Grow Mediums Why change water out?

[Anasazi]

Lots of variables. It really depends on what nutes you use, the average res temp, if you use something like Aqua Shield, how fast you plants consumes the nutes. You CAN go without a res change, using the Kratky Method. Kratky's method is no res change, top up inly if needed. You prevent root rot by leaving and airspace of about an inch or so between the bottom of the netpot and the surface of the water. I have two kratky buckets going right now. So far, no root rot. One is even all organic. You don't use airstones either. I've not seen anyone grow cannabis that way yet so I decided to give it a try. One has been going over thirty days, the other is about 3 weeks.

I change my DWC res every 7-10 days. Some nutes breakdown over tine also. I res change also give you a chance to correct PH outside the res so there's less shock to the plants.

Is Kratky basically the same as a hempy bucket?

 

[pop22]

Is Kratky basically the same as a hempy bucket?

A hempy bucket gets filled with perlite, etc. You have to water them every 2-3 days. With Kratky, its like DWC with no airstones and you don't change the res.

 

[steelrat]

I find i could change them every two weeks with no big probs, but as Waxi implied, the more frequent the better for nutrient balance.


steely

 

[sabreman61]

I change every 2 weeks. If I changed a 50 Gallon Tote once a week I would be going through a TON of nutes. I keep a close eye on my PH and top off every 4 -7 days with PH water and nutes. I keep my rez temps cool, around 62 degrees consistently. I don't get any slime feel and the water still looks good when I change it. I don't know if that makes a difference but that is what I do.

 

[Groff]

Oh yeah baby! I love my RDWC system because of that! I can go 3 weeks totally maintenance free, literally. No rez change, no tending to them, etc. In RDWC the water volume is so much bigger vs a single pot that the amount of plant secretion is is proportionately much lower, so there is enough fresh nutes to keep them going. But I do drop enzymes, bennies and mycos once a week since they're short lived.

 

[teedeeree]

I used to change my recirc buckets once a week.
Now I just wait until I can see my airstones, PH and EC usually stay well within a decent range. It's lazy, very efficient on nutes and gives me more than acceptable results. I use RO water with canna aqua, rhizo, silicon and PM magnecal+ and PK in one feed (not certain my PK 13/14 is doing a lot, but it's cheap, I may try a different ratio once this bottle is empty)

 

[NRKgrw]

Lots of variables. It really depends on what nutes you use, the average res temp, if you use something like Aqua Shield, how fast you plants consumes the nutes. You CAN go without a res change, using the Kratky Method. Kratky's method is no res change, top up inly if needed. You prevent root rot by leaving and airspace of about an inch or so between the bottom of the netpot and the surface of the water. I have two kratky buckets going right now. So far, no root rot. One is even all organic. You don't use airstones either. I've not seen anyone grow cannabis that way yet so I decided to give it a try. One has been going over thirty days, the other is about 3 weeks.

I change my DWC res every 7-10 days. Some nutes breakdown over tine also. I res change also give you a chance to correct PH outside the res so there's less shock to the plants.

Hey pop,
A bit late here, but i was wondering about your 2 kratkey buckets. How did they turn out? Do you have a posting of them somewhere?
Thanks

 

[pop22]

Hey pop,
A bit late here, but i was wondering about your 2 kratkey buckets. How did they turn out? Do you have a posting of them somewhere?
Thanks

I had one succeed and one that didn't. I'm going to do another, in a 5 gallon bucket, in the greenhouse! I'll skip the organics for this one so I can use up my GH nutes. Also going to change the bucket every thirty days. Kratky method was originally used to grow lettuce, which was finished in 30 days. I figure I can keep toot rot at bay by changing the res out, we'll see!

 

[Jax]

I was wondering the same I change my buckets weekly yet while the plants are small up to about week 4 i give the middle of three buckets to the smallest, so my seedlings get the rest of the middles buckets nutes and the flowering one stays at flower changed weekly, saving nutes on one bucket. Works for me so far.

 

[NRKgrw]

I had one succeed and one that didn't. I'm going to do another, in a 5 gallon bucket, in the greenhouse! I'll skip the organics for this one so I can use up my GH nutes. Also going to change the bucket every thirty days. Kratky method was originally used to grow lettuce, which was finished in 30 days. I figure I can keep toot rot at bay by changing the res out, we'll see!

I will be interested to see If root rot becomes a problem. I've slightly higher than ideal res temps here in my first grow.