Getting Started with Deep Water Culture
We’ve recently started working with a recirculating deep water culture (RDWC) system. Since we’ve been running different variations of soilless systems for a while now, this wasn’t too big of a jump. However we’ve needed to make some changes to accommodate the new medium nonetheless. In this post we’ll give you a basic rundown of our nutrition line and grow setup.
Hardware
When growing cannabis in Ohio in compliance with Section 3780.29, you can only grow 6 plants per adult, with a max of 12 per household. So our setup should be optimized to accommodate 6 plants as optimally as possible.
Lights
Light is arguably the most important thing in the growing of your plants, so this will be our our most significant cost. If your budget allows for it, grab 2 of these full spectrum grow lights, otherwise pick up one and consider scaling up later if you need it. More than anything else, we cannot recommend enough investing in a quality light.
Hydro System
Our hydro system doesn’t need to be too complex. Since Ohio’s limit is only 6-12 plants, we only need a system capable of handling 6 adult plants. (If you have another adult in your household, this gives you the flexibility to start germinating a new round before your current flowering plants are harvested, without worrying about any legal gray areas.) We like the simple installation process provided by a top-feed bucket-based system.
Tools
Properly measuring and monitoring your nutrient solution is absolutely key in a DWC system. Here are some of the tools we’ve found to be the most helpful.
pH Pen
A solid pH pen is important to keep your plants within a healthy range. pH is important not only for nutrient uptake, but also to help keep unwanted organisms out of your reservoir. We love the Hach Pro pH+, but as long as you keep your pen calibrated and replace the probe as needed, you should be able to use any reputable pH pen.
EC Pen
EC is an important metric to know the overall concentration of dissolved solids in your nutrient solution. T His allows you to confirm a proper mix, and to make differential adjustments to your nutrients. A reliable EC pen or two is always great to have on hand to make sure you’re on the right track.
Measures
You can fiddle around with teaspoons and conversion charts all day, getting nutrients on your hands, counters, and floor. Or you can embrace metric supremacy and buy some standard pipettes and measures. We like to keep 1mL and 5mL on hand for small volumes. For larger volumes we use a blunt syringe or a glass beaker. If you want high precision with ease consider in investing in a micropipette. We like using the 1mL pipettes and find their accuracy to be sufficient for our needs, but the micropipette is a fantastic option if you have accessibility needs.
Nutrition
Our base nutritional needs will be provided for by GH FloraNova Grow and Bloom. The FloraNova line by General Hydroponics is a comprehensive “1-part” nutrient system. This means you can technically run just a single nutrient at any given time, depending on whether your plants are in veg or bloom, and your plants would survive and grow just fine. However we want our plants to properly thrive, so we’ll be adding some additional supplements and incoulents to really give them an extra edge. We recommend running these nutrients at their manufacturer-recommended specs, and adjusting/supplementing as you see fit for your strains/phenos.
Supplements
Supplements will fill out the niche of additional micro-nutrients, minerals, and misc elements that plants crave for general health, vigor, and fun biochemical stuff like terpene production in late flower.
ArmorSi and CALiMAGic
Armor Si is a silicon source derived from Potassium Silicate, and as a result provides some potassium as well. It improves plant structure and foliar development, increases yield and improves bud production. CALiMAGic is a Calcium and Magnesium source and helps prevent bud end rot and tip burn. These supplements together help to provide defense and vigor to your plants.
Liquid KoolBloom
It only takes a small amount of Liquid KoolBloom to deliver a healthy infusion of phosphorus and potassium to your plants. Use it throughout flower to enhance the production of aromas in your buds. During the last two weeks of the cycle, increase use to promote bulking and to facilitate ripening.
Floralicious Plus
Floralicious Plus is a humic acid source derived from Protein Hydrolysate, Potassium Sulfate, and Sea Kelp. Humic acids enhance metabolic growth, which will improve the performance of your cannabis plants at all stages of growth, contributing to both the quantity and quality of your bud.
Inoculants
Inoculants provide biological life to your growing medium. Bacteria, algea, viruses and more micro-life are already everywhere, all the time. So you might as well try to control what you’re harboring…
HydroGuard
HydroGuard is a bacterial root inoculant. There are two main approaches to protecting the health of your reservoir. One is to effectively sterilize your reservoir with something like FloraKleen. While that is certainly a valid option, it makes using things like our next recommendation below, pretty much impossible. Instead, we choose to use beneficial Bacillus bacteria to out-compete any potential nastiest in our reservoir. It’s like probiotics for your weed!
RhizoBlast
Our last critical component is another of Botanicare’s, what can we say, they make some killer inoculants. We won’t lie, RhizoBlast is not cheap stuff. This proprietary formula contains a blend of nutrients that help with root growth and nutrient uptake. There’s good reason we go out of our way to use HydroGuard in place of FloraKleen, even though Rhizo Blast is as pricey as it is. The stuff works. I’d say it’s magic, but that’s probably proprietary too.
Conclusion
We hope this top down overview helps to give you an understanding of an optimized Section 3780.29-compliant cannabis grow-op. We haven’t included every aspect and detail of our setup or nutrition line, as everyone will want to customize it a bit as they choose, but we think this setup is a great way to start producing your own quality cannabis, legally, at home.