dwc, whats the best water level?

[indiana.cones]

hi all,

 

ive got my first dwc going, my plants seem to be going great guns, in fact, i feel like banging my head against a brick wall for every day i havent done a dwc setup.

 

anyway, im wondering what the best water level is for the most prolific root growth? i have seen some people say above the bottom of the net pot, others say below?

Edited December 20, 2005 by indiana.cones

[Chato]

i keep it at the bottom of the pot until i've got roots coming thru then drop it about an inch and encourage the roots to grow for the water.

 

peace

c

[indiana.cones]

i keep it at the bottom of the pot until i've got roots coming thru then drop it about an inch and encourage the roots to grow for the water.

 

peace

c

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

hey thanks for the reply, ok so in principal, are we trying to get the roots to grow through the mistified air above the bubblers? or are we trying to get the roots to grow in air saturated solution?

 

i figured because i was adding oxy plus to oxygenate the nute solution the objective was to grow the roots in the solution, but what you are saying is to encourage them to grow through the air for the water? what is the reasoning behind dropping it an inch?

[Chato]

hey mate no worries.

 

the idea for deep water culture/dwc is for the roots to grow in the aerated nute solution but in the beginning to promote rapid and well formed roots the idea is to use the tiny bubbles bursting on the surface

from your airstone to create a fine aero like mist.

 

you keep the water level high in the first week or so or the rockwool and roots will dry out if you don't handwater and as the roots appear out the side/bottom of the pot you drop the level for the mist effect.

 

plenty of theories,ideas thoughts on this matter but my experience has shown keepin the water level high will keep the rockwool too soaked, which once your roots have found water is not good, but mainly it seems to encourage long straggly roots not the well formed waterfall and eventual plug effect i like.

 

hope you make sense of that.....

 

peace

c

[indiana.cones]

hey mate no worries.

 

the idea for deep water culture/dwc is for the roots to grow in the aerated nute solution but in the beginning to promote rapid and well formed roots the idea is to use the tiny bubbles bursting on the surface

from your airstone to create a fine aero like mist.

 

you keep the water level high in the first week or so or the rockwool and roots will dry out if you don't handwater and as the roots appear out the side/bottom of the pot you drop the level for the mist effect.

 

plenty of theories,ideas thoughts on this matter but my experience has shown keepin the water level high will keep the rockwool too soaked, which once your roots have found water is not good, but mainly it seems to encourage long straggly roots not the well formed waterfall and eventual plug effect i like.

 

hope you make sense of that.....

 

peace

c

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

yep totally makes sense..

 

what i found when i first put my net pots in with the water at the pot line is that i felt they werent getting enough mist from the bubbles bursting and i was worried my rock wool was drying out, it seemed that the clay balls were dry all the time, so i raised the water level up a couple of cm above the net pot so that i was gettng droplets forming on the underside of the tub lid, and this seemed to provide enough misting on the net pot which the droplets then run through the clay balls into the rock wool. there is a bit of clay balls underneath the rock wool so there is enough clearance to raise the water to about 1" above the net pot without contacting the bottom of the rock wool.

 

ive basically aimed for as much solution as possible in the tub, without allowing the rock wool to sit in solution, so this seems to be consistent with what you are saying. provided i know exactly how many cm above the bottom of the net pot my rock wool starts at, then i should be fine. it seems maybe that people are working on the bottom of the net pot as a rockwool safe guage?

 

ive also got nikko marks on my sight pipe (just a clear piece of pipe attached to a gate valve on the bottom of the tub) which is marked 1" above the bottom of the net pot, even with the net pot, 1" below the net pot, so i can see exactly where the waterline inside the tub is and match it up against the nikko marked levels.

 

someone needs to make DWC tubs like motor oil containers with a sight strip. if you pick up a some engine oil at a servo, check the container and many of them have a clear or opaque plastic strip in the middle of the black plastic so you can see the oil level inside the container!

 

thanks for ur feedback!

[Chato]

hey bro here's a bit of a curveball or something to turn our theory and all of what i said on it's head.

 

just put 9 new seedlings into net pots and whacked em straight in a dwc system i'd rigged. had plenty of roots coming through the rockwool, none through the clayballs though of course. i kept the level of the water about an inch below the pots because i had no more decent water and didn;t want to use tap water. i only watered the rockwool once but very lightly and within 2 days i have roots coming through the net pot and reaching for the water.

 

to add to this in the 60l tub i'm using i've only got 2 airstones and for a few days they were both pretty fucked hardly producing any bubbles and only wetting about 6 of the pots. i had to keep re-arranging them so they got hit with water. still the fuckers have rooted out double quick.

 

I'm going to keep the water level where it is and see what happens. A few pics for ya to show what's happenin. only got a high output fluro (growbrite bulb) over em too...

 

peace

 

 

 

c

Edited December 27, 2005 by Chato

[Gazza2001au]

hi all,

 

ive got my first dwc going, my plants seem to be going great guns, in fact, i feel like banging my head against a brick wall for every day i havent done a dwc setup.

 

anyway, im wondering what the best water level is for the most prolific root growth? i have seen some people say above the bottom of the net pot, others say below?

i know this thread was started a while ago i bought a system (6 pots) its bassed on a DWC system with the net pot suspended above the nutrient same as the DWC but there is this little plastic thingo ive never seen before that sits on the bottom of the bucket the air is pumped into this little plastic tube thingo by the 4mm tube once the air builds up in the chamber the air is rushed up thought a 12mm pipe and squirts water into your net pot very nifty! i havent used the system in 5 years but i pulled it out the other day i will get some pictures tonight when it cools down abit i planted seedlings only 7 days old strait into this system without watering from the top as it acts as a recirculating system and in my system (cant see water level) as the spurts get slower i know when to top up :thumbsup u should be able to get this little plastic thingo majig from R&D aquaponics but i will show u a picture for those with DWC systems first it should cost under $5 per peice

[Gazza2001au]

heres the little plastic thingo majig i was talking about i think it can be used with many mediums as the white base is very strong with supports i havnt had any problems with roots stopping air flow even with 5 footers i hope these come in hand for others

Edited January 1, 2006 by Gazza2001au