How Often to Feed During Lights On with F & D?

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
I've been using various hydro methods for 5+ years (the last 2+ using F & D), following the typical 4-6 hour flooding schedule; 6 hours in mid-late flower when light schedule is ~ 11/13.

It dawned on me that on my current 6 hour flood schedule that means plants are only getting one flood during lights on, which got me to thinking: what is the ideal flood schedule during lights on?

About 4 days ago I dropped flood schedule to every 4 hours, which equals 2 floods during lights on, but increasing to every 3 hours would mean 3 floods , which seems like that would be most beneficial

Now, I can do this because my grow medium is ornamental stones, which don't hold moisture like RW

Here's a couple of pics from 6 hour schedule

Thoughts?
 

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PetFlora

Well-Known Member
The more I thought about lowering the flood cycles from 4 to 3, I began to think just how often can I feed. Since my medium is polished stones, which doesn't hold the nutrient as rockwool does, meaning I can easily feed 4 xs as often, and maybe 8. So, I just lowered it to every hour= 24 feedings per day. How much better can that be?

My logic comes from my ~ 2 years of growing with HPA, where each mist is ~ 0.05-1 second!. The shortest setting my Sentinel deep cyle timer is +/- 3 seconds, but it still worked, Far from ideal, but I simply increased the pause time to something like 20 or 30 minutes. Adjust by watching the plants response

The science behind HPA is to barely moisten the root system, giving it just enough food, then, assuming the root needs time to process and transport the nutrients up the plant, and be ready to feed/process again, each subsequent misting is identical 24/7. The resulting roots are incredibly delicate, looking like basketball sized cotton candy, multiplying the entire surface area probably by at least an order of ten is why HPA plants grow so fast and big
 

David Music

Active Member
I have my pump turn on for 7-10 seconds once every hour. My system doesn't flood my bucket though just pumps a little through some homemade feeding rings. And also as a side note i dont feed at all during lights off
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Thanks for your input. Plants do grow at night, but require much less nutrient than during lights on

A reasonably priced timer that could be programmed for day and night feeding schedules would be awesome
 

David Music

Active Member
Thanks for your input. Plants do grow at night, but require much less nutrient than during lights on

A reasonably priced timer that could be programmed for day and night feeding schedules would be awesome
Yeah they do feed at night but there is still nutrient water in the bottom of my buckets because the drains i put in are on the side of the bucket about a half inch from the bottom so they can still feed i just dont run the pumps to give them fresh nutrients until lights on and it gives lots of oxygen tothe roots that arent directly touching the water and we all know how important oxygen is for healthy roots
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Yeah they do feed at night but there is still nutrient water in the bottom of my buckets because the drains i put in are on the side of the bucket about a half inch from the bottom so they can still feed i just dont run the pumps to give them fresh nutrients until lights on and it gives lots of oxygen tothe roots that arent directly touching the water and we all know how important oxygen is for healthy roots
Mine tilt forward so there is some left after draining, but that would only supply a small portion of my roots
 
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