2x4 Flood & drain container and media contemplation

Horselover fat

Horselover fat

Well-Known Member
trademanny said:
I've never used rockwool, but I've read a lot of horror stories. My aim is to make harvest, cleanup and reset as cheap and easy as possible. I'm not looking to fill the entire tray with hydroton or anything like that.

Thoughts?
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Why not just go DWC? No media (well almost no) to get rid of and buy. Super easy to cleanup and start again. Two buckets are easy to maintain without a res. More than that might be a bit of a chore.
 
J. Rocket

J. Rocket

Well-Known Member
PJ Diaz said:
That's true to a point, but people have been using recirculating systems for a long time with plenty of success. You do have to dump a res weekly, but it's not gonna pull everything it needs the first couple of flows through.
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umm...ok. too many buts.:blsmoke::mrgreen:
yup...I'm aware there are a bunch of other growing methods. I even tried a few over the decades before choosing the method I currently use.
plant will take what it needs/wants from the block between water/feed cycles.
the next cycle flushes out unwanted/unconsumed feed solution and replaces it with fresh.
about as simple as it gets indoors.
 
PJ Diaz

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
J. Rocket said:
umm...ok. too many buts.:blsmoke::mrgreen:
yup...I'm aware there are a bunch of other growing methods. I even tried a few over the decades before choosing the method I currently use.
plant will take what it needs/wants from the block between water/feed cycles.
the next cycle flushes out unwanted/unconsumed feed solution and replaces it with fresh.
about as simple as it gets indoors.
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I also do DTW myself, but the thought that a recirculating system somehow won't work is a flawed idea.
 
T

TheWholeTruth

Well-Known Member
trademanny said:
Hey folks,

Configuring a new little flood/drain table in a 2x4 tent. This will be for 2-4 plants, and likely use a screen to even out the canopy, scrog style, as I don't have a ton of height (the tent is only 6').

I'm debating between the following two approaches:

1) 5" net pots with hydroton with the table covered in panda plastic to allow the roots to grow out of the pots and into the table. (Similar to panhead's old style)
Pros: All reusable
Cons: Roots can clog drain openings. Need to flood more often. Undetected pump failure could lead to plant death pretty quickly. I've considered putting white felt on the bottom to try and protect against this.. however, if I'm going to do that, then why not.......

2) 4" or 6" rockwool cubes straight on the table with no panda plastic.
Pros: More versatile, can move plants around the table freely. Don't need to flood nearly as often, plants can survive a bit longer during a pump failure.
Cons: Need to buy new cubes for each grow. Unsure if 4" (or 6") cube is enough?

I've never used rockwool, but I've read a lot of horror stories. My aim is to make harvest, cleanup and reset as cheap and easy as possible. I'm not looking to fill the entire tray with hydroton or anything like that.

Thoughts?
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Your #1 idea. In the past I found this works well to stop anything clogging the drain fittings. (Infact me personaly have had systems were they fill and drain through the same fitting although for this you need a good timer on the pump. Worked very well) I used to pack some large rocks around the drain fittings wich used to act as a filter and stop any roots reaching the fitting.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Thundercat said:
In a 2x4 flood tray you can very easily fit 24 plants for a SOG. Each clone gets vegged for 2 weeks in a 6 inch pot to get strong roots. Then goes into flower at 7-8 inches tall. With decent genetics they will finish between 24-30 inches tall, and yield 20-30 dried grams per plant. So that's 500+ dried grams per tray full of plants. I was in a 4x4 tray and ran that way for years. I don't see why it wouldn't work just as well in a 2x4. You would obviously need a separate veg/clone space.
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What did you feed them after the veg stage and into flowering stage?
 
trademanny

trademanny

Active Member
Horselover fat said:
Why not just go DWC? No media (well almost no) to get rid of and buy. Super easy to cleanup and start again. Two buckets are easy to maintain without a res. More than that might be a bit of a chore.
Click to expand...
I would love to, but where I'm located, I'd be constantly battling reservoir temperatures and thus dissolved oxygen issues. I've had very good success with DWC in past lives, however.
 
J. Rocket

J. Rocket

Well-Known Member
PJ Diaz said:
I also do DTW myself, but the thought that a recirculating system somehow won't work is a flawed idea.
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I agree. lots of different methods work.
Dont think I even suggested a recirc system didnt work.
just not my choice based on what I want...simplicity, stability.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Duhh said:
What did you feed them after the veg stage and into flowering stage?
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I ran various nutes through the years with good results. I ran GH for the longest because it was easy to get and worked well. I fed my vegging clones a veg mix usually in the 400ppm range. I fed all my flowering plants a flower mix in the 700-900ppm range. I used a 45 gallon res and typically did reservoir changes every 2 weeks but went as long as a month a few times. In between changes I topped it off every few days with either water or fresh nutrients depending on what the plants were drinking. This allowed for a slight PH swing over a couple days to maximize the uptake range. I left the setup unattended several times for 5-7 days with no issues, and as long as 9 days one time.
 
BeastGrow

BeastGrow

Well-Known Member
Greengene is a great grower i discovered on youtube. He is doing a hydro flood to drain table and using 2 or 3 gallon fabric pots with Coco coir. raised up on about 8" off flood. looks great. he just flipped to flower on this round and has about 5 or 6 videos detailing everything.. he is one of the people that seems to have a good philosophy and gets really dank buds very economically using hydro methods.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Thanks bro, sounds good. 2 weeks veg at low ppm then onto flower.

What strains did you use that gave you the best single cola results? Did you trim any lower branches that may have started to grow, so as to focus the growth on the one single cola? Or was that never necessary?

Yes I'm thinking this method sounds very simple.

Thanks for the help.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Thundercat said:
I ran various nutes through the years with good results. I ran GH for the longest because it was easy to get and worked well. I fed my vegging clones a veg mix usually in the 400ppm range. I fed all my flowering plants a flower mix in the 700-900ppm range. I used a 45 gallon res and typically did reservoir changes every 2 weeks but went as long as a month a few times. In between changes I topped it off every few days with either water or fresh nutrients depending on what the plants were drinking. This allowed for a slight PH swing over a couple days to maximize the uptake range. I left the setup unattended several times for 5-7 days with no issues, and as long as 9 days one time.
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Did you ever get any algae problems considering you didn't have the flood table covered?
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Duhh said:
Did you ever get any algae problems considering you didn't have the flood table covered?
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nothing significant, with the tray full of plants and pots there wasn’t much light getting to the actual tray most of the time. I cleaned the tray out periodically but didn’t usually have much actual build up.


Duhh said:
Thanks bro, sounds good. 2 weeks veg at low ppm then onto flower.

What strains did you use that gave you the best single cola results? Did you trim any lower branches that may have started to grow, so as to focus the growth on the one single cola? Or was that never necessary?

Yes I'm thinking this method sounds very simple.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
I assume this was directed to me as well.

I preferred strains with a hybrid growth structure, and nice spear shaped colas. I grew a white widow that I kept for 4+ years because it was dank and worked perfectly in this system. you want something that will get some height during the transition phase, but stacks nodes while it does it not just stretching.
I would always remove the bottom couple sets of side branches right when they went into flower. This directed further growth upwards and reduced the amount of side space the plants needed.

there are lots of pictures of my garden in the grow journal linked in my signature line. Id Suggest looking through pages around the page 150 mark to find some.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Thundercat said:
nothing significant, with the tray full of plants and pots there wasn’t much light getting to the actual tray most of the time. I cleaned the tray out periodically but didn’t usually have much actual build up.




I assume this was directed to me as well.

I preferred strains with a hybrid growth structure, and nice spear shaped colas. I grew a white widow that I kept for 4+ years because it was dank and worked perfectly in this system. you want something that will get some height during the transition phase, but stacks nodes while it does it not just stretching.
I would always remove the bottom couple sets of side branches right when they went into flower. This directed further growth upwards and reduced the amount of side space the plants needed.

there are lots of pictures of my garden in the grow journal linked in my signature line. Id Suggest looking through pages around the page 150 mark to find some.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much, great information. it was directed at you yes.

I've got a couple of white widow seeds, i love white widow. This method sounds very good, I'm excited to make it work. I'll look at your grow, thank you.
 
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Isawthelight

Isawthelight

Well-Known Member
I used a 1'x4' low tide flood table in my 2'x4' tent. My first grow was 4 Fire on the Mountain clones that yielded 356g under a 320 watt 3-bar LED. I like 6" rockwool cubes & Jacks 321.
Flood Table stand for 4'x2' grow tent.png

07152022 GLS Progrow-320 driver.jpg

PXL_20220826_020452553.jpg
 
Isawthelight

Isawthelight

Well-Known Member
Duhh said:
Wow a little crispy in top hey:). How long did you veg them? Was it jacks 321 all the way through?

Nice graphics.
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I vegged 9 weeks (too long) and made lots of clones for the local club. 70 days of flower at full power (320w), VPD was too high, and the plants suffered nutrient burn. I'll do better next time, because the new Controller 69 Pro dims the light when the tent gets too warm. I exclusively fed Jacks 321, from seed to harvest.

3d model made with Sketchup2017.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Thundercat said:
nothing significant, with the tray full of plants and pots there wasn’t much light getting to the actual tray most of the time. I cleaned the tray out periodically but didn’t usually have much actual build up.




I assume this was directed to me as well.

I preferred strains with a hybrid growth structure, and nice spear shaped colas. I grew a white widow that I kept for 4+ years because it was dank and worked perfectly in this system. you want something that will get some height during the transition phase, but stacks nodes while it does it not just stretching.
I would always remove the bottom couple sets of side branches right when they went into flower. This directed further growth upwards and reduced the amount of side space the plants needed.

there are lots of pictures of my garden in the grow journal linked in my signature line. Id Suggest looking through pages around the page 150 mark to find some.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your help thundercat, I've looked at some of you threads and oh boy are you prolific, it's great to be able to get info off someone with so much experience.

When you cut the bottom branches off your vegging clones just before flower, did you use those for new clones? Is that a good idea or does clones of clones of clones etc, create problems on growth and yields? Did you just keep a mother plant and use that? Thank you!
 
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