[SyRaX]

Hi, just wondered if someone could help me with flooding times. Can i do 1min every 15 mins, or could i do 15mins every hour or so?? Need to know if i need to get a new timer or not ... thanks!!

[Anonymiss]

I used to do a few (five?) minutes every four hours (six floods per day), using a mixture of perlite and vermiculite as the medium.

It worked well

I don't think that increasing the flooding duration would help very much really — It's mostly about pushing all the old, stale air out and then drawing fresh air down to the roots as the nutrients drain, so greater frequency is likely to give better results than longer immersions.

[MDS]

Clay balls will not hold that much moisture, though they will hold some A big plant in full flower could consume many litres of water per day, the clay balls won't hold much at all so I'd be thinking of flooding it pretty often when the plant is big.

 

Less when it's small obviously. You don't need to flood the thing for long.

 

It's really a question of trial & error, but always err on the side of flooding it more often than you need to or the conequences will be a wilted plant

 

Missys' medium contained vermiculite which can hold a quite staggering amount of water/nutes, so she didn't need to flood it as often

[SyRaX]

Ahh okay so i will need to get another timer for the pump right? Mines a black orchid heavy duty timer so i think i might need a digital one

[MDS]

Ahh okay so i will need to get another timer for the pump right? Mines a black orchid heavy duty timer so i think i might need a digital one

 

I honestly have no idea at all what kind of timer you need, I'll be totally honest as I have never looked into these things before That doesn't mean it hasn't crossed my mind though. Obviously it did as soon as you asked the question

 

As I say I don't know what is available, but I think what you should be looking for is similar to what I'd make myself given the situation.

 

Effectively I'd build a circuit that turns on for a minute (to switch on the pump to flood the pots) & then has a variable off period of anywhere between 5 minutes & say 30 minutes Then I'd connect that to a segmented timer. You see your plants aren't going to need flooding any where as near as much when lights are off as they are when it's on.

 

So at night I'd experiment with timings once again & maybe arrange it so it gets flooded about a quarter of the time it does during the day, if you get me

 

So quite what you're looking for I have zero idea at all, sorry
 

[Anonymiss]

Ahh okay so i will need to get another timer for the pump right? Mines a black orchid heavy duty timer so i think i might need a digital one

 
The digital timers often have a limit of six on/off cycles per day (42 per week), which is partly why I ended up doing every four hours (I already had the timer).

I don't know how long it will take to flood your table (time it?), but if 15-minute on-times are acceptable (I don't know) then one of those 'segment timers' would probably be a good bet because it would allow as many floods as you like each day, even 15-on/15-off for two cycles per hour if desired.

[MDS]

 
The digital timers often have a limit of six on/off cycles per day (42 per week), which is partly why I ended up doing every four hours (I already had the timer).

I don't know how long it will take to flood your table (time it?), but if 15-minute on-times are acceptable (I honestly don't know) then one of those 'segment timers' would probably be a good bet because it would allow as many floods as you like each day, even 15-on/15-off for two cycles per hour if desired.

 

Yes you could use a segmented timer fullstop, I agree with you Missy

 

I think what you might need to do is what an old friend of mine did because when the timer is on you'd be flooding for 15 minutes He added an airstone to the bottom of each pot so when it was flooding for those 15 mins an air pump blew air through the airstone to supply the roots with oxygen while they were immersed in the nutes solution.

 

That may well be the easiest solution as once again you could easily set it to flood less at night time

 

He called it a flood & drubbler
 

[olmec]

Old school vid but still a fun watch on flood n drain times

[Anonymiss]

The Timeguard TG77 Compact Timeswitch, available for around £10, looks like it would do the job, with up to 20 on/off cycles per day

I've used a few (three?) Timeguard timers over the years and mine have been reliable.

[SyRaX]

Thanks for all the replies. I should of checked here before I went to the supermarket Got myself a digital timer for a shade over £6. So I'll just do what Missy used to do with 6 cycles per day.

 

Once that's setup then everything is fine and dandy really. Got 2x disposable dehumidifiers from B&M for £5 and two boxes of rock salt too, so should do for a while. I just need to get some pH down now, so I'll germinate some seeds tonight, only going with 5 this time with a 400hps. 

 

I've only got a 50 Litre bath with this Atami setup.