Will my DWC plants survive without a pump?

[jm00re02]

I've been growing some plants for a few weeks but both of my water pumps broke a few days ago. It was my fault for having them in a spot where they got wet but now I'm stuck waiting for a new one to arrive in about 12 days.

I have some backup pumps but not enough to keep all four of my plants oxygenated. To try and save them, I drained about two-thirds of the water from the buckets, so they're basically in a Kratky setup now. So far, the plants look fine, but I'm worried about what will happen over the next week and a half. I've decided to just wait for the new pump and not risk moving the plants or my other grow.

I was told that as a home grower, I should have redundant equipment for everything, but that's not really realistic for most of us. I'll be posting updates on how my plants are doing without the pumps to see if this kind of simple setup can work in a pinch. What are your tips for dealing with equipment failure in the middle of a grow?

 

[Mcart]

Redundancy is ideal, but yeah, not always practical at home, sometimes improvising is the only option. Looking forward to your updates

 

[HELYAB]

If you're running DWC, the constant aeration is part of what keeps the roots healthy, but plants are surprisingly resilient. Draining the buckets so part of the roots are exposed to air was a smart move - that's essentially the Kratky approach. To help them along, try to agitate the water manually once or twice a day to introduce some oxygen. Keeping the nutrient solution cool will also help it hold more dissolved oxygen. If you have any spare aquarium pump or can borrow one, even intermittent bubbling is better than none. A small battery-powered air pump or even adding a few drops of hydrogen peroxide can buy you time. Long term, it's worth having a cheap backup pump on hand so you're not caught off guard again, but in the meantime your plants should hang on fine as long as the exposed root portion stays moist.

 

[MarlonGornez]

Keep an air pump and stone. They're just cheap and can save your crop. Lift up your electronics and use drip shields to keep water away. Label and organize your stuff, so you can quickly find what you need when things go wrong.

 

[Colonel HB]

Look into Kratky Hydrophonics coz there are stuff you can learn from it and hopefully you gat your pump working quicker this time too.

 

[Roer714]

What kind of pump do you have to wait 12 days for? I have always used an aquarium pump, (Large) for my ten gallon container with six gallons of water and 2 large stones.