First time hydro, going to try Ebb/Flow - is this a reasonable plan?

I started a new thread with build details.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/three-types-of-hydro-in-a-small-tent-on-one-airpump.960095/

rkymtnman said:

i'd bet a 100 that if you veg 2 clones side by side for say 3 or 4 weeks, one in e&f, one in dwc, the dwc plants is bigger overall, bigger roots, and more weight at harvest.

Click to expand...

I think it would depend on the amount of time the water stays in the tray during flow in an E&F ystem.
And also on the schedule.
If you would have a cycle of 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off for example, there will be not much difference between DWC and E&F.
To grow, plants need 3 things 1) nutrient, 2) water and 3) oxygen.
As longs as plants have them available for most of the time, they will grow well.

In a lot of E&F systems the plants use up all the nutrient after some time, and then they have to wait for the next run.
And yes, comparing to this, DWC of course performs better, because nutrients are available 24/7.

Cold$moke said:

Ok so if im reading it correctly.

Basically the guy in the video is using the batting as the disposable layer. And yhe bottom of his table act as the impenetrable layer .

With the only difference of having the film of nutrients a little closer to the root mass.

In which in one of the descriptions he does say something about the capilary matt staying adequately wet so the water makes the film


It might be worth grabbing some material

But it looks like it might complicate it without much gain?

Dunno well have to build and see

Thats for the info

Click to expand...

I finally got my version of this running....
Will let you know how it goes.

It's a shame the video got pulled....

Are you doing the nft thing with the fabric batting as in that video?

Would love to see pics or any details you have.

Yes, exactly like that.. will take some pics tomorrow.

Larry3215 said:

Are you doing the nft thing with the fabric batting as in that video?

Would love to see pics or any details you have.

Click to expand...

Nice! Looking forward to seeing how this works for you.

Yeah, I will post pics if I remember, It might end up as just 4 plants as the middle one is a late replacement for one that didn't make it.
I made a mistake in not taking the cold into account when I cut my clones... These ones should have been big already.

Forgot to ask - how big a pump are you running?

Oh, it is a beast... I think it is about a 30W pump, I just used one I had around the house.
No need for it to be so strong.

I just checked in on the girls...
It is going better than expected.
The corner I lifted the plastic on to check, had like 1 foot long white roots growing along the bottom of the batting after 1 week.

ANC said:

I just checked in on the girls...
It is going better than expected.
The corner I lifted the plastic on to check, had like 1 foot long white roots growing along the bottom of the batting after 1 week.

Click to expand...

We need pics or it didnt happen

Tomorrow, I promise, I didn't put my phone in my pocket when I went to change out the nutrient solution... I need to go sort out some of those seedlings in the little tub too. So I have to go into the veg room.

Edit.. hold on, I wasn't sure if I put the pump back in the water so I had to go in there quickly, will upload now.

Notice how the plants grew in these few days

Nice - for some reason I get all worked up about root pics... even baby root pics!

What batting/fabric is that? It looks a lot thicker than what I had.

I cant quite tell from that pic - are the roots growing IN the batting or just under it?

That was one of my 'issues'. My roots were happy to grow over or under my batting, but not so much IN the batting - except to pass straight through it from top to bottom.

From what I recall of those videos, it sure looked like his roots were using the batting as a medium to grow IN rather than under/over. I dont know that that is good or bad as such, just not the result I was expecting to see and different from what his looked like in the video.

ANC said:

Notice how the plants grew in these few days

Click to expand...

It looks they they grew a ton. It would be great to see another pic from your 1st pic perspective.

It is a thickish batting, was going to go with a thinner one, then changed my mind in the shop.

The roots seem to be growing stuck on the bottom side of the batting now, which is cool as that is where the water passes...
I'm pretty sure it will just be one carpet by the time it is done.

led1k said:

It looks they they grew a ton. It would be great to see another pic from your 1st pic perspective.

Click to expand...

7 days between pics

ANC said:

7 days between pics

Click to expand...

They did grow a ton!

I'm with Larry...

Larry3215 said:

for some reason I get all worked up about root pics... even baby root pics!

Click to expand...

How are the roots looking?

Had a look this afternoon, the roots are beautiful and definitely seem to grow somewhat into the batting as well as in the damp layer under it.
The middle clone also finally seems to be showing some new growth at its tip, so that is good news. The table was supposed to be 10 plants, but the cloning was a big mess with the rockwool in the cold. All the seedlings is me hunting for a male.