DWC in hot climate?
- Thread starter Thread starter norcalKTM
- Start date Start date
My advice is not to try it. It's virtually impossible. The best thing that you can do is try to implement an ongoing enzymatic clean up crew in the reservoir to deal with the inevitable problems that will occur at the root zone. You will also need to supercharge the amount of oxygen you are pumping into the water. In my experience, and I tried for many, many years to find a way to make it work, it's an uphill battle, and all of the benefits of DWC are offset by the problems of the heat. Go with hempy buckets, or my personal fave, ebb and flow.
Addendum: if you have the ability to remotely locate a reservoir in a place that DOES stay cool (like, outside, buried in the ground, or down in a basement directly on concrete foundation), you could possibly do a RDWC. But in my experience, ebb and flow was the solution for me.
Addendum: if you have the ability to remotely locate a reservoir in a place that DOES stay cool (like, outside, buried in the ground, or down in a basement directly on concrete foundation), you could possibly do a RDWC. But in my experience, ebb and flow was the solution for me.
Agreed with above post. RDWC can work well with a good chiller, but, if you can't run a chiller to keep water temperature down don't bother with DWC.
If you want it automated I suggest going with flood and drain. Feed cycles don't change in flood and drain like they need to do with DTW Coco. IMHO, it's more difficult to automate DTW as longer or more often feed cycles needed as plants mature.
If you want it automated I suggest going with flood and drain. Feed cycles don't change in flood and drain like they need to do with DTW Coco. IMHO, it's more difficult to automate DTW as longer or more often feed cycles needed as plants mature.
starke
Well-known member
Hush is spot on with the Hempys. I grow in FLA and my flower room temps consistently run 85 to 87 degrees with my LEDs. My 30 gallon feed rez is usually around 80 to 82 degrees. No issues with root problems with the Hempys. Hempy growth rates may not match up with DWC but I bet they are not far off. Just my .02.
Dwc under current rdwc could work fine in a hot environment but is not sumthin to play with its sumthin u got to decide on and invest in the right gear and its gonna get expensive chillers are mandatory lots of o2 etc etc.... coco is much cheaper to get going and much much more forgiving and will tolerate the environment much better and allow a learning curve .... hella ppl fail trying to go hydro trying to save a buck here and there it's either all in or nuthin my best advice is to save ya time money effort and go coco
Exactly. My experience with the subject came while I was living in Tampa, and at the end of the few-year experiment when I threw in the towel, I had decided that it's just next to impossible in order to do it in the way that allows for DWC to be the highly-productive growing style that we all know it to be.
And yeah, that was when I switched over to the hempy style for the first time, which is in fact *quite* productive, and easily outperformed my sub-par DWC grows. I still use hempys to this day, in certain circumstances, whereas I've never returned to DWC. I think that says something.
(But still, nothing beats ebb and flow for my lazy ass!)
Listen to what's being offered, it's sound advice. 
DWC is what I call a 'roots-in' hydro system, where the roots are constantly exposed to nutrient solution. These types of systems require complete temperature control, for root health and DO purposes. You'll waste quite a bit of resources with most solutions for keeping it cool. I love roots-in, but I save it for where I can cool things easily.
What you'll want to research are what I call 'roots-out' hydro systems. Drip through some sort of media, flood and drain, any system where the roots get a drying out period. There's a swamp cooler effect which keeps things a few degrees cooler than ambient temps.
Roots-out hydro doesn't usually require cooling the nutrient solution. It's probably advisable during extreme temps, but generally up to max root comfort temp is ok. What's this temp generally at in the root zone, anyone know? Max temp with pebbles before you start getting root rot from temps anyway?
Hope that helps.
DWC is what I call a 'roots-in' hydro system, where the roots are constantly exposed to nutrient solution. These types of systems require complete temperature control, for root health and DO purposes. You'll waste quite a bit of resources with most solutions for keeping it cool. I love roots-in, but I save it for where I can cool things easily.
What you'll want to research are what I call 'roots-out' hydro systems. Drip through some sort of media, flood and drain, any system where the roots get a drying out period. There's a swamp cooler effect which keeps things a few degrees cooler than ambient temps.
Roots-out hydro doesn't usually require cooling the nutrient solution. It's probably advisable during extreme temps, but generally up to max root comfort temp is ok. What's this temp generally at in the root zone, anyone know? Max temp with pebbles before you start getting root rot from temps anyway?
Hope that helps.
I used to do small coco hempys in my 2x2. I don't think I ever gave a detailed write up about how I automated it, though. Basically, though, it's quite simple... You just put a pump in a reservoir, attach 1/2 inch irrigation tubing to that, crimp it at the end to seal it, then punch several holes into it, towards the end, where you attach the 1/4” spaghetti tubing with barbed tees. All of that stuff, including a hole puncher, can be found at almost any hardware store, in the irrigation section. So anyway, that's how you direct water from a standard h2o pump into 1/4" tubing, and from there it's just a matter of affixing the ends of the tubes into place. There are many ways to do this. Be imaginative. But you can also purchase stakes designed for the purpose, from the irrigation department. I used to just take wire clothing hangers and bend them into long U shapes, then pin the tube to the top of the media with it. Drippers get clogged, so don't use them. Just go open-ended. Point the stream right at the base of the stalk. Get a digital timer that can operate in 1 minute on cycles. That's it!
-TheShortTexan-
Active member
This post above says a lot. I took a hiatus for about a year after catastrophe and frustration got the better of me. And that's exactly what I was shooting for. A way to do hot weather DWC.. I used hydroguard (Benefeicial bacteria to eat algae and aid oxygen retwntion, amazing stuff) and I sat it on concrete in cellar..
I'm not saying it CANT be done. And my plants were actually really healthy and probably would have produced decently. But looking back on it, what a pain in the butt. After a million frozen water bottle trips and a grow destroying flood in the cellar, I would recommend something simpler..
But, if you are REALLY set on pulling this off it can be done.. best of wishes.
-Tex
