This week we caught up with Cliff & Dani from Hyjo hydroponics, who’ve been good enough to do a Q&A with us on the UK’s favourite modular system, the IWS Flood & Drain.
Nutsystems:
What type of media do your customers use in their IWS Flood & Drain?
Hyjo:
In general we get a mix, but the most popular are: clay pebbles, coco, grow stones. Coco offers a good buffer, whilst they clay pebbles and grow stones give better drainage and access to oxygen for roots.
Nutsystems:
What room temperature should growers look to maintain to maximise the success of their IWS Flood & Drain use?
Hyjo:
We’d recommend a range of 27oc – 30oc maximum. We’d also encourage growers to make sure that there is no less than a 7oc drop in room temperature when lights are turned off. We’d possibly recommend using a heater at lights off to maintain a consistent room temperature.
Nutsystems:
How often would you recommend feeding your plants in the vegetative stage?
Hyjo:
Really it depends on the plants and your media, but as a rule of thumb we’d recommend 4-6 feeds per day in the vegetative stage.
Nutsystems:
How often would you recommend feeding in the flowering stage?
Hyjo:
Oooh, good question! Again, it really depends on your plants and media but if we’re guiding our customers we’d say 6-8 times per day.
Nutsystems:
Are there any tips/tricks that you know of that might help customers to get the most from their grow?
Hyjo:
Here’s our top tips for how customers can get the most from their IWS Flood & Drain system:
- Make sure to keep the water temperature around 19 oc. We find that the easiest way of doing this is by using a chiller. We feel it’s even more important in hot weather, like we’re getting at the moment.
- We recommend flushing the system once per week to avoid a salt build up.
- Another thing we’ve found has worked well for our customers is putting an air stone into the reservoir tank. It’s gives the solution a little extra oxygen which can be fed to your plants
- Another of our top tips is to keep an eye on the pH. We recommend keeping it in the range of 5.2 – 5.5 in grow and 5.5 – 6.0 in flowering
- Our last top tip is to keep EC at 1.2 in grow and 2.2 in flowering. If possible, we recommend you check this daily.
