Having issues with bucket system / first time

jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
I have a question for the bucket ebb n flo guys ... its been a week and i am barley seeing any signs of growth ... they haven't green'd up yet . Using 10" net pots with hydrocorn in 5 gal buckets , clones were in 1"rockwool cubes with 1" roots protruding or better when set in hydrocorn , using GH flora @ 300 - 400 ppm . and water temps from 68 -71 dr , 2 1000watt MH lights about 4 feet overtop the buckets . Flooding every 2 hours @ 18/6 with only one flood @ dark period . Watering from top by hand a few times a day also . Just wondering if growth is always this slow at first with these systems ?? I realize once roots get down out of the net pots that they will explode but its been a week with hardly any signs of growth ,,
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I pulled a couple this morning and the roots look yellowish with a bit os brown here and there,, stunted like ... is this over feeding or root rot ... they have barley grown in lenght from a week ago?? They were fuzzy white and healthy when i set them into the hydrocorn/net pots .. the 1" rockwool cubes are staying soaked the way i have been flooding/feeding , could this be part of the problem ?

and what can i do to recover them ...i have H202 and sm-90 here ... and lots of other products ... this is my first time out of soil and i'm starting to regret it already :P
 
This is a long shot, but did you squeeze the rockwool? If you do, it could ruin it's water holding/draining properties.
 
Cut your floods to two 15 min cycles 8 hours apart first cycle 2 hours after lights on . No dark floods. Place rw 1/4-1" above flood line. Eventually get it to 3 floods, when you think it's time
flood 15 mins max
 
The cubes are quite far from bottom of 10" net pots, i filled the system and placed the rockwool cubes into hydrocorn so they were just in the water line a bit ... otherwise half of my roots would not get hit with water as they are out the sides of the cubes and not long enough to protrude to waterline . I had this thing flooding every 2 hours plus was hand feeding from the top from time to time ... i really dont see anyway to wet the root enough without soaking the cube every flood ... maybe i need a bigger root system for the 10" pots when i set them in ...like 2" rockwool cubes ..???? if i could get my turbokloner working good that would prolly give me a good root sysytem for starting in the big 10" pots...just fired up my second run with the turboklone today ...here's hoping !
 
Nizza said:
Cut your floods to two 15 min cycles 8 hours apart first cycle 2 hours after lights on . No dark floods. Place rw 1/4-1" above flood line. Eventually get it to 3 floods, when you think it's time
flood 15 mins max
Click to expand...

Won't the tiny rots dry out in the hydrocorn with that much time between cycles...hydrocorn doesnt seem to hold water very long....
 
sounds like you are watering way too much. I run 10"netpots in 3 gallon buckets and only water 1x during lights on under a 400HO t5 in veg. lights on 18/6

Never water during lights out. There is no need. They do not drink at night.
 
Set the net pots as deep as possible in your flood tray and get the rockwool 1/4 inch above the flood line. This will make the roots pull up water to the rockwool, and prevent over saturating the cubes. Also, you may be want to just hand water maybe even 1 time a day instead of flooding . I had the same problem my first try and have yet to retry
 
if your rockwool is staying saturated then ph rises which in turn locks out nitrogen. eventually leading to root rot. if you have roots then your rockwool should never be wet much less saturated.

edit: missed nizza last post, he's dead on
 
Ok , i am going to drain the rez and refill with pond-zyme and very light nutes , raise the rockwool cubes and see if i can nurture these thing back to health while i wait for another batch of clones to root incase these never come around :P ... stretch out the floods and no flood on dark cycle . Live and learn ....soil was so much easier ... i choose this system to experiment with yield and maybe get it to a point where i could leave the rez unattended for 2 or 3 days ..

thanks for all your input guys ... means alot to hear from people with hands on experience !!!!!!!
 
i feel your pain, my flood and drain table set me back a harvest or two, totally effed up. did exactly your setup too, with 18 pots. its also good to have the buckets elevated off of the base of the flood tray, it allows the hydroton to drain better and stuff. some people use a riser type setup and others just make a lid with holes in it
 
Nizza , my setup is ebb n flo buckets , 5 gal, 60 gal rez , homemade rig. I think the boys here were right though , i let them dry out all day with no flood and can see a boost happening ... gonna run 5.9 water with pondzyme and superthrive through them for awhile see what happens!! I love playing with this system , had fun building it ..really hope it works out, got a fair bit invested in it to give up yet ;)
 
I want to thank you guys who suggested lifting the rockwool cubes ... i just checked them and i have nice fat white fuzzy roots exploding , no signs of baddness anywhere ... i think the dose of superthrive/pondzyme may have helped too. Evertime i got in to check them now the rockwool is dry on top , before it was soakeed 24/7 and tht was the problem !!!!!! I cut my floods to every 4 hours also... and no dark flood !
 
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