1.0 EC for entire flowering period? Perpetual Recirculating Flooded Tube Grow

Looking for advice on a flooded tube grow and nutrient strength.
Imagine a 20ft pvc pipe with net pots from one end to the other and water flowing from one end to the other like a flooded tube.
Divide the pipe into 4 sections where you put a 8 week strain in as a perpetual harvest, so every 2 weeks you fill 1 of the 4 sections with rooted clones.
So the nutrient that flows from one end to the other is the same strength for freshly rooted clones as it is for the final week of flowering plants.

Ive seen examples of people using the same EC the entire flowering period with good results. Low enough EC for new clones, but high enough EC for full flowering period. Keeping the EC around 1.0 also would eliminate flushing with low salts.

Most people hammer their plants to max EC, but in my experience it's not necessary.

Heath Robinson also spoke of this in his flooded tube grows.

Using just 1 large reservoir has many advantages with both plumbing and stability.

Anybody have any experience or science for this to be viable?

Cheers Jimmy!

Keep in mind that EC isn't an exact science... I mean, it is, but it's one number, so it's more of a relative guide than anything.

Imagine if instead of fertilizers listing N-P-K they just had a number to represent how strong they were. Better than nothing, but not great.

And to kind of answer your question, I wouldn't try to feed at the maximum possible amount. I think some people mentally equate "feeding" plants with "feeding" animals, but they don't realize that plants "eat" light. Eating 100 Flintstones vitamins isn't going to bulk you up, but thats essentially what some people try to do when they drown their plants in nutes and boosters.

tibberous said:

Keep in mind that EC isn't an exact science... I mean, it is, but it's one number, so it's more of a relative guide than anything.

Imagine if instead of fertilizers listing N-P-K they just had a number to represent how strong they were. Better than nothing, but not great.

And to kind of answer your question, I wouldn't try to feed at the maximum possible amount. I think some people mentally equate "feeding" plants with "feeding" animals, but they don't realize that plants "eat" light. Eating 100 Flintstones vitamins isn't going to bulk you up, but thats essentially what some people try to do when they drown their plants in nutes and boosters.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply tibberous.
I think you understand what I am asking here =)
The exact EC is not so relevant, it's whether you could find an EC level that would accommodate plants for their entire 8 week flowering cycle without burning a clone or massively underfeeding a plant at the end of the period.
I personally don't believe in overfeeding.
The plants are 12/12 from clone, so grow to only 12-15 inches tall, so again, high EC levels are not required.
If a gap in strength was required between the new clone and the other 6 weeks, a week of veg nutes could be used in the cloner
ie. Clones - no nutes - week 1 (rooting period)
Clones - 500ppm - week 2 (Bridging gap before hitting flooded tube)
Clones - 800ppm - week 3 (Clones go into flooded tube which is at 800ppm along with all the other plants)
Plants - 800ppm - for the rest of the 8 week flowering cycle

But above only if necessary.

Theoretical design of a new construction rests on whether this is viable, so Im really hoping so.

Cheers Jimmy.