Most likely Al is going to suggest that you reconsider growing in straight rockwool flock and cut it a significant degree with perlite. 100% flock is going to retain a lot of moisture and could be doing more harm than good. I'm not a hydro guy but this is the response Al gave me a while back when I asked him the same question a cpl months ago. Dialing in flood times and frequency seems like it would have a lot of factors including the plants point in the cycle relating to its root mass and ability to uptake nutrients. Good luck!Hey Al, I'm growing in Rockwool flock. Haven't seen much growth in the first week of veg. I'm pretty sure I should of hand watered every other day or so. I'm I correct on that assumption?
Pods? Presuming you mean 'pots.'Hi Al,
once you stated an advantage of a flood and drain system with pods is that the root zone is supplied with fresh oxygene whenever nutritiant solution is draining from the pods after the flooding... air will be sucked into the pods from the top as the nutrient solution leaves the pods through the drainage holes in the bottom... (must have been mentioned in the "Get a harvest every 2 weeks"-Thread)
The action of water draining out of the pots, no matter the flood depth, will draw fresh air into the media.Can you be really detailed:
I cant find no flood tables that are higher than 7cm or 12cm... from my imagaination: in these tables you cannot raise the water level high enough to create this kind of "sucking"-effect, when your pods are 23 or 25 cm high. I would expect the neccessary height of the tables must be around 18 or 20 cm, with water levels at least at 15cm height, so the drain and therefore also the described "sucking-in-the-air"-effect in the pods will get strong enough...
My trays were made by the hydro shop I bought them from- they happen to have a thermal vacuforming machine and produce them from sheets of plastic (probably PVC). The max flood depth is about 80mm.What tables are you using specifically (in detail as manufacturer and model, so I can take a look for photos or detailed specs of them...)... as I said, you cant find no tables that are higher than 7cm or 12cm here...
In the 6x8 scenario, you will get fewer buds but with greater density than in the 6x12 format. Either way will yield similar dry weight but you will spend significantly less time manicuring fewer, denser buds.Sorry al I'm not the best at getting ideas accross in writing. I'm trying to say that I have a choice. Grow 192 plants in a 6x8 area which is 83 watts per square foot or grow 288 plants in a 6x12 area which is 55 watts per square foot. Which do you think would yield the most? I have everything I would need in both scenarios so I won't need to spend any more money. Thanks al ur clone thread is the BOMBBB btw
Abamectin (also spelled avamectin in some locales) is the active ingredient in effective spider mite treatments. It's sold under a variety of brand names.Al what is the name of that stuff you recommend for spidermites ?
If you like, but it is not necessary to have a particularly deep-flooding tray to benefit from the air-drawing effect of water draining from media.not trying to jack your thread al ^_^
check out bghydro.com they have 7 inch high flood tables if you really want a high one.
Rockwool holds a LOT of water. If you top water once on planting with about 100-150ml of nute soln & then flood every other day thereafter for the 1st 2 weeks, it should be OK. RW floc isn't ideal because it has such a high water holding capacity. This is why I use Fytocell for my flowering plants- it holds less water & can be watered 1x day from day 1 of planting.Hey Al, I'm growing in Rockwool flock. Haven't seen much growth in the first week of veg. I'm pretty sure I should of hand watered every other day or so. I'm I correct on that assumption?
No. Not necessary.@Al: Do you use such 7" high tables?
Exactly. Rockwool floc holds so much water that small plants in particular will struggle if they're watered daily.Most likely Al is going to suggest that you reconsider growing in straight rockwool flock and cut it a significant degree with perlite. 100% flock is going to retain a lot of moisture and could be doing more harm than good. I'm not a hydro guy but this is the response Al gave me a while back when I asked him the same question a cpl months ago. Dialing in flood times and frequency seems like it would have a lot of factors including the plants point in the cycle relating to its root mass and ability to uptake nutrients. Good luck!
I am enjoying it as I do all of your threads.O hai
Hope you're enjoying the thread. I don't think I killed anyone in that one, did I?
Also sounds like you could stand to have a larger res. Again, I'm not a hydro guy but a mom seems like it needs some room to roam. Your ppms dropping fast too with fresh solution?Hey Al. Thanks for sharing your knowlegde, this thread has been an inspiration to me and many others here in Brazil.
I have a single madre running on a small DWC system and cant keep the Ph down. I use Flora Nova Grow with EC 1.0 and Ph 5.7 and after a couple of hours the Ph is around 6.8 - 7.0.
Do you have any ideia what may cause this?
My bucket is small (2 gallons). I have no light penetration and a resonable ar compressor.
cheers
One of these days, I'm going to start wandering around some of the threads in the hydroponics section & start smacking around some of the pseudoscience & general goofery in that neck of the weeds. There will be blood. Of course, this requires that I actually find the time to do so... Bear in mind that there's some posters that have gone so far down the rabbit hole that I simply can't type due to repeated facepalming.I am enjoying it as I do all of your threads.
Not much carnage in that one, but I'm only 3/4 of the way through it. I'm still hoping for some though !!
Yes, that's pretty much the way I watered when the flowering plants were still in RW. In week 1 of flowering, you won't be seeing screaming growth, but you should be seeing the growing tips & associated leaves displaying lime green colour and the beginnings of active growth. RW floc is so absorbent that you really don't need to flood terribly deeply- floc has a strong wicking ability and will adequately wet the media even flooding only 25mm (1") or so.Thanks Al. I hand watered yesterday which was the one week date in flower. I'll water them every other day now this week and see how it works out. Then I should be able to start flooding everyday after the second week once a day at lights on to about 2-3 inches? If I remember correctly that is how you were doing it before you switched over to rockwool flock and fytocell. Thanks for the quick reply and glad to see you back.
No worriesThanks for the help Al.
Good to see it's of some use to you.Hey Al. Thanks for sharing your knowlegde, this thread has been an inspiration to me and many others here in Brazil.
Almost every time I see a system displaying pH jumping up like that, it's a pathogen infection of the system & rootmass. Pythium & fusarium infections fairly reliably cause pH to bump up just as you describe.I have a single madre running on a small DWC system and cant keep the Ph down. I use Flora Nova Grow with EC 1.0 and Ph 5.7 and after a couple of hours the Ph is around 6.8 - 7.0.
Do you have any ideia what may cause this?
If you're not a hydro guy, should you be answering queries about hydroponics?Also sounds like you could stand to have a larger res. Again, I'm not a hydro guy but a mom seems like it needs some room to roam. Your ppms dropping fast too with fresh solution?
EC 1.0 is a moderate to weak nute soln. If the plant were thriving, 1.5 would be about the strength I'd use. Photos of the plant would be useful if you could post some.EC has dropped from 1.0 to 0.9 in a day. Water level does not change much in a week.
I just bought a 50% h202 to avoid any pathogen. I will clean my resevoir tonight and add the h202. Should I drop the EC?
The little lady is in a very ugly shape...
I would not trim roots unless there's a lot of dead (brown or tan) rootmass- and I'd only remove the dead root material. 2 gallons is not a particularly small res for a single plant. 5 litres per plant is normally sufficient- 2 gallons is around 7L and is fine for a single plant.if ppm/ec drops and ph rises then she is hungry. you can up the ppm. Root trimming will allow you to keep her small and in that little bucket, if you dont she will demand a bigger res every day
thanks for the correction AlI would not trim roots unless there's a lot of dead (brown or tan) rootmass- and I'd only remove the dead root material. 2 gallons is not a particularly small res for a single plant. 5 litres per plant is normally sufficient- 2 gallons is around 7L and is fine for a single plant.
Nope I shouldn't lol But I've seen mother plants outgrow 5 gallon buckets in DWC.If you're not a hydro guy, should you be answering queries about hydroponics?
Reservoir capacity of about 5L per plant is usually sufficient.
Cooltubes are an excellent investment and well worth there money. Probably pay for themselves after the first crop due to better yield cos u can have ur lights much closer. The glass of my cooltubes sits about 8" from canopy. Since getting cooltubes and dropping them down I have been getting much tighter harder buds.
Normal cooltubes will have a built in reflector which isn't very good as far as reflectors go. This can usually be taken out. I have 2 runs with 2 600s in each. 8" cooltubes 8" ducting and 8" fan. This is overkill for 2 600s but when I bought the cooltubes the plan allways was to upgrade to 1000s. As far as reflectors go you want a wing shaped one like an ajusta wing or something similar. I have cheap imitations which will soon be getting changed for adjustawings. They allow all of the available light to be used that would otherwise be trapped in the reflector or reflected back at the bulb. It would depend on what shape your grow room was as to how efficiently you can cool the lights. If you could have a straight run with rigid aluminium ducting from a 6" centrifugal fan blowing cold air from outside the rooms airmass thru the cooltubes to somewhere else outside the rooms airmass, then I would reckon you could definatly have 3 600s in series. So 2 runs of 3. It also depends on the temp of the air ur blowing from outside. Als thread get a harvest every 2 weeks has quite a lot on the importance and workings of his cooltube system. I think its around page 90 ishhh aswell as a lot of repitition of the information throughout.Jasman, appreciate the info!