Dwc vs flood and drain

[Crooked8]

Been running flood and drain recirculating systems for years now. Just started a dwc setup and the results seem to blow the flood and drain out of the water(no pun intended). How many times in flowering can you flood them per day? I mean if dwc can sit in a nute solution all day and readily uptake everything constantly without burning couldnt one just flood and drain over and over and get better results? Anyone have experience with both? I used to flood only once a day in flowering.

 

[hush]

DWC definitely rocks flood and drain in terms of explosive growth. That is because of the hyper aeration. While flooding a table does aerate the water, I wouldn't think it would be enough, unless it was being run all the time... And if it was on 24/7 all the time, could it really still be called flood and drain? At that point you have an NFT system, which is as good as, if not better than, DWC.

But yes, you probably could run it all the time, just lower the overflow so it's just a thin layer of water constantly bathing the bottoms of the pots.

Edit: I would do it only with media that didn't hold much water, either, so NOT with rockwool.

 

[mdk ktm]

Just do a top drip in hydroton with open lines or drip rings. I get some damn good growth and You can run them 24/7 or as close as you want. I have been thinking about designing my own hybrid SWC/NFT kind of thing where its the same basic design, but built for open bulb.

But the answer to your question is no. You cant just keep constantly flooding them in rockwool. They would become overwatered very quickly. I have only grown in the little loose rockwool though, never used slabs. But I would assume they both hold water pretty decent

 

[Crooked8]

My dwc only runs with the lights on, i have a short riser that starts flooding a half hr before the lights come on then once the lights are on the pumps kick on in the tray. The tray is aerated and so is the resnso its pretty awesome. Others run water in a tray 24/7 pumps on 24/7. I just felt having that go on during the night time would be a source of really high humidity and mildew issues could arise more often. So far the draining it at the end of the day has been showing better and cleaner results than the way my buddy does it(has no res, tray never drains, only to change the nutes weekly). But ive always done quite well with the standard flood and drain with rockwool chunks. I love rockwool because if a pump dies in my res i have plenty of time to handle it. Hydroton, not so much. In my dwc i run 4x4x3(delta8)(vegged 3-4weeks) rwool cubes then i put them up on unislabs and run the pumps and airstones between them. Its been rocking ass. Hoping for the g per watt. Ive come close but never achieved :/

 

[medicalmj]

Yes, a constant flood than drain is the best way if your media drains quickly. 1 or 2 gal pots of hydroton works perfectly. You need a deep enough table and the right timer.

You need a good cycle timer to make it work right. Set it so that as soon as you hit the high water flood mark it stops and as soon as it is completely drained...You'll need to keep an eye on it as the roots grow it affects that time ratio. so just adjust when needed.

 

[sdd420]

I've left my pump running for 10 hours when timer malfunctioned on my flood &drain with hydro ton and 6 in pots no problemo actually looked to be happy 2 wks into flower btw sdd

 

[PetFlora]

Check out my last journal where I developed MY DIY 21st Century Flood & Drain

The simplicity of F & D with the rapid growth of DWC