Flood Table?

[Vaporeyes]

I keep reading make sure your roots are covered on the table. My local dro shop has several tables set up and all are in rockwool cubes sitting in the tables with nothing else, roots exposed and plants healthy as can be.

I plan on switching from DWC to flood & drain, any thoughts on going with 6" RW cubes and no covering or hydroton? any tips or things to look out for that differ from DWC ?

thanks all...Peace

 

[lovethestuff]

Re: Flood Table ?

If using hydrotron buy the pots that the roots do not grow through. If you use the pot that the roots eventually do grow through then you should cove the bottom of the flood table with hydrotron also. Unless you are growing sog. The light on the roots will grow a fungus. I don't use rockwool but i would think you would put the cubes ontop of a rockwool slab...Hope that helps.

 

[LonghornFan]

Do the same thing your local hydro store is doing. The plant will maintain its roots uncovered. The plant basically manicures itself, however the plants will not grow as large because the roots won't expand much. I have a 3x3 flood tray.I also use a 36 hole cover for it as well and I let the roots grow all they want under it and I can grow the plants as tall as I want...tons of room in that tray. I have 20 white widows going in the tray right now. I dont flood them though, too much water and too much nutrient waste. I built a sprayer out of PVC and it lays in the tray. The reservoir only has 3 gals of water in it and the pump pushes water through that PVC, through the sprayers and sprays all of my roots and drains back into the reservoir. I saved TONS of money in nutrients and back breaking work changing 20 gallon reservoirs (which I only did once!!). Now I have large harvests with only a 3 gallon reservoir, once a week water change and $100 in nutes every 6 to 8 weeks (that includes my mothers and clones nutes too)...here is a picture of my current grow in a tray. This is only 20 plants out of a possible 36 holes and all inside a 4x4 tent under a 600w. Tons of grow in a little space is possible. Tonight I can take pictures of the PVC aergation unit I made. It has spray nozzles and even a small shutoff valve to control what zone you would like to spray. Let me know if interested in seeing it.

 

[ptg701]

Let me know if interested in seeing it.

Yes, very interested.
Please post more about your setup.

 

[Vaporeyes]

Do the same thing your local hydro store is doing. The plant will maintain its roots uncovered. The plant basically manicures itself, however the plants will not grow as large because the roots won't expand much. I have a 3x3 flood tray.I also use a 36 hole cover for it as well and I let the roots grow all they want under it and I can grow the plants as tall as I want...tons of room in that tray. I have 20 white widows going in the tray right now. I dont flood them though, too much water and too much nutrient waste. I built a sprayer out of PVC and it lays in the tray. The reservoir only has 3 gals of water in it and the pump pushes water through that PVC, through the sprayers and sprays all of my roots and drains back into the reservoir. I saved TONS of money in nutrients and back breaking work changing 20 gallon reservoirs (which I only did once!!). Now I have large harvests with only a 3 gallon reservoir, once a week water change and $100 in nutes every 6 to 8 weeks (that includes my mothers and clones nutes too)...here is a picture of my current grow in a tray. This is only 20 plants out of a possible 36 holes and all inside a 4x4 tent under a 600w. Tons of grow in a little space is possible. Tonight I can take pictures of the PVC aergation unit I made. It has spray nozzles and even a small shutoff valve to control what zone you would like to spray. Let me know if interested in seeing it.

Hey Whats up Longhorn, absolutely post away!

Ok so theres a reason to have the roots covered ( sounds like they will stunt a little? or not reach potential?) ok so im looking to have 3 footers probably 10 per 4x4, fill the tray with hydroton for the root zone? still use the 6" cubes straight or better off tossing them into some net cups with more hydroton?

whats the spray pointing at in your setup, roots i assume not folliar....

 

[LonghornFan]

Vapor - I would think they wouldn't grow as tall as you want. I can't say that them being uncovered would truly stunt their growth, never have done it without the lid. Mine so far, as you can see from the pictures, are doing wonderfully covered up. I love how the roots are so clean and so is the water with the Advanced Nutrients. So here are some pictures for you I took when the lights came on. I actually quit using any medium at all. I stuck my clones inside the 3.75 inch neoprene insert and then stuck the insert inside the net pot. The plants will never get over 5 feet tall in my application and the root ball inside the cup supports the plant itself. Now I don't have to deal with dust and debris.

This one shows the PVC and sprayers inside the tray. The roots are obviously hanging down from their netpots suspended in air by the tray cover.

This one shows the red shutoff valve I use. I am going to grow 4 strains, 9 plants each and want the ability to water each section if one is empty, so I attached this valve. It's a 1/2' ball valve. Nothing special

Here is the tray, the plants, and the small 10 gal reservoir under the table. Water just drips back into the reservoir once the timer turns off.

10 gallon reservoir. The rubber brand. I love this brand because the lids seal well. You can see the salt build up on that lid from the other nute package I was using.

And finally, this is a picture inside the reservoir. No, it is not brown algae or anything. Just the reflection of the light. The water itself is actually very clear. I keep the water level just above the pump. Notice it laying on its side. It still sucks water just fine, I can just let the water level get a little lower.

Hope this helps some! Sorry to take over your thread Vapor!!

 

[Vaporeyes]

lol, the thread was dead man, good info is always welcome! looks good, very nice set up..love what you did with the aero...

 

[LonghornFan]

Thanks Vap...Hopefully it helped someone..

 

[Vaporeyes]

i saw a design of a flood table turned into a recirculating dwc raft system, like to give it a go.


& yea absolutely helpful LHF!

 

[Sirgonzo7]

when using rockwool, they make the starts, cubes, slabs etc to use with each other, hand grodan rep come into our grow store and gave me a little demo and info on the stuff.
you stack the grodan. when the roots come out of bottom on the cubes, stack em on a slab on the flood table, and keep stacking

 

[Sirgonzo7]

Do the same thing your local hydro store is doing. The plant will maintain its roots uncovered. The plant basically manicures itself, however the plants will not grow as large because the roots won't expand much. I have a 3x3 flood tray.I also use a 36 hole cover for it as well and I let the roots grow all they want under it and I can grow the plants as tall as I want...tons of room in that tray. I have 20 white widows going in the tray right now. I dont flood them though, too much water and too much nutrient waste. I built a sprayer out of PVC and it lays in the tray. The reservoir only has 3 gals of water in it and the pump pushes water through that PVC, through the sprayers and sprays all of my roots and drains back into the reservoir. I saved TONS of money in nutrients and back breaking work changing 20 gallon reservoirs (which I only did once!!). Now I have large harvests with only a 3 gallon reservoir, once a week water change and $100 in nutes every 6 to 8 weeks (that includes my mothers and clones nutes too)...here is a picture of my current grow in a tray. This is only 20 plants out of a possible 36 holes and all inside a 4x4 tent under a 600w. Tons of grow in a little space is possible. Tonight I can take pictures of the PVC aergation unit I made. It has spray nozzles and even a small shutoff valve to control what zone you would like to spray. Let me know if interested in seeing it.

doesn't PVC piping cause the chemicals from the piping to go into your water, res, plants?

 

[JAFO]

No. PVC used extensively in the reef keeping industry...