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container DWC versus container growing

Burning Colon

Burning Colon

I made my DWC sytem and have 3 very healthly looking pepper plants and I have and about 50 or so container plants. In the past I had experienced edema and the yellowing of leaves from overwatering in my container plants.

My question is: Why would my DWC plants not suffer the same fate, knowing the roots, once they start growing are in constant water?
 
Good question. How old are your plants? I am starting a couple DWC buckets and am also wondering this. It would seem that flood and drain type system would be better but DWC is so simple, that's what I'm doing right now.
 
Good question. How old are your plants? I am starting a couple DWC buckets and am also wondering this. It would seem that flood and drain type system would be better but DWC is so simple, that's what I'm doing right now.
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I forget how old but I would guess sept of this year is when I started them(2 hot lemon, 1 carribean red) they were test seeds as I was sure if the seeds would be viable. I have some soiled scotch bonnet and super chili that are about the same age and half the size.

The air stones disolve oxygen into the water
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So, are you saying as I water my soil, oxygen is stripped out of the liquid, I guess the hydrogen floats away, leaving a wetness of micro elements? Would watering with hydrogen peroxide then compensate for this, supplementing with HO3 and perhaps distilled water(for micro element removal)?
 
Hydrogen peroxide is used mostly to control pathogens.

There is some stuff written that credits hydrogen peroxide with adding oxygen.
 
When you water in soil there is a set amount of oxygen dissolved in the water which goes down once the water is in the dirt and the plants are sucking it up. In DWC the constant bubbling keeps putting the O2 back in so the plants always have the top level available. Roots need the oxygen present to feed, in compacted dirt they get waterlogged. Even better than DWC is aeroponics. At least that is how I understand it.

Your solution could be to change the makeup of the soil in your containers so that it has more large air spaces and drains quicker. I'm a novice at growing myself and all my recently potted up chilii seedlings look like they are in a bad mix which is too compacted with too many small particles. I stupidly asked the landscaping place what they would recommend as a potting mix for chilli plants, I don't think they had a clue. On the next and final pot up I will mix in some perlite to fluff out the soil.

edit: I wouldn't use peroxide if I were you, you don't want your chillies to be dumb blondes :rofl:
 
So, are you saying as I water my soil, oxygen is stripped out of the liquid, I guess the hydrogen floats away, leaving a wetness of micro elements? Would watering with hydrogen peroxide then compensate for this, supplementing with HO3 and perhaps distilled water(for micro element removal)?
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if only it was that easy to split h20! the h2o bond is really strong actually. what you need to keep in mind is that when you grow hydroponically you are feeding the roots directly what they need like nitrates from ammonium nitrate or calcium nitrate etc. instead of relying on nitrogen fixing bacteria to break down organic crap to feed the roots.

also watering with h202 is a bad idea for soil plants(at least in any appreciable concentration), as its such a strong oxidizer, it is going to kill anything in the soil. i think you might be confused with the fact that hydro guys use peroxide to try to sanitize their water. people for some reason use h202 in hydro systems to try and combat pathogens.

personally i think that h202 is a crummy sanitizer, IMO chlorine in the form of calcium hypochlorite is infinitely better as it has the lovely benefit of hanging around for a long while.

Your solution could be to change the makeup of the soil in your containers so that it has more large air spaces and drains quicker. I'm a novice at growing myself and all my recently potted up chilii seedlings look like they are in a bad mix which is too compacted with too many small particles. I stupidly asked the landscaping place what they would recommend as a potting mix for chilli plants, I don't think they had a clue. On the next and final pot up I will mix in some perlite to fluff out the soil.
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this is good advise i would go to your hydro store or where ever and buy some chunky perlite and mix it into your soil.
 
I grew a white habanero in a DWC bucket and I never used an air stone and I changed the nutrient solution once every 2 months and never bothered adjusting the pH lol. Every few days I'd add water halfway up the bucket so half the roots were in water and the other sitting on top of the water. I dunno if this is why the roots didn't die but the plant was very productive and was the first to start fruiting. I'm gonna try it again this year with a trinidad scorpion or a yellow 7 pot and see how it compares to other I'm growing in peat.
 
aram said:
I grew a white habanero in a DWC bucket and I never used an air stone and I changed the nutrient solution once every 2 months and never bothered adjusting the pH lol. Every few days I'd add water halfway up the bucket so half the roots were in water and the other sitting on top of the water. I dunno if this is why the roots didn't die but the plant was very productive and was the first to start fruiting. I'm gonna try it again this year with a trinidad scorpion or a yellow 7 pot and see how it compares to other I'm growing in peat.
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why not do two buckets? one with a cheep 7 dollar airpump from walmart, and one without.
 
thank you everyone for your replies.

I use Promix HP, if you haven't seen it, it is loaded with perolite, when I water(top feed) the water flushes out the bottom holes as fast as I am pouring.

I wouldn't use peroxide if I were you, you don't want your chillies to be dumb blondes
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So, if aram used peroxide on his white habs, what do think the results would be? would they know they are suppose to be hot! Maybe they would make the peter pepper point up.

I'm gonna try it again this year with a trinidad scorpion or a yellow 7 pot and see how it compares to other I'm growing in peat.
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I just started some fatalii seeds in rockwool in my heatenator(made that up), I have 3 fatalii in soil, 1 started in March and is 7 inches tall, it produced a few flowers but they dropped, the other 2 I think sprouted in June an have pretty well stopped growing and are 4.5" in height. I am so surprised at how big my carribean red in the DWC, compared to some of my soil scotch bonnets that were grown around the same time.

Sometime today I am going to take a cutting from my favourite orange hab and place it in the DWC and see how it makes out - just another experiment.
 
nope. no peroxide lol i really like DWC, it requires very little maintenance and you get almost all the benefits of using hydro. from what i've heard and read, plant do grow much faster in hydro solutions so i'm not surprised that your hydro red caribbean is much larger!

I'll take queequeg's advice and have 2 buckets running at the same time and report back as to which one does better (although i think the genetics and quality of your seed are the main determinants on how healthy your plant are but doesn't hurt to try!) i'm gonna be growing only one type next year to eliminate cross-pollination and harvest some true seeds! havent really made up my mind but i can guarantee it's gonna be a super hot variety! :D

good luck burning colon!
 
"I use Promix HP, if you haven't seen it, it is loaded with perolite, when I water(top feed) the water flushes out the bottom holes as fast as I am pouring."

I don't know if you are exaggerating but if the water does that then it's not such a good thing. Hydrophobic soils repel water and the water is wasted, and the soil dries out too quick. If you mix in some soil wetter (not sure if that is what it is called where you are from, it's sort of like detergent) with the next watering the soil and water particles will cling to each other. The pot won't dry out, heat up and need as much watering.

A test to see if you need it is to drip some of your normal water onto the top of your soil, if the water beads or rolls to one side and stays on top for a few seconds before soaking in then the soil is hydrophobic (using big words like that makes me feel so smart ;) ), and it needs soil wetter. When you have used the soil wetter and watered the pot it becomes really heavy because the water is retained. More importantly the roots have time to suck it up before it drains off.

edit: Most potting mixes start out great but they can become dry and soil repellant after time.
 
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