How many floods per day in Ebb an Flow?

Hey fellas...

So my veg table is a 2x2 (ebb n flow) holding 16 3" baskets lined with a coco liner filled with hydroton and holding a 1" grodan cube with my plant.


Ive switched from soil to hydro as an experiment and learning experience and this is my first hydro grow...

Im about 4 weeks into my vegging and im just not seeing the "extreme" growth that hydro guys boast about.. ive seen faster growth in Black Gold soil...

Im just wondering if maybe im not flooding the table often enough during the day or something...

My waterline hits right up to about a half inch below my rockwool cube which is nestled in hydroton inside a 3" basket.

Im flooding 3x a day and i do suspect that some of the rockwool cubes do get wet but dont soak.

Im using Botanicare Pure Blend veg... first week was 300ppm and gradually ive worked it up to 950ppm over the past 3 weeks... (im on week 4).

I was really hoping to see these plants twice this size by now but they are only about 9" tall... they were about 5 inches when i clipped them as clones.

I do notice that the nodes are tighter together than soil and im about 7-8 nodes tall

so how often should i be flooding the table? I have an analog 15minute timer by hydrofarm and at the moment im just flooding 3x a day during the 18hour light photoperiod.

What would happen if i bumped it up to 5x a day? I know the hydroton rocks are getting dried out im just wondering if it would necessarily be bad if the rockwool cube is getting soaked that many times per day. Like i said the waterline comes just below my cubes so they arent being SOAKED but they are absorbing water during that 15min interval.

I guess i dont know how many times to flood this damn thing... can anything bad happen if i flood it too many times?

Thanks!
=incog!

I flood 3-4 times daily. The best way to know is check the moisture level a few times a day. See if it is ever bone dry if so add another flood.

where/what are you checking for moisture level? I can touch the tops of the rockwool cubes... and they are damp.. but thats it

any more suggestions?

If im right... im trying to wick the roots for 15 mins and allow about 4 hours for them to dry out completely before the next 15min flood... or should i wick the roots and allow them to stay dry-er longer like 6???

you should try hydroton or whatever (expanded clay) it holds water for far less time and you can flood the table many more times a day, ive used both and the clay pebs are better clearly. Ive been told this is useless but it seems to reason that the roots are exposed to more air this way... my 2 cents...

It depends on your medium, this i know. I personally use coco in an ebb flow system and i only water one time a day for 15 min. And since coco is very absorbing this is enough. I can increase to 2 waters a day during flowering if i want. Good results for me, but im not an expert, just what the guy who sold me on coco told me to do.

Ya thanks guys...

Ive got rooted clones in 1" rockwool cubes sitting in a 3" basket filled with hydroton i was flooding 3x daily and experienced growth similar to soil...

now that im up to about 900ppm i kicked it up to 5x daily and over the past 3 days ive seen much much better growth ....the waterline DOES hit the bottom of my rockwool cube but all appears well so ill leave well enough alone for another week and see what happens...

thanks!~

You will want to completely (flush) flood from the top of the of the cubes once a week so salts do not build up in your rock wool cubes. Nute lock out will slow growth.

Update!! ........and its a good one!!

check it..

Being new to hydro i thought "flushing" was simply changing the nutrient solution... so I took StickyIcky's advice and simply poured pH 6.0 water down thru the tops of my baskets to "flush" the crap out of there and into my sink.... I changed the nutrient solution which was about 3 weeks old and BAM within 2 days i noticed a huge change..

I also upped my PPM to 1000...

roots coming out of my baskets...
fresh healthy new green growth ..and at a much faster rate!!

Now heres the funny thing.. i had some more room in my flood tray and put in 4 new rooted clones INTO THE 1000 PPM solution... and they are doing AWESOME!! and its been over a week... nothing burned!!

so I think next time I can shave off a few weeks of ramping up to 1000 PPM and im just gonna start my rooted clones off at like 900 PPM... im getting much faster fresh green growth so why the hell not??

kickass!

thanks fellas, kudos to all, and by the way im flooding 15minutes 5x a day and my strain is northern lights x hash plant

i have rockwoolk lined pots with hydroton the moms on 24 get 3 floods 15 a day and the flowering get 2 floods for 5 min a day 1 hr b4 lites on and 1hr br lights off

Incognitto said:

Update!! ........and its a good one!!

check it..

Being new to hydro i thought "flushing" was simply changing the nutrient solution... so I took StickyIcky's advice and simply poured pH 6.0 water down thru the tops of my baskets to "flush" the crap out of there and into my sink.... I changed the nutrient solution which was about 3 weeks old and BAM within 2 days i noticed a huge change..

I also upped my PPM to 1000...

roots coming out of my baskets...
fresh healthy new green growth ..and at a much faster rate!!

Now heres the funny thing.. i had some more room in my flood tray and put in 4 new rooted clones INTO THE 1000 PPM solution... and they are doing AWESOME!! and its been over a week... nothing burned!!

so I think next time I can shave off a few weeks of ramping up to 1000 PPM and im just gonna start my rooted clones off at like 900 PPM... im getting much faster fresh green growth so why the hell not??

kickass!

thanks fellas, kudos to all, and by the way im flooding 15minutes 5x a day and my strain is northern lights x hash plant

Click to expand...

damn dude im so jealous i cant wait to get that far im planin on doin ebb n flow for flowering im doin a dwc for veg right now thinkin about improvin that tho

should the pump ever be turned on in the middle of the night cycle? it would be bad for the roots to dry out to much. the room temperature would normally be only a few degrees lower then during the day. sorry I'm a noob. I'm trying to get a good understanding of exactly how it works before my first grow starts.

@ 1000 ppm for clones, what light are you using? I asume a HPS or MH right?

im using two 100w Fluorex security lights from home depot, and one 125w CFL by hydrofarm and one 2' T5 strip.
PS ive started two more batches since i started this post each @1000ppm straight up from clone to end of veg cycle using PureBlend one step Veg nutes and those rooted clones just power right up withing 3-4 weeks and are ready to flower!

Don't follow my cycle since I am using strictly hydroton and nothing else in my pots. However to anyone reading this if you are using hydroton soak the crap out of them many times a day. I switched to a .5hr on and 1 hr off and read reports by a really experienced hydroponic grower using strictly hydroton that was doing 1 hour on 2 off with great results. Basically if using only hydroton stick with a 1:2 ratio and do it often

This method should promote quicker growth than even the same system using water retaining rockwool etc.. and fewer floods. The reason is that every time the flood and drain system drains it pulls fresh oxygen into the areas around the roots as the water drains. The more frequent flooding does not cause root rot because even newbies are smart enough to aerate the water heavily while it is in the reservoir. Personally I wouldn't use water retaining material in with my hydroton unless I lived in an area prone to electricity loss.

i like to flood every 4 hours when in veg and every 3 when flowering and there drinking a bit mor water i also still leave it floodin and drainin at night coz it helps keep the rez well mixed

Good read man lot info.. +Rep

Im kinda in the same boat as you i have ebb and flow system too. I was just curious about what ph regimen are you following..