First Grow (ever) - hydro query

Hello and welcome to GC.
You can grow anywhere from one plant in that tent to 9 or more depending on how long you want to veg - most growers grow 4 plants in a tent that size.

Considering this is your first grow, have you thought about starting out a little simpler? Maybe coco or hempy?

 

I have never done a flood and drain so I can't help - sorry.
Good luck to you.

 

How big do you want to grow your plants ?
I have 2 plants per 4x8 tent .

You can buy 20 or 30 liter totes . one plant per tote .
Put a fountain pump in and a fish tank bubblier compressor and stone .
I use Canna nutrients and only RO water .

 

Hey NPC, I used to do flood and drain. As far as I remember the buckets and net pot system were the same for flood and drain as they are for a DWC setup. It's just important to make sure you're flooding and draining enough to keep your roots wet and aerated but not so often that you rot them out. And of course make sure your reservoir has a Nutrient/PH/Temp meter. With hydro you need to monitor that constantly. I run DWC (Deep Water Culture) on an under-current system now which I prefer. For a tent your size, provided you have all the space you listed and your equipment isn't taking up any, I'd say you can fit 1-4 plants in there. Any more than that and you have to have smaller plants. You could SCROG 1 or 2, or grow 3-4 regularly. Make sure your tent has an air flow system that will cool it down automatically, and you will almost certainly need a dehumidifier. Good luck out there buddy.

 

Basically the only way you're going to get root rot with DWC is if your air pump fails and you don't realize it. I keep an extra brand new air pump waiting in a box just in case. In a DWC bucket there's a large air stone at the bottom, and it runs 24/7 so that the roots always get plenty of air. It floods the bucket with air basically. Remember, in a flood and drain, you MUST aerate your main reservoir 24/7 with a large airstone.

 

I've grown a few different ways, and DWC is the fastest and heaviest growth method I've used. You can only have one plant per bucket in DWC, the root growth is ridiculous. You just choose your bucket size accordingly. My setup is a DWC undercurrent system. So my two plant buckets and my control bucket are all connected together via 2" PVC, and a pump circulates the water through all of them.

 

You're welcome, good luck!