Flood & Drain Table questions

It seems as if I don't see many flood/drain table growers. For those of you using flood and drain tables I just had a few questions. So far I've grown soil, dwc, NFT. I want to try a flood and drain table and then aero.

Do you fill the entire table up with a medium like hydroton? From the research I've done there are some people who fill the entire table up and some who just put pots in the flood and drain table. If you put a pot in a flood and drain table wouldnt the roots get root bound by the pot at some point? unlike if you put a clone in a rockwool cube in a table filled entirely with hydroton the roots would only get bound once it fills the entire table?

As your ladies grow do you increase the number/duration of feedings per day or increase the PPM? Or both?

Do you need a bubbler or will the falling action of the water back into the res be sufficient in creating enough dissolved oxygen?

Thanks for answering any of my questions,

I have lids for my ebb n flow tables, that have holes cut out in them which my net pots sit in. They are suspended in air, a couple inches off the bottom of the trays. This also prevents light from getting into the root area, and when the roots outgrow the net pots, they just sprawl out along the bottom of the ebb n flow trays....

So suspended netpots filled with hydroton with a rockwool starter in the middle. The netpots sit suspended in the lids of the trays.

I adjust PPM as necessary based on the health of the plants.

I don't really increase or decrease the frequency of waterings, I choose to flood 4 times a day, in both veg and flower....During lights on only.

Yes, i use a bubbler with a commercial style air pump.

I am moving from drip ring top watering to f & d

Will be using net pots filled with polished ornamental stone from The Dollar Store

Not necessary to raise the nps above the tray bottom

Since stones are fast draining, I top fed every 30 minutes for 30 seconds.

Should be the same with f & d, though maybe once an hour will work as well

If interested see my last grow thread

Metasynth said:

I have lids for my ebb n flow tables, that have holes cut out in them which my net pots sit in. They are suspended in air, a couple inches off the bottom of the trays. This also prevents light from getting into the root area, and when the roots outgrow the net pots, they just sprawl out along the bottom of the ebb n flow trays....

So suspended netpots filled with hydroton with a rockwool starter in the middle. The netpots sit suspended in the lids of the trays.

I adjust PPM as necessary based on the health of the plants.

I don't really increase or decrease the frequency of waterings, I choose to flood 4 times a day, in both veg and flower....During lights on only.

Yes, i use a bubbler with a commercial style air pump.

Click to expand...

Like that?
I'm having a question myself. I'm putting seedlings in 3 inch netpots with dyna gro roks. How often should I flood these ? The netpots will eventually be put into dwc and the roots will be allowed to grow. How much root and how large of a plant can you do in a 3 inch netpot with roks?

Flood rocks every 4 to 5 hours depending on rates of respiration. Flood just long enough to reach full depth.

No "bubbler" required, as water drains off your table, air replaces it. Oxygenation of nutrients is not important.

A tray full of hydroton is heavy, does not allow the movement of plants, but in my opinion is less maintenance as the roots should stay under the medium. With a lid with holes, you can move/rotate plants for the most part, but you need to flood and drain more compared to a fully filled tray. I have done both, but with proper spacing and training, a full tray of hydroton works easier for me. Less risk of algae and higher retention of moisture on the roots...But then you have more to rinse, clean, and sterilize for the next round. I pressure cook my hydroton. It takes a few batches to do it all, but it is autoclave sterile and doesn't chip up the bath tub. I do put a bubbler in the res for for the hell of it, but the flood and drain normally is enough.

SnapsProvolone said:

Flood rocks every 4 to 5 hours depending on rates of respiration. Flood just long enough to reach full depth.

No "bubbler" required, as water drains off your table, air replaces it. Oxygenation of nutrients is not important.

Click to expand...

is it important to keep bad bacteria out? The air stones giving oxygen I mean.

All I've ever done is toss a pump in there to circulate my res so it's not completely stagnant. I use 200 gallon res, run for complete cycle with only topoffs and addbacks. Yes, no res change. Just start with a lucas fill, addback to maintain ppm should be only bloom (pk).

As far as your roots, in a flood n drain, most of the time they're not flooded and have plenty of o2 at the roots unless rootbound or in a medium like coco or rw slabs. Use hydroton

Downsides to not using pots (filling whole tray): can't rearrange plants to even canopy, need a shopvac or extreme patience to get all those rocks out of the tray. Otherwise its cool...

If using rocks, set flood levels deep for more root zone.

SnapsProvolone said:

Downsides to not using pots (filling whole tray): can't rearrange plants to even canopy, need a shopvac or extreme patience to get all those rocks out of the tray. Otherwise its cool...

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've never attempted filling a tray with hydroton either. What a mess it would be. It was always pots for me
Save some power, by being able to move pots around. Lets just say ur gonna fill a 4 light setup. Only two lights/trays need to be used at first. Then 3, then 4. In a e&f, perpetual room, you can grow much more bud annually this way