EC and Flood times for Vegging in netpots with Hydroton?

[VapeIt]

I have plants vegging right now. The clones were taken and rooted in RW cubes @4 weeks ago. I put them in 5" netpots with Hydroton to finish out the Veg cycle. Then they will go in an Ebb&Grow bucket system with Hydroton.

I have the lights on 24hours. How often should I flood the table? 4x a day - every 6 hours for 15min?

Also, what is a good EC to be at in week 3 or 4 of veg? I am at EC 1.0.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Red Reign]

Depends on the size of light you are vegging under.

I veg under T5's, 20 on 4 off, and flood very 6 hours. I run 1.5 ec from rooted clone to the day they go into the flower room.

If your vegging under 1ks you'll need to flood more often and can run a higher ec as the plants get bigger.

 

[VapeIt]

Thanks Red,
I have a T5 - 8 bulb - 400w I think. 42 plants in 5" netpots with Hydroton. 3x3 flood table. After veg - they go into MultiFlow Buckets.

I had been running 1.0 EC and started getting crispy gold leaves. I am getting 1 and 3 finger leaves also. I flushed each one individually and brought my rez down to .6 EC.

Maybe they are starving? Maybe the gold tips are a deficiency from not enough nutes? Not nute burn, like every person I talk to says. I do not think 1.0 will cause nute burn on 4 week plants 6-8" tall.

Thank you.

 

[Red Reign]

I bet they're hungry. 4 week old plants (untopped) should be 12-16 inches tall, unless you are growing a super slow vegger like Pre98 Bubba.

You definitely aren't getting nute burn at 1 ec. I start 2 week old seedlings at 1 ec in ebb and flow/hydroton, and bump it up to 1.5 ec after 10-14 days.

My veg setup is similar to yours, except I use 2 4' 4 bulb T5's over 4x4 trays and 6" square pots. I use RO water, 2.5ml MagiCal, and 4ml (per gal) of Floranova Grow in veg, which puts me right at 1.5 ec. My tap water sucks so I use RO, if yours is good you won't need the MagiCal, just use tap and a good base nute. Since you are in netpots, they might dry out faster then my 6" pots, especially when they take off. I would flood every 4 hours.

I bet if you bump them up to to 1.5 ec, and keep the ph between 5.5-6.0, you'll see a big improvement in 3-4 days.

In flower I run 2 ec.