Grow Mediums My family's recirculating deep water culture

[trees4meandu]

Well here it is. We have never shown anyone our setup before this. Our motto is tell nobody and nobody knows, but we kinda need some help. First time rdwc and first time auto flower. I have supplied pictures. The light is a 600w hps. Both totes are 27 gallon heavy duty from our friends at Lowes. We have a 480 gph pump in the pink sump, yes I know its pink. All finally leading back to a 9 gallon reservior. There are 3 total air curtains, one in each tote plus one in the res. With addition to the one foot fall of the water into the res, there is plenty of O2. Seeds are auto kalashnikova from Greenhouse Seed Co. We used 6" net pots and decided to only grow 4 plants with hopes that the rumors will be true and they will be huge!!! Our nutrients are from Dyna Gro. We have the grow, bloom, pro-tek. There root k-l-n will be purchased on friday to be used for the second and third week as directed. Just a little info as there hasn't been much posted, Dyna Gro's customer service has been second to none this week as it is our first time using them. As for now we are running the system with just water with the level 1/2" below the pots to hopefully force the roots to find the water. Each rock wool cube was soaked in ph'd water for 45 minutes then squeezed until the right moisture was left.
Amazing that the seed pack was opened on the 21st and now on the 25th each plant is a staggering 1" tall!!!! Amazing in our eyes, but like I said, It's our first auto grow. We started the light at 42" above the totes and have lowered them 3" a day to currently 30". How do the auto's adjust themselves to the light? Should we lower it more or just continue the gradual decent until an optimum height is reached?
Today the rock wool seemed a little on the dry side so a light nutrient solution was dripped over it until desired moisture level was reached. Any feed back would be great. In exchange we will be supplying a full tutorial whether it is a success or not. We figure if there are those out there that care as much as we do there is no way we can fail. And we have high hopes for the future of auto flowers. Thanks in advance AFN!!!

 

[trees4meandu]

Apologize for the double attachments. First time starting a thread and still haven't worked out the kinks...I guess

 

[Nam80232]

Looks like you got a great setup! But alas I'm a worm, sorry I can't help with hydro. Best of luck!

 

[A4]

Welcome to AFN trees, glad to have you with us! 30" with your 600 is probably good right now. Just continue to drop it as she progresses or if you start to notice any stretch. I am going to request that this grow be moved to the hydro section if that is ok with you? You will have more help there should you run in to any problems along the way.

 

[Groff]

I am sub'ed to this thread! :tiphat:

Great setup! I'll be doing my first RDWC & auto's in a few weeks too!

Good luck!

 

[trees4meandu]

By all means move the thread. See I thought u guys and gals would be helpful. Or am I suppose to move it? Not sure how...

 

[trees4meandu]

Oh just so everyone knows our PVC is inch and a half. Seems perfect, the sump never empties yet the water is definitely moving. Notes will b added to the solution in two days at half strength.

 

[A4]

No worries bro, I will have it moved. This section would be perfect if you were in soil or soilless but with it being DWC all the cool guys hang out in hrydro. That doesn't include me, I am promix, btw. lol So, yeah, you would get a little more attention over there and the hydro guys will be able to answer your questions quicker. Welcome again, and best of luck with your grow! I am sure you will do great.

 

[yodabuds]

Welcome to AFN treesmeandu! Your set up sounds awesome! What are you going to use to control the water temps? Getting ready to try my hand at my first dwc. I started to look into rdwc and got overwhelmed. I'm betting with that set up the hydro guys will be all over it to help you
The high hopes you have for the future of autoflowers is here and now! I'd say I've smoked more than my share of different photo strains and can say that being a med user and autos tending to have higher cbd, they seem almost at times "better" to me...... I'd put a high rise auto smoke against a photo any day.... I believe to the more frequent harvests an auto grower can get in a year, the sky's the limit for autos!
Though, ultimately I think that autos and photos belong hand and hand in a multi tent/room setup....
Sending you one big karma cloud over your grow! :gthumb:

 

[Doulovebeef]

I found with rockwool I didn't have to squeeze any out, it drains away, rockwool holds a lot of air, as well moisture. No worries tho! I did the same as u, I lightly watered the rockwool, usually once a day. Once those roots pop from the net pots they explode. Rockwool is pretty hard to drown, as long as its not sitting in a pool of water/nutrient.

Just a quick note, watch those water temps. With a sump, which I'm assuming is a submersible, they tend to heat up the water, if u can, I'd advise a inline ump, preferable mag drive. Keep the temp below 70 I'd u can.