Going to switch over to a flood and drain system for my next run through. I have 2000 watt lamps, going to buy 2 4X4 tables, and put 14-16 plants in each table. I will be using three gallon pots, with expandable clay pellets as my medium. I am growing sour diesel in SunShine #4 right now, and I've always had to stake them up using bamboo stakes that I put into the Sunshine inside the pot but I'm thinking that won't really work with hydro rocks as they aren't as heavy. I want each plant in a seperate pot so I can move them around if needed. Would attaching a stake to the bucket I am using work just fine?

I do this with the plastic pots when I cant stake then by pushing the stake in the pot.I use 3/8" tube ,the same I use to pump water to the tray.Drill 4 holes and get 4 plastic zip ties and zip tie it to the pots.Put three in the pot even if you only use the one to stake them.Heres a couple pixs.It works for me.PEACE

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Why would you use 3 gallon pots for a flood and drain hydro? You better build a strong table and bring a big wallet for three gallons of clay pellets. Better get started now with rinsing the clay pellets clean enough to use, cause you will be at it for a while to get 96 gallon of it. By the time you flood the table to 1/2 the pot height, you'll have a little weight there. SOunds like project to me. Maybe I missed something?? VV

The pot I use to show you how to fix the tube to the pot is only 1gal pot.VV is right on top of it with the advice,3 gal pots with all that hydroton and the water to flood,is going to be HEAVY.Water is almost 8lbs. per gal.I did the math and I come up with 66.7 lbs of water to flood your tray.That plus the hydroton the pots and the plants will be very heavy.If you use 1 gal pots it will cut the weight in half.Peace

don't do this, your better off with rockwool. Pellets dry out fast so if you want to do it like you say you'll also have to run drip lines, flooding the table will only get you to a certain water lvl. Use rockwool instead of fill the table to pellets to make sure there is no alge growth and that the roots wont get rootbound.

Yeah perhaps using 1 gallon pot would be better off. I am new to flood and drain systems, appreciate the advice..you are right. If I seperated all my tables, I could most likely push the growing shoots into the screen if I went about it the right way. My buddy gets close to 2 pounds per 1000 watt lamp using SCROG, I yielded about 1.25 per 1000 watter without the SCROG so I am curious to say the least.

Will the plants need to staked up if they are growing into a SCROG set up or will the fact that most of the shoots are grown through the screen hold the plants up just fine on its own?

The screen properly installed will hold them up. Glad we could help out with pot size. 66# of water is only one cubic foot. A 4' by 4' talbe flooded 6" deep will have 8 cubic feet of water which will weigh closer to 500#. VV

Hey all I did the math and I was off a little.4'x4'x6"=8cubicfeet.Water weigh is 8.36 lbs per gal.One cubic foot contains 7.48 gals.Ok now 7.48x8.36=62.53
times 8 cu.ft.=500.24 lbs.I was wrong at saying 66.7lbs. VV is right it will be alot heavier then what I said before.VV keep us straight. PEACE

I know if you stake them,there yours,depending were you live you might have to file a stakes claim,i know in BC and Alaska you still do,hope this helps man,stake all the plants you can before someone else does.

I am actually deciding against the SCROG for a few reasons. One I don't want the grow to be real messy and I've heard SCROG can be pretty darn messy! Two, I need to be able to get the plants out of the garage in case of an emergency (aka: landlord) So, I am open to hearing ideas of how to stake those ladies up cleanly and effectively. Not sure the first idea will work considering I will be using the net pots that people use for expanded clay pellets.