Wilt With Water

[GluteusMaximus]

Been growing with soil for years. When plants begin to wilt, I can tell I'm a little late with the water. No problem, I water and the plants spring right back up.

Hydro on the other hand.....I've been trying to discover the right time and how often to water (Ebb and Gro). I started watering about 5 times a day when the plants were very young so as to keep enough moisture high in the buckets for the roots to reach. As the plants grew I backed off the watering frequency and upped the nutes. Now the roots are just beginning to escape the drain holes in the inner buckets (2 gal) and I have them down to 2 x 15 minute floods a day.

What I'm witnessing is.... right after I water, the plants wilt for about 2 hours and begin to spring back. I'm afraid to back off the watering any further because I don't want the roots to dry out. What I'd like to know is should I totally cut off their water UNTIL they wilt?... and then water....let them wilt again and then I would know the interval between watering or will this create a dry root problem?

Plants are healthy and green as hell. They're not showing any sign of trouble otherwise, just this weird wilting AFTER water!

Any insight?

GM

[Gen]

Well, are you doing something with the lights? Strange. If the plants are healthy, quit worrying.

[karmaxul]

Lack of oxygen perhaps?

[Zandor]

Been growing with soil for years. When plants begin to wilt, I can tell I'm a little late with the water. No problem, I water and the plants spring right back up.

Hydro on the other hand.....I've been trying to discover the right time and how often to water (Ebb and Gro). I started watering about 5 times a day when the plants were very young so as to keep enough moisture high in the buckets for the roots to reach. As the plants grew I backed off the watering frequency and upped the nutes. Now the roots are just beginning to escape the drain holes in the inner buckets (2 gal) and I have them down to 2 x 15 minute floods a day.

What I'm witnessing is.... right after I water, the plants wilt for about 2 hours and begin to spring back. I'm afraid to back off the watering any further because I don't want the roots to dry out. What I'd like to know is should I totally cut off their water UNTIL they wilt?... and then water....let them wilt again and then I would know the interval between watering or will this create a dry root problem?

Plants are healthy and green as hell. They're not showing any sign of trouble otherwise, just this weird wilting AFTER water!

Any insight?

GM

Everytime they wilt you are shocking them (watch out for hermies).

Most ebb & flow use 15 min on 45 off with the lights on and 15 on every 2 hours with the lights off to start.
Check your Ph asap will ya?

If you cut back anymore you will be watering ebb & flow with a dirt farming schedule. What medium are you using?

[GluteusMaximus]

The lights (3 x 1000W) are on 18/6. Got an air stone (18 inch) in the resevoir running constantly. PH is 5.8, TDS at 850ppm, water temp is 70 degrees, room temp 80 degrees....plants are almost 2 feet tall growing almost one inch a day with no signs of trouble. Everything is dialed in perfectly, IMO, except for the watering interval.

I'm starting to think that I'm shocking the roots by letting them dry out too much before their next watering. I'm going to return to a more frequent watering (every 4 hours) and see if there's any change. I'll keep ya posted.

Thanks Zandor just saw your post as I was typing this. I'm using hydroton in 2 gal buckets.

GM

[GluteusMaximus]

Most ebb & flow use 15 min on 45 off with the lights on and 15 on every 2 hours with the lights off to start....

Are you kidding? 15 minutes every hour? My first thought is that this schedule would drown the roots. Can the plants really handle that much watering? If they can.....I'm gonna push them.

Thanks for the quick response Zandor.

GM

[GluteusMaximus]

update.....

Got the watering on a 4 hour cycle and can already see a positive response. The leaves are standing up like never before. I'm totally blown away by the quick reaction hydro plants exhibit.

I think from my experience with soil that I'm prejudice and overly skeptical that hydro can do any better. So far my presumptions have been proven completely out of order. Plants growing at amazing rates. Extremely easy to maintain (just mix your brew and watch ph).

But now I have this new problem.....I'm bored. I was certain this could be more complex and fun and after buying a simple system I find that I'm not near as involved as I'd like to be. I think I'll see just how funky I can twist this practice. My imagination has been running wild ever since I connected the first grommet.

Thanks for all the continued support, saved my arse more than once already!

GM

[Zandor]

Are you kidding? 15 minutes every hour? My first thought is that this schedule would drown the roots. Can the plants really handle that much watering? If they can.....I'm gonna push them.

Thanks for the quick response Zandor.

GM

Sure it can.... dripers water direct placement 24/7. It takes about 5-8 min for the water to drain back into the rez so the roots will have like 38-40 min of air and oxygen.

[GluteusMaximus]

I'm finding that it takes a whole 15 minutes to fill the buckets....then another 15 minutes to drain. Since this is an Ebb and "Gro" it uses a controller bucket to pump the nutes back into the resevoire. With the whole process taking 30 minutes to cycle, what would you recommend for the time between the fills.

The reason I ask is because I figure the roots are under water for at least 25 of the 30 minutes.

Perhaps I should look at this the other way, maybe the question I should ask is how much "dry" time between watering should they receive?

At any rate, it appears that I'm waaaaaay under-watering them.

Thanks again Zandor, I feel like a kid with the training wheels off.

GM

[GluteusMaximus]

Zandor,

I just stumbled across your post in the FAQ's which listed a great link to a calculator and more scientific answer explaining the process of determining the right time to water.

http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/eftips.htm

damn good information there, thought it deserved a repost.

GM