Ebb flow garden system

I don't hear any ticking, only a click when it hits flood, then another when it drains. I have a hydro farm controller. Also have 1 bucket that leaks no matter what. I just took it out of rotation. Also newspaper or a paper towel under each bucket helps with early leak detection. I had mine apart 3 times this time to fix leaks before I put the plants in

HydroRed said:

Thats far more than I use so I can see why you aren't lazy like me haha. My plant count and pot sizes are rather small. I use 1 gal pots in my new system and before that I used 6" netpots that held about 1/2 gal worth of hydroton each. I barely put a dent in a 56L bag between 2-3 grows.

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Anyone ever try big coco chips instead of hydroton?

toaster struedel said:

I don't hear any ticking, only a click when it hits flood, then another when it drains. I have a hydro farm controller. Also have 1 bucket that leaks no matter what. I just took it out of rotation. Also newspaper or a paper towel under each bucket helps with early leak detection. I had mine apart 3 times this time to fix leaks before I put the plants in

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I want to find a way to prevent the roots from growing into the valves. That's why I tried the mesh screen, but it leaves too much of a void after I re-screw it back in. I'm thinking about laying it flat on top of the valve this time with some hydroton to hold it down? I run suspended buckets so I don't fully fill the buckets with hydroton

Chunky Stool said:

Anyone ever try big coco chips instead of hydroton?

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Any medium will work, the chips would work especially well but coco breaks down organically and it depends on what kind of system your running... if your running a dead/sterile res, I'd say use something else but if your using a live/organic/semi organic system go for it but when it breaks down it releases a lot of P or K (my brain isn't working ATM) and will throw things off for u if your not expecting or know how much or when that extra p or k is coming... but generally in a system with pumps and hoses you wanna keep things like small perlite, little pieces of coco from getting into your pumps or fill/drain hoses or fittings as it's gonna just sit there n decompose (coco anyhow) if u don't know it's there or can't see where it is...

My first thought when I switched to flood and drain tables was to use perlite as my medium... not a good medium for flood and drain as it floats n breaks into small pieces... I've ended up going with hydroton and gro stones mixed n so far only a few smaller pieces have been found in the tables or res.... but you literally can use any medium u like... I saw a post recently where a guy was growing in decorative stones from a dollar store and doing so just fine... I'm not sure if roll with that but it works for him...

whitey78 said:

Any medium will work, the chips would work especially well but coco breaks down organically and it depends on what kind of system your running... if your running a dead/sterile res, I'd say use something else but if your using a live/organic/semi organic system go for it but when it breaks down it releases a lot of P or K (my brain isn't working ATM) and will throw things off for u if your not expecting or know how much or when that extra p or k is coming... but generally in a system with pumps and hoses you wanna keep things like small perlite, little pieces of coco from getting into your pumps or fill/drain hoses or fittings as it's gonna just sit there n decompose (coco anyhow) if u don't know it's there or can't see where it is...

My first thought when I switched to flood and drain tables was to use perlite as my medium... not a good medium for flood and drain as it floats n breaks into small pieces... I've ended up going with hydroton and gro stones mixed n so far only a few smaller pieces have been found in the tables or res.... but you literally can use any medium u like... I saw a post recently where a guy was growing in decorative stones from a dollar store and doing so just fine... I'm not sure if roll with that but it works for him...

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Thanks! I use a little growstone covered with big coco chips in all my pots that I do not intend to bottom-water. Works great!
Right now I've got a hillbilly hempy experiment going that has started well. She will show her true colors when she gets tent space and can grow like a weed.

whitey78 said:

Any medium will work, the chips would work especially well but coco breaks down organically and it depends on what kind of system your running... if your running a dead/sterile res, I'd say use something else but if your using a live/organic/semi organic system go for it but when it breaks down it releases a lot of P or K (my brain isn't working ATM) and will throw things off for u if your not expecting or know how much or when that extra p or k is coming... but generally in a system with pumps and hoses you wanna keep things like small perlite, little pieces of coco from getting into your pumps or fill/drain hoses or fittings as it's gonna just sit there n decompose (coco anyhow) if u don't know it's there or can't see where it is...

My first thought when I switched to flood and drain tables was to use perlite as my medium... not a good medium for flood and drain as it floats n breaks into small pieces... I've ended up going with hydroton and gro stones mixed n so far only a few smaller pieces have been found in the tables or res.... but you literally can use any medium u like... I saw a post recently where a guy was growing in decorative stones from a dollar store and doing so just fine... I'm not sure if roll with that but it works for him...

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I believe I read the same post as you did not too long ago about the dollar store decorative stones. He says it works great? Considering the stones are shiney and non porous theres nowhere to create water retention like hydroton or vermiculite, perlite etc, but I guess if your flood intervals are close enough together, you would just need the stability of the stones at that point?

Chunky Stool said:

Thanks! I use a little growstone covered with big coco chips in all my pots that I do not intend to bottom-water. Works great!
Right now I've got a hillbilly hempy experiment going that has started well. She will show her true colors when she gets tent space and can grow like a weed.

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The 2liter soda bottle hempy grow is where I got the idea for my setup... if I could handle taping up all those soda bottles again (did like 30 of them twice...that was enough for one lifetime....) and watering them all by hand I'd probably be running a hempy setup like that...but I use 5x5x7" square pots doing single colas similar to the 2liter bottle setup except I use a flood table to make it somewhat less labor intensive... that and drain to waste would be a little too costly for me at the moment... i really like the blue planet nutes I'm using though, gotta rep them... but I'm really not enjoying the weekly flush that goes along with synthetic nutrients... but simplicity is what I'm after for the moment and I'm gonna master what I'm running and the strains I got then I plan on trying something different...

but I'm just finishing my first run with the bpn and while I coulda did better if I did what I wanted to and ran a full on grow/veg mix of the nutes for the first 2 weeks of bloom with zero veg clones, I had to follow some kind of script to start with, but overall I'm happy to have some of my own herb to enjoy again... been without for almost 9 months now... not without but when you grow your own, other shit doesn't really compare unless your in a "good state" and have some options...

HydroRed said:

I believe I read the same post as you did not too long ago about the dollar store decorative stones. He says it works great? Considering the stones are shiney and non porous theres nowhere to create water retention like hydroton or vermiculite, perlite etc, but I guess if your flood intervals are close enough together, you would just need the stability of the stones at that point?

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Yeah pretty much... you can grow in pretty much anything as long as it'll stabilize the plant and isn't gonna leach something toxic or some shit like that... could probably grow in straight up blue stone if u wanted... I do gotta say hydro is turning out to be pretty cool... I was a die hard organic, water only dert bagger forever... it's been a fairly smooth transition but I did a lot of planning even though I still have some learning to do I can't wait to actually get shit fine tuned n play with water temp to bring out color n stuff like that... color is over rated as it doesn't make it any better but it is sweet to have some nice red, purples n blues to show off a little...even though I still lie about how n where I get bomb ass medical grade, it still feels good when people's eyes light up when you give it to them...

or even one better; I made some rso (rick Simpson oil) a few weeks ago and gave a life long friend who recently came up with stage 4 lung cancer outta no where; some of the oil, some gummi bears that I made with it, and some rice crispy treats I made with some cannabutter I made at the same time (all from my saved up trim from I don't even know how long ago...I was getting desperate, lol).. but she called up and thanked me for the first full night of sleep she's had since she got diagnosed which has been months now... n that's why I do it even though I started this with $ signs in my eyes; I'm broker than ever at the moment but when u get those calls it's worth it along with the risk we take... I've done quite a bit wrong in my life as we all have but I really feel like I buy a little of my soul back every time I get a chance to help someone like that...

Seeing we're all just bullshitting here and as much as I really don't wanna be hijacking this thread with my newbish question but what do u guys think... I made the mistake of doing a 50/50 grow of 2 strains in 1 table and now 1 strain is getting the chop tomorrow even though it's only gonna get roughly 48 hours of flushing as it just didn't seem possible that this strain coulda been done so quick but this is why I'm a hydro newb... anyhow strain not pictured is done, good to go... flushed proper or not, it's done... but the strain below (gage green "blue in green") looks as if it can go a bit longer... now do I continue with the current flush that I got going for the next however long as imo this one looks close but as per the usual greedy fuck mentally, I'm asking if I should load up the res with a fresh batch of nutes and hit this one a bit more before going back n flushing it again... I was at my weekly 24 hour flush between res changes when I realized the other was done but I'm on the fence about letting this one ride out on water only or adding a fresh batch of nutes and see what I can get out of this one... it's a 8-9 week strain mid week 7.... the 15th or 16th will be 8 weeks.... resin heads are still clear and don't "appear" to be full to me yet but this is only my 2nd time growing this strain and last time it was in soil from seed so I'm doubting my want to load up the res with fresh nutes tomorrow but maybe someone can talk me out of it... it's a tough call man... not in a position to loose out but I've also never really had to "flush" my soil so I'm not so up to snuff on the importance of it... but every week at res change day I've run 24 hours of straight h20 before refilling the res with fresh nutes....

Sorry for my ignorance but I'm just looking for some opinions...

whitey78 said:

Seeing we're all just bullshitting here and as much as I really don't wanna be hijacking this thread with my newbish question but what do u guys think... I made the mistake of doing a 50/50 grow of 2 strains in 1 table and now 1 strain is getting the chop tomorrow even though it's only gonna get roughly 48 hours of flushing as it just didn't seem possible that this strain coulda been done so quick but this is why I'm a hydro newb... anyhow strain not pictured is done, good to go... flushed proper or not, it's done... but the strain below (gage green "blue in green") looks as if it can go a bit longer... now do I continue with the current flush that I got going for the next however long as imo this one looks close but as per the usual greedy fuck mentally, I'm asking if I should load up the res with a fresh batch of nutes and hit this one a bit more before going back n flushing it again... I was at my weekly 24 hour flush between res changes when I realized the other was done but I'm on the fence about letting this one ride out on water only or adding a fresh batch of nutes and see what I can get out of this one... it's a 8-9 week strain mid week 7.... the 15th or 16th will be 8 weeks.... resin heads are still clear and don't "appear" to be full to me yet but this is only my 2nd time growing this strain and last time it was in soil from seed so I'm doubting my want to load up the res with fresh nutes tomorrow but maybe someone can talk me out of it... it's a tough call man... not in a position to loose out but I've also never really had to "flush" my soil so I'm not so up to snuff on the importance of it... but every week at res change day I've run 24 hours of straight h20 before refilling the res with fresh nutes....

Sorry for my ignorance but I'm just looking for some opinions...


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You shouldn't need to flush in hydro if you're doing it properly. After week 4/5 your should be slowly lowering the ppm until harvest where you're around 300-400ppm. Flushing is for soil as soil holds onto nutes

whitey78 said:

Seeing we're all just bullshitting here and as much as I really don't wanna be hijacking this thread with my newbish question but what do u guys think... I made the mistake of doing a 50/50 grow of 2 strains in 1 table and now 1 strain is getting the chop tomorrow even though it's only gonna get roughly 48 hours of flushing as it just didn't seem possible that this strain coulda been done so quick but this is why I'm a hydro newb... anyhow strain not pictured is done, good to go... flushed proper or not, it's done... but the strain below (gage green "blue in green") looks as if it can go a bit longer... now do I continue with the current flush that I got going for the next however long as imo this one looks close but as per the usual greedy fuck mentally, I'm asking if I should load up the res with a fresh batch of nutes and hit this one a bit more before going back n flushing it again... I was at my weekly 24 hour flush between res changes when I realized the other was done but I'm on the fence about letting this one ride out on water only or adding a fresh batch of nutes and see what I can get out of this one... it's a 8-9 week strain mid week 7.... the 15th or 16th will be 8 weeks.... resin heads are still clear and don't "appear" to be full to me yet but this is only my 2nd time growing this strain and last time it was in soil from seed so I'm doubting my want to load up the res with fresh nutes tomorrow but maybe someone can talk me out of it... it's a tough call man... not in a position to loose out but I've also never really had to "flush" my soil so I'm not so up to snuff on the importance of it... but every week at res change day I've run 24 hours of straight h20 before refilling the res with fresh nutes....

Sorry for my ignorance but I'm just looking for some opinions...


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@ThaMagnificent hit it right on the head. If you are following a good hydroponics formula for feed like Lucas Formula etc, you eliminate the need for any flush as your ppm will drop off in the last few weeks due to fresh water top offs.
As for trichome colors, I dont believe that all plants will amber in the same way. Some plants may stay cloudy with very few amber at all even once the plant hits full maturity and beyond. If you are worried of over ripening your crop then snip a tiny bud from the bottom bush and dry it out n toke it. If it has the high you are looking for/expect from that strain then its ready. Foxtails are a sign of maturity or environment issues in a lot of plants as well so gauge the plant as a whole, not just solely by trichs. Considering your plants looks good overall , I'd consider your foxtails a sign of maturity.

Thanks fellas... I've always believed the opposite... well running synthetic nutes in soil yeah flushing is a necessity... but as I've mentioned this was essentially my first go round on the tables and with this style but I'm running blue planet 3 part nutes which is essentially the same as GH 3 part with their "high yield" kit.. from what I've seen bpn is a little better than GH but that's bias talking...

but for the pictured ones I followed the basic recommendation on the the bpn schedule as I had to start somewhere but once they hit week 4 the feed chart stays the same until harvest.... no mention of tapering down.... I can see a few deficiencies mostly cal and mag related as I gotta get a different brand than general organics as it leaves brown slime every time I try to use it...

but overall they look good but usually I base my chop time on when I see most if not all of the pistils are red and beginning to recede, then I'll start checking with the scopes etc until I see at least a few amber... most hybrids I've done; when the heads are full n milky right before they start going amber is the best chop point even though around here good herb is based on couchlock effect but not really what I'm into....

but basically I been running a 3.0+\- ec - 1600ppm (500 scale) and the growth has been good, I had some ph headaches in the beginning as I was running to low of an ec and only God knows how to rinse hydroton properly but after week 2 I would change my res weekly and ph was rock solid, it rose but it was just barely hitting 6.0-.1 after a week with no adjustments just water top offs.... as I said I need to tinker with the first few weeks but I've never thought about lowering towards the end... makes sense as I always tried to give my girls enough super soil/base to start to fade around week 6 on 8 week strains which worked out perfect, and seeing it was water only all the time flushing wasn't even a thought...

But I was basically asking if u guys thought I should be hitting them with more nutes as they're close to done but not quite yet... I gotta do some searching into what you guys are saying a bit as far as tapering down with bpn but for the most part my understanding was run nutes at recommended doses (aside from once u figure out a strain and know when to add what and adjust your regiment accordingly) up till either the last week or 3 days...can't think ATM... and then run straight water or a "flushing" product as if that does much.... but what u guys said does make total sense now...

But yeah they basically look done but the white pistils always throw me off as this is only the second time I've grown the blue in green and last time was in soil and via seed so it's matured for the past 6-7 months since I last ran it and most strains are always different/better (usually) from clone in my experience... but I do end up letting them go too long...

Gotta work on the nute schedule... thanks again...