Expanded clay / watering help required

[homie]

my question is, when you wish to turn from veg into buding, how often should the timer be set for watering, i know plants dont drink much during their nighttime(lightsoff) however im very unsure on how often i should be watering during lights off and ON while in buding, atm in veg i have it watering 10minutes every 2hours.

 

if my rambling has lost you, in simple terms

 

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IN BUD STAGE WITH "EXPANDED CLAY"

 

"how often would you water during lights OFF"

and

"how often would you water during lights ON"

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keeping in mind this is a recyl system in expanded clay, ive had people telling me to run recyl system 24/7. but that sounds completely stupid to me, it'll drown the plants.

 

any input is more then welcomed.

 

Thankyou for your time.

[Mushaman]

Heya Homie

I'm new at this but from what I read and have heard, you keep the feeding cycle constant - I do anyway but I'm running Airponics so it may be different for your setup.. best wait for some better advice, sorry .. oh, and

 

24/7. but that sounds completely stupid to me, it'll drown the plants.

 

you don't drown them during the light time period so I reckon its unlikely you'll do that during the nightime cycle - again .. wait for advice from a more experienced grower ...

not to say its not going extremely well for me doin what I'm doin .. lots a pix in my grow diary :whistling current success has been down to a lot of good advice I got here, so hang in there for some more comments.

MM

Edited September 24, 2005 by Mushaman

[pipeman]

2 hour watering intervals is about right for expanded clay, some people even go for 3. Don't change what you're doing unless you notice there is some reason to.

 

they would only need one watering during the dark cycle but watering every 2 hours probably wouldn't do any harm.

 

just watch out for root rot if anything you will need to water less frequently not more.

[Buddy]

I run my drippers for 15 minutes every two hours 24/7 in the recirculating system mainly because it gets below zero at night where I live so it helps to keep the roots warm during the dark period.

You wont drown them because the roots have got 105 minutes to take up oxygen before the next watering

I also keep an airstone running in the supply resevoir so the plants are still getting oxygenated nutrients....bit of overkill maybe but it wont harm them at all.

[Chev]

Hi There,

I would run the watering system every 2 - 3 hours for 10-15mins, but only ONCE at night, in the middle of the dark cycle. I'm assuming you're using a sattelite system or something of the sort?

[jackfrost]

flood and drain = water 6 times light on peroid, only when light is on, for 15mins each time.

 

ie. 18hours = every 3 hours , 12 hours = every 2 hours.

 

First watering should be 1/2 hour after the lights turn on to achieve max takeup

 

Some people do a extra watering 1/2 way into dark peroid, i dont personally - but its up 2 you.

 

But,

 

if ya doing a dripper type of setup then 27/4 is the go as long ya got good drainage. - dripper setup is usually for bucket within bucket type of setup or buckets sitting in tray with clay inside of them.

 

Jack