How Often Do You Flood?

Hello all i hope you can help i have a ebb and flow system i use 6inch pots 4 inch rockwool and clay pebbles at the moment i flood 3 times a day for 15 min and im over watering how often do you flood Many Thanks

It really depends on your medium. Looks like your using 2 different kinds there. The Hydroton rocks need more flooding because they dont really hold any water and drain really easily. I do 4 times a day with my hydroton set up. With rock wool you can flood 1 or 2 times a day since the material holds water pretty well and you dont want to drown the roots.

Yea its the rock wool thats over watering your girls.
What I do is drop the overflow level to the bottom of the cube so it just touches it when it fills. It will wick up the water.

cruzer101 said:

Yea its the rock wool thats over watering your girls.
What I do is drop the overflow level to the bottom of the cube so it just touches it when it fills. It will wick up the water.

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Yup. Try and dump the RW and just use hydroton. If you keep the RW you will only be able to water once or twice a day and then the hydroton will dry out and be useless.

cruzer101 said:

Yea its the rock wool thats over watering your girls.
What I do is drop the overflow level to the bottom of the cube so it just touches it when it fills. It will wick up the water.

Click to expand...

Agree.. Rock wool holds a lot of moisture so you really only need to get the bottom 1/2 inch to 1 inch wet. The rock wool will suck it up like a sponge and depending on the size of the cube and what your plants are drinking depends on what you should water. My girls drink a lot more as they get closer to harvest so you may need to increase watering later on.

Yup, I'd go with one (rw) or the other (hydroton), but not both. I can't imagine a need for it. Btw, when I'm using rockwool I use 6" cubes and water them 4 times a day, at 6am and pm and 12 am and pm. Right now I have Royal Gold brand Basement Mix, a coco based soilless mix, in 2 gallon pots that are flooded once a day. That is to say, the lower 3-4 inches are flooded. I'm about to set some timers to flood them 3 times a day, and see if it's too much, but I don't anticipate that.

Thank you all very much that was very helpfull but how long do you flood for

timers are set by 15 minute incraments

I have a digital timers

On my flood tables I water 2x a day in four in rr. What deficiencys should I be careful of if the rr is too wet?

Dope Cobra said:

On my flood tables I water 2x a day in four in rr. What deficiencys should I be careful of if the rr is too wet?

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Its not the deficiencies you will see, it will be over watering issues. Check this thread out https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/150004-plant-moisture-stress-symptoms-solutions.html and it will point you in the right direction. With RR its just a medium that plants do not like to stay wet in and RR holds a lot of water. As someone said up above as your plants get bigger they can use more water so its just something you have to monitor.