Hydroponic media for flood & drain

I am sure it has been discussed before but I am not getting many hits when searching for hydroton, etc...

After doing research and watching a few video's of which my favorite is Mr. Green I have decided to try a flood and drain system for the flowering phase of my first grow.

Now, it looks really easy to germinate plants in 1" rockwool cubes and transfer them into 4" rockwool cubes without much stress. After that it looks easy to surround them with hydroton in a flood and drain setup as long as the RW cubes are at least 1/2" higher than the flood level.

The only trouble I have read about is the possiblity of the rockwool getting saturated with water and preventing root growth.

Is there a similar material to rockwool that works better in this type of setup?

Thanks in advance

You want coco-pots filled with hydroton. http://www.discount-hydro.com/productdisp.php?pid=380&navid=48

Tire mulch is a medium that holds less water. They sell it at hd in the back of the garden area. I going to use it next in my dwc. If you gonna use it for ebb tho u gotta flood more because it doesnt hold water well. I a nub tho! and never tried ebb and flo so maybe it is harder to reg water height than i think. Is that your prob? I read about dif mediums, and if you can afford hydroton well maybe that the way to go!

Alo i stay away from hydro stores here casue i read cops secretly follo their customers. Thsi city hates weed bad! They reaided house for having a 300 dollar electric bill i saw in ca. The were not growing, just wasting electricity, lol, i avoid that mess and dream of just using hd

Eharmony420 said:

Alo i stay away from hydro stores here casue i read cops secretly follo their customers. Thsi city hates weed bad! They reaided house for having a 300 dollar electric bill i saw in ca. The were not growing, just wasting electricity, lol, i avoid that mess and dream of just using hd

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LOL!!!

*Stupid character limit*

in a flood and drain rw will not be overwatered if you fill the tray only until it reaches the drain level then let it drain back to the res3 times a day

NLXSK1 said:

After doing research and watching a few video's of which my favorite is Mr. Green I have decided to try a flood and drain system for the flowering phase of my first grow.

Click to expand...

I do like Mr Green's videos, in a general sense. He gets it closer to right than just about any other maker of grow vids. Lots of good basics in his clips, though there's a few things in his process that I'd change to improve productivity and reliability. I'm not fond of his transplanting into 4" cubes and even less fond of his drip feeding of them.

Now, it looks really easy to germinate plants in 1" rockwool cubes and transfer them into 4" rockwool cubes without much stress. After that it looks easy to surround them with hydroton in a flood and drain setup as long as the RW cubes are at least 1/2" higher than the flood level.

Click to expand...

In a flood system with pellets, the 4" cubes are not only extraneous but slow things down a bit as you need to wait until there's roots out of the bottoms of the larger cubes before they can be potted up in pellets. 25mm cubes are a bit small as they tend to dry out too fast, particularly when used on a heat mat. I prefer the 40mm plastic wrapped cubes. They hold enough water to get pre-rooted clones through 24h without being saturated, even on a heat mat. Once there's roots out of the bottoms of them, they can go directly into pellets (or other media ie Fytocell).

The only trouble I have read about is the possiblity of the rockwool getting saturated with water and preventing root growth.

Click to expand...

As long as the RW cube is 1/2" above the flood level, there will be no problems with overwatering when you flood the pellets as frequently as they can be flooded (start with 5x/lights on for small plants, can be every 2h beginning at lights-on for larger plants, avoiding watering in the last 2h of lights-on unless particularly large or vigorous plants would otherwise wilt). The roots will seek into the damp pellets in a few days, then it's off to the races.

Eharmony420 said:

They reaided house for having a 300 dollar electric bill i saw in ca. The were not growing, just wasting electricity,

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Sorry, this is almost certainly false.

No power company will dob in a prompt-paying customer and no judge would issue a warrant on high power use alone.

BTW, my last quarterly power bill was in excess of $1000, though which did include the coldest month of the year. My op only accounts for about $350 of that, too. I pay the bill on-time, every time. My bills have been in that neighbourhood for the last 8+ years. If someone's going to bust me for high power use, I wish they'd just get it over with, fuckin' slackers....

wyteberrywidow said:

in a flood and drain rw will not be overwatered if you fill the tray only until it reaches the drain level then let it drain back to the res3 times a day

Click to expand...

With pots of pellets, as long as the cube is above the flood level, you can flood much more frequently than 3x/day.

*takes notes*

Thanks Al,

I am going to buy the rockwool tomorrow if I can find it.

yep, just get some wrapped 40mm cubes and bob's yer uncle.

Hey al! check out it happened in carlsbad ca, i serious, maybe i read wrong but i gonna look again. That town hates weed they say bad. Lol, hee it is sorry for the length, it real old. This not the whole story i googled sdge carlsbad marijauna ca


Drug War Idiocy

Sunday, March 28th, 2004 Sometimes you gotta’ wonder why we bother having a Fourth Amendment at all.
Police raided with drug-sniffing dogs a Carlsbad, California family’s home after obtaining a warrant from a local judge (more here).
Reason for the search? The five-member family had a $300 electric bill, which cops thought might indicate the presence of the high-intensity sun lamps some folks use to grow marijuana.
That, and the family had put its trash out that day, on trash day, which cops say drug growers sometimes do to get rid of evidence (well, no shit).
A high electric bill and putting trash out, on — of all days — trash day. Amidst drug war hysteria, that’s enough for cops to come in and nose around your stuff.
And is anyone else troubled by the fact that cops are permitted to comb utilities records for suspiciously high electric bills? What other records are they allowed access to? Can they look through your cable bill to see what pay-per-view movies you’re ordeing?
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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2004 at 12:21 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


#12 | Michael | March 29th, 2004 at 6:41 pm

1. <LI id=comment-42194>I could be off, but if my memory serves me correctly, the electric company hands over the info to the authorities. I believe they take the average electric use for a neighborhood and way it against the offending person’s bill. Supposedly judges ARE NOT to give warrants just on the electric bill alone. And in this case, I think the other evidence they cited was that the people put their trash out every trash morning, and this is suspect because pot growers don’t want their trash to be rummaged through by leaving it out all night….YAK YAK….This country’s war on marijuana has gone WAY over the legal lines. And personally, I believe it shows the desparation on the part of the gov’t view. Better not leave those lights on!!!!!!!!!
   
   
2. 
   
3. I guess they got in trouble for it tho, but be careful i guess, lol
   

Eharmony420 said:

Police raided (dead link)

(more here). (dead link)

Click to expand...

*sigh*

I really wish those links were still alive. I'd like to know exactly how the cops came by a copy of these folks' power bill. It is not common practise for the cops to be given a copy of one's power bill.

Obviously, this made news because it is not standard practise. The story is 4 years old; if it were common practise, we'd have see a lot more reports like this since then.

If it had been me, I'd have been suing the socks off a lot of people.

mo shit. the upshot for me is i just found out all my new neighbores are totla potheads! MAybe we all grow!

i just found out the samething and the people i know got 300 dollar bills but pay it on time..

I'd personally KILL for a $300 power bill. Mine are between $700-$1000 (per quarter).

wow thats alot to be kicking out.i would kill if i had to pay that all with the other bills

Believe it or not, my bills are lower than one of my neighbour's. They've got a spa and a heated pool. I dropped my bill by $300/qtr by installing solar water heat.

wow cheap .. my house is all electric heat and AC i use cfl in most every fixture in the house and save where i can but heating and cooling all with electricity is a killer .
my electric bill is 450.00 USD a month that comes to about 1350.00 USD per quarter and i always pay on time and noones ever gotten a search warrant that i know of lol

Well, that's the nut. There's no way either the power co or the cops can possibly know what you are using your power for. A high power use rate ALONE is NOT prima facie evidence of drug activity. If a judge issued a warrant for my place on a power bill alone, I'd be seeking redress.