DeaneR Tries DWC

Hello Growers! I thought I would give Deep Water Culture growing a try. With this grow, I will attempt to grow both cheaply and simply. My Set-up: I'll be using two, 5 gallon bucket and air stone setups, in a 2 foot by 4 foot tent. Since it is winter, and my house is currently 66F, keeping reservoir temps down shouldn't be a problem. A dual output pump feeds air 24 hours a day, to each bucket ( a single 2"X4" Air Stone / Bucket ). A 6" oscillating fan will blow across the top of the plants. The light is a Cheap Hollandstar X6 off amazon. It has 6 COBs, with switches for Bloom/Veg. Output is 200W with bloom switch (4 Cobs on), and 100W with Veg switch (2 Cobs on), making a combined output of 300W. I'll start with just the 2 veg Cobs on, then move to the full 300W at some point. My Nutrient Inputs: To keep costs down, I will be using a powdered nutrient ( 5-12-25 Tomato Blend ) by MasterBlend, plus Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate), and Calcium Nitrate. This is essentially the Jack's 3-2-1 method ( for those of you who are familiar with it ), except I'm using MasterBlend, a more readily available manufacturer in Canada. I mixed up two concentrated stock solutions to make a Part A and Part B (see photo above), for fast, easy reservoir mixing. The formula is 3 parts MasterBlend, 2 parts Calcium Nitrate, and 1 part Epsom Salt, all measured by weight. To Make Part A - Start with a 4 Liter bottle of distilled water. Remove about 2 liters and set aside. Mix in 720 grams of MasterBlend and stir until fully dissolved. Then mix in 240 grams of Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) and stir until fully dissolved. Now add back enough distilled water, that was set aside earlier, to make 4 liters of stock solution. Store in a cool, dark place. To Make Part B - Start with a 4 Liter bottle of distilled water. Remove about 2 liters and set aside. Mix in 500 grams of Calcium Nitrate and stir until fully dissolved. Now add back enough distilled water, that was set aside earlier, to make 4 liters of stock solution. Store in a cool, dark place. Part A gets mixed into the reservoir, followed by part B. Equal amounts of Part A and Part B are used. These stock solutions will make several hundred gallons ( depending on your dosage strength ) of mixed reservoir nutrients, inexpensively. I also will be supplementing with Botanicare's Cal-Mag Plus. I add this to the reservoir, prior to adding A & B. I hope to only change out the reservoirs weekly, and top off as required. I will pH my fresh reservoirs to 5.7 and top off with a pH of 5.7. The pH is bound to drift, but I'm going to just let it (unless I see some lockout occurring😠). The Plants: Alien Orange Gum - These seeds were freebies from my membership to the Dude Grows Crew. I started with 5 regular seeds last spring, of which 4 germinated. One seedling was a real runt, so I culled it and raised the remaining three. My plan was to look for a male to make some seeds. These plants grew real quickly (tall and lanky with a hollow stalk) in the high summer temps of my tent, and didn't show their sex till they were about 30 inches tall ( I didn't train them at all, as I was looking to see their natural traits). Turns out they were all females, and I later learned that they were over-vegged and would grow right up to the lights, lol😆. Two cuttings were taken from the plant with the best structure and vigor for this grow, and rooted in Coco Coir under t8 fluorescent bulbs. I hope, with lower temperatures, to train and tame these ladies this time around 🙏. That's about it for my intro...... Thanks for stopping in! If you have any questions, about this 3-2-1 stuff, ask below or message me, and I'll try to answer as best I can. Peace, DeaneR😎