Flood and Drain Setup NO growth dieing clones PLEASE HELP :(

Hey whats up guys. I am still somewhat a noob to growing as I have only has 2 successful harvests and they were both in soil with organic nutes. Anyhow the guy at the grow store turned me on to flood and drain and my buddy was doing it this way too, he said its easy.

I have a 40 site aero cloner that I put my cuttings in to root. once they have established roots (usually about 2 1/2 weeks using only distilled water) I transplant to the flood and drain table using 6" netpots with hydroton and they go directly into flowering. I asked the guy when I bought the setup about the roots being exposed and he said its a non issue that if they reach outside of the pots they will die off and be absorbed into the resivor and turn back into sugar for your plant to eat. I am flooding 3 times a day during the 12 hours on for 15 minutes each time.

I have a 40 gallon resivor that I fill up with 30 gallons of water from the hose. I ph the water down to 6 before I add any nutes, this typically takes 2oz of ph down for every 30 gallons based on my citys water. I am running the gh FloraDuo line for now. I am in the middle of my second week and I started with a 1:1 ration which was 5ml of each the A and B. I lost 4 of the 12 clones I started with in the first few days ( I attribute some of that to them not having a big enough root system before I transplanted.) The ph rose a bit throughout the week and I adjusted it down. Didn't see much growth and that weekend I changed the res using the exact method as the first time and scrubbing it out with a light bleach solution in between. I set the ph at 6 again using 2 oz of ph down and added the nutes, this time adding 5ml of A and 7.5ml of B as well as 2ml of koolbloom, to a 30 gallon res and mixed. It has been 5 days since then. I lost another one yesterday, it had just shriveled up and died. There is very little to no growth and its been 2 weeks. In soil my plants would be about 6" taller by now.

I guess I just dont know what the problem is. The table sits in the flowering room and is under a 1000w hps with Mylar on the walls and a 465cfm fan pulling fresh air up through the ceiling. the temp in the room is 72 and the humidity is 60% I have a co2bucket and all of my other plants in there look spectacular. I have some DeathStar growing organically right next to the flood table that is in week5 and it looks like someone poured sugar all over it. I just don't know what I am missing here?


The guy at the grow store explaind this system to me saying it was simple and he has had success with it having large yeilds. Did he bullshit me?

Sorry for the novel, I am just trying to be as detailed as I can. If i missed anything let me know and ill add. The strains in the table right now is SAGE.

Try ph-ing your water AFTER you add the nutes. If you ph the water before, and then add nutes, how do you know what the ph of the nutrient solution is?

http://generalhydroponics.com/site/index.php/resources/learning_center/advanced_nutrient_management_for_hydroponic_growers/

General Hydroponics-USA
P.O. Box 1576
Sebastopol, CA 95473

Telephone: 1-800-37-HYDRO
(1-800-374-9376) or 1-707-824-9376
Fax: 1-707-824-9377

email: [email protected]
tech support: [email protected]
URL: www.generalhydroponics.com

The first link might have answers for all your questions. If not - call them. You don't have to mention marijuana - they know. Hydro industry was not built growing termaters for a hobby.

I run the same setup with the same nutrients as you.
Check my Sig.

ALWAYS ph your solution AFTER adding nutrients, and it should be at 5.8 not 6.0. I run those same nutes, and trust me...If I run 6.0 for a while my plants get all sickly.

I usually PH to 5.7, and let it drift up to 6.0 before adjusting back down to 5.7. That's a perfect PH swing for me.

I flood every 1.5 hours for 15 minutes.

Another thing. after you add all your nutrients and set your PH to 5.8 you will need to check it again, and readjust about 1-2 hours later if it's a Fresh Reservoir.

Hit me up if you need help Man. Like I said, I run the same sytem, even use the same nutes.

Something does not add up right here , whats your starting PPM ? It sounds like your on the low side of it all ..

the ph issue along with no cover or covering media will greatly affect growth. you dont want your roots to "die off", you want the same root growth as plant growth.

I ph'ed it down to 5.7. Ive been keeping it on the low 6 side never leting get higher than 6.5 but I guess that could be too much? I don't have a ppm meter to find out what my water is originally before adding nutes because I am growing with a two part system and the guy at the store said I didn't really need to spend 50 bucks on a ppm pen.

The way I understand it is in hydro, you have a concentrated root mass that you super feed water and nutes to (in a net pot) the roots never have to get bigger than whats in the pot because the nutrients are delivered directly to them so they don't really have to search out for them. and whatever roots grow to reach out of the pot just die off because of the light. Or as the guy in the grow store put it. having a big root base for the plant to get bigger only matters in that soil shit haha.

I thought this was going to be easier and its beginning to feel like a pain.


regardless of whether I ph the water then add the nutes or vice versa. I always check it before it floods my table and it has never gotten above 6.5. and the damn things just aren't growing.

The guy at the store needs a good ass kicking lol

sounds to me like you have put very little effort into researching or studying about hydro growing. You don't even know the most basic info, like ph. Without the proper tools you will never be able to make the best of it, get a cheap meter to start. I dont even know what to say about the root issue, but I assure you, big healthy roots make big healthy plants. On the adjusting ph, there is no regardless. There is one major rule when mixing nutes, water+nutes+additives then adjust ph, always.

Man dont listen to the guy at the hydro store. If he could grow he wouldnt be working at a hydro store for min. wage. " roots will turn back into sugar in the rez" I almost pissed my pants when I read he told you that. He must have thought you where growing sugar beets.lol,
Get those plants out of the net pots and grow some fucking rootmass. Also get a EC,ppm meter. Dont listen to the store clerk anymore.

I mean they had a flood and drain table setup at the store with some plants in 6" net pots and hydroton just like I have, they were doing just fine there... Last night I looked at my netpots and I actually have some big thick roots coming out of the bottoms of them, so maybe things are ok? If you guys are saying you don't recommend this method, what kind of medium should I switch these plants too? I have 8 right now but 40 more almost done in the cloner...

***Was the owner of the hydro store, he only comes in 1 day a week and that's who I buy all of my shit from bc I get a mad discount. Said hes been growing for 10 years.. So who do i believe lol?

Adjust ph AFTER putting in your nutes and don't let it go over 6.0 or 6.1 (6.5 is ok for soil but your locking out nutes with that ph in hydro)
Also, get a damn ppm pen ASAP!!!! Otherwise you don't know how your girls are eating and whether to top off with water or nutes!!

Who do you believe? Well, keep trying his advice and letting them die or do some learning. You have been given solid advice here by a few good growers, not somebody trying to make money off of you.