Armdog
RDWC GROWER
Might just go to just the trio, but have had great luck with the expert chart.
Heisen rdwc first grow - do I need to add nutes?
- Thread starter Rattman
- Start date
Skunkle Justin
Active Member
make sure you give those girls at least a week before flipping. The reason I say that is because if you were growing without any kind of SCROG net in place during veg, you’re gonna have to get a bit nasty with those gals to get them in place. Then you’ll end up seeing bare spot in the net and will want to let it grow out to fill them in or you’ll see a spot that is just dying to get topped. We all want to get the grow finished, especially if our stock is running low but let your plants do their thing. It’s always worth the wait
Skunkle Justin
Active Member
When it comes to pH adjustments, you’re playing with fire. If it’s way off, then go ahead and make a big adjustment. If it’s only a little bit off, like a couple tenths was hen you have to look at some other variables. Is the pH rising or lowering due to the water evaporating or being drank by the plants? This raises the pH and the EC/PPM. I. That case, top off your reservoir, adjust nutes, and then check your pH and adjust. Has the nutrient solution been in there a while (more than a week)? As your plant feeds, it also wastes out of its roots. Not a lot but enough to cause some serious chaos without the presence of soil to keep everything buffered and calm. Check for algae, not in just the roots, but in your pipes and hoses. I ran into this problem with my first system and it was causing EC and pH to swing around like crazy. Do not confuse nutrient stain for root rot, though. Also, if you realized that your pH is maybe holding at 6.3 and your plants are full blown hauling ass and living life, don’t fuck with it. Some cultivars don’t live their lives in the narrow parameters set by some scientists or you’ve been fucking it up for so long that the plant adjusts to the slight higher or lower pH and embraces life a little spicier than normal. Eventually, you will want to dial it in and make the best environment possible. Also, keep in mind that your pH needs to adjust slightly throughout the plant’s life cycle. Some elements are more efficiently absorbed at different pH levels. As a rule of thumb, pH should be higher when younger and drops during maturity to accommodate the plant’s general needs. This is strain specific, do your homework this for your specific plants.
People get themselves into a lot of trouble with cal mag. It’s critical when growing in coco ( cheap coco that wasn’t buffered (treated with calcium) correctly for hydroponic use. If you’re using RO water then yes you do need it even if your coco is properly buffered, but to supplement as a required “micro” nutrient. Most bottled nutes give you a feeding schedule to accommodate a coco grow and if you’re in straight water culture hydro or NFT you’ll generally be fine. However, if you’re calcium levels do pick up and you try to fix the problem with more cal mag, you’ll end up locking your roots up until you do a complete flush. Also, for late flower you probably won’t even need to use cal mag. Calcium is primarily used for the growth of biomass by creating pectin and assisting with other various hormone exchanges. So, as the plant nature’s and stops it vegetative growth, stretch, and finishes bud production it’s calcium requirements go down to a point that can be managed by quality micronutrient formulas or what’s contained in other macro nutrient solutions and supplements. Learning to drive an RDWC system can be a bitch to control, expensive to get started, and throw some shit problems your way but....... you’ll eventually learn how to drive that bitch and keep tight control on what your plants want, you won’t need to spend money once the system is built on soil, peat, perlite, etc, and eventually you’ll realize that there are only so many things that can go wrong and plenty of ways to fix them, and fix them quickly (another huge bonus). Then you’ll have you plants and system dialed in right and tight and eventually have the dankest variation of that cultivar possible.
pharma0917
New Member
A LOT of good info in here! thank you
Skunkle Justin
Active Member
No worries! I hope all that jibber jabber was helpful. Hit me up any time if your DWC system ever starts throwing you any drama.