Hydroponic Directions?

12 years ago

Hello. I've been researching the different hydroponic techniques and I'm having trouble finding actual instructions on the steps of hydroponics. I'm finding plenty of information regarding setting it up but not how to efficiently run it. All I've seen so far is to make sure not to over-fertilize and in certain systems either flush it out with water or dump the nutes and make new ones every couple weeks. I'm wondering certain things though.

Example: A DWC that is growing an indeterminate tomato plant. How would I go about changing the nutes? Where would I set the plant itself? Do I have to have a separate running bucket that I can put the plant in so the roots don't dry out?

I'm curious because nothing I've read really states this. Where do I put the plants while I'm cleaning the DWC system? With Ebb and Flow, depending on the setup, taking out the resevoir shouldn't affect the plants. Same with NFT since I can take the resevoir out all the same.

DWC is meant to be for beginners and I want to start there but I want to know what exactly I should do when it's time to clean the system.

Thanks for your advice and help.

Comments (2)

grizzman
12 years ago
hello brkieffner and welcome.
the real trick with DWC is changing out the nutes. you can move the plant each time but with an older indeterminate tomato, it becomes a hassle. I've found the best solutions (for me, at least) is to have a drain valve at the bottom of the rez and and extra hole at the top (for adding fresh nutes or water)
This is the drain valve in a medium size sterlite tub I used.

It also doubles as a water level indicator. to drain the rez simply rotate until the end of the hose is lower than the bottom of the rez. two things to remember:
1. don't glue the pieces
2. the rez has to be high enough that you can actually drain it (and catch said discharge if indoors)
in the top I had an extra hole where I poured in the fresh nutes. I kept it covered with a neoprene plug when not in use.

Here is a picture of that tub with a plant in it:
{{gwi:1014477}}
Note the different dates are because they were different "seasons"

If you decide to go with moving the top each time, don't worry too much about the roots drying out. I've done that and never had any problems. I probably had them out for 20-25 minutes.
If you'd like, you can email me directly if you have more questions as I don't frequent this forum as much as i used to. my contact is on my profile page.
Cheers.
grizzman
12 years ago
Oh! with DWC you only need to clean the system between crops. make sure the rez material doesn't let light through and algae should be a minimum.
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