Dwc Vs Flood

[NYC_Diesel x Jack_Herer]

DWC is actually much much easier to use than flood and drain. It is much more dependable in my experience.

 

[NYC_Diesel x Jack_Herer]

Building an Ebb and Flow takes some effort.

Other than that, it's one step easier than DWC. You never have to change out your reservoir solution until the crop is finished.

That removes a weekly chore.

Here's the list of what you have to do with Ebb and Flow:

1. Every second or third day, you top off your reservoir and move your light up if needed.

That's it.

That makes it a lot easier than DWC.

No disrespect, but I would disagree with these statements. You can run multiple resevoirs with a single air pump that has multiple outlets, but a flood and drain system with segregated containers that did not share water would require a different water pump for each res. You have one less resevoir to deal with in general in DWC. You are using air pumps instead of water pumps which in my opionion are more reliable and cheaper.
If I was going DWC or flood and drain I would still not let the res solution go the whole way through without ever changing the res. Changing out your res can every 7-14 days with fresh water isn't exactly a huge chore.
It is really a matter of preference and each has their advantages, but after using both I can safely say that flood and drain is in no way a lot easier.

 

[StoneyBud]

The relationship between reservoir volume and grow chambers should be based on 600% of what is used per/day. That can be one gallon or a thousand gallons. It makes no difference.

The reason you should never have to change the solution in an Ebb and Flow that is properly built is that the total volume of the reservoir is used every 6 days. One sixth of the total volume is replace daily or 1/3 if done on alternating days. This rapid use cycle prevents the need to replace the solution, as it's replaced as used and never gets more than 6 days old by volume.

The key to a proper Ebb and Flow setup is to have a reservoir or a series of reservoirs that are connected and exactly 1/6th of the total volume of the combined reservoirs are used each day. This is all done with one pump that is sized according to the volume needed to fill all of the grow chambers within 30 minutes.

Having separate reservoirs for a multiple grow chamber setup would be an amateurs method of building an Ebb and Flow system. It would make no sense to do it that way.

If a quality pump is used, it can last for years. With pumps, you really do get what you pay for. Beckett fountain pumps are, IMO, one of the best that money will buy.

As you said, it's really a matter of preference. To one person, an Ebb and Flow may be preferred as would DWC be preferred by someone else. Just as most things in life.

DWC has been around much longer than Ebb and Flow.

DWC was invented and perfected by the Aztecs. They fed entire populations with the "Floating Gardens" that were in the outskirts of every Aztec city. Instead of containers, they used floating rafts with holes in them and different sizes and configurations of baskets to hold various types of food crops. The plants roots would hang into a lake much as the tub type DWC works now. The Aztec farmers would have slaves that would use large fans to blow fresh air across the lakes to increase the oxygenation of the water. After thousands of years of using this method, they truly perfected it. The DWC you're using today is a much smaller scale of the same system used by the Aztecs for many, many centuries.

Ebb and Flow, on the other hand, is an off-shoot of NFT, (Nutrient Flow Technique), which was invented by the United States Army to feed it's troops stationed initially in the Aleutian Islands. The islands were almost solid rock and had virtually no top soil to support the growth of plants. The Army had no choice but to ship every single bite of food that the troops stationed there ate. This was incredibly expensive, as you can imagine.

The Army Corp of Engineers developed an experimental method of growing vegetable produce with no soil, in troughs dug in the ground on an incline. A mixture of nutrients was created by the current day scientists to feed the vegetables without the benefit of soil.

After only a couple of years, the method we now know as NFT was perfected and enough food could be locally grown by the troops to feed them entirely. Meats were also raised, butchered and used entirely by the troops on the islands. One shipload of grains and fodder for the animals was enough to provide an easy, inexpensive method of feeding the troops.

Both the NFT and meat raising techniques learned at the Aleutians were used in many places during the last half of WWII and made it possible to station troops in places previously cost prohibitive due to food supply.

Ebb and Flow and later, aeroponic gardening were both attempts at increasing the production rates of NFT methods.

Hydroponic gardening is a fascinating subject that has interested me for most of my life.

Let's not bicker about which is considered better than the other and all just enjoy the fruits of the process of Hydroponics.

 

[NYC_Diesel x Jack_Herer]

for a multiple grow chamber setup would be an amateurs method of building an Ebb and Flow system. It would make no sense to do it that way.
Let's not bicker about which is considered better than the other and all just enjoy the fruits of the process of Hydroponics.

I'm not bickering, I'm debating, that is what this thread was for. But you do bring up something that also needs to be pointed out when comparing DWC and flood and drain. Like you said it would make no sense to have multiple grow chambers in an ebb and flow however, having multiple chambers (which is much easier in DWC), makes it possible to grow plants at different stages of growth. You can not put 4 plants 6 weeks into flower in the same table as 4 plants 1 week into flower because they need different levels of nutes. Therefore with ebb and flow you must grow in batches. This may not be appealing to the small closet grower going for personal. With multiple DWC containers run by a single multi-outlet air pump he can grow plants at different stages of growth AND multiple strains at the same time under the same light that all require different nute levels, something not possible on a single ebb and flow table.

Again I am not arguing with you, just debating the merits of each system

 

[StoneyBud]

I am not arguing with you, just debating the merits of each system

I understand and you're correct in what you say about growing at various stages at once.

It's a matter of what type of growing someone wishes to do and how they wish to do it.