Flood and Drain System help please...''

Hello guys,

I've moved over to flood and drain and just having to work out the flood time settings, let me explain where i'm at.

I've grown from seed at the moment snow white in rockwool they have roots about 3 inches long out the bottom of 3 inch net pots and are about 3-4 inches in plant height.

I was flooding 5 times a day for 15 mins at a time, the leaves were dropping down so a classic case of overwatering. I've now set the timer to do only three floods a day for 15 mins so hopefully this will correct and improve the droppy plants.

My question is once they get bigger and stronger will i have to increase flood times as i go along this is the bit that i'm unclear about ?

What do you guys do that use flood and drain, any help appreciated as this is a new system for me...''

you want it just enough to roots do not dry out. you may have to increase as your root systems grow. i dont have a great visualization of what exactly you are running, but i had a table filled with hydronton and ran it twice a day, nearing the middle of flower time when the roots had totally filled the tray i had to increase to an additional feeding per day.

Sounds about right, at the moment i've reduced it to 3 times a day every 8 hours for 15 mins maybe that's too much will have to wait and see how the plant reach may again have to put it to just twice a day.

So its going to be hit and miss until i find the correct cycle, and yes as the roots develop more i may well have to increase it.

Well as a rule of thumb if the plants are drooping leaves curling down then its too much, if they start to look dry and brown then its not enough, i was told this in a previous post so i will follow this carefully until i find the correct flood times for my set up. thanks for looking in and giving us help on this one.

just use a drip system its easy and works alot better than flood and drain!!!i use too think the same but with the drip system u dont use as much nuts and water if ur watering 3 times a day ur res is almos empty in 3 days right!!

I have used rockwool in a flood and drain system. Watering once a day is adequate. And you don't want it to run for 15 minutes either, 15 minutes would be the maximum time you would want for flooding and draining. Should be 6 minutes to pump 3"to 4" of water onto the table and it will drain in 8 or 9 minutes.
Before any else jumps in please check Al B Fucts How to get a Harvest every two weeks, thats where I first got the information. VV

Yes i will go down to water just once a day due to the timer i have will do 15 mins hope that's ok.

I am not going to water them at all today to let then dry out a bit hopefully it may help perk them up. I will then water once a day from tomorrow. Would this be the right thing to do to not flood for a day ?