How deep does the water have to be to be considered DWC?

[Lenore]

Just sitting here, having a sesh and chatting in chat and the thought occurred to me, just how deep does the water need to be for it to be considered DWC?

I had a set up a while back I called the "kiddy pool" set up because of how the plants were set above the res and the res resembling a kid's wading pool.

The plants were fed from the top and it drained back into the res, eventually the roots grew down into the res and the plants boomed when they did.
The depth of the res was only ever about 100mm deep.
I guess it was a bit of a hybrid between a flood and drain setup and what I like to call SWC (shallow water culture).

That's what piqued my curiosity as to just how deep the water needs to be for it to be DWC.

So yeah, thoughts?
 

 

  Leni.

[billygoat]

Yeah, about that deep.

 

[puggle6]

I started with garden sieves from Bunnings, clay balls in a tray and top feed with recirculation.

 

Roots everywhere! Make a few changes and add some airstones [emoji2]

 

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[Indycar]

Top feed is most important imo, but generally, it only needs to be deep enough to keep the roots submersed or very least, heavily saturated.

 

So i guess you could grow in as little as 3" (75mm) of water, and protect the roots from light while doing so (another must, imso).

[Ozzy420]

With DWC the bigger the root mass the less room for the water, so u start off with a 20lt bucket to start u have the bucket with about 15lts of water as the root mass grows it takes up room in the bucket so by the time u are done the bucket will be a big root ball with 3-4lts of water left in the bucket once the roots have been removed.

 

It a lil diff for a flood and drain table, you could start of as little as 50mm of water but once the room mass started to grow you would have to increase it to keep the roots covered with water as it grows with the plant.

 

As long as the root mass is covered in water it can be as shallow as you can make it...

[Lenore]

I started with garden sieves from Bunnings, clay balls in a tray and top feed with recirculation.

 

Roots everywhere! Make a few changes and add some airstones [emoji2]

 

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This is the unit I have. We did actually add air stones to the res', naturally.

https://www.growlush.com/productcat/growlush-hydroponics-water-system/

 

Top feed is most important imo, but generally, it only needs to be deep enough to keep the roots submersed or very least, heavily saturated.

 

So i guess you could grow in as little as 3" (75mm) of water, and protect the roots from light while doing so (another must, imso).

I loved the systems I have. We upgraded the water pumps and hosing as is the original gear was sub-par. But it didn't go to waste. The pumps got used elsewhere.

 

With DWC the bigger the root mass the less room for the water, so u start off with a 20lt bucket to start u have the bucket with about 15lts of water as the root mass grows it takes up room in the bucket so by the time u are done the bucket will be a big root ball with 3-4lts of water left in the bucket once the roots have been removed.

 

It a lil diff for a flood and drain table, you could start of as little as 50mm of water but once the room mass started to grow you would have to increase it to keep the roots covered with water as it grows with the plant.

 

As long as the root mass is covered in water it can be as shallow as you can make it...

I didn't think about that. I just had a dip stick that I used to check my level and kept it at about that.

But the roots had a wee ways to go from the bottom of the pots to the surface of the water and it never seemed to bother them any. The girl grew nice and big and healthy. Like I said, they boomed once the roots hit the water, you could actually see which plant's roots hit the water first when it happened. Look in at lights on, and then again near lights off and you could see the growth. I loved it.

I'm keeping them. I think I'll hold on to all my gear actually.

[kloud9]

Micmac uses these, with great results.

 

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[Lenore]

Micmac uses these, with great results.

 

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I love them!