Good questions, Wacky. During vegetative growth, I prefer to just hand water once or twice a day to waste. But if I go out of town, I'll hook up a recirculating system and set them to water twice a day. I feel like I get a little bit better growth by handwatering to waste... but it is not substantially better, so do what works for you. The scope of this article is "Simple", and the point is you don't need a ton of hydro gear to grow a one pounder. That said, I always recirculate (3-4 times a day) when going to flower, as I can't hand water that often. When you go to flower with a biggon, it will use up at least a gallon or more a day. Even when using 100% grow cubes, you will need to irrigate at least twice a day when in the first month of flower.
As I said before, the nice thing about using the rockwool growcubes (not chunks) is that it is difficult to over-water. Also, unlike dirt, you won't have problems with dry spots in the pot, over-watering or dirt contracting and leaving the roots on the sides of the container to dry out. The only disadvantage to the grow cubes is they need to be watered more often... which is a good thing ;-) The more we can flood the root system with nutrients and oxygen, the faster growth we have.
Yes, the beast you see above (scroll up) in the 10 gallon brute was done with a mix of hydroton and grow cubes. This is the same plant with the 2.5" stalk. The yield was over a pound. I irrigated 5 times a day with it. The roots mass completely filled up the 10gallon brute. As I've said before... whenever we see one pounders +, we see massive containers. HOWEVER! I won't do this 10 gal container again, as now I have 10 gallons of used growcubes / hydroton mix that I have to throw away. Yes, the results were outstanding, but I can do the same in the 6 gallon air pot with 100% grow cubes. If I didn't have the airpot, I would make a "poor man's air pot" using a 5 gallon bucket.
After this experiment, I don't feel that adding the hydroton and using a bigger container gave me a significant advantage. Yes, I did get over a lb, and with the other plant I only got 14 (almost 3oz difference). But remember that is because it is a different strain. The roots cant penetrate the hydroton and I feel it is just taking up space. It does allow you to irrigate more often, but I still prefer my original "capt style" 6 gallon container with 100% growcubes for the "one pounder" plants. More area for roots, easier to transplant, less mass to dispose of after the grow. If you have more ceiling height, 1000W (instead of 600W) and wanted to grow a 2 pounder, then I would suggest bumping up the container size to 10 gal.
