DWC
Deep Water Culture (DWC) hydroponics is another way of growing plants where the roots are suspended in a highly oxygenated nutrient solution, rather than planted in soil.
This is one of the oldest, even historical methods for growing plants hydroponically. This is one of my favorites because of its simplicity. This system can be scaled from one container with one plant to a giant water reservoir with thousand of plants and is one of the oldest methods for growing plants.
The system consists of a water reservoir, this reservoir can be a small container that can hold water to something much larger. The container is where you have the nutrient solution and an air pump to provide oxygen to the roots.
As the plants mature they use more water and nutrients. You pretty much top off the nutrient solution with water. You also have to do a nutrient replenishment. You basically take 75% to 90% of the nutrient solution and replace it with a fresh nutrient solution. While the plants are very small you may not have to change the nutrient solution for 2 to 4 weeks depending on the plants and the size of the water reservoir. As the plants grow you may have to change out the nutrient solution once a week. The small amount of nutrient solution that you don’t change has beneficial bacteria that help the plants from being shocked when the new nutrient solution is introduced.
Advantages Of Deep Water Culture Systems
Deep water culture systems are a good way to get started with hydroponics. It is one step up in complexity from wick systems, but it is still simple enough to be accessible to anyone. Here are some of the main advantages of deep water culture systems.
Simplicity of setup. Deep water culture systems are easy to set up and only require a few parts that can be put together in a short period of time. The only moving part is an air pump, which is easy to configure.
Monitoring is fairly simple, as long as it is done frequently and you understand the basics.
Maintenance costs are very little once the system is set up.
Plants grow much faster. This leads to larger plants with greater yields compared to soil based cultivation.
Disadvantages Of Deep Water Culture Systems
Fluctuations in pH and nutrient concentration. This is problem in small scale systems.
Calibration difficulty. Again, in smaller systems, due to the low volume of nutrient solution, it is more difficult to accurately adjust the pH and concentration of the nutrient solution. Sudden swings in the characteristics of the nutrient solution due to imprecise calibration can again lead to negative impacts on your plants.
The water temperature is difficult to keep within the target range as it will be quickly affected by the ambient temperature of the growing space.
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