# Near-plant-death experience in DWC



## MergeLeft (Jun 10, 2007)

The last couple days I've been trying to catch up my knowledge to my plants and saw some stuff here about and power failures & how they can crash a DWC grow when the airstones stop & the oxygen gets used up. So I ordered some battery powered air pumps and some extras to plug into the battery/inverter cuz mine are hardwired in & the inverter ccouldn't handle the whole setup for long.

Not soon enough!

Lucky me- the powers of the universe decided to demonstrate that for me today so I would never forget. 

About noon, the power sputtered out & it took me & the inverter wasn't charged & it took  an hour to get a gas generator going. By that time, 4 plants in a ten gal tank- not even big ones- and 5 small ones in a 3 gal, were in serious droop mode. Leaves at sides, or headed there.

Took a couple hours to recover. If I hadn't read it here, I might not even have checked until it was too late.


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## Stoney Bud (Jun 10, 2007)

Another reason to go with ebb and flow if you're going to use hydroponics.

Of course, without lights, the same thing will happen. Having a generator saved the day for you man.

There are drawbacks to inside growing...

How long was your power out all together?


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## Viracocha711 (Jun 10, 2007)

Stoney, in a situation regarding a power outage and using an ebb and flow system in a greenhouse or somewhere outside where light is not an issue...How would you recommend watering to keep the plants alive? Just pour the nut sol in the bed X amount of times during the power outage? Like every 3 hours give each plant a drink?

Just curious, it seems with and ebb and flow you would have this luxury.


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## Stoney Bud (Jun 10, 2007)

Viracocha711 said:
			
		

> Stoney, in a situation regarding a power outage and using an ebb and flow system in a greenhouse or somewhere outside where light is not an issue...How would you recommend watering to keep the plants alive? Just pour the nut sol in the bed X amount of times during the power outage? Like every 3 hours give each plant a drink?
> 
> Just curious, it seems with and ebb and flow you would have this luxury.


 
Exactly Viracocha! With an ebb and flow system, you can simply dip a clean bucket into the reservoir and slowly pour it over the media in each grow chamber. The plants won't even know the power is out!

If you have a power generator, you can run your lights for an hour, every 4-6 hours and the plants will be just fine as long as this doesn't happen for more than one day.

If the plants are in vegetative cycle, they won't flower that way either. The interruption of the dark cycle is sufficient to make them "think" they are under constant light.


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## Viracocha711 (Jun 10, 2007)

Thanks...I fear the day it happens, because I know where I live we get a power outage for 1-2 days almost every year! I will say though, it has not happened since the last one when the local government said they had fixed the problem...YIKES! Any government claiming to have fixed a problem is scary in itself!


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## Stoney Bud (Jun 10, 2007)

Viracocha711 said:
			
		

> YIKES! Any government claiming to have fixed a problem is scary in itself!


 
Hahahahaahahahah, that seems to be true no matter what country is being discussed.

I find that to be an oddly interesting trait of the human species.

I'm glad sometimes that I'm an alien from X3481. hehe We love our government there! They give away free cookies and pot!


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## MergeLeft (Jun 10, 2007)

Stoney Bud said:
			
		

> Another reason to go with ebb and flow if you're going to use hydroponics.
> 
> Of course, without lights, the same thing will happen. Having a generator saved the day for you man.
> 
> ...


 
Stoney & Viracocha711, I live in *deregulated-powergrid-hell*, no kidding we had 12 outages, after yesterday, make it 13 in the past 12 months, that lasted long enough to resort to the generator. I have fish and my husband and I have a peculiar attachment to NOT FREEZING TO DEATH so we have to have 20 gallons of gas waiting to explode in our garage. May my husband live long and prosper (he's the electrician) or everything withers and croaks the next time the wind blows.

Yesterday it was about 3 hours, but _groaaaan_ we have been out for days at a time, so I shoulda thought of this & gone for ebb & flow, but I don't think dumping fresh nute solution on my head would keep *me* sane when when this happens, so now that I'm clued in, this shouldn't be any worse than it already was. 

To bring the kids back to life, I put two more air pumps feeding into the mix and they're still in there. More is better, right?  

Today everybody's happy again- I uploaded smiling faces of the survivors in the Gallery. Have a gander & let me know what you think cuz you both know a lot more than moi.

Thanks for caring!


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## Stoney Bud (Jun 10, 2007)

MergeLeft said:
			
		

> Stoney & Viracocha711, I live in *deregulated-powergrid-hell*, no kidding we had 12 outages, after yesterday, make it 13 in the past 12 months, that lasted long enough to resort to the generator.


 
Sounds like my place. I'm the very last house on my grid. If a branch takes out the lines, they say "Only three people are affected" and they'll get to it when they can...

I love my generator. I have a 7500 watt, (13,500 surge), generac. I can run everything in my house except the central air with it.

Good luck to you!


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## MergeLeft (Jun 10, 2007)

Stoney Bud said:
			
		

> I love my generator. I have a 7500 watt, (13,500 surge), generac. I can run everything in my house except the central air with it.
> 
> Good luck to you!


 
When I come into my inheritance, one of those babies is right up there on the list!


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## Stoney Bud (Jun 10, 2007)

MergeLeft said:
			
		

> When I come into my inheritance, one of those babies is right up there on the list!


 
I hear ya man. They are expensive.


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## Viracocha711 (Jun 11, 2007)

I guess I should complain about my power supplier, huh?


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