New Grower GBs F&V RDWC

[TheGreenBastard]

This is my first auto and hydro attempt. Hopefully things will go swimmingly. I will start addings pics and stuff to this Journal, but first I need help!

I'm using technafloras recipe to success. If I have 4 sites plus 1 res all 5 gallon buckets thats 25 gallons..well it says 2 tsp of 2 kinds of nutes to start per gallon. So that means 50 tsp for each nutes?! That's rediculous. I don't even think there is 50 tsp in this little bottle. Seems like way to much, so I just put 4 tsp of sugar daddy and 4 tsp of root 66 in res and phed to 5.8 for now. Even if you aren't counting the res that's still 40 tsp. How can that be when this stuff is concentrates.

Also I am following seymours think different as a guideline. He says his ec is .8. Well my Hanna which is a ph\ec\tds combo is telling me a different value with no decimals. As of now after the 4 tsp my Ph is 5.8, EC I think is reading 65 and ppm 32. How do I measure this ec. It doesn't even say anything about ec on the feeding schedule. I'm lost please help 8)

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Ive come to the conclusion that it must
be the size of the res that you should
be adjusting nutrients to not including each individual sites.
that would mean 10 tsp of each nute for the whole system. Sounds like a lot for seedlings so I will continue at a quarter to half strength for now. And add more if necessary. Can anyone confirm this for me.

 

[Muddy]

According to their web site, Technaflora recommends the following during veg:

B.C. Boost - 3 teaspoons (15 ml)
B.C. Grow - 1.5 teaspoons (7.5 ml)
Thrive Alive B-1 Red - 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml)
MagiCal - 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml)
Sugar Daddy - 2 teaspoons (10 ml)

This is per gallon, so for a 25 gallon system that's 25 times those amounts. 375 ml Boost, 37.5 Grow, etc. I'm sure their schedule is for growing photos, so about half those amounts for autos. Since it's also a RDWC system and they generally require less nutrients than DWC, you may be able to reduce it a bit more as well. You may want to start with 1/4 of what they recommend and see how the plants like that before going higher. Always calculate your nutes for the whole system, not for individual buckets. After all, it's RDWC, so everything is connected into one system. It's not individual buckets like DWC.

I would also be cautious about using Seymour's schedule as it was designed for DWC, not RDWC. Again, RDWC is more efficient and will likely require lower nutrients levels. In my RDWC I've found that it's very easy to over feed them. Also be careful with the cal/mag. I'm using RO and added what I considered the "normal" amount, enough to raise the starting ppm to between 100 and 125. This was too much and I experienced a lot of problems related to the excess cal/mag. I now only use about 1 ml per gallon and have eliminated the problems of excess cal/mag. But I'm growing photos, so growing autos may require a bit more than what I'm using.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Thanks for the response muddy. I will start with a quarter strength feed for the entire system and see how they respond. Then if they look hungry I will up the dose....damn I'm gana run out of a lot of these nutes fast, looks like I will have to get more.

 

[Getgrowingson]

Yea dwc grows monsters but it uses alot of nutes that get washed down the drain after 10 days in the res. But imo its worth the cost due to the incredible yields. Good luck partner. In my rdwc with autos I never really went over 800ppm. All nutes are available all the time in dwc so conentrations dont need to be really high. If you dont have a chiller id advise yourself to either get some aquashield or hydroguard or look into hiesenberg teas. Work wondrrs for roots!

 

[TheGreenBastard]

No chiller but the res has been between 65-69 degrees. Is that cold enough?

 

[pop22]

No chiller but the res has been between 65-69 degrees. Is that cold enough?

65-69F is perfect.