How to set-up a simple Hydroponic DWC (Deep Water Culture) gardening system.

13.06.18 07:17 AM - Comment(s) - By Admin


A floating vegetable garden in your kitchen - Hydroponic DWC, a.k.a. Deep Water Culture. DWC is a hydroponic method of growing plants, wherein plant roots are suspended in nutrient-rich, oxygenated water.


I can say, DWC is one of the cheapest and most straightforward methods of hydroponics to grow your leafy veggies like lettuce, spinach, coriander, fenugreek, and herbs, etc. Due to its simplicity, one can also grow cherry tomatoes, green peas, cucumber, and bottle gourds using DWC. In today's post, we will teach you how to set up a low-cost, basic DWC system.

Kale growing in DWC bed in CityGreens Research Farm in Ahmedabad


Components of Deep Water Culture (DWC) System

Grow Bed

    To set up this system in your kitchen garden, all you need is a tub or tray-like container which can hold the nutrient solution. You can go for any household items like unused tubs, buckets, etc. In CityGreen's Urban Gardening Research Center, we created customized multi-layered, eco-friendly, wooden grow racks.

Lid or Cover

    You can use the standard lid of container or paint bucket or the tub you are using. In our set-up, since we started ground up, we used Styrofoam sheets.

Nutrients

    Since the grow medium here is water, it becomes essential to provide plant nutrition externally. We rely on our in-house range of nutrients for the same. We use all of these in our Research Center. Still, my personal favorite is CG Symphony Combo Pack, as it gives me enough freedom to control the plant's nutritional plan according to its lifecycle needs.

Air Pump

    Along with water and nutrients, the plant's roots need oxygen as well. Thus an air pump is required to Oxygenate water. A typical aquarium pump can do the job pretty well. You can also skip this and manually oxygenate the water by giving it a gentle shake (or stir or bubbling air through it using a straw) every day.

Steps to setup a Hydroponic DWC System

In the following section, we will elaborate on how you can go about setting up our first Hydroponic DWC system. You can follow similar lines to set up your system. 

Step 1 - Seed Germination

Germinate the seeds. You can go with germinating in standard seed germination trays or net-pots. The advantage of using net-pots is that you will not need to transplant the sapling (and hence minimize the chances of damaging roots or transplant shock) while shifting it to the grow bed. 


The image shows seeds germinated in net-pots using CityGreen's Seed Starter Kit. 

Step 2 - Preparation of Grow Bed

Prepare grow beds or containers in which you will be growing the crops. Ensure that the container or bed is waterproof, and there is no leakage. (Unlike the normal pots with drainage holes, in DWC, you want the water to stay in the pot and used up completely). Do test the grow bed for any leakages using plain water. 

The image shows trainees of CityGreens Commercial Training program learning to make a DWC grow bed.


Step 3 - Preparation of Lid

Make a sufficient number of holes in the container lid. The hole size should be such that it can easily hold the structure that will be housing the sapling. You can go for standard 2-inch net-pots for the same. To keep costs low, you can also go for the common household sponge.  Make holes in the lid as per your requirement.

The image shows holes cut into a Styrofoam lid. 

Step 4 - Preparation of Nutrient Solution

Prepare the nutrient solution by adding the nutrients to water as per the manufacturer's instructions. If you are using our nutrients, follow the instruction set that comes along with the nutrients, or call our support desk for someone to guide you. 

The image shows the original NPK solution from the house of CityGreens. Since then it has undergone iterative improvements based upon customer feedback and our own research. You can get the current batch here.

Step 5 - Readying the DWC System

Fill the grow container with nutrient solution. Fill it to a level that it just touches the base of the structure housing the sapling (net-pots or sponge). This will ensure that plan roots get the water through wicking action, and you don't have to worry about watering daily.  Fill the grow container to such a level to ensure that plant roots never go dry. Slowly roots will emerge out of net-pot down, and even if the water level is going down, you will not need to worry about watering as roots will still be submerged in water.  As the nutrient solution level goes down, roots go further down to draw water, thus eliminating the need for frequent watering. 

Step 6 - Transplant & enjoy watching your plants grow

Transplant the sapling to a grow container, and you are done. Your Hydroponics DWC set up is alive and kicking.  Saplings transferred into grow beds, and here follows the results we got. We opened our center for interested hobbyists and gardeners to visit, and all our produce got sold in less than a week. 

Spinach growing in multiple racks without the use of any LED grow lights or chemical pesticides. 

Regular maintenance and upkeep of DWC System

Once the system is up and running, it will require little maintenance. 


Following are the few things you will need to look for periodically:-

    • Managing pH Level - plant roots can absorb nutrients only if the pH of nutrient solution is in a specific range (between 5.5 to 7.0 for the majority of plants, depending upon plant variety and species). You can use a simple pH meter or chemistry lab pH strips to measure the pH. 
    • Topping up the nutrient solution - as plants will absorb nutrients from the solution, the level of various nutrients available will keep going down. So a periodic (weekly or bi-monthly) top-up of the nutrient solution may be required. 
    • Oxygenating of nutrient solution -  as pointed out earlier in this post, periodic oxygenation of nutrient solution will be required for good growth.
    • Look out for pests -  Last but not the least, do look out for pests or any distress symbols in your plants.

Now that you know how to setup and maintain a DWC system, what are you waiting for. Get started and enjoy safe and high quality home grown food.

Further, if you are interested, you can read here to understand the cost-dynamics of commercial DWC system.

HappyFarming!

Admin

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