Any advice on flooding schedule?

[GoldenGraham84]

just wanting some advice on how often i should be flooding my ebb and flow table and for how long. plant is about 1' and 6 days into flowering. thanks all!

[stinkyattic]

15 minutes, 6 times per day is the schedule I use.
Your individual results may vary ;)

[allkillanofilla]

it depends on the size of your rockwool cubes if your using the 6" 2 times a day if your using the small 4" 3-4 times a day

[stinkyattic]

Oh right, good call Killa.
Rockwool and Hydroton have different flood schedules. I gave the one for hydroton. It drains out to driness a LOT faster than rockwool does!

What's your medium? Also yout temps and plant size will influence how fast your medium dries out. Some rockwool folks will flood LESS frequently when the plants are small, and then have to flood a little more often as they grow and demand more water.

[GoldenGraham84]

thanks for the snappy replies. the plant i refer to was started in a rockwool cube. i know, extra lame. i ordered more rapid rooters though! the rock wool cube was then placed into hydroton when rooted well. big stress was caused to it as a clone from my friend who put it into flower 3 days after taking the cutting! here's a week old pic...

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq330/goldengraham84/100_1917.jpg

since that pic was taken, i've had it in flower for about 6 days now and it is doing well. currently i flood 6x/day for 5 minutes. would longer flooding increase growth rate?

[stinkyattic]

Nothing inherently wrong with rockwool if you treat it like rockwool.
A big trick to plugs of any sort is that once the roots have gone beyond the plug, stop letting the plug get wet at any time. So if you are flood/drain, you would check that your max flood level comes up to JUST BELOW the level of the bottom of the starter plug/cube, and does not soak it every time, which can lead to a girdling stem rot. And that is tragic.

[GoldenGraham84]

okay great! but as for my current small rockwool cube, i could do 3-4 waterings/day? 15 minutes each?

[stinkyattic]

The first couple days, just hand water it and write down the time. Check it every hour or so and see when the cube is close to dry, but the plant is of course not wilting. Write this down, and also whether it is 'day' or 'night'. Then you can set a schedule that matches what the plant seems to want. During lights-out, you may find that you flood slightly less frequently if you want to get precise about it.

But um, the short answer to your Q is yes ;)

[GoldenGraham84]

hooray! all questions answered quickly! online high five! :thumbsup::dance::thumbsup:

[allkillanofilla]

Just to throw this out there growing with rockwool cubes exclusively works very very well. For the first four months of the plants life in a ebb n flow garden. After that just add Hydroton to the area around the footprint of the rockwool cube about halfway up. Once you get your plants placed for good that is. Then after that place your garden on a 5 floods a day on 15 minute intervals schedule. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:




also to the top post i put from earlier that was for the veg period not flowering

[SaintAlphonzo]

Hi,

I was wondering if this Hydroton flooding schedule you posted is 6 times a day only while the light is on, or 6 times spread throughout 24 hours.

Also, you mentioned that this changes if rockwool is used . . . what about rapid rooters? Do I need to modify the schedule a bit if my seeds/clones are started in these?

Last question . . . the original poster was talking about the scheduloe during flowering. Is it different during veg? If so, what do people do there?

Thanks for responses. I've been growing in soil for a while, but this will be my first venture into hydro.