Drip vs flood

Thx to the good people around here I’ve come up with a small system. Tote with pots full of clay pebbles.I started with the idea of flood but ended up with drip.
Is there gonna be much difference in growth between the two. Drip was just easier with what I had laying around and how the pots fit into the tub.
Thx

If it is your first hydro crop then likely won’t matter what you run

Flood and drain is a faster growing method in what I've seen and read.

Airwalker16 said:

Flood and drain is a faster growing method in what I've seen and read.

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I don't know if I agree, but I don't have a back to back with the same strain to compare. I ran a flood/drain config last run and am running a drip (to waste) system this run, and I think growth is about the same. If there's a difference, it's hard to notice.

@myke the style of hydro you choose is less important than the conditions in which it operates. All things being equal, the growth should not really vary due to the style of growing hydroponically. The fact that you have the option to run DTW in a drip system vs recirculating only with ebb/flow can tip the cup to favor top drip, but if you stay on top of pH'ing your res with ebb/flow, again I think the differences will be hard to tell. Personally I think I like flooding better - less stuff to go wrong & zero maintenance outside of res maintenance, which you'll need to do in every system. Top drip has a higher learning curve, but in the end it will make you a better grower. That's my opinion anyway

I Did have a 4 bucket rdwc but it took up too much space.This is for my veg room.Having pots that can be moved around is why I switched.
So far I notice I dont have near as much water to maintain.Water level is also a non issue.
I assume PPM would be the same as rdwc since its basically the same system just more compact.No more air stones and water temp is lower,it drains back to a res thats outside the room.
Will see what the plants say.

Question,does it matter if I run the pump 24/7?Plants are in 2 gallon pots full of clay pebbles.Pots are supported by net pots to raise them from sitting in the water.Theres about 3/4" of water in the bottom of the totes before it drains back.Thanks.

Idk what kind of system you’re talking about. If there’s sitting water in buckets and it’s being recirculated, you’ve got yourself some kind of homologation. There shouldn’t be a recirculating supply. I feed my plants once per day with all excess water being drained and discarded. Even if I were recirculating the nutrients, I wouldn’t want sitting water. At that point, it’s more or less dwc

Hi Myke,
I agree with Major Blazer that any well designed hydro system should do equally well.

I've done both top drip via Waterfarm units, and flood and drain using hydroton. The Waterfarm unit works great for mid sized plant. Buckets aren't big enough for trees but can certainly handle a 3+ foot plant.

I'd go either way with hydroton. Rockwool on the other hand, works best with top drip and not so well flooding.
JD

Thanks guys,will see over the next weeks on how well this works.

JohnDee said:

Hi Myke,
I agree with Major Blazer that any well designed hydro system should equally well.

I've done both top drip via Waterfarm units, and flood and drain using hydroton. The Waterfarm unit works great for mid sized plant. Buckets aren't big enough for trees but can certainly handle a 3+ foot plant.

I'd go either way with hydroton. Rockwool on the other hand, works best with top drip and not so well flooding.
JD

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I didn't even think about that - yeah this sounds like waterfarms, which is tried and tested so yeah, green light on that one.