Quote Originally Posted by 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
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?