Looking for a guide to flood tables

J

jkwrestling13

Well-Known Member
I just fi
I just finished my first grow. Soil grow, 4 Plants total, 2 month veg time. 3 plants in 10 gallons, 1 in 15 gallon.

Fed house and garden nutes, turned out very nice. Still on the racks drying, but ended with I believe anywhere around a pound and a half.

Im sick of the soil. I want to cut the veg time, and the pot size.

I have a 10x12 space, im going to be running 2000 watts on light movers across the room. I want to fill the room with 2 gallon pots, which I planned on running in coco.

I have a few things to figure out.

The only other medium I have looked into are soiless(aeroponic) or growing in coco, which I was leaning toward.

How can I get around having to handwater in coco? Unfortunately I cannot afford a flow & grow at the moment.

I was looking into drain to waste. Can anyone refer me to a nice looking guide on it?

Possibly growing in 2 gallon square coco pots on flood tables, if anyone can give me a guide on how to water with flood tables. ie: bottom feeding

I am open to all options of growing, just want to get past the dreaded handwatering.

What works for you? Im open to new ideas. I want to make the best use of my space, I also have a 4x8 tent that I can veg and clone in. Would like to pull around a pound per month, more if possible.

Was taking a look at this thread: https://www.rollitup.org/t/get-a-harvest-every-2-weeks.6592/
But just not sure how difficult it would be with the plants getting different nute strengths on different weeks of flower.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
oilfield bud

oilfield bud

Well-Known Member
One of the guys on this site is helping me out a bunch with drain and flood tables, plan is have a bunch of moms in vegg room to take clones from, then use 4x4x4 rockwool cubes for each clone and as soon as they are rooted and to proper hight they go straight into flowering room, this will definitely knock out most vegg time so u can get a harvest every 8 weeks off 1 table.
 
J

jkwrestling13

Well-Known Member
oilfield bud said:
One of the guys on this site is helping me out a bunch with drain and flood tables, plan is have a bunch of moms in vegg room to take clones from, then use 4x4x4 rockwool cubes for each clone and as soon as they are rooted and to proper hight they go straight into flowering room, this will definitely knock out most vegg time so u can get a harvest every 8 weeks off 1 table.
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Thats what I would like. How much do you get about every month? And how do you water them?
I have a 10x10 space for flower, and a 4x8 for veg
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
Flood and drain will be the easiest method. Drain to waste is easy if you're hand watering but once you want to implement an automated feeding/watering system is where it can get a little more complicated. I am experimenting doing just that now. Flood and drain is my preferred method but still experimenting. I've tried drip rings and pc emitters(1 gallon/hour) and the emitters seem to work better for me. Theres some helpful info in this thread about drip/sprayer systems. I'm still working out the kinks in my system.

http://rollitup.org/t/show-and-tell-about-your-automated-drip-sprayer-systems.870068/

If its your first attempt at hydro I would go by a flood table(s). Don't use cheap-ass home depot trays or totes. Save those for the reservoir. You want the table to drain as well as possible and actual flood tables will just work better, I know, they are expensive for a hunk of plastic but they will save the headache.
 
J

jkwrestling13

Well-Known Member
DirtyMcCurdy said:
Flood and drain will be the easiest method. Drain to waste is easy if you're hand watering but once you want to implement an automated feeding/watering system is where it can get a little more complicated. I am experimenting doing just that now. Flood and drain is my preferred method but still experimenting. I've tried drip rings and pc emitters(1 gallon/hour) and the emitters seem to work better for me. Theres some helpful info in this thread about drip/sprayer systems. I'm still working out the kinks in my system.

http://rollitup.org/t/show-and-tell-about-your-automated-drip-sprayer-systems.870068/

If its your first attempt at hydro I would go by a flood table(s). Don't use cheap-ass home depot trays or totes. Save those for the reservoir. You want the table to drain as well as possible and actual flood tables will just work better, I know, they are expensive for a hunk of plastic but they will save the headache.
Click to expand...
The money isnt the problem. I would definitely buy them from my local hydro store. How do they work? Do you top feed or botton feed? What medium do you use? Im kind of new to all of it, the only thing i have a decent understanding of is aeroponics

What i would do is probably have 3 tables, veg for a week or 2 handwatering in my veg tent, then put them in the flower room. I could do it prepetually so i have a table finishing per month.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
The guys at your hydro store can show you all you need to know, not much, about flood tables and they will have the right fittings, pumps, timers and hose/tubing you need.

Flood and drain is bottum feed. Pump nutrient in, let it set for a few minutes, shut pump off, it all drains back to reservoir. Automated watering made easy.

I use 1 gallon pots with coco. I am experimenting with top feed drain to waste right now using a flood table just to catch run-off. They [flood tables] are handy to have around. I advise making them easy to move/take down/disassemble or reassemble and give yourself space to work around the tables.
 
J

jkwrestling13

Well-Known Member
How many plants do you do per 4x4 table? Im thinking about getting 3 4x4s, possibly 4 rows of 4 per table. It will be prepetually about every month. Do you do any veg time? If so how do you feed if yours vegging? My plants wont be on the flood tables while in veg
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
jkwrestling13 said:
How many plants do you do per 4x4 table? Im thinking about getting 3 4x4s, possibly 4 rows of 4 per table. It will be prepetually about every month. Do you do any veg time? If so how do you feed if yours vegging? My plants wont be on the flood tables while in veg
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6 plants on 3x3 tables. Like to veg for about a month but have also gone 12/12 from seed.
Just think of it as automated watering, you can still veg small plants on flood tables in smaller pots, even solo cups, then pot them up as needed. I use a small trough flood table/rockwool gutter thing that can only hold 6 pots at a time. I start them in this trough under T5's, wait till they are about a foot tall then pot up to 1 gallon pots and move to the bigger tables. I give them a week or so to recover before switching the light cycle.
 
J

jkwrestling13

Well-Known Member
DirtyMcCurdy said:
6 plants on 3x3 tables. Like to veg for about a month but have also gone 12/12 from seed.
Just think of it as automated watering, you can still veg small plants on flood tables in smaller pots, even solo cups, then pot them up as needed. I use a small trough flood table/rockwool gutter thing that can only hold 6 pots at a time. I start them in this trough under T5's, wait till they are about a foot tall then pot up to 1 gallon pots and move to the bigger tables. I give them a week or so to recover before switching the light cycle.
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Ahh gotcha, ill definitely head over to the hydro store and check it out. Theyre usually really helpful, and im sure could refer me to what would fit my needs
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
how big is your res? do you have a seperate res for each table?
DirtyMcCurdy said:
6 plants on 3x3 tables. Like to veg for about a month but have also gone 12/12 from seed.
Just think of it as automated watering, you can still veg small plants on flood tables in smaller pots, even solo cups, then pot them up as needed. I use a small trough flood table/rockwool gutter thing that can only hold 6 pots at a time. I start them in this trough under T5's, wait till they are about a foot tall then pot up to 1 gallon pots and move to the bigger tables. I give them a week or so to recover before switching the light cycle.
Click to expand...
 
drgreentm

drgreentm

Well-Known Member
I'm running two 4x8 trays that where hand built and am running it top feed with X4 1000w lights. I used flood and drain for ever and it is one of my favorites by far but top feed allows more aeration to the root zone imo. Here are a few pics of the two trays I'm running pics suck and the room hard to photograph bit you can get the idea. 16 plants in 15 gal pots filled with 100% chunky perlite.
 

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Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
drgreentm said:
I'm running two 4x8 trays that where hand built and am running it top feed with X4 1000w lights. I used flood and drain for ever and it is one of my favorites by far but top feed allows more aeration to the root zone imo. Here are a few pics of the two trays I'm running pics suck and the room hard to photograph bit you can get the idea. 16 plants in 15 gal pots filled with 100% chunky perlite.
Click to expand...
Hey man are you growing in Gravel,, I used to grow in pea gravel 25 years ago
 
Carolina Dream'n

Carolina Dream'n

Well-Known Member
6 liter pots filled with hydroton. Plants veg in a 3 inch Rockwool cube for a few days.
40 gallon Rez per 3x3. 70 per 4x4. Flood once a day at first. By the time your at the end of flower it will b 4-6 times a day.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
drgreentm said:
I'm running two 4x8 trays that where hand built and am running it top feed with X4 1000w lights. I used flood and drain for ever and it is one of my favorites by far but top feed allows more aeration to the root zone imo. Here are a few pics of the two trays I'm running pics suck and the room hard to photograph bit you can get the idea. 16 plants in 15 gal pots filled with 100% chunky perlite.
Click to expand...
I have been thinking about giving a 100% perlite medium a chance. I'm thinking about putting something similar together, pretty much like a dutch bucket system in a flood table. Something I can feed faster than coco. Nice looking setup you got there. How often do you run your pump?
 
Alaric

Alaric

Well-Known Member
jkwrestling13 said:
But just not sure how difficult it would be with the plants getting different nute strengths on different weeks of flower.
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IMO----not necessary-----once the plants are large enough for your full strength nutes-----run the same mix all the way till harvest.

Who stands to benefit from us buying lots of nutes?

I've done it both ways.

A~~~
 
J

jkwrestling13

Well-Known Member
Thinking im going to run 3 tables, start them 2 weeks apart from eachother. Refill the tables directly after harvest

Will give me a harvest every 2 weeks with a month break every3 harvests
 
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