How often watering hydroton

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Greennner

Well-Known Member
I changed my set up a bit.
I hade 1 tray for all plants , just 3 inces high.

Now i have pots filled with 5-6L hydroton(9feet high pots)
And i flood them when light is on every 6 hours .

I have to flood up to 8inces, that needs way longer(start to finish flushing needs 15 minutes)

My question , how often do you flood,

And for all top feeder , how often would you water ,maybe i want to top feed the new set
up / 24/7 or 15min every hour???
(i am not sure if i like the high flooding)
 
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G

Greennner

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
Please try to have a little respect for those helping you out and take the time to type a readable message. smh.

Yes, start to finish.
Click to expand...
This is not my mother language.
But the bigger Problem is my correction Programm it is a peace of shit.
And almost every time iam at RIU iam stoned,
that dosent makes it easyer,
But i will give my best
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Greennner said:
This is not my mother language.
But the bigger Problem is my correction Programm it is a peace of shit.
And almost every time iam at RIU iam stoned,
that dosent makes it easyer,
But i will give my best
Click to expand...
That makes sense. Might be a wise idea to preface your messages with a little heads up so people understand. Many may not want to reply otherwise.

I did flood and drain with hydroton for a LONG time, pretty good scale. I used the every 4 hour flood when lights are on, no floods when the lights are off. Whole cycle. Worked awesome. I was consistently pulling over 2 pounds per light with a no veg SoG using 48 clones per 4x4 / 1kW SE HPS. Having the right strain is key for a no veg sog, also cheating and letting the clones root for like 20 days really helps too lol. I used flood and drain trays with 6 inch square pots.

I am not sure I understand your system though:

Greennner said:
Now i have pots filled with 5-6L hydroton(9feet high pots)
Click to expand...
Perhaps some pictures of your setup would help us help you.

Great luck with your grow, I hope you get a great harvest.
 
70's natureboy

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you are pretty close. Your 9 in pots may be overkill. How tall do you plan to grow them? I use 6 in pots and flood 3 in high every 2-3 hours. They would probably be fine with 4 hours between floods but that's just me. If I had 9 in pots I would only flood them 5-6 inches max. There won't be much roots in that top few inches anyway. Yours may be fine with 6 hours between floods since they are big pots but I would watch them close. I would move them around at hour 5 and see how wet they are on the bottom. If the bottom is very wet and leaves a puddle when you move the pot it is probably fine. When the roots start coming out the bottom you should be able to tell if they are getting to dry and flood more often.
 
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RangiSTaxi

Well-Known Member
flooding too often causes more stretch and softer stems, softer leaves.

in summer every 4 hours lights on..... once lights off.

in winter once every 6 hours is fine , 4 in a 24 hour period.

you can get away with just 3 floods in a 24 hour period depending on depth of hydroton in well established plants in winter

I had a tray 15cm deep and flooded just 4 times in 24 hours, a layer of water stays after a flood on the bottom, if in trays.

Flooding less will encourage roots to grow searching for water and nutrients.

It doesn't matter too much, but i would say to flood less often than more often, more air and stronger stems, less stretch.

flood to a inch below the surface of the hydroton

young clones or seedlings will need flooding more often, or require top watering with nutrients until they start growing new roots.

Large plants with a solid root system flood less, as they have more root surface area to hold water.

younger plants flood more often

Every grow set up and environment is different use your intuition, once established, less is often more.
 
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Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Greennner said:
I changed my set up a bit.
I hade 1 tray for all plants , just 3 inces high.

Now i have pots filled with 5-6L hydroton(9feet high pots)
And i flood them when light is on every 6 hours .

I have to flood up to 8inces, that needs way longer(start to finish flushing needs 15 minutes)

My question , how often do you flood,

And for all top feeder , how often would you water ,maybe i want to top feed the new set
up / 24/7 or 15min every hour???
(i am not sure if i like the high flooding)
Click to expand...
If you got roots at the bottom of your pots, you don't have to flood more than 2-3".
 
R

RangiSTaxi

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
If you got roots at the bottom of your pots, you don't have to flood more than 2-3".
Click to expand...
personally I think it is best to flood almost full depth when using hydroton , it help flush salts, dissolve nutrient salts, gives the hydroton more time to absorb nutrients, and buffer them and helps with a even moisture humidity level through out the whole pot, it also cools the whole pot/tray evenly and encourages root growth up higher leading to more root surface area in total, hydrotons capillarity action isnt as great as other growing mediums but it has some and if a full flood isn't used may lead to salt build up. Although maybe not necessary i think its good practice, also the return helps mix the holding tank more evenly if your tank volume aligns well with your tray capacity. It also helps hold grow room air humidity at a higher level, which can be beneficial in summer heat, flooding full depth will also lead to being able to flood less often, which will lead to stronger stems and more plant dry matter over all.
 
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Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I flood as deep as possible. More area for roots to grow that way. Now if using rockwool it will wick the mositure up.
 
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