First time grower using ebb and grow system

[Gooch]

Are you talking about top watering here? wow, I thought I was a detail freak , let me know how it goes.
Broken pellets hold water, the solid ones, not so much but they still SEEM damp up to 12 hours later (to me)
:48:

No i have an ebb and flow, that means i have a reservoir with say 15 gallons, then i have lets say 3 2 gallon buckets and the controller box is 3 gallons. When the time hits it pumps from the rez into the controller, then from the controller its gravity fed to the pots that fill up for 15 mins, after 15 minutes another switch is activated and the water is pumped from the controller back to the rez there by draining the pots

 

[Gooch]

wow, I thought those plants were going to stumble but they look good, nice thick stalk.

Thanks man i think they are doing ok, there is clearly one with indica traits and one with sativa traits. But they both seem to be doing well, and they seem to be enjoying the 5 watering cycles i may increase it to 6

 

[sopappy]

Thanks man i think they are doing ok, there is clearly one with indica traits and one with sativa traits. But they both seem to be doing well, and they seem to be enjoying the 5 watering cycles i may increase it to 6

if it ain't broke, don't fix it

 

[sopappy]

No i have an ebb and flow, that means i have a reservoir with say 15 gallons, then i have lets say 3 2 gallon buckets and the controller box is 3 gallons. When the time hits it pumps from the rez into the controller, then from the controller its gravity fed to the pots that fill up for 15 mins, after 15 minutes another switch is activated and the water is pumped from the controller back to the rez there by draining the pots

It sounds like I could do ebb and flow with my RDWC, interesting.
Do you have pictures of the buckets and the interconnections?
Or can you do up a quick drawing of the system,?
I'm confused. You leave the water in the buckets for 15 minutes and the roots are dry for 5 hours ?!? they get five 15 minutes baths a day?
and why do you need the controller?

 

[Gooch]

It sounds like I could do ebb and flow with my RDWC, interesting.
Do you have pictures of the buckets and the interconnections?
Or can you do up a quick drawing of the system,?
I'm confused. You leave the water in the buckets for 15 minutes and the roots are dry for 5 hours ?!? they get five 15 minutes baths a day?
and why do you need the controller?

The controller is the brains of the system, you have 1 pump in the controller, and one pump in the rez, inside the controller are floats so when it is full the pump shuts off and as it drains into the pots it fills back up, then they stay submerged for 15 minutes, and then they are without flood for 4 hours 45 mins, but there is additional water and moister in the medium and that is where the roots grow to, in search of food. Also when the water gets pumped out it pull oxygen into the roots through the medium. Its my understanding that the in the root system you want it kept dry, even when growing in dirt you shouldnt water them till its almost bone dry or so i have read

View attachment ebb-flow.jpeg

 

[Gooch]

If its something you interested in I can send you a link to a better controller unit, comes with everything in the grey box on the bottom bucket. mine has only 2 floats one for fill one for drain, this unit i found and am going to buy myself comes with 4 floats for backup and safety, I can pm it too you not sure if I can share the link in here or not.
Its probably very easy to adapy your RDWC because the r is recirculating right?

 

[Gooch]

if it ain't broke, don't fix it

The problem is i cant find information on other peoples grows, this is why i am making this journal for others who might want to use ebb and flow, there are videos for sure but nothing about feedings, so i am not sure if i should be giving 5 hours between or less or more i dont really know so im taking it in steps i moved it to 5 they liked it, i will let that chill then move it to 6, see what happens.

 

[sopappy]

If its something you interested in I can send you a link to a better controller unit, comes with everything in the grey box on the bottom bucket. mine has only 2 floats one for fill one for drain, this unit i found and am going to buy myself comes with 4 floats for backup and safety, I can pm it too you not sure if I can share the link in here or not.
Its probably very easy to adapy your RDWC because the r is recirculating right?

No, not yet, thanks. I have my re-circulating on for half hour and off for a half hour so I'm thinking the roots do get dry but FIVE HOURS, holy smokes, that's a long time. Is that system your own design? If not, what do they say for cycles?
What is that moisturizer thing all about? it sounds like a drip.

 

[Gooch]

When i did my dirt i let it get crazy dry like i would water it like once every 2 days and she seemed to grow pretty well, until i murdered her. all my fluids flood in the bottom and flow out the bottom there is nothing coming in on top, like a drip. Most recommendations for the ebb and flow is 4 times a day that I have found, unless using a medium like Sure To grow then its once or twice a day because of its retention. The controller is only $119. and then you build the rest yourself. This is not my design its a company called cap I bought it used. I dont use the 55 gallon drum i got a 30 gallon tub instead.

 

[sopappy]

When i did my dirt i let it get crazy dry like i would water it like once every 2 days and she seemed to grow pretty well, until i murdered her. all my fluids flood in the bottom and flow out the bottom there is nothing coming in on top, like a drip. Most recommendations for the ebb and flow is 4 times a day that I have found, unless using a medium like Sure To grow then its once or twice a day because of its retention. The controller is only $119. and then you build the rest yourself. This is not my design its a company called cap I bought it used. I dont use the 55 gallon drum i got a 30 gallon tub instead.

Okay, so, you took out an innocent plant, as long as you learned from it hahaha
I went looking for time intervals myself, it's amazing how often it is not mentioned. 5 hours seems too long to me but yet, your plants look fine. I'm going to leave my drip off longer.

 

[Gooch]

I was at 6 hours, lol im thinking if it water it more it will grow faster, but im not sure how all that works exactly im sure there is a point of no gain. I found some that did it once an hour for 15 minutes, some that did it once every 6 hours for 30 minutes, and once ever 4 hours for 30 minutes, so i have changed a few of the cycles to stay on for 30 and others to stay on for 15, so i am at 5 floods, 2 of them at 30 mins

I notice on the potential mother i have leaves acting strange and they are very pointy is that good or bad?

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View attachment 9-18-15-fi.jpg

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[sopappy]

Lift some pellets carefully just before flow time and check on the roots and pellets for moisture, I don't think you'd want them dry for too long. If they looked dry, i'd shorten the dry cycle.
Oxygen is the magic ingredient you are looking for, I'm assuming you have major bubbling going on in that rez... instead of buying that CO2, you could have bought ceramic air stones
plants look good

 

[Gooch]

Lift some pellets carefully just before flow time and check on the roots and pellets for moisture, I don't think you'd want them dry for too long. If they looked dry, i'd shorten the dry cycle.
Oxygen is the magic ingredient you are looking for, I'm assuming you have major bubbling going on in that rez... instead of buying that CO2, you could have bought ceramic air stones
plants look good

I checked after a couple hours of a dry cycle and there is still plenty of moisture from 2" to the bottom, I also just fired up the MH so I am going to keep an eye on the temps and the distance to plants etc...
I do have a 60 gallon air stone in 15 gallons of water. hopefully that is enough.
You dont think the bushy ones leaves are looking funny?

 

[sopappy]

I left a pot of pellets "drying" all day, they're still dark after 12 hours. I'm still doing half hour on/off though, I want the re-circulating but I've moved my drip to the outside edge of the pot.
You mean the top two pictures? Yes, I noticed that, new growth too, any brown spots?
Closest thing on growweedeasy I can see is a boron deficiency.
Can you get a look at the roots?

 

[Gooch]

here is the latest pic its getting worst.
I can pull it out when it floods next if i take it out dry i wont be able to put it back in

View attachment curling leaves on mother-9-18-15.jpg

 

[Gooch]

I am thinking it might have to do with my screw up mixing the nutes, i used the late growth instead of early growth, but it was about 2/3 strength, im going to change it up tomorrow

 

[Gooch]

roots

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View attachment 9-18-roots2.jpg

 

[Gooch]

I am thinking possibly zinc so i lowered my ph a bit, it also looks like heat stress but the temp at plant height is 73f and currently 65% humidity, so i dont think its heat, i have my mh about 2 ft above which should be plenty of space

 

[sopappy]

oh ****, sorry! I thought you could just lift a bucket. That disturbed them, not good, dam. Boy, i blew it there, sorry Gooch... on the bright side, they look great, no root issues!
I bet you'd do better with rapid rooters too, listen to THG,
and treat my posts as entertainment, I know just enough to make me dangerous.

 

[Gooch]

no worries she is fine, the roots are not out of the bucket yet as its still only 3 weeks from seedling, and i took it out when it was flooded so it went back in easy peasy, on another note, i changed my nutes from the 6 part gh flora series to just floranova and i took my ppm from 900 down to 600 and my ph back down in the 5's and it seems the new growth is not curling ill give it a day or 2 to verify it. The problem with rapid rooter is its not clean. Next grow is going to be all Sure to grow medium, I bet it will be the best grow i ever do, and per bucket it is 6 dollars, it cost me 50 bucks to fill 3 buckets with clay. so i will save 10/bucket and hours of not having to wash anything, boom!!!

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