Ebb and flow root problem

So you’re typically growing monsters. Haha, how often do you change your res. What’s your schedule? Every 3 weeks? Top up every week with 25% strength nutes in between?

What’s the biggest you’ve grown? And what did it yield? :grimacing:

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Oooooh trick question. I don’t and haven’t. I very likely won’t until my plants start telling me it’s time. I top off my res about every 3 days with 3-5 gallons of water depending on how much they used.

My biggest so far is a blueberry autoflower. No idea her yield yet because I’m in the middle of trimming right now. Honestly not much - I’m guessing 2.5 or 3 oz of smokeable bud. Maybe another 1.5oz of trim and larf. She occupied the corner where the smaller plant is now - so it was light limited. Before that I needed to rearrange my pipe situation because I had half the tent dedicated to flowering out some soil plants and only half reserved for the RDWC. When I moved the mother plant in there, I knew I needed to reconfigure.

Mother plant is my biggest to date, I’m hoping she’ll yield 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound. I’d be happy anywhere between 250-400g. I only even have that hope because of how much real estate she’s hogging. :rofl:

I add full strength nutes every time I top off, I figure if they’re using 5 gallons of water, they’re eating 5 gallons’ worth of nutes. I think my res PPMs are somewhere around 2200 right now and they haven’t complained yet (except frequently they tell me they need more magnesium)

So thats topping off with a full strength 5 gal nutrient solution. Goodluck guy, imma keep you updated on where i stand. Hydroponics is really putting a toll on me LOL. But i say duck soil either way.

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Yep :joy: it sounds insane but I’ve been blessed with good genetics- these girls don’t mind at all.

It’s not the easy route, no doubt. For your system I’d say ditch the coco chips for hydroton and see how it goes without any other changes. I bet it works better.

Yes. I have some coco ready to go in autopots once I get room. It will replace my soil grows entirely.

Update, im gonna cover the tray top with foil, the root zone was heating up real good (just stumbled on this revelation when i took lid off to check roots). How can i keep root zone cool, assuming aluminum foil doesn’t do the trick?

Yea, ill opt for hydroton as soon as it is available.

For now the game plan is, increasing soaking/feeding time to 30 mins every 3 hours. Have done the necessary modifications to system. Also will add trikologic to the mix (beneficial bacteria).

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A water chiller. If you’re already using a chiller, try to find a way to move the stream that is chilled closer to the root zone part of the reservoir.

So i got everything set up, fingers crossed. Hoping for the best. The only thing missing is beneficial bacteria

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You ordered that Trikologic tho right? Cuz that should do it for you I think.

If you can get Real Growers Recharge, that would be ideal as supplemental microbes too, but I know you’re limited on what you can get.

Yea, i ordered it hasn’t come through yet. I got good news though, the seedlings i salvaged from the last wreck are doing better now. Seems like it was a feeding time problem, 30 mins feeding is doing the trick!!! So much fuss, LOL.

Will keep you update. Thanks bruv.

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Still curious tho, what benefits can i expect with trikologic? I’ll maybe start experimenting down the line, when i master cuttings also. Keeping everything same changing the few variables i think matter. Oh so much to do, so little time

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I’m not sure specifically about Trikologic itself but generally the microbial products provide the beneficial bacteria that would normally live in your soil structure. It eats harmful bacterias and dead matter, providing micro nutrients for your plants. It has to be added in to a hydroponic system and carefully maintained once established. So adding in every res change and periodically between.