Grow Mediums Tell me about hydro...

[HappyHouse]

I've been doing soil so far, i dont mind it, but hydro is starting to interest me.:drool:

Im curious about the cost of nutes, upkeep, noise (im growing in a bedroom), and start up costs (minus non hydro equipment). Do the pumps use a lot of electricity? will they annoy me in my sleep?:Cool::Cool: I do both auto and photos.

Anyways, im not stuck in either direction but im getting ready to start a new crop (2-3 plants) and im curious if a change in set up might be nice.:stylez rasta smoke:

My setup:
2x3 tent (will get a larger one)
2 300w LEDs
and all the regular meters and whatnot :

 

[Jr kron]

What kind of hydro system are you looking to get? I'm just finishing my first Dwc grow, I've only got a 10w air pump for 2 5gallon buckets, which don't seem to make much noise.
Upkeep is a bit more than soil with checking ph daily and top ups, also the weekly res clean/change.
Cost of nutrients would depend on how much your willing to spend I guess, you could go with the Lucas Formula and possibly save some cash.

 

[HappyHouse]

I think DWC is the way to go, albeit i dont know much about any of them. I dont mind the cleaning, it seems it evens out with the watering. Im concerned about watching my macro/micro nutrient level, how important is this or do you really just need to worry about PH and the regular minerals? Sorry about the noob questions but again, im just getting my foot in the door. :smokebuds:

 

[Jr kron]

That I had a bit of trouble with not having a ppm meter. I just would feed at about 1/8 recommended dose and work my way up from there, while keeping an eye on ph and plants. If you feed too much the plant will drink more water than nutrients which will cause your ph to drop, too little and it will rise. It took a while to get it right, but now my ph barely drifts and I rarely have to check on it. But if you use a ppm meter, it could save you the hassle I had to go through.

 

[T.T.Tarzan]

I've been doing soil so far, i dont mind it, but hydro is starting to interest me.:drool:

Im curious about the cost of nutes, upkeep, noise (im growing in a bedroom), and start up costs (minus non hydro equipment). Do the pumps use a lot of electricity? will they annoy me in my sleep?:Cool::Cool: I do both auto and photos.

Anyways, im not stuck in either direction but im getting ready to start a new crop (2-3 plants) and im curious if a change in set up might be nice.:stylez rasta smoke:

My setup:
2x3 tent (will get a larger one)
2 300w LEDs
and all the regular meters and whatnot :

Iv just bought a setup for one plant and it only cost me £30 delivered, I got bucket, lid, clay pebbles, air pump, basket, air stones and air pipe. Iv already got Hesi 'hydro' nutes cus I was growing in coco before and apparently these nutes are suitable for both (think I'm gonna make the switch to AN though). I'm still reading up on hydro and have a lot to learn so I hope some hydro pros chime in with some more advice :stylez rasta smoke:

 

[Pal23]

Hey man I'm on my first DWC grow right now and I can tell you I couldn't sleep with it in my bedroom! The individual pieces granted are not too loud but when you add up the LED fans, Circulation Fans, Extraction fan, air pump, water bubbling (plus I have an external fan outside the tent to keep my pump cool) it becomes a shallow symphony of bzzz's and hmmm's. That being said I am very impressed with the growth even with all my problems I've experienced.
Do the pumps use a lot of electricity?
No noticeable jump on my bills but they use more electricity than soil thats for sure
Im curious about the cost of nutes
The cost would be the same if you had to buy a range of nutes for soil - most 1L bottles are priced very similar especially base nutes, additives I find are the most expensive but you can pick and choose what you want to use so it's really down to you how much it costs.
And as far as upkeep goes there is more attention required in DWC, the more you can check on the plant and make sure the PH and EC are correct the healthier she will be. Some people don't have the advantage of checking their plants more than once a day but you should get your technique locked in before you attempted something like that. hope some of this helps it sounds a bit like rambling to me - just hit some Kush and it got me on a nice one

 

[T.T.Tarzan]

I was also wondering, when do you start nutes? I can't find much info about starting autos in DWC. Do you just hand water with plain water until the roots are big enough to feed off the water in the res? Then add nutes 2 weeks or so into the cycle?

 

[blue]

Hey Tarzan - I see Pals already been in, but check out his thread as DWCocha has been helping out there (he just got on the Dutch Passion blog for being awesome!)

https://www.autoflower.org/f109/1st-dwc-grow-bam-pal-24942.html

All good advice on PH, EC, Feeding etc! :High 5:

:smokebuds:

 

[DWCocha]

Arrr thanks Blue your awesome too :High 5:

I would say check out Seymour Buds TD , AM , SR grows to learn all you need about DWC from the main man.Thats what I did & learned ALL the things needed to grow like him right there. His grows are like the DWC manual for auto's !.:grouplus hes back with an auto Ultimate grow right now so go check it out in real time :Coolio:

 

[HappyHouse]

Hey man I'm on my first DWC grow right now and I can tell you I couldn't sleep with it in my bedroom! The individual pieces granted are not too loud but when you add up the LED fans, Circulation Fans, Extraction fan, air pump, water bubbling (plus I have an external fan outside the tent to keep my pump cool) it becomes a shallow symphony of bzzz's and hmmm's. That being said I am very impressed with the growth even with all my problems I've experienced.
Do the pumps use a lot of electricity?
No noticeable jump on my bills but they use more electricity than soil thats for sure
Im curious about the cost of nutes
The cost would be the same if you had to buy a range of nutes for soil - most 1L bottles are priced very similar especially base nutes, additives I find are the most expensive but you can pick and choose what you want to use so it's really down to you how much it costs.
And as far as upkeep goes there is more attention required in DWC, the more you can check on the plant and make sure the PH and EC are correct the healthier she will be. Some people don't have the advantage of checking their plants more than once a day but you should get your technique locked in before you attempted something like that. hope some of this helps it sounds a bit like rambling to me - just hit some Kush and it got me on a nice one

Thanks everybody for all of your help :stylez rasta smoke: this is exactly what i was looking for... i think i gotta get on some of that Kush too!Hop digity