Hydro Question

Before I fully begin my first ever hydro grow I have been asking questions and would like input from growers. Is it best to constantly be feeding your plants or going through a schedule?

Another question, is there any validation of letting the plants roots getting wet and then dry and then wet improve plant health?

any and all information from growers is appreciated (please though do not post anything other than the subjects I have raised)

Wether your doing dwc or NFT the roots of the plant will always be wet, if they dry out to long then it will dry. If your running a drip system then it is best to run the system 24/7. I have done intervals, every other hour, and 24/7 and it works the best, plants grow wayyy faster. If your doing a dwc then you want to have your water level just under your net pots, if the roots have to stretch to reach the water then rope roots will form and it slows the growth of the plant. Never let your roots dry out and always have your water pumping and running, that is what makes hydro so much better then soil.

I think gtran aswered it best, one thing important for hydro is to know your ppm's of your solution, I'm sure you may know that but just wanted to impress the importants of having a tds meter as well as ph meter, I've been doing hydro for yrs and learned long time ago how important they are, I wish you best of luck, and we're all here to help.

depends on your method, although its never a good idea to let your roots get too dry. even with drip nft i feed for 15 on, 15 off (though i may give the constant flow thing a try for a day or so). when i can afford fancier timers, i intend to feed for 90 seconds with 7 minutes off. ebb and flow i dont think would benefit from constant flow, for those i feed 4 times during light cycle and once during the dark. as for dwc, i am not qualified to comment. nor am i qualified to comment on aero or aqua. all methods have their merits and shortcomings. do thorough research and determine what works best in your rooms/environment.

If you're growing hydro I wouldn't let your roots dry. It depends on which system you're running but if its DWC then they should always be wet. If its ebb and flow, you can let the roots dry out if you want, but I can't think of any scientific or logical reason that it would be beneficial. The whole point of DWC atleast is you get such fast robust growth due to the fact that your roots are constantly in a nutrient solution with the right amount of what they need when they need it. In my buckets I usually let the water level drop pretty low, its a 3 gallon bucket I'd say I don't top off until there is .5-1 gallon left in the bucket, depending on the size of the root mass.

Right now I have botanicare's kind 3 part solution
http://www.botanicare.com/Nutrients/Nutrient-Calculator.aspx
That's the schedule I follow. I top off with whatever measurements are for the week I'm in, scaled to how much water I'm adding. I do a full res change out every 1-2 weeks at the start of a new week in the schedule

One of the reasons you see better results in hydroponics as opposed to soil is because instead of the plant having to spend all its energy looking for oxygen and food like in a soil grow, it can take all that energy and focus it on growing becasue the oxygen is being applied to the roots constantly along with the nutrients. Of you let your roots dry up then it wont be able to take in nutrients at that time which will stunt growth, also if you run a drip system and your decide to do 15 min intervals, all your doing is depriving your plant of food and oxygen for those other minutes the pump is off, why do that when you can be feedinf 24/ ALso when the dripping water from the line breaks the surface of the water in your container it is putting oxygen back into the water. All things to consider when deciding how often to feed your plants

I run a flood and drain type of setup with the pump running 24/7. I have tried numerous settings and the girls seem to like it best this way. Also i have had pumps turned off for 24 hours and if there is a good root mass there is no issue as the roots stay moist. Unlike dwc where the plants will suffer real trauma if air pumps stop for what ever reason. I have a tray now that has been shut down for 7 days with most plants gone and a few lollypop buds still thriving and root mass is still moist. Not saying flood and drain is better but serves me well as i do have the odd power failure and the plants are good for quite a long period.

So far I've tried ebb & flow and DWC. With ebb & flow there is a definite benefit to root production due to the constant oxygen supply to the roots. In fact my roots went so totally crazy that I ended up modifying my system to a DWC because all the drain holes in the bottom of my flow bin got clogged with roots in search of nutrients. In contrast I had an issue where my airstone had become disconnected preventing o2 to roots of one of my plants in the DWC res... It is much smaller than the rest- stunted due to lack of oxygen to roots. Not trying to discourage you from trying DWC just saying there are different issues to watch out for that you don't need to worry about in an ebb & flow type system .
I don't really follow a feeding schedule but I keep my DWC res around 600-700 ppms which seems to be the sweet spot. I will add a gal or 2 or nutrient or do a full res change then add only ph adjusted water until the next feeding or nute change. If my ppms get lower than 600 I add a gal of nutes & recheck ppms. That's it good luck

Have you decide on setup type? And are you going with sterile or organics?

when is a good time to feed after the first transplant? are there any signs to lookfor? im using FLORA DUO FROM GH

Your question depends on what type of hydro system you want to use.

If you want to use a drip type system then yes you can let the roots dry out a little(for example: timer set the drip system to go on for 20 minutes and off for 40 minutes).

All other(NFT, DWC, RDWC, undercurrent, wick), no you don't let the roots dry out.