Can I do Ebb & Flow with Soil as Medium???

Because i am doing just that LOL
Is this a dumb idea> I kinda got dooped into it, Ill repost my other thread as the title is perhaps too daunting to get some answers LOL

As long as you let the soil dry well before you flood.

I have done it before and switched to top feed drip, its less messy and feeds better.. just buy a few spagetti feeder tubes works awesome... how big are the pots ? how much light? you need to tune in so you don't over water . possibly feed once every 5 days depending on soil mix and field capacity .

You're for sure clog your pumps in no time. Sounds like a big mess and a big head ache. Try rock wool or hydraton

Actually a why drip works better, most particulate run off stays on trays. and if pump is positioned a lil off the bottom the heavy stuff will stay on bottom if you let it get that messy.

if you want to do ebb flo but like soil then you need to do coco ebb flo. acts llike soil but feeds like hydro best of both worlds .

DOOZY said:

I have done it before and switched to top feed drip, its less messy and feeds better.. just buy a few spagetti feeder tubes works awesome... how big are the pots ? how much light? you need to tune in so you don't over water . possibly feed once every 5 days depending on soil mix and field capacity .

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Glad to hear someone else has done it! I started in 6x6" & transplanted into 9x9" going into bloom. They have an air cooled 1000W Dual Arc (600hps/400mh) above them. Yeah right now im just flooding the hell out of them about 6 min in veg & 10 min in bloom. I dont think they seem overwatered... I could very easily be wrong lol. The plants seem to be drinking nearly a gallon of water a day, maybe more. Soil is 40% FFOF, 40% FFHappy Frog & 20% Pearlite. I also added some Mykos & Domolite for good measure.

gooter said:

You're for sure clog your pumps in no time. Sounds like a big mess and a big head ache. Try rock wool or hydraton

Click to expand...

On Bloom week 1 nothing clogged yet

I have about 1-2" of hydroton in the bottom if the pots.

mrduke said:

if you want to do ebb flo but like soil then you need to do coco ebb flo. acts llike soil but feeds like hydro best of both worlds .

Click to expand...

Thats my next grow right there. Gonna go Canna Coco all the way

Here are some pics for you guys, thanks for the comments!

Do you think these are overwatered? I've been contemplating cutting back to flooding every other day and running the 50 gallon (expensive ass res of AN crap) for 2 weeks instead of 1 since it would still only be 7-8 floods.

Thoughts?

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looks nice bro.

doe's your flood line allow most your media to get water? or is just wet on bottom ?
peralite is good drains fast..

DOOZY said:

looks nice bro.

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Thanks Doozy!

DOOZY said:

doe's your flood line allow most your media to get water? or is just wet on bottom ?
peralite is good drains fast..

Click to expand...

I flood the table as high as possible because it dosen't soak the whole thing. In bloom the 9x9 pots are 10" high total, the soil level it @ 9" from the bottom so I have 1" room at the top. The bottom 1.5" or so of the pots is Hydroton then the dirt on top of that. The table floods up 5" high, so the remaining 4" above flood level to the soil level is only getting wet by wicking up the moisture.

From the looks of the surface you can never tell if it is dry or wet because it dosent go that high up. But the moisture from bottom feeding seems to pull the root system downwards towards the flood zone. The 6x6 white pots had mad amounts of clean bright white roots holding it together nicely while i transplanted them. They have very nice root systems.

The bottom of the veg pots were filled with Pearlite, when I transplanted into the bloom pots the roots were holding all the pearlite down there together. So somewhere in near the bottom of the bloom pots is a nice big pocket of pearlite as well with maybe an inch or so of dirt, then the Hydroton in the bottom.

well your looking at a oz per gal of root mass . root mass = buds ..

DOOZY said:

well your looking at a oz per gal of root mass . root mass = buds ..

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So an oz per gal.... Im using 3 gallon pots, so 3 oz per plant then? That would be 1.68lb or 27oz, (about .75 gram per watt) im hoping for a 2 pack but time will tell. I wouldnt be too disappointed with 3 oz off each plant