Flooding Ebb Buckets Too Often

[AlphaPhase]

Those are some nice looking girls man! I had a Royal Queen Ice strain that i had a nice skunk phenotype of that looked just like that skunk #1. Very nice! I am hoping to get about 4-5 oz from the 3 gallon pots, I usually use 5 gallon if I'm using soil but the 3 gallon pots were about the same height as my hydro pots so I figured I'd keep them in there and hope they don't get too root bound. I've gotten 7 oz in a 3 gallon before, but I usually figure about an oz per gallon to be realistic, and I hope for the best lol. My Larry OG is maybe 20" tall or so, it's very short because I've fimmed it and super cropped it so many times, it's just seriously bushy! I like the idea of letting the middle fill out like you have. Do you just lst the 6 shoots first? or Super crop the 6 tops? The larry og you had looks nice and frosty. 560g isn't bad, was that with a 1000w? Larry is known for lower yields to avg yields, so over a lb. is good! The popcorn would make some great wax or bubble hash for sure!! Theres always a use for most of the plant I'm hoping to get about .7g per watt, so 700g with 6 ebb buckets and 2 soil pots, total of 8 scrogged plants. I hope anyways, i know agent orange is a heavy yielder and with larry being so/so yield, i should be able to achieve the goal. The larry og i have is a cali connection that i got from a nor cal club, some phenos may look slightly different in leaf structure and such, I think the pheno i have is the one that smells like lemon pledge. Normally I do a 36 plant 3.5x3.5 flood table, but my plant limit for my county is only 12 total so I had to change up everything to keep in the limits. I really liked flood tables with SOG. So much faster turn around time, so easy to trim, and hardly any veg time. So simple

 

[StChristopher]

I like the idea of letting the middle fill out like you have. Do you just lst the 6 shoots first? or Super crop the 6 tops? The larry og you had looks nice and frosty. 560g isn't bad, was that with a 1000w? Larry is known for lower yields to avg yields, so over a lb. is good!

After cutting the top shoot for a clone, I just train the top branch, then top the bottom two branch after she recovers from cutting the clone (4-5 days later)

then I just keep trainning each branch level and out. I do cheat at times and use a bamboo stake, lay it horizontal across the top branches, I keep tying the grown tip to the stake. to get a T in the main stem. It takes little time and effort but pays off big in shaping.

600 HPS on a 3x3 and 600HPS 3x3 and I do 2 plants in the space between the two flood tables (no wasted space)

 

[AlphaPhase]

After cutting the top shoot for a clone, I just train the top branch, then top the bottom two branch after she recovers from cutting the clone (4-5 days later)

then I just keep trainning each branch level and out. I do cheat at times and use a bamboo stake, lay it horizontal across the top branches, I keep tying the grown tip to the stake. to get a T in the main stem. It takes little time and effort but pays off big in shaping.

600 HPS on a 3x3 and 600HPS 3x3 and I do 2 plants in the space between the two flood tables (no wasted space)

Whoa well I'll be damned, that's cool as hell, I don't think I've ever seen a stem perfectly t-ed like that! My nodes are always so uneven I don't know if I could get anything to look like that, are they from seed? That's damn cool, I'm gonna pop a seed and train one like that I'm a outdoor tomato cage for shits and giggles soon, I bet if I could train each main branch to T like that and tie them to the different levels of the cage as it grows that would make a damn sturdy plant, we have a lot of wind here so sturdy plants are supreme. Have you seen a spiral LST before? I can't remember where I read about it, but the plant was trained in a upward spiral like a cork screw, it was pretty cool, definitely time consuming but I want to try that as well for a project

 

[AlphaPhase]

Just wanted to finish updating about my flooding conclusions, I've found, for me, that flooding less frequently during the first week of newly rooted clones was the way that worked for me. 2-3 floods a day for the first week, and now I am flooding every 4.5 hours on 18hr cycle, but only changed my cycles after roots hit the bottom of the buckets. Then I changed to 4.5 hours floods for 15 min. No dark period flooding. Ihave no mmore dropping, nice roots, plants are perky, turning a nice green and most importantly, eating nutes. They have eaten 20ppm of nutes within the last 24 hours.

 

[AlphaPhase]

OK, the real conclusion of this thread about over flooding has to do with how much hydroton you are using and how big the net pot is. My first ebb n grow system was a 2 gallon pot filled full with hydroton. This can and will lead to overwatering if you flood too much. I now have modified my ebb bucket system to have 5" net pots filled with a few cups of hydroton rather than 2 gallons, and I am flooding every 2.5 hrs and they are doing great. The roots are now suspended in air rather than suffocated in hydroton and the growth is at least 3x as fast and no more overwatering Problems. My suggestion would be to modify your ebb n grow buckets similar to mine and you will NOT over water, you can feed more and they grow faster. It's a flaw with the original ebb bucket system.

 

[Dr.Pecker]

I'm running two dwc buckets this winter. Do yo think I would be okay using just water and organic teas?

 

[AlphaPhase]

Nice buds dude! About organic dwc, haven't tried it yet but will be next grow giving it a shot. I think the bennies do better in warmer water, so that's the only factor I can think of.. The water temps, might need a water heater

 

[Dr.Pecker]

I guess I'm going to learn something this winter. you can use fish water (aquaponics) I wouldn't think it wold be too much different

 

[AlphaPhase]

If you ever do aquaponics, let me know man, I love the idea of aquaponics, it's just kind of intimidating to start up a system like that. Would love to figure out how to do a mini aquaponic system someday. Wish I could help with organic dwc man, I'll be learning along with ya

 

[Dreamwalker_j]

I hav

I understand that with flood tables, I've used flood tables for years with no.problems, but this is ebb and grow buckets, with a separate controller bucket and 32 gallon reservoir. I have an air pump in my reservoir as well. My agent Orange strain was fine with flooding every 3 hours, but my Larry og was not. An air pump in a ebb and grow bucket reservoir being useful is also debatable, as the oxygen is created for the roots only during the draining of the system and not the flooding.

I'm talking about new clones and not full veg plants also. I know more frequent flooding during full veg is fine, but newly rooted clones I'd have to disagree

I have to step in here. I agree with what you said about new clones needs less but, no, the oxygen for the roots is not only made during the drain cycle, i think you may be a bit confused. As the buckets drain, it pulls oxygen back down to the root area, however, i have an expensive venturi pump in my res, it has an outside air intake line so as it sucks in the water at the bottom of the res, it compresses it and sucks in/injects fresh O2 as it blasts the water back out. It makes a difference. It oxygenates the water (without heating it up or getting plugged like airstones do) and then during the flood cycle, the water at peak oxygenation levels is flooded to the roots and THIS is where they get oxygen. If you are skeptical, buy a venturi pump and drop it in your res. You will be back to thank me (unless you get too high and forget from all the awesome weed you'll be smoking)

 

[Dreamwalker_j]

Hey y'all I'll get back to ya soon, everyone's making valid points, let's try to not put anyone down, this is all about learning. Here's some update pics from the last 48 hours of that particular clone getting better after being put into some organic soil. And one picture of the bud, is it just me or does the bud look like a teddy bear?! Anyways, ill be back to explain my findings later

teddy bead bud. Fantastic. That made my day brother.