year has been very crazy west Texas weather. Crazier that usual. But yeah the chiller worked great.

 

[Biggbudzlova]

Root rot is from the roots suffocating/over watering. Adding hydrogen peroxide to your hydroponics adds oxygen and keeps your plants breathing and kills bacteria. Use a timer on your pump. Check the time and turn the pump off. Watch your plants when they start to droop turn your pump back on. If it was six hours then cycle your pump every four and a half hours. Thirty minutes on, four hours off. If you are not airating your reservoir it can become stagnant. Make sure to airate the reservoir. Don't give up.

Thank you very much for the information. I’ll definitely use it. I always thought the circulation pump had to run constantly. Yes I have adoration every place I have water. I did have some food grade peroxide mixed to 3% and it worked great also. It haven’t used it in 6 weeks, this is when I flipped flower.

 

[Zaphod420]

I’ve wasted over 2years trying to get this method down and working. To end up with the same problems. My roots start looking brown. I thought it was food built up because I can never get my ph to stay set or close to set. So I’m building a ew grow room and this will be soil and coco blend. Bye hydro world I really wanted this system to work, I’ve always wanted to grow hydroponically but this has me beat for now…. I’ll be back when I can afford to completely rebuild my system from scratch. All new everything.

Bud Rot absolutely SUCKS and I hate seeing people struggle with it especially in multi station rdwc setups. The person I have seen take the RDWC bud rot issue the most seriously and come up with a ROCK SOLID solution to it is @Heisenbeans . He uses 2 inline UV filters sterilizers, a chiller, and a pretty sizable pump to keep everything moving. Can't wait to see what the plants he has coming up turn into on his new RDWC rig he just built.

 

[Buddernugs]

Root rot is from the roots suffocating/over watering. Adding hydrogen peroxide to your hydroponics adds oxygen and keeps your plants breathing and kills bacteria. Use a timer on your pump. Check the time and turn the pump off. Watch your plants when they start to droop turn your pump back on. If it was six hours then cycle your pump every four and a half hours. Thirty minutes on, four hours off. If you are not airating your reservoir it can become stagnant. Make sure to airate the reservoir. Don't give up.

I’m coco dtw and my feeders kick on 7x a day for 1 min….my pots are 5-8 gal…….I had non stop root rot every grow untill I started useing h2o2 in conjunction with my water chiller which is set at 64f……I runout a 50 gal rez every 3 days…..so by the time the h2o2 is gone its time fir rez change….u use flora nova too which is part organic…..no air stone in my rez

 

[Buddernugs]

Also have spring tails which only eat rot so that helps too I’m sire

 

[Heisen]

Bud Rot absolutely SUCKS and I hate seeing people struggle with it especially in multi station rdwc setups. The person I have seen take the RDWC bud rot issue the most seriously and come up with a ROCK SOLID solution to it is @Heisenbeans . He uses 2 inline UV filters sterilizers, a chiller, and a pretty sizable pump to keep everything moving. Can't wait to see what the plants he has coming up turn into on his new RDWC rig he just built.

I pulled them up and took clones. The big UV tube cracked and busted. Got water on the floor. Amazon don't carry just the tube so wanted me to have to buy the whole unit again. I said fuck it. I just dont have the time or the patience anymore to keep dwc dialed in. I get just as good results with soil and floraflex. Not as fast veg but 0 headaches or losses.

 

[ttystikk]

I’ve been trying to run RDWC.

I'm your Huckleberry when it comes to RDWC. Most people screw things up by making it too complicated. You need cool water, 62-70F, good oxygenation, I use waterfalls, good circulation and dry nutrient salts from a reputable market not affiliated with "hydro stores".

 

[Zaphod420]

I pulled them up and took clones. The big UV tube cracked and busted. Got water on the floor. Amazon don't carry just the tube so wanted me to have to buy the whole unit again. I said fuck it. I just dont have the time or the patience anymore to keep dwc dialed in. I get just as good results with soil and floraflex. Not as fast veg but 0 headaches or losses.

Sum bitch H, that totally suxors... I felt like we were all about to get to see something really special with your new RDWC rig as to me it looked like it was about to be a perfectly tuned Top Fuel dragster but for weed. Man, RDWC sure seems to be a cruel mistress for a lot of people.

 

[Heisen]

Sum bitch H, that totally suxors... I felt like we were all about to get to see something really special with your new RDWC rig as to me it looked like it was about to be a perfectly tuned Top Fuel dragster but for weed. Man, RDWC sure seems to be a cruel mistress for a lot of people.

Yeah the front right plant got the plague first, brown roots no growth. The other 3 was good . They was drinking so fast I didn't have the top off res set up yet so I think the roots suspended opened them up to issues. I'm just over the bullshit . I'm already under a big work load and it just added so much unnecessary work for 0 payoff.

 

[ttystikk]

Sum bitch H, that totally suxors... I felt like we were all about to get to see something really special with your new RDWC rig as to me it looked like it was about to be a perfectly tuned Top Fuel dragster but for weed. Man, RDWC sure seems to be a cruel mistress for a lot of people.
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I'm curious about the stuff/bugs he has in his water. I've never used a UV sterilizer but I don't presume to know what issues he's dealing with.