Congratulations on your new purchase of a MizuGrow DWC Hydroponics Kit! If this is your first step into hydroponics, welcome! If you don’t already have a kit, check out our listing on Etsy.
What is hydroponics? A method of growing plants using only water, air, and nutrients — no soil! With hydroponics, nutrients are mixed into a water supply and then delivered directly to plants. The process is less labor intensive compared to soil-based growing methods which require soil preparation, weeding, fertilizing, and dealing with pesticides. Hydroponics also allows for finer tuning of plant nutrition which leads to faster and greater yields.
Deep Water Culture (DWC): DWC stands for Deep Water Culture and it is one of many types of hydroponic systems. With DWC, plant roots are submerged in water for constant access to water/nutrients. However, plant roots still need oxygen so this system uses an air pump to oxygenate the water reservoir. This oxygenation is dual-purpose in that it also prevents the reservoir from being a stagnant, sitting body of water — perfect breeding conditions for algae which can lead to a variety of problems. Maintenance involves keeping nutrient water levels up and monitoring for pH fluctuation. You can read more information on DWC here.
A huge advantage of DWC systems is the flexibility they offer for beginners and pros alike. You’ll see them used by hobbyists to industrial grow companies. This is possible because DWC setups can range from super simple to amazingly complex, automated, and scaled up. Here at MizuGrow, we are aiming to empower anyone to grow plants hydroponically. We’re here to spread the knowledge and make it easier to get started.
In this article, we’ll go through detailed steps to help you set up your kit.
EQUIPMENT
Your kit comes with the following items:
- Net pot lid
- Water level indicator
- Air pump + air stone + air tubing
- Hydroton pellets
- Rockwool cubes
- Digital pH meter
- Nutrient powder
Additional items you will need:
- 5 gallon bucket from your local hardware store (or any bucket with a 12 in diameter)
- pH balancing solution (pH Down)
- Light source (sun or grow light)
- (recommended) room temperature distilled water to calibrate pH meter
SETTING UP YOUR MIZUGROW DWC KIT
Let’s get started with setting up your DWC kit! If you prefer video instructions, please watch the video below. We still recommend you read the instructions for extra tips. Read and watch at the same time!
Germinate
With the kit we’ve provided, it’s easy to start plants from seeds or from existing plants.
1. Soak the rockwool cubes thoroughly with water.
If you are starting with seeds,
2. Place the seed(s) into the center hole of the rockwool cube. The number of seeds depends on the plant — you can google search the optimal number of seeds to sow together. If you are unsure, start with 1 seed.
If you are growing the plant from a cutting, look up the best way to propagate it. Usually this involves clipping off a branch of the plant with a clean cut and applying a rooting agent to encourage root growth. Place the clipping into the rockwool cube and into water. If you see roots growing from the bottom of the cube, you’ve succeeded in propagating your plant!
For more advanced users, you can try to transplant seedlings by cleaning out all the soil around the roots and carefully placing the plant into the rockwool cube — or if the roots are too large, into the hydroton directly. You do want the roots exposed to the water so this may require some root gymnastics. Be careful not to introduce dirt and bacteria into the water reservoir. We don’t recommend this for plants past their seedling stage as it can put the plant into shock.
Clean the pellets
The pellets may be dusty from grinding during transportation.
3. Wash the hydroton pellets with water. Mix them around to dislodge as much dust as possible.
4. Once the hydroton pellets are clean, soak them and the air stones in water for 1 hour.
Mixing Nutrients
In the kit, you’ll find a bag of powdered nutrients. The bag of powdered nutrients contains about 5 teaspoons which is enough for 10 gallons of nutrient solution.
5. If you are using a 5 gallon bucket, add half the bag of nutrients (2.5 teaspoons) into the empty bucket. If your bucket is a different volume, use 0.5 teaspoons of nutrients, roughly 2.5g, per 1 gallon of water.
6. Put the net pot on the bucket. Fill the bucket with your nutrient solution until the water level reaches 1 inch above the bottom of the net pot.
*protip*: before you fill the bucket with water, you may want to move the bucket to your grow location first so you don’t need to carry the heavy water-filled bucket and spill water everywhere.
7. Remove the net pot so you can mix the nutrients thoroughly. Keep mixing until all the nutrients have dissolved.
8. Do some searching to find the pH that your plant needs to grow. For example, if I search “What pH is needed to grow Kale” the results tell me I need 6.5 to 6.8 pH.
9. Calibrate your pH meter using the instructions inside the pH meter box. You will need room temperature distilled water to do this.
10 Use the pH meter to measure the pH of the nutrient solution. Adjust the pH as necessary using pH Up and/or ph Down.
(Note: pH Up and pH Down are powerful solutions and usually only require a few drops to change the pH of your entire water reservoir.)
Setting up your system
11. Thread the air tubing through the center of the net pot lid between the openings. Connect the air stone to the tubing below the net pot lid. Depending on your air pump, you may have 1 or 2 set(s) of air tubing and air stone.
12. Place the net pot lid on top of your 5 gallon bucket and make sure the air stone reaches the bottom of the bucket.
13. Fill the center of the net pot with hydroton pellets halfway or until you can not see the holes in the net pot anymore.
14. Place the rockwool cube into the center of the net pot on top of the hydroton pellets. Cover the rockwool cube with a ziploc bag if you’re starting with seeds.
The ziploc bag will retain moisture and create an optimal growing environment for seedlings. Remove the plastic bag once you see the seedling has emerged out of the rockwool. This may take a few days/weeks depending on the plant but you can still move on to the next steps.
15. Fill the net pot with the remaining hydroton pellets around the rockwool cube making sure to leave the rockwool cube uncovered.
16. Assemble your water level indicator. (a gif is worth a thousand words)
17. Insert the water level indicator into the pre-drilled hole in the net pot.
18. Connect the air pump to the air tubing. If you haven’t already, move your kit to your grow location and connect the air pump to a power outlet.
Congratulations!!!
You’ve set up your full-blown DWC system with the MizuGrow Hydroponics Kit! Please feel free to reach out to us on any of our social media platforms for questions and tips! If you want to purchase a kit, check out our Etsy page.
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