Alright in about a week im about to start my third time growing. (INDOOR) I'm going to start off with 6-8 clones. ( under 2 4ft florescent lights with cool and warm white bulbs and change to 400watt hps light for flowering with blue spectrum) Im planning to have a hydroponic system this time around (while having plants in Fox farms ocean forest or am i better off using orchid potting soil) its going to consist of a reservoir and a planter that is going to have 2 exit lines and one entrance line with a pump in the reservoir (20 gallon). now what goes into the planter is going to be a 8 head drip system now what i need to know is how often and for how long should i water my plants. I am going to be using timers. i heard/read that 3 times a day during the day (when lights are on) also is the watering schedule for these beautiful plants the same through out the whole time or does it change when im in veg or flower. ALSO how often do i have to change out the water in my reservoir after i put some nutes (im planning on using advanced nutes)
You Say you're planning to have a hydroponic system, with soil? Doesn't really make sense to me but what you describe is like a continuous drip system. Although, any growing medium can be used with this system because the drip emitter has an adjustable feature, I would highly recommend using an inert medium like rockwool or hydroton. Depending on how you have the the drip emitter set, you can leave it on 24/7 (intermittent drips) or get away with 15 minutes every 3-4 hours (constant flow to saturate medium). As long as the medium stay moist you're ok. The watering schedule does not change (how often the timer turns on) at any different stage of growth, you just have to keep in mind that larger plants consume more water than smaller ones. So, you may need to increase along with their increased consumption. There are people who get away with not changing the rez at all thru the entire grow. They will have a TDS / EC / PPM meter and keep a constant watch of the nutrient solution and by way of formulating how much needs to be replaced, they add that amount in with the water they use to top off the rez. If you want to go about it in a more simplified manner, Change your rez either when you've added the capacity of your rez, of water, back into it. Yours is 20 gallons so when you've done 20 gallons worth of topping it off. Or, every two weeks. I just change mine every two weeks and it works for me. I have a 32 gallon rez supplying 12 plants in an ebb and flow system. Hope this helps man... Good luck