noob to hydro: 2 ?'s +rep

Nubby Tubbs

Nubby Tubbs

New Member
ive grown in soil, but set up a flood and drain table for hydro. i have 2 questions:

1. using new hydroton, i rinsed it, but after i ran the system with plain water the water was clay looking.... should i run it until its clear?

2. whats a good watering timing? every 4 or 6 hours?

right now i have rooted clones in rapid rooters.
 
Banditt

Banditt

Well-Known Member
1. Yeah try to get as much dust out as possible. Don't get too carried away though, like don't flush it 10 times trying to get it out. :P it wll effect your ph a little, but just be on top of monitoring ph for the first week or two, eventually you'll wash away the remainder of the dust just doing your weekly reservoir changes.

2. Depends on environmental factors and size of the plants. Are you using rockwool? What size cubes? Start off by feeding once daily during lights on. Monitor the plants throughout the day, when they start getting large enough where they are drying out on just one feeding during lights on, bump it up to two. so on and so forth.


edit: oops just seen the rapid rooter thing, start off with a once a day feeding during lights on and work your way up from there. Are you planning on tranferring to pots or just using loose hydroton on the tables and planting them directly in it?
 
Nubby Tubbs

Nubby Tubbs

New Member
thanks, man... +rep. when i fill my table its kinda soupy with the plants and hydroton gently bobbing, but the roots will grow in and fill that void, right? or should i add MORE hydroton? i guess i have more questions thani thought.
 
Beagle

Beagle

Well-Known Member
Yeah, they're a bitch to get real clean. Keep running it and changing out the res. till its gone.
I'm flooding mine 3 times only while the lights are on, 15min at a time. Have been for a few months and my plants are healthy.
 
BeaverHuntr

BeaverHuntr

Well-Known Member
Rinse the hell out of the hydroton and then rinse the hell out of it again .. Then soak it in PH 5.5 water !
 
Banditt

Banditt

Well-Known Member
Nubby Tubbs said:
thanks, man... +rep. when i fill my table its kinda soupy with the plants and hydroton gently bobbing, but the roots will grow in and fill that void, right? or should i add MORE hydroton? i guess i have more questions thani thought.
Click to expand...
I think I understand what you are explaining, but I'm really not sure. I'm guessing your worried the plants are going to be disrupted or uprooted during the flood? I don't think this is really an issue as long as they don't get so agitated they come completely out and end up laying on top of the hydroton roots exposed and all. :P

I use 4 inch rockwool cubes and they provide a good amount of stability up to the point where the plant has so much root mass it supports itself. So I have never really found myself in your situation. But yes, eventually the roots will consume so much of the hydroton on the table only the pieces at the very top will float during the flood and the plants will be much more stable.
 
Stonetech

Stonetech

Well-Known Member
Nubby Tubbs said:
thanks, man... +rep. when i fill my table its kinda soupy with the plants and hydroton gently bobbing, but the roots will grow in and fill that void, right? or should i add MORE hydroton? i guess i have more questions thani thought.
Click to expand...
Yeah just put some more on top. I like to have at least an inch or two of dry hydroton on the surface of my pots, it prevenst algae and mold.

I've never used rapid rooters but in just straight hydroton i flood every 4 hrs for 15 min, i've heard of people flooding many more times a day though. I like to flood just enough to keep all the roots moist and not let them dry out completely, I think they get the most oxygen this way and they stay healthy. I stopped using starter cubes (rock wool,etc) because i found that they retained too much moisture.
 
legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
Zcomfort said:
you don't need to presoak your hydroton..just rockwool
Click to expand...
Hey buddy, feel free to post away once you know what the hell your talking about.

Hydroton can vary greatly depending on how long it has been sitting. Sometimes it won't affect ph that much, sometimes it will greatly effect the ph. (like dumping ph down at an unbelievable rate). YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO SOAK YOUR HYDROTON! Let it soak till the ph is stable around 5.8 or so.

the flood and hydroton moving around won't effect things, the weight of your plant will hold it down. put a rock or two in the bottom of your net cup if your worried about it.

I just uploaded these for another thread and its hydroton related so what the hell..

My hydroton "cleaning" bucket (soaking in hygrozyme to get rid of the old roots).. It doubles as my 55 gallon veg rez. There is actually five 50 liter bags of hydroton in there :(
View attachment 1403356

My 4-gallon veg to flower in the same bucket system. Veg in this large deep table I built that floods the buckets to a depth of 8". Strongest 12 of the 15 get transferred to the flower room into ebb/flow buckets.
View attachment 1403357

ditto on the now starter cubes. I aero clone and put them right in a little net pot or directly in the buckets if they are ready.

Cover your hydroton with panda film or something to keep them cool. Lay down a big sheet, cut x's in it and place your plants down through them. Also keeps leaves and shit out of your hydroton.
 
warfey

warfey

Active Member
Since they come ph balnced.you need to lower the rocks ph down to 5.8 or so like legal said.I soak mine overnight in water ph'd to 4.2 and the rocks are right where you want em.without ph'ing your rocks,your ph will rollercoaster.
 
legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
I had a problem with two bags of hydroton that were sitting in a garage for two years. The Ph skyrocketed to the point that I had to remove the hydroton and soak it. I started at PH 5 and the next morning it was at 7.1!! Knocked it down again and it rose to 6.5. It took four days of saoking and lowering to get it in the 5's.

I did a shit load of googling to figure out what the hell was happening. Apparantly the surface of the baked clay can be oxidized and some reaction takes place where it becomes super basic. This info came from a master clay artisian, that is also a gardner. This suspicion was confirmed as the hydroton reacted exactly as he said it was. After the first night of soaking, I stirred the hydroton and the whole bucket fizzed.

So, be on the safe side and just soak it. It takes next to no effort and will ensure that your nutes are being absorbed properly.
 
drgreentm

drgreentm

Well-Known Member
legallyflying said:
Hey buddy, feel free to post away once you know what the hell your talking about.

Hydroton can vary greatly depending on how long it has been sitting. Sometimes it won't affect ph that much, sometimes it will greatly effect the ph. (like dumping ph down at an unbelievable rate). YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO SOAK YOUR HYDROTON! Let it soak till the ph is stable around 5.8 or so.

the flood and hydroton moving around won't effect things, the weight of your plant will hold it down. put a rock or two in the bottom of your net cup if your worried about it.

I just uploaded these for another thread and its hydroton related so what the hell..

My hydroton "cleaning" bucket (soaking in hygrozyme to get rid of the old roots).. It doubles as my 55 gallon veg rez. There is actually five 50 liter bags of hydroton in there :(
View attachment 1403356

My 4-gallon veg to flower in the same bucket system. Veg in this large deep table I built that floods the buckets to a depth of 8". Strongest 12 of the 15 get transferred to the flower room into ebb/flow buckets.
View attachment 1403357

ditto on the now starter cubes. I aero clone and put them right in a little net pot or directly in the buckets if they are ready.

Cover your hydroton with panda film or something to keep them cool. Lay down a big sheet, cut x's in it and place your plants down through them. Also keeps leaves and shit out of your hydroton.
Click to expand...
i do the same thing throw all hydroton in a big ass tote i have put a pump in the bottom fill with tap water ph at 5.8 and add a healthy dose of h202 let set for a while then turn the pump on and let it drain. this is a great way to get this task done.
 
nothingtodeclare

nothingtodeclare

Active Member
You will allways have some bits of hydroton dust as they are constantly touching,moving about, vibrations from the air pump etc, as other have said just soak in ph water for 24 hours give them a little stir now an then to make lose dust shake off.
As you change res you can wash out the accumalated dust at the bottom.
You should not need to fill the drain table up so much that the hydroton moves about 1"-2"just enough for the roots to suck up there juice an wet the riot cubes.
As leagallyflying said cover with panda film an cut an x where the plant will grow.
As the water evaporates it will keep it moist under the panda film as well keeping the top stones abit wet,also with the panda film covering it will keep light off roots.
 
Nubby Tubbs

Nubby Tubbs

New Member
so i soaked my hydroton overnight since there was a LITTLE BIT of varying opinion. the pH of that shit went from perfect 5.8 to 7.1... no bull. so i gave a +rep to everyone who said that. after stirring in my pH down, though, i notice my hand is COLD. whats the coldest that you would ever want your res to get?
 
Banditt

Banditt

Well-Known Member
Nubby Tubbs said:
so i soaked my hydroton overnight since there was a LITTLE BIT of varying opinion. the pH of that shit went from perfect 5.8 to 7.1... no bull. so i gave a +rep to everyone who said that. after stirring in my pH down, though, i notice my hand is COLD. whats the coldest that you would ever want your res to get?
Click to expand...

68 degrees
 
BeaverHuntr

BeaverHuntr

Well-Known Member
Nubby Tubbs said:
so i soaked my hydroton overnight since there was a LITTLE BIT of varying opinion. the pH of that shit went from perfect 5.8 to 7.1... no bull. so i gave a +rep to everyone who said that. after stirring in my pH down, though, i notice my hand is COLD. whats the coldest that you would ever want your res to get?
Click to expand...

68 degrees is perfect.. Once your plant matures it will be able to handle temps as low as 56-58 degrees.. My white russian in flower got that cold but it didnt effect the plant at all.
 
legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
Minus rep for even doubting my advice for one instant. :).

Things will go allot smother now that you did the ground work. Keep soaking till it stabilizes. As long as your above 65 you should be fine. Your Rez temps will climb a little once you start flooding an draining. Maybe around 2 degrees depending on the set up.
 
canibud

canibud

Active Member
The flood times can be close, as long as there is an air pump in the reservoir keeping the oxygen up. I do aeroponics and started pumping 1 min on 4 min off.. now I do 2 min on 3 min off and the growth is stronger and faster.
 
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