The Garden's Cure - View Single Post

CRAZYTRAIN · 07-01-2009, 02:06 AM

Ok, I'm back. I was using flood trays and then started using the eb-n-grow system. For me, gettting those huge trays in and out of my space to clean them was a pain in the ass and since my floor is dirt, cleaning the trays in my growspace was a messier pain in the ass. But I have to say that cleaning the eb-n-flow is also a pain in the ass....especially all that hydroton. I thought disposing of all those rockwool cubes was a PITA but cleaning and rinsing all that hydroton is about 10 times the work than simply throwing out old cubes. I thought I could grow much larger plants in the eb-n-flow system, but my overhead space is limited, so I found that the size plants I was growing in my trays were perfect. right now my money is on the trays. I think they are easier to clean and easier to dispose of the medium and when I used a coco mat in them (as Skwirlgirl does, check out her latest hydro journals) I can grow plants just as big as with the eb-n-grow( in my limited space)
That's my take on it. I think the trays are less work.
One advantage I think the eb-n-grow has over my trays is that I can mount tomato cages in the buckets for great support and LSTing the plants. In my tray I had to turn the cages upside down, set them on the tray and they were always too wide, making a spacing problem for me. I think if I did the trays again I could deal with it though by vegging the plants longer with the cages around them so I could run less plants and fill that space.
Now about the res thing. I only use about 25 gallons in my eb-n-flow to grow 12 plants. I do that because I'm going to change it every week anyway so why bother waisting 25 gallons of nutes. I'm almost sure the 50 gallons will support 40 buckets as I have done 28 buckets with about 35 gallons. A lot of the water stays in the systema and never gets pumped back into the res so you could even let it fill the entire system, then ad more to the res if you wanted to. Back to that mix never leaving the system thing. I don't care for that as I often have nutes at 1.5 EC and 6 ph in the res and when I check the EC in the brain it's 1.8 and 6.2 ph(just an example)... but my point is I don't really know what the plants are getting, 1.5 or 1.8 and when I flush I want to flush, not flush 80% of the solution... I want it all gone. I met a guy about 6 months ago that says his company developed a en-n-flow type system that totally evacuates the solution from the buckets between floodings and he claims thier system blows away the eb-n-grow system. He also told me about 3 or 4 other things that thier system does better than the eb-n-grow but I don't remember them. I'm not sure about that but be on the look out for it if your looking for the newest high tech version of it. It should have hit the streets already but I don't know.
When I was growing in 3x6 trays it took about 35 to 40 gallons to fill those trays up about 1/2 way. I think if you use a coccomat and let the roots grow into that then you don't need to fill the tray but about 1/2 the way up.
I've never used a chiller in either system and have not had a root problem.
One of the main reasons I got the eb-n-grow system is because I thought that leaving my tray uncovered was seriously adding to the humidity in my room. I thought the eb-n-grow, with me being able to remote locate the res outside the flower room would help a lot... it didn't.. it's just as humid as before. My dehummy pulls about 5 gallons of water a day and my AC pulls about 5 gallons of water a day and I still can't get the RH under 50% and contantly have to top off the res as the EC climbs from evaporation, I believe.

I don't dislike my eb-n-grow system, I just thought it was going to solve all my problems and that it did not do so I'm passing this on to you as food for thought.