flood and drain.

ok, so i have a pretty large soil grow going on and i have some extra trays and pumps and decided to make a corner hydro flood and drain setup. how many times should the tray be flooded daily? also how long should it stay flooded before draining? also if the pots are just sitting in an open top tray, whaqt happens when the roots get so long they start to come out of the pot? wont the light hitting them cause a ton of stress? just looking for some small pointers!! thanks in advance.kiss-ass

I have all the answers for your questions. Flood time depends on medium I use Hydroton in my ebb and flow system. I flood in intervals of 3 1/2 hours all day and night I've never seen any signs of overwater or underwater EVER! and right now I got 3 different strains in the same system all grow great. I use RockWool minicubes for my mother and she only gets water once a day. My Flood time is for 15 minutes. I use black visqueen to cover the top of my tray. My first time growing I didn't cover the top and oh shiit was I in for a surprise when my plants stop growing. Once I covered the tray they rebounded. So make sure to cover the top of your tray with something that light can't penetrate. That should cover all your questions.

thanks for the info mate!! rep....

Also, you can look into getting a coco mat. For my first grow I cut squares for each plant, but really, the roots don't extend much past it. I would recommend either covering most of the bottom of your flood table with 1 sheet of it, or cutting squares to twice the diameter of the bottom of the container. You just put net pots on top of these and vioala. I haven't had issue with roots yet, but the light hitting water in flood phase will "energize it" and help algae grow in your rez. Personally, I'm not covering right now, and haven't had problems. This is also the furthest I've grown any plants though!

I will say, be CAUTIOUS with different strains. What type A will soak up and love at 2 weeks, may be WAY too much for type B and will burn'em. Also, if one plant is more sativa, and is 14", and the rest of your plants are 7 or 8", you have to place your light high enough to keep the taller plant safe, reducing light the smaller ones get. It's just easier to keep things the same.

Hope this helps.

be carefull having soil and hydro in the same space could get some nasty infestations

any roots that come out of the bottom of the pot will get "air pruned" you'll likely never notice them. If you use a mat, then you'll probably not be able to move your pots around to arrange your plants so they all get better light.

I use 50/50 hydroton and rockwool mini cubes, and flood once a day for veg and twice a day for flower, during the daytime hours... not at night.

choose your favorite medium to work with, then figure out how many times to water from there.

Flood and drain is super simple, just the way I need it to be.