Quote:
Originally Posted by perzyk
One more thing. DWC is not as simple as mixing up some nutes and dumping them into a bucket. PPM and Ph have to be monitored very closely once you get into heavy veging and flowering/fruiting. Once the plant starts feeding heavy both PPM and Ph will change very quickly over the course of a day or two.
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Even though I don't use a EC/TDS/PPM meter at all, controlling fluctuation in
nutrient strength, as well as pH swings are some of the reasons that I mentioned that a
drip system would be more forgiving. Specifically because those things would be easier to control, especially as the plant gets bigger. I'm really unclear how large the plants that animus_divinus is planning, but I'm assuming he's going to try prune the tomato plants to 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall. Even that size plant could probably drink at least 1 gallon of water a day (especially with fruit on it).
So using a 5 gallon bucket as a water culture system reservoir, that realistically probably wont have more nutrient solution in it than 4 gallons when full. If the plant drinks 1 gallon of water each day, that would increase the nutrient strength by at least 25% as the plant drinks up the water. And even if the water is replaced daily, that will result in nutrient strength fluctuations of at least 25% daily. Then along with pH fluctuations from the fluctuating nutrient concentration, unless the replacement water is pH adjusted prior to adding it, that will affect the pH as well. Using one larger central reservoir will have less fluctuation, as well as be much easier to control in my opinion. Though some people prefer using water culture for growing everything, so I guess it's just what works for you.