Plants don't seem to want to start in netpot E&F table

My buddy had an E&F table with an XPS board top - plants were put in 2" net pots with a rapid rooter. This setup worked great, right through flower.

When he put the plants in before though, they had established roots - the plants he put in this time only had short roots, and they don't seem to be growing anymore (in fact, they seem to be dieing)

Any ideas whats going on or how to fix it? Kind of seems like the roots need to hit the bottom of the table to really do good - does that make sense?

Tables are flooding like 6 and 12 times a day.

First off...sounds like too many flood cycles. It's usually 3-4 floodings daily as u don't want the roots wet at all times. Second, if it ain't broke don't fix it...do what u were previously doing if it was working.

2" net cups in a flood tray hmm. im assuming that the net cups are suspended on the lid right? and he is allowing for the roots to grow as they want into the tray with no medium in it right? well i have never tried this myself but i would say you are not watering enough, with the conventional flood tray one would usually use pots filled with a grow medium to keep the roots hydrated in-between flood cycles well with the 2" cups and nothing more than a rapid rooter to hydrate roots you need to increase flood times imo. are the roots drying up? what do they look like? cant really say much without pics but it would seem to me like trying to run a aero setup only watering every 3 hours (just wont work) if it where my system i would be flooding once a hour at least until the roots mass was thicker/denser and at the lower portion of the tray.

I flood every two hours when there rooting and the first week of veg

Try shortening the flood time to once an hour and see if it helps.

See, these plants were all saved from a big overheating disaster, so they went in with no (or dead) roots.

Ilovebush said:

First off...sounds like too many flood cycles. It's usually 3-4 floodings daily as u don't want the roots wet at all times.

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I don't think this is right, imo.. I flood every two hours and so far the plants seem to be flourishing like this. Also, DWC buckets have the roots suspended underwater 24/7.

Anyway OP, try hand watering from the top until the roots grow into the water and you don't need to anymore. I would definitely increase the flood times though

phuzy said:

I don't think this is right, imo.. I flood every two hours and so far the plants seem to be flourishing like this. Also, DWC buckets have the roots suspended underwater 24/7.

Anyway OP, try hand watering from the top until the roots grow into the water and you don't need to anymore. I would definitely increase the flood times though

Click to expand...

Yeah, so does RDWC - and the water has airstones and is the rigt temp, so it *should* be impossible to overwater.

Seems like shorter cycles are the trick - 15 on / 1 hour off.

I have my plants in net pots sitting on a flood table as well. Tried flooding every two hours during veg on the last grow and noticed significantly faster growth rates(in veg). Only problem was the pH swung .2 in either direction as a result. I've found that flooding once every three hours maintains the most steady pH... doesn't fluctuate at all, ever really.