Ebb and Flow coco beds

As it stands now, I run a dtw coco set up. I only run a few strains at a time, but inevitably some plants drink differing amounts and at that point i have to try to crawl through the jungle and turn valves/take off drippers for a few days and then put them back in when everything evens out.

I have some old flow tables laying around, but never used them with coco.

What I am wondering is, given the amazing aeration capabilities of coco, if I just throw them all in a bed and then flood that table, will the plants that were drinking less become over watered? Of course they would have fully developed root systems first!

I am assuming not, because I see a lot of people doing the flooding with a coco bed. Though I suppose they could be growing all one strain.

Would it be ok for a plant that isnt drinking as fast as some others to be in the same bed and constantly wet? Again, assuming fully robust root systems.

Thank you for any and all insights! always looking for ways to disturb my ladies less when they are trying to do their thing. I am very clumsy and it is a rather compact space; nervous one of these days I am going to hurt something trying to get back there to flip valves/mess with the amount of drip stakes!

Bump? anybody have root rot issues with coco beds or coco in general?

Can't see what it would work. You may have to water from the top occasionally to flush unused nutes out. How deep are planning on filling the res. What do you run for containers how big? I've been thinking on doing the same thing with fabric bags.

I'm planning on doing something similar for my pheno tent.
I suppose it'll be the same issues I have when running different strains in my RDWC system. It's always a struggle to find a happy medium for everyone in the pool.
Aside from the usual issues with any recirc system, keeping pathogens under control will be a top priority.

I would suggest going with LECA instead of the coco for flood and drain. The pellets have gaps for air. Between floods the water drains out pulling fresh O2 into the root zone. With coco you won't have as much air space. Since you have concerns about plants that aren't drinking as fast as others the problem is oxygen to the roots. Even coco can be over watered, it needs to dry out some but not as much as with soil.

So in order to prevent root rot I would personally go with the LECA.

I run both of my tents (clone and veg) with F&D trays, 1/3/5 gallon Radicle Bags w/ 70/30 coco/perlite. I flood for 5 minutes a day which gives me a few inches of coverage on the bottom of the pots.

Never had a root rot problem and overall it's one of the easier systems to maintain. The biggest issue I have is keeping the plants small enough in the tent before they move to the big room. The Radicle Bags air prune the roots better than fabric pots, so transplants will shoot new roots to the edge within a few days and from my experience also helps reduces transplant shock. (There is no root tearing during transplant, I always had a problem with roots growing into the fabric pots -- not the case w/ the Radicle Bags.)

I've been using coco hempy buckets with drip feeders and a flood table to catch the runoff ... when the buckets finish draining, I pump out the table. No need to crawl through the jungle ... just put the input valves on the perimeter.

Turpman said:

Can't see what it would work. You may have to water from the top occasionally to flush unused nutes out. How deep are planning on filling the res. What do you run for containers how big? I've been thinking on doing the same thing with fabric bags.

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I currently have two gallon air pots for the dtw I would probably use. I figured a third full and let it wick the rest of the way?

GBAUTO said:

I'm planning on doing something similar for my pheno tent.
I suppose it'll be the same issues I have when running different strains in my RDWC system. It's always a struggle to find a happy medium for everyone in the pool.
Aside from the usual issues with any recirc system, keeping pathogens under control will be a top priority.

Click to expand...

You know the struggle man. My A13 loves N, and drinks way slower then my OGs and Kandy Kush
Home made clearex has seemed to work well for me so far keeping the dtw rez pretty clean, we shall see once some amount of standing water is involved.

Renfro said:

I would suggest going with LECA instead of the coco for flood and drain. The pellets have gaps for air. Between floods the water drains out pulling fresh O2 into the root zone. With coco you won't have as much air space. Since you have concerns about plants that aren't drinking as fast as others the problem is oxygen to the roots. Even coco can be over watered, it needs to dry out some but not as much as with soil.

So in order to prevent root rot I would personally go with the LECA.

Click to expand...

As always, appreciate you stopping by! I will look into the LECA. I assume because your recommending it, it has most of the positive characteristics of coco in terms of growth? Anything else I should know that I might not come across easily?
As far as the ones not drinking as fast in the DTW, they are healthy, just smaller strains. Trying to find a way to still grow 2-3 different kinds at once, without having to take off individual drippers given the situation, and not have to buy anything to crazy.

SuperiorBuds said:

I run both of my tents (clone and veg) with F&D trays, 1/3/5 gallon Radicle Bags w/ 70/30 coco/perlite. I flood for 5 minutes a day which gives me a few inches of coverage on the bottom of the pots.

Never had a root rot problem and overall it's one of the easier systems to maintain. The biggest issue I have is keeping the plants small enough in the tent before they move to the big room. The Radicle Bags air prune the roots better than fabric pots, so transplants will shoot new roots to the edge within a few days and from my experience also helps reduces transplant shock. (There is no root tearing during transplant, I always had a problem with roots growing into the fabric pots -- not the case w/ the Radicle Bags.)

Click to expand...

I generally use 70/30 coco perlite mix, currently using just straight coco for this run because they were out of the big compressed cocopearl bricks. Not gonna lie its gonna suck having to go back to breaking up with 200 liter bricks, but I am sure on a flood table I cant get away with pure loose coco from the bag without the perlite. Until my real job slows down, I am trying to automate and reduce labor as much as possible as much as that shames me.

Haven't been transplanting either, straight to two gallon airpots they have gone. So far so good. Though I have nothing to compare with.

Bosgrower said:

I've been using coco hempy buckets with drip feeders and a flood table to catch the runoff ... when the buckets finish draining, I pump out the table. No need to crawl through the jungle ... just put the input valves on the perimeter.

Click to expand...

I thought about that... what pump do you use if I may? Something that siphons from the bottom and is ok to run dry I assume?
I don't use a ton of run off.... I have seen amazing grows use both ways, and I decided I would save on nutes, drop my ppm, water more frequently, with less runoff. Have you ever checked to see what happened if you didn't pump the water out of the table and just let the plants drink it? Almost like a hempy?

I have run F+D tables with a return pump. That way you can have your res higher than your food table. Use a cut off 5gal pail for the control on the return with a float and pump. Pretty much just like a IWS system. You don't need a huge pump. 100-300 gpm works fine for flood. They can run dry for a short period of time it's not like they get dry when they run out of water. There is water trying to return back through the pump as it does.

Turpman said:

I have run F+D tables with a return pump. That way you can have your res higher than your food table. Use a cut off 5gal pail for the control on the return with a float and pump. Pretty much just like a IWS system. You don't need a huge pump. 100-300 gpm works fine for flood. They can run dry for a short period of time it's not like they get dry when they run out of water. There is water trying to return back through the pump as it does.

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You can just run a condensate pump if you need low flow. For $50 you are up and running.

If you need higher flow you can run The Bucket Company return pump. This is what I run in my big flower room to recirculate the runoff.

40sdroppinhot said:

I thought about that... what pump do you use if I may? Something that siphons from the bottom and is ok to run dry I assume?
I don't use a ton of run off.... I have seen amazing grows use both ways, and I decided I would save on nutes, drop my ppm, water more frequently, with less runoff. Have you ever checked to see what happened if you didn't pump the water out of the table and just let the plants drink it? Almost like a hempy?

Click to expand...

I use Mega Crop, Sweet Candy, and Bud Explosion from Greenleaf Nutrients and it's VERY cost effective. I usually only run 1 strain in a flood table, b ut with the valves on the perimeter it's no problem either adjeting the flow rates or stutting off a bucket that's over fed.
I elevate one end of the flood table slightly so the runoff collects at one end of the table, and a EcoPlus bottom draw pump to remove the liquid.
With food grade 4 gal "plastic" buckets, runoff isn't getting reabsorbed .

Bosgrower said:

I use Mega Crop, Sweet Candy, and Bud Explosion from Greenleaf Nutrients and it's VERY cost effective. I usually only run 1 strain in a flood table, b ut with the valves on the perimeter it's no problem either adjeting the flow rates or stutting off a bucket that's over fed.
I elevate one end of the flood table slightly so the runoff collects at one end of the table, and a EcoPlus bottom draw pump to remove the liquid.
With food grade 4 gal "plastic" buckets, runoff isn't getting reabsorbed .

Click to expand...

Those are some pretty plants! I was thinking about trying megacrop but the company never emailed me back and I was reading about some mixability issues. Dyna Gro has been pretty solid though.

I messed up when I was making my room.... I have valves but they are on my outer perimeter....didnt even think about how inconvenient it would be to get back there if I needed too adjust watering to different spots. Pretty fail lol.

I think I might try to just set my buckets in the tables, minimal runoff, and hope the plants that are drinking more drink up the water from the plants drinking less within the same table.

If that fails I will do what you have going, raise the tables, and drain out with a bottom feed pump. I already have feed lines running along the floor though that would make that quite messy to add another 6 lines for draining the runoff.

Height is somewhat an issue in terms of raising things too far.
1000 DE Cmh for bulbs lol