DWC Hydroponic VS Kratky Non-Circulating Hydroponic - Which Grows Lettuce Faster?

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Hydroponics
DWC
Deep Water Culture
Kratky Hydroponic
Non-Circulating Hydroponics

[JenMarco]

I’m shocked! I thought the kratky wouldn’t grow nearly as fast as the one with the air circulation water system. Thank you for stopping me from wasting time and money on pumps and electricity

[sparkymikey]

The top roots are called air roots. Too much bubbles can cause the water roots to slow but in longer grow time plants dwc will catch up and surpass. Lettuce grows in short spans especially indoor and hydroponically so they do well in kratky, low maintenance setups. I run my pumps at the same time as my lights and my 5 gallon bucket dwc is growing basil, tomato and watermelon 2-5 times faster than my soil comparisons.

[pookoos]

Your channel is really really useful and so well done. No nonsense- you just get to the point and your experiments are really thorough. I'm trying hydro for the first time ever, after decades of soil growing. I'm not getting around so well after cancer surgery and this seems like a great gardening option for folks with limited mobility, like seniors. Thanks for the inspiration!

[jethrotull]

I greatly appreciate your testing things, the results were amazing and unexpected !

[dlm]

Thank you for showing us this comparison. I'm starting out with Kratky and am happy to know it works as well, if not better than, DWC. I'd love to see a comparison on fruiting vegetables as well!

[mikeavon]

Excellent experiment! I grow Kratky and was thinking of experimenting with DWC. But you covered it. Thank you.

[njabulodzonzi]

Trying hydroponics for the first time this week and this has been super helpful. Thank you

[highway]

Your test produced some interesting results. Its amazing how the roots adapt to the different environments. The results of this test give us a better understanding of the plants oxygen needs and how it develops to achieve survival. I very much appreciated this comparative test on video.

[justinwhite]

Thank you for doing this, this is a great low-cost method of hydroponics that I am absolutely going to do myself.

[threedogsandacamper]

Excellent video! Thanks for your effort on this experiment.

[estherlee]

This answers my earlier question to you on why my the roots of my cherry tomato cutting keep dropping off and rotting. I cut some of the roots off and changed to the kratky method and it began growing roots and leaves again!

[cholt]

Great experiment and great results! Bravo!!

[remka]

The difference in the roots is super interesting. Explains a lot.
Everytime you mention disturbance I think about Star Wars and the Force 😊

[jps]

Thanks for making this great video, well done experiment, love the side by side comparisons!

[MattGarver]

Great experiment, since root size with Kratky can depend on container size and the amount of nutrient drop, using 5 plants in a 5-gallon bucket might create competitive growth and nutrient use that would make bigger lettuce heads.

[reforgedcriterion]

Pretty cool to see the differences, and to see how it didn't really make the end product better. The KISS principle strikes again!

[bentgenetics]

Great experiment, thanks for sharing with us.

[HectorPerez-tbhn]

I will recommend you to keep doing more research on this topic !!

[vhnguyen]

Hi Khang. I have been enjoying ur videos for a few years now. Thank you once again for all ur informative videos. As for this experiment, my opinion from my experience is the dwc using rockwool and peat pellet is that they are so saturated with splashing water that make the lettuce plant struggles at the seedling/young stage. Once the water level from the container drop enough to not get saturated by the splashing water, the plant will start to thrive. And i also think there is a relation with the water consumption from each type of plant. Lets say dwc bok choy vs dwc lettuce. Bok choy intakes more water than lettuce so it does not matter that the rockwool or peat pellet is wet from splashing water. Now as for dwc lettuce vs kratky lettuce...they all touch the water at the beginning thus they all get saturated. Then...wich one will have a dry rockwool/peat pellet first as water drop? I am no expert. I just want to share u my experience as i once had to ask myself why my kratky lettuce grows better than my dwc in a 30 days frame. U should try dwc lettuce in only clay pebbles without rockwool.

[avoncalling]

Thanks for sharing that experiment. I truly learned and understand each method better now.