Flood and Drain table

District

Active Member

• Sep 2, 2014

• #1

Hello. Im currently undertaking my first hydro flood and drain grow. I transplanted my clones yesterday into pots I already owned.

The strain is Green Love Potion. General room temp is 27.6 under lights 30.5 it doesn't feel that warm to me. Im running 2 600W MH. RH is 52% rez temp 21.8. My nutes solution was 1120 PPM though I didn't realise I had to rinse my hydroton and is now 1400 PPM. Im using GH Flora range with Diamomd Nectar and Plant Magic CalMag for the first two weeks as my water is RO. Finally my ph is 5.8 was 6.2 I believe due to the hydroton but has been amended.

The tray is quite shallow so I have only filled the pots 1/4 way full. Now I realise plant size is down to roots size. I was pondering just filling the tray with hydroton to give the roots more space and doing away with the pots.
Sorry about the pic quality. Any thoughts?

 

kmog33

Well-Known Member

• Sep 2, 2014

• #2

Thats a really high ppm for plants that size.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Rollitup mobile app

 

FrozenChozen

Well-Known Member

• Sep 2, 2014

• #3

yeah they should be around 350-400 max IMHO

 

District

Active Member

• Sep 3, 2014

• #4

They're not showing any negative affects at the moment. Its been a clear 24 hrs too.

Any thoughts on the potting issue?

 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member

• Sep 3, 2014

• #5

I use polished ornamental stones (Dollar Store)

No sloughing, easy to clean/reuse after each grow

Also, I now use net pots in my Mini-Me F & D

Link in my signature

 

C

clayawesome

Well-Known Member

• Sep 3, 2014

• #6

I realized my best flood table yields when i abandoned the pots and filled the whole 4' x 6' tables with hydroton. also the hydroton takes 60% of the volume in the table allowing the nutrent solution to fill and drain from the table much faster.

 

C

clayawesome

Well-Known Member

• Sep 3, 2014

• #7

PS be sure you have good screens on your fill and drain pipes. one small pebble of hydroton can jam a pump and kill an entire crop.

 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member

• Sep 3, 2014

• #8

With a filled tray you can't move plants around

 

District

Active Member

• Sep 3, 2014

• #9

Damn didn't realise about the screen. Thanks. And thanks for the input everybody. What can I use for a screen.

 

C

clayawesome

Well-Known Member

• Sep 4, 2014

• #10

It can be something as simple as a piece of bug screen held on with rubber bands. Mine came with screens that fit right in the pump and drain fittings.

 

C

clayawesome

Well-Known Member

• Sep 4, 2014

• #11

I use something similar to these. Provides different size and flood height options and very easy to disassemble and clean.

 

District

Active Member

• Sep 4, 2014

• #12

Yeah mine looks similar. I just wander how will I remove the plants. They look well im not keen on exposing the roots to light. Any suggestions. I was thinking tske some bolrt cutters to the pots.

 

kmog33

Well-Known Member

• Sep 5, 2014

• #13

clayawesome said:

I realized my best flood table yields when i abandoned the pots and filled the whole 4' x 6' tables with hydroton. also the hydroton takes 60% of the volume in the table allowing the nutrent solution to fill and drain from the table much faster.

Click to expand...

Whats your water pump schedule when you run your tables like that? Id assume more often and/or longer than with rockwool.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Rollitup mobile app

 

C

clayawesome

Well-Known Member

• Sep 7, 2014

• #14

I flooded for 15 minutes four times daily. once when the lights turned on, once 2 hours before the lights turned off, and twice equally spread between. never at night. same schedule for veg as well, meaning the four feedings are much more spaced out.

 

District

Active Member

• Sep 16, 2014

• #15

kmog33 said:

Whats your water pump schedule when you run your tables like that? Id assume more often and/or longer than with rockwool.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Rollitup mobile app

Click to expand...

Every 4 hours even during lights off. Plants seem happy with it. Im going to put hydroton in the table. Just need to mske a mod or 2.