First time hydro

[B-rad]

Ok so almost a month ago I decided I wanted to try hydroponics. I looked up some stuff and wanted to try a DWC 5 gallon bucket system since it would fit in my room nicely. I started spinach and bell peppers in some jiffy peat pellets and after a few weeks I had some nice seedlings growing. I had everything setup bucket wise. The air pump, the tubing, water stone, lights, and some net cups I made out of red solo cups. After most of a month of growing in the peat pellets I decided I would try to move one of my peppers into the hydro system. I cleaned the peat off the roots the best I could under some gentle water and set it aside on a wet paper towel. I then began to mix my solution. I had found a recipe on a website using 1 tsp. Miracle grow plant food, 1/4 tsp. Calcium chloride, and 1/4 tsp. Epsom salts per gallon of water. I was using about 4 gallons of water so I mixed accordingly. I got my plant, net cup, and clay pebbles. I dangled the roots out the bottom of the cup so that they would barely be in the water. Then I filled in the clay pebbles to the dirt line of the pepper plant. The first two days it seemed to be doing fine. The next one leaf fell off, and the day after that I come home to the entire plant wilted and dying. I want to continue with hydroponics, but I have no idea what I did wrong. I'm hoping one of you hydro geniuses on here can guide me in the right direction.

~Brad

[JoysHydroponics]

Not sure if you found a solution yet, but I had read that some plants are not happy in DWC systems (too much water). I transplanted my pepper plant from a pot outside to my ebb & flow system (after rinsing out the roots of course) and it has been doing well. A couple flowers have bloomed so far. From what I understand, leafy greens (like lettuce, celery, etc.) do well in a DWC system. I have both DWC & ebb & flow, but in both I have also purchased nutrients from a hydroponics store. I'm not yet brave enough to make my own. Research plants that love water for your DWC system. Some need the dry spell, it helps their roots grow as well.

[imafan26]

I think it is more basic than that. Water roots vs soil roots. You started your seeds in a peat pellet which is still a soil based block, unless you had the pellet constantly moist with the hydro solution, your root system would have gone into shock when you changed their environment.
For the hydro system we 1inch oasis cubes the seeds were placed one per cube and the tray was tilted on the table with the hydro solution running under the cubes and back to the reservoir. The roots grow through the cubes and we transplanted them out to rails or the aero tower dropping the cube in the net pot. They either floated in a raft system or had running solution in the rail and aero tower.

In the dutch buckets we used seedlings we planted in plug trays. The media was Sunshine $4 which is a peat lite potting mix. When the seedlings were big enough we transplanted them out to the dutch buckets. Our dutch buckets contain black cinder but you can also use hydroton. Hydroponic solution is piped in from the reservoir and collected by a drain system to return it passively to the tank. The solution constantly goes in and out of the bucket. It is not a bucket raft system since we were growing tomatoes and cucumbers with it.

[JoysHydroponics]

Great! Sounds like you have it all figured out then!