Sterner's journal- 3x3 flood/drain 1000w perpetual. Buckle up kiddies.

I think you are good with 3 hour flooding. right before the 3 hour flood starts, check the bottom of the pots to see if your hydroton is wet or dry. If they seem dry then turn the flood wait time 30 min. I have never had an issue with every 3 hours, but this is what works for me.

Backing the lights off is a good way to see if the girls are heat stressed, though i thought you already had those conditions in perfect order.

 

Yep, that's the key Sterner....
Environment is different, strain, air movment, etc. etc. etc., so what works for us, may not for you...
I flood 30 min every 6hrs and then I simulate a drought, it's once every 24hrs...


Hydroton can be over watered and that is the #1 sign, crowfoot leaves on the large fans usually near the top...
You really need to do a flood, then after 3hrs, check on them every hour, until you see them start to droop...
That will give you a base to start with, then up or down the flood time from that point....

But IMHO, you're toooo wet, and if you're getting a crowfoot, I'd personally up the time at least 2hrs...
The leaves will straighten out a little, but the badly damaged leaves will never really recover...



Usually I do the droop test when I'm working with a new system or when I change strains too..
Or if something in my environment changed, like adding Co2 to the garden that was not normally running it...


Just the way I do it....

 

You look great! Every strain is different and Jakester has what works for him down pat. What were are giving you is starter points to "Dialing In" your grow and not just hoping for the best.

I try to flood as much as possible when using hydroton. When the water drains back into the res it causes a vacuum that sucks fresh oxygen into the root zone creating almost a "Fog" of water and air. The roots will thrive in this environment. Though I think this this is more important when plants are first moved to the tray, I have experienced larger and faster yields using this technique.

 

Yes, you're right.....
You cannot over water cannabis....


Glad you brought up DWC though....
Remove the air and what happens?????

That's what you're doing to the hydroton when you fill it with water....


Think of it this way......
We all know from science class, that a "void" MUST be filled with something, being a gas, or liquid, or solid...
Right???

We have an empty room, but it's NOT empty, there is air (gasses) in the room filling the void...
Now look at a hydroton ball, it very porous, filled with all these little cracks, and crevices...
So all the areas of this ball which is not a solid, must be filled with something, water, or air....



See where I'm going????
The more you water, the more the water fills these "voids", pushing out "air", being O2 or Co2...


So NO you're not really, in all reality over watering, you're removing more air, thus lower O2 levels to the roots...
And we get what the DWC growers get when they do not supply enough air to the system/site....


It's the same with soil, the same with Rockwool, Coco, everything just about...
It's not the water, it's the air you're removing to put the water there.....



If that makes sense???

 

Anytime.......

ON

 

A lot of people like to let their plants droop a little before watering them, they say it's good for them...
I do not believe that, so when I find out how long it takes to droop, I up it an hr...
So they get a flood an hr. just before they are going to start drooping...


You will find, the cool thing with hydroton, it retains water rather well...
And you'll be shocked just how long they can actually go without a flood...


Back when I started, before the internet, ya there was a before the internet if you're a young guy...
But back then, I was flooding like every hr. for 15 min., the plants grew GREAT in veg, then come flower, that dam crowfoot leaves would slowly start and get worse and worse, until the end of the grow the dam plants looked so shabby.... The bud was still good, but NO WHERE NEAR what it could have been....

Then an old stoner laid some heavy shit on me over a few years man...
After which, I just rock the yields, and really does not matter what strain...


Ya see what is happening, the roots use the O2 in the bucket itself in a matter of an hour...
So the plant gets its O2 from the hydroton, and it does this my absorbing the water, which releases trapped air (O2)...
Of course this all happens on a microscopic level, because when you pick the ball up, it simply looks damp to the naked eye, but get down to the roots little tiny hair's level in the world, and there is a TON of water in that little ball, including trapped air......

IMPO, when we're below the soil line, we should be thinking microscopic level, not naked eye level like we do up top..

 

That critical+ is suposed to be a great strain. Killer yields of bomb smoke. I think id run it and see if its a good pheno. Then takes some cuttings and run with it if shes any good. Think the right pheno can be harvested at 45 days.

 

ehh.. Big debate on cutting back fan leaves. But in order to stay "politically correct", I cut all fan leaves in half ONLY if there blocking budsites.

 

It's been proven time and time again the fan leaves is where chlorophyll is produces, and without chlorophyll the plants cannot process the sun's energy....

That being said, IMPO, removing the leaves would be no different than a business owner closing down all his/her factories, and then expecting their company to increase production or revenues...

There is a difference between popping out some fans during trimming up, and a Defoliation....
Pick ANY grower which defoliates, and I'll show them buds from everyone of my grows which are larger than anything they have ever produced using the defoliation technique...


Simply my thoughts on the defoliation technique...