Optimum flood time? - ebb & gro buckets

Ebb & Gro buckets: Is it best to time the flood so that the buckets are fully flooded and then drain them immediately? Or is it better to let the plants soak for a few minutes before draining them? I've got a new timer that lets me set precise flood times now, instead of the standard 15 minute increments.

brightskies said:

Ebb & Gro buckets: Is it best to time the flood so that the buckets are fully flooded and then drain them immediately? Or is it better to let the plants soak for a few minutes before draining them? I've got a new timer that lets me set precise flood times now, instead of the standard 15 minute increments.

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I start flooding mine when they are very young and i give them a 15 minuite flood every 6 hrs,then when i put my 400mh on i feed them every 3 hrs.I have amazing results doing it that way.I just stuck with what works best for me.

littlegiant said:

I start flooding mine when they are very young and i give them a 15 minuite flood every 6 hrs,then when i put my 400mh on i feed them every 3 hrs.I have amazing results doing it that way.I just stuck with what works best for me.

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Thanks for your help! I've been doing the same as you for several cycles with good results. I'm wondering if I can get EVEN BETTER results by dialing in the length of the flood time. If your buckets only take 3 minutes to fill, is it best to have them soak submerged for 12 more minutes before draining them? Or is it better to start the drain cycle as soon as the buckets are fully flooded? My new timer allows me to set the flood time to the exact second now.

it really depends on the agregate and how the plant reacts. veg and flower times vary also. Keep and eye for over/under watering while you play around with different times.

brightskies said:

Thanks for your help! I've been doing the same as you for several cycles with good results. I'm wondering if I can get EVEN BETTER results by dialing in the length of the flood time. If your buckets only take 3 minutes to fill, is it best to have them soak submerged for 12 more minutes before draining them? Or is it better to start the drain cycle as soon as the buckets are fully flooded? My new timer allows me to set the flood time to the exact second now.

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I dont get too technical,so i just give it 15 minuites all together filling and draining.Before i flower i set my timer at 25 minuites.Works for me.I purchased 2 books on growing and not 1 book gave you any idea how long to flood your table,or how much nutrients to use so i just experimented and this works.

personally, I'm a fan of flooding for shorter periods of time several times a day. This is my second run on this flood and drain system and instead of 3 20 minute flood cycles per day I flood it for 8 minutes every 90 minutes of daylight. It takes my tray about 4 minutes to fill up, then the roots sit in the solution for 4 more minutes before it drains. I must say the improvement is marked. My reasoning behind flooding the tray more often in shorter increments was because the F&D cycle forces new oxygen rich air into the medium upon draining so I thought, more oxygen available more frequently can only mean good things for the roots! Play around with it, you'll know if its working by the way your plants respond

That was my assumption too- nice to hear you've had some success with shorter, more frequent ebb/flow times.

this is mystery info sometimes, not in any book and i either had to ask people or zoom in on pic's of grows. for a titan ebb n gro my early veg is 15 min every 2.5 hr. then with roots in veg its 30 min 3 times a day, but at flower i do 30m on 4hr off - 15m on -4hr off -30 min flood- drain, then night. nothing on at night obviously..

i'd love to see this thread grow with everyone elses times for tables and buckets. oh yeah i'm in hydroton.

Before now, I haven't been able to find a control bucket timer that would allow flooding in less than 15 minute increments. My friend recently built me a digital controller that allows timing to the second. That's why I'm asking. Of course, I don't need to be THAT accurate; but I'm going to try for more frequent floods- each for a shorter duration.

With my regular timer, I've had good luck with flooding for 15 minutes every 2+ hours during lights on. Both in flower and veg.

I like the 15 minute flood that is on the controller bucket because it allows the hydroton to get more of a soaking, which helps to get the ph to balance out faster. Anyone who uses this much hydroton knows how bad the upswing is when it's new. Just my thing.

word. the upswing on 150 lbs of hydroton is a motherfucker. word.

cerberus said:

word. the upswing on 150 lbs of hydroton is a motherfucker. word.

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Man I'll tell you......washing 4 bags, let alone what you have, is a friggin nightmare. It kills my back to unload (my grow shop at least loads it for me), bring in to my place of growing, and wash and wash and wash that shit, then put it in the buckets. I'm thinking very seriously about building a big aeroflow so I can just use the little baskets....between that, changing out hundreds of gallons of water, and chopping down, drying, manicuring, and curing in jars is like a full time job, only it has to be done secretly. So much work people don't get.

I was thinking about getting a washing machine just for the purpose.....what do you think....would it work? Maybe a gentle cycle so not to break the pellets, but to wash the shit without having to do so much work.

If ANYONE has tried it, let me know.....

-Bliss

I have never heard of that but it might work, hell i have tried all kinds of corner cutters. but the bag on a milk crate and your garden hose in the top of the bag and run it for 10 min. smoke a j and hold the bag up.. cleans them off pretty good but does jack shit for the PH swing..

also, first flood of the setup, like you said, no plants and water ph'd at like 5.6 soak for 30 min repeat for a day, pull all the water out and start for real, but again thats 2 full days of rez fills/dumps/fills w/ nutes, hydroton cleaning, all the other equipment cleaned (buckets, net pots, hoses, pumps, air stones, grow room walls, light bulbs, filters.. yada yada) whew..

then you got the plants themselves, pruining, bending, chopping, hanging, trimming, cureing..

word man, its a full 50 hour a week job, thats why so many get into the game and drop right out.. no one thinks about the hauling a 100lb tank of co2 up and down a couple of flights of stairs every few weeks, when they think how easy a pot growers life is.. lol

I run 24- 4gal buckets in my veg room w/ 1 55gal res and 48- 4gal buckets in my bloom room w/ 2 55gal res.--- a total of 8000w of lights... 2- 1000w in veg and 6- 1000w in bloom.. for veg i flood every 6 hours and soak for 18 mins. in bloom i flood every 3 hrs while lights are on and i flood once while lights are off soaking for 20 mins each time.--- my strains typically bloom for 60 days so around week 5 (day 35) during a res change i will run 2 back to back cycles of a H2O2 29% solution @ 3/ml per gal just to give my roots a nice healthy cleaning just in case voodoo juice/tarantula/piranah arent doing a 100% job of cleaning my root system... i run the sylica rocks as my medium and most crops the stalks are too big to wrap my hand around.... yes in hydro... too big to wrap my hand around...

i keep a 55 gal drum in the backyard just for cleaning and soaking medium... i highly recommend dropping the hydroton and going to sylica rock.. the difference is night and day. stalks too big to wrap my hand around... anyway back to the cleaning of medium. i pour 3- 50l bags into the barrel, fill with hose water and add 29% H2O2 @ 5/ml per gal. let em soak for a few mins and start filling my baskets. i line them up on the patio and as they fill i just rinse completely. from the patio to the buckets... simple easy. if you dont have a backyard try your bathtub... good luck

I was thinking of a big turkey fryer with the pull out basket might be easy for cleaning all these dam hydroton balls.Maybe?

?
the 50 lb bags have that funny corner on them so you can put a hose in it.

punch holes in the bottom of the bag.

turn on house
aggitate bag aka kick it around a bit

wait untill bag drains clear

use tone..

DO NOT CLEAN IN BATHTUB! the clay silt your cleaning off, your cleaning it off because it clogs plant pores, and pumps, and PIPES! your drainage pipes will eventually clog from this

Well I stopped flooding my plants every 3 hrs for 25 min because I thought I might have been over watering them. My leaves were folding over from center and curling down badly on the ends with slow growth,and I was correct.Now its 3 times a day and they are really doing better after 2 weeks.Leaves straightening out and faster growth.Its strange how different plants react to conditions you give them.My 2 different Indicas reacted with the curling down leaves and stunted growth,while my skunk and bubblelicious were unaffected.

thats well and good on the 1st rinse on brand new bags.... follow above instructions for continued cleaning and use for harvest after harvest

Why don't people flood when the lights are off?