I should have been more specific. I actually run my lights at night, 7pm to 1pm for veg cycle, and 7pm to 7am for flowering. So actually, this was done during the lights-on cycle. I haven't been running the pump at all during the lights-off cycle.

While that would probably be ideal, my timer only allows for 15 min intervals. To do as you suggested, I'd have to get myself a cycle timer.

I'm sure guys have done it, it's just that I got into hydro to make growing easier on me (not having to lug dirt, mix up a bunch of 5 gal pots, etc.) So I'd rather not have to deal with getting 100 gal. of R/O water every res change (I have an R/O machine but it'll only output about 10 gal. a day max. so it would take me more than a week to fill the res!)

Yes, this is my intention. I have 22 plant sites set up on a 4x8 table (gives me approx. 1 sq.ft. of space per plant). After I clone one of these females, I'll veg them out to about 1 ft. tall, then flower. Is that a good time to switch to 12/12 for SoG?

I know, I've read many a post by Al. B, very knowledgable indeed.

Makes sense. I could convert easily enough. I'd just take the coroplast covers off my 4x8 table and use my 5 gal pots that I used to soil grow in and fill them 2/3 the way up with hydroton. This would actually displace enough volume on my table so that I could run a smaller res. Question though, obviously the flood table is wide open to the air/lights, would this be a problem for algae growth? Al. B. maybe you could answer this one?

Either way, hopefully I can get my current system fine tuned enough that I don't encounter this problem again. Thanks again, to all those who contibuted to this thread, I'm very greatfull for your help and the wealth of knowledge that many of you posses.

Over and out (for now). I'll keep updating.

What 'fixtures'?




This is as complex as a flood system needs to be. One pump, one timer, one tank, one tray, one fill & one drain tube from the overflow. Will water any number of plants and is much easier to deal with come bi-weekly nute dump and replacement.

Why drain to waste? Most flood systems don't. They drain into the tank.

Don't know what you mean by that. Flood systems are as efficient with nutes as anything else.

DWC has some specific problems, notably intolerance of power failures. DWC requires airflow 24/7. If you lose AC power for more than a few hours, the roots can be drowned. This can kill all your plants.

To have such objections about a flood system, it doesn't sound to me like you know how a flood system operates.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

oh, ok.


Just get a digital timer. They allow single minute on-times and multiple programs per day. Any hdwe store has 'em.
Oh, I can help you with that! Don't bother with RO! If you are using municipal tap water, it's not needed. Nothing in city water that's going to hurt a hydro op.


If you're going to SoG, you don't veg AT ALL. Once the clones set root, throw them in to your flowering area. If you veg them before flowering, they'll get too tall, defeating the purpose of SoG.

Nah, you're only flooding for 3-4-5 mins, something like that, then the tray drains back to the tank, not enough time to grow any algae.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely do that.

Unfortunately, I'm not on city water, I have a deep water well (around 285ft deep) which has a PH of 8.2 and a TDS of ~200 uS. Unfortunately, it contains a lot of sulfur containing compounds which gives it a rather unpleasant odor (rotten egg type smell), though it is safe to drink. I just figured I'd use the R/O water for my plants since I already had the unit for drinking water anyway. I also wanted to avoid any potential problems that are sometimes associated with well water. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Ok, that would be even better really, as it would save me 2 extra weeks off my cycle. Only thing is, currently I am set up for 1 plant per sq. ft. Would this be efficient use of space of should I go for more density?

Makes sense. My rooms RH is usually on the low side anyway (30% to 50% typically), so I guess it isn't much of a concern for me anyway.

Gotcha. As bore water goes, yours isn't too bad. The sulfur content would annoy me for drinking, but the plants will do OK as long as you bring the pH down to 5.8. Sulfur is a micronute, btw.


You can do up to 4 per sf in SoG. I don't go quite that dense in my op, about 2.6 plants/sq ft.


Not low, perfect! 30-50% is right where you want a flowering area. Not so low as to encourage spider mite, not so high as to encourage mould. Lucky you.

Check out Get a harvest every 2 weeks for the workflow in a SoG op.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

well the overflow and pump tube fitting are fixtures. now I understand how it works though thanks for that gif it is a good one.

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Flood systems are stupidly simple. Can't clog, easy to clean, waters multiple plants with no tubes, drippers, etc. Floods are the ideal recirculating hydro system for new growers and coincidentally ideal for SoG. I run 4x 900x900mm flood trays in my SoG op's flowering area, each with 23 plants. Can you imagine having to manage 92 DWC buckets? Air tubes... air stones... checking them all a couple times a day... dumping & cleaning 92 buckets... Fair go, mate- I'd quit growing dope if that was the only way to do it.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

Oh, come on. I'm a stoned slacker and I still managed last week to fit flood & drain fittings to a new tray in about 9 minutes.

Did I mention I blew a half dozen cones and a half gram of hash before going into the workshop? Took me 5 mins to find the Dremel and the sanding drum. The other 4 mins was spent hogging out holes in the tray to install the fittings.

Only downside of growing dope is that now and again you may have to do a bit of w*rk.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

Well, I've had my system running with a drip cycle of 15 mins on, every 3 hours (except during lights off) for about 2 days now, but it's still not helping. It seems that the best the plants looked was when I made them go 12 hours without water. I'm starting to think I should go with 1, maybe 2, 15 min drip cycles per day. I don't know what else to do really.

Al. B., Flood and drain is sounding more and more enticing by the day. Though, I'd rather keep what I have going if I can make it work for me. I built my drip system based on a system that was on display at the local hydro store. They were growing cherry tomatoes, and the growth was fantastic. Funny thing is, they had the pump running 24/7. When I first got my system going, I did the same and the growth was out of this world for the first week, then they started to droop and it's been down hill ever since.

Anyway, I have nothing to lose now so I'm going to just set the timer for one 15 min cycle and see where that gets me. I'll keep checking on the plants to make sure they aren't wilting, but right now this seems to be the only viable option. I'll post the results over the next day or so. Wish me luck.

Oh, and thanks Al.b., you've been a great help. At the very least, if drip doesn't work out for me, you've convinced me that flood and drain is the way to go.

Cheers

Get some 50% grade H2O2 and dose your nutes every 3-4 days with 1ml per litre of tank volume. Along with reducing your watering duration and frequency, this should sort it out for you.

I bet they were running lights 24/7 on the display grow as well.

In the short term, that may help, but do go out and get a digital timer that allows single minute runtimes. Between that and applying 50% grade H2O2 as described, your problem should resolve soon.

No worries.

Drip systems can be made to work OK but they're always more maintenance intensive than a flood sys. Make top priorities of the timer replacement and H2O2 application. Should sort it out for now until you get a flood sys going.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone