Flood table new grow- Fill with hydroton or stick with net pot or bags?

Just that, I have been using 7 gallon bags filled with clay pebbles. I'm using bags over pots because they are more stable and hold more water because of the fabric.

I bought enough Hydroton to fill my 4x4 bed, because I wanted to try no bags since I'm always hearing about cleanliness.

Anyone want to chime in on there preference and the reasons?

If what you have been doing is working why change? When ever I change something I gotta dial everything back in. Or there is some unforseen consequence.

If it has not been working then go ahead and try it. I have seen a few people do it.

I prefer clay in the pots. But that is what works for me in my set up.

I have always wanted to fill a tray with hydroton but never did it yet. I think it will work fine.

I think filling the whole tray would result in either a nightmare effort to clean the hydroton after your grow or an expensive proposition to throw it away and start new. Personally I would rather do just about anything than clean root bits out of 16 cubic feet of clay pebbles every 4 months. I also like the fact that with the pots I can easily peek into the table and see how the roots are doing.

Fordprefect42 said:

I think filling the whole tray would result in either a nightmare effort to clean the hydroton after your grow or an expensive proposition to throw it away and start new. Personally I would rather do just about anything than clean root bits out of 16 cubic feet of clay pebbles every 4 months. I also like the fact that with the pots I can easily peek into the table and see how the roots are doing.

Click to expand...

That was my biggest worry, is cleaning the rocks,

Is there ANY benefit at all, I always see the full beds with food type plant not so much weed, IDK why.

I was thinking the plants might grow bigger without the net pots in the way. Also looked kind of neat.


I'm always messing with one of my 2 grow tents, ever since I fell into my $150 table, made with the south side of $5 in plastic, and built a tank-proof table. Now, I just dropped the flood bin to the floor and using 2 pumps instead of a gravity drain, for an extra 1.5 feet of to-the-roof grow-The 125 gal DWC...I leave alone.

tommyinajar said:

That was my biggest worry, is cleaning the rocks,

Is there ANY benefit at all, I always see the full beds with food type plant not so much weed, IDK why.

I was thinking the plants might grow bigger without the net pots in the way. Also looked kind of neat.


I'm always messing with one of my 2 grow tents, ever since I fell into my $150 table, made with the south side of $5 in plastic, and built a tank-proof table. Now, I just dropped the flood bin to the floor and using 2 pumps instead of a gravity drain, for an extra 1.5 feet of to-the-roof grow-The 125 gal DWC...I leave alone.

Click to expand...

I really don’t see a benefit. I can’t say there isn’t one I’m missing. I don’t think the neotpots really inhibit anything. There are plenty of gaps for roots to emerge. I guess one difference is that all of the roots are in hydroton when you fill the table with it. In my case I line the table with felt and the roots grow out of the net pot and down into that. I really can’t say one is better than the other, but cleaning the clay and not being able to see the roots are both big negatives for me.

Nice that you got the table all the way to the floor. I lose about 18 inches of space, but I’ve been able to keep the plants short between scrogging and topping.

Yes, I tried SOG on the 4x4 ebb, but per usual, I veg waaaaay to long and basicly choke off everything.

I'm curious about the felt liner? What's it for? I layered a thin bed of hydrton on the table but the pots worked themselves down to the liner anyway.

tommyinajar said:

Yes, I tried SOG on the 4x4 ebb, but per usual, I veg waaaaay to long and basicly choke off everything.

I'm curious about the felt liner? What's it for? I layered a thin bed of hydrton on the table but the pots worked themselves down to the liner anyway.

Click to expand...

I think the idea is it’s supposed to create a better environment for the roots. The felt holds some moisture and the roots grow like crazy through the felt. I saw it on a YouTube video and it’s worked well for me so far.

Fordprefect42 said:

Nice that you got the table all the way to the floor. I lose about 18 inches of space, but I’ve been able to keep the plants short between scrogging and topping.

Click to expand...

It was easier than I thought, about $20 in relays, extension wire and relay sockets + 1 extra pump. I really had 2 reasons, more room and my DWCW uses a LOT of H20 so I suck it right out of the DWCW, instead of filling 2 tanks every 1 or 2 ( 3 ) weeks!

How thick is the felt? From Amazon? I'm thinking it as Capillary Mat, which would help me.

I never know how "wet" I should get the hydrton, I'm sure I over water it, how often are you flooding?

tommyinajar said:

It was easier than I thought, about $20 in relays, extension wire and relay sockets + 1 extra pump. I really had 2 reasons, more room and my DWCW uses a LOT of H20 so I suck it right out of the DWCW, instead of filling 2 tanks every 1 or 2 ( 3 ) weeks!

How thick is the felt? From Amazon? I'm thinking it as Capillary Mat, which would help me.

I never know how "wet" I should get the hydrton, I'm sure I over water it, how often are you flooding?

Click to expand...

Sounds like an interesting set up. Part of the fun of this is rigging things up. Makes me feel all mechanically competent.

We just buy felt from Joanne’s fabrics. Probably the only reason I would ever set foot in one of those. It’s probably the most un-guy store ever opened, and will be until someone opens a big box store dedicated to tampons. We fold the felt in half, and I’m guessing it’s maybe 1/8th of an inch so 1/4 total folded. The roots seem to grow in, between, and underneath the felt.

Floods run every 2 hours from lights on and stop 2 hours before lights off. Those are 2 minute floods. It takes just over 1 minute for the water to rise to the overflow valve. I’m in flower so it winds up being 6 floods a day.

I don’t think of it in terms of how wet I get the hydroton. In an ebb and flow it’s very hard to overwater as long as the water drains from the flood table reasonably quickly. Overwatering is a problem due to lack of oxygen at the roots. If you use an air stone and drain the table quickly you can’t really overwater. I did read an article in I think high times where it was proposed that more floods are better because it pushes out the air between the clay pebbles and when the water recedes the vacuum is replaced with fresh air. That does make sense to me and I’ll probably experiment with more frequent intervals.

I’m not experimenting with this grow though. I’m running out and I can’t lose a crop playing scientist.

tommyinajar said:

Just that, I have been using 7 gallon bags filled with clay pebbles. I'm using bags over pots because they are more stable and hold more water because of the fabric.

I bought enough Hydroton to fill my 4x4 bed, because I wanted to try no bags since I'm always hearing about cleanliness.

Anyone want to chime in on there preference and the reasons?

Click to expand...

Black and white panda plastic duct taped over top of table. cut x in plastic where pots go, insert pots filled with hydroton. This is the best way to flood and drain. You can not grow well in loose balls on a flood table.

I used to grow in huge deep trays filed with nothing but growpebbles and plants growing directly into them. Flood and drain. Got monster rapid growth fast. The whole tray becomes a bed of roots. Its a awesome system lots of air, but the downfall, if you want to reuse the rocks its a headache to clean but can be done.

I quit using Hydroton about 15 years ago and I still find the occasional pellet in my gear

Messy and hard to clean I would go with coco mats

TheWholeTruth said:

I used to grow in huge deep trays filed with nothing but growpebbles and plants growing directly into them. Flood and drain. Got monster rapid growth fast. The whole tray becomes a bed of roots. Its a awesome system lots of air, but the downfall, if you want to reuse the rocks its a headache to clean but can be done.

Click to expand...

you get better results using plastic, no floating pebbles taking up space and O2 gets sucked into root zone when table drains. Plus you dont have 3 bags of hydroton to clean evry run. No need for coco mats or any other shit..You get a full carpet of white roots at bottom of table

OG Doge said:

you get better results using plastic, no floating pebbles taking up space and O2 gets sucked into root zone when table drains. Plus you dont have 3 bags of hydroton to clean evry run. No need for coco mats or any other shit..You get a full carpet of white roots at bottom of table

Click to expand...

Plastic media or mats.....what plastic?

Fordprefect42 said:

I’m not experimenting with this grow though. I’m running out and I can’t lose a crop playing scientist.

Click to expand...

That is hilarious (not the running out part ) I'm in the same boat. I play Dr Frankenweed, with my 4x4 grow, add this, building that, kill 85%, rinse, repeat.

That's why I've got a DWCW that I built and LOVE- I'm going to build one soon for someone else, I'll document it.


That is supposed to be be med weed don't F with it, but my 1st ever experience with spider mites (and their reincarnations 2 or 3 times) took care of that- 3/4 done with the supposed flowering, but I had literally no buds, and finally noticed webs on a single plant way in the corner-too late!
I thought spiders from the basement got in, but I didn't see any spiders...

Absolutely- never again will my indoor plant go outside "for some sun"

tommyinajar said:

Plastic media or mats.....what plastic?

Click to expand...

plastic to cover the top of the table so no light gets into root zone. no media on table, hydroton in pots.

OG Doge said:

plastic to cover the top of the table so no light gets into root zone. no media on table, hydroton in pots.

Click to expand...

I've not seen or heard of that before, is there a huge benefit? I have flooded in fabric bags before, so there it wouldn't help much.

tommyinajar said:

I've not seen or heard of that before, is there a huge benefit? I have flooded in fabric bags before, so there it wouldn't help much.

Click to expand...

It is very simple and effective, benefit is less medium, more air and more roots = better healthier plants. Plastic cover with fabric pots would work too to keep alge growth off of tray, just would not get the extra root growth outside of pots. I used to top feed drain to waste coco in fabric pots using this method with excellent results. I like my new way better, cleaner easier and cheaper to run.

Hydroton recycling sucks.

tommyinajar said:

That was my biggest worry, is cleaning the rocks,

Is there ANY benefit at all, I always see the full beds with food type plant not so much weed, IDK why.

I was thinking the plants might grow bigger without the net pots in the way. Also looked kind of neat.


I'm always messing with one of my 2 grow tents, ever since I fell into my $150 table, made with the south side of $5 in plastic, and built a tank-proof table. Now, I just dropped the flood bin to the floor and using 2 pumps instead of a gravity drain, for an extra 1.5 feet of to-the-roof grow-The 125 gal DWC...I leave alone.

Click to expand...