Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture represents an educational, in-depth, up-to-date, indoor horticultural growers guide that covers all principles of indoor hydroponic horticulture and gardening. This book contains 110,000 words, with over 300 diagrams, pictures, illustrations, graphs, tables, 3 dimensional CAD renderings, and is printed in full colour.

Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture examines, explores, dissects and presents a fully comprehensive step by step growers guide, relating to all and every aspect of indoor hydroponic horticulture, with complete chapters on plant biology, propagation, hydroponic systems, nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide enrichment, pH, biological pest control, fungi/disease, cuttings/clones, pruning/training, breeding, harvesting, equipment, grow rooms, a full history of hydroponics, and more.

This book goes further than any indoor growers guide has gone before, presented in full colour with 3 dimensional CAD renderings. Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture quite simply outclasses any other book on the subject... In terms of literal content, quantity, quality and presentation, no other indoor horticulture growers guide can compete, let alone compare.

Flood and Drain
aka Ebb and Flow Systems

This is a very straightforward and effective technique. It is basically a hybridisation of all the above techniques put together. The principle, as its name suggests, is simple but very impressive. These systems normally use clay pebbles as the substrate as this medium provides very good drainage and good retention of water, which over time will dry out. A flood and drain system typically works by using a timer and a submersible pump. The timer controls the flood and drain cycle of the system. Most flood and drain systems work via a bottom flood, which over a period of preset times, floods two thirds to three quarters of the growing medium. Then, once the flood cycle reaches the desired height, the pump stops and gravity then pulls the water back to the reservoir. Then, depending on the size and depth of the system, some time later the cycle is then repeated.

Conventional flood and drain systems are normally quite shallow i.e. approximately 5-10 cm deep. However, due to recent developments, we now have on the market deep flood and drain systems. These systems are approximately 50 cm deep. Original shallow flood and drain systems obviously take less time to flood, however, needs to be flooded more often over a 24 hour period. The new deep flood and drain systems take a longer period of time to flood, but require fewer floods during a 24 hour period. The reason for this is that the medium takes shorter and longer periods of time to dry before another flood is initiated i.e. the shallow flood and drain takes less time to flood and drain, however, the medium will dry out quicker. The deep flood and drain takes longer to flood and drain but as it has more medium in it, takes longer to dry out resulting in less floods per 24 hours than the conventional shallow flood and drain systems. The effect of a flood and drain system is similar to a piston in a cylinder of an engine. The raising of the water level during the flooding cycle pushes the old air

out of the medium and therefore the rootball, then, when the flood stops and the drain starts, the suction caused due to the lowering level of the water, pulls new air into the medium and therefore the root system of the plants. The static period when the medium dries out again also pulls air into the roots. The result is superb aeration to the root system. The deep flood and drains provide substantially more aeration to the root system compared to the shallow flood and drains.

So to recap, the system works by flooding the system to almost the top of the growing medium. Then the system is allowed to drain, normally by gravity. After a period of time, normally once the medium is virtually dry, the system then repeats the cycle and so on and so forth for the duration of the crop. The flood and drain cycle is set at regular intervals during the 24 hour period and even set for the night cycles, as although the water and nutrients is not usable to the plants at night, it does exchange old air for fresh increasing the aeration around the roots which will prohibit bacterial and mould infections, but also keeps the water in motion which again will prohibit stagnation and bacterial problems. Flooding during the night period also increases the oxygen absorbed by the water, which again keeps the nutrient solution healthier and more usable to the plants.

“These systems incorporate brand new evolutions in hydro farming innovation. Simply put, these are deep pod ebb and flood. Each pod has a large 12- 15 litres of root space allowing for a longer dry period between floods optimising air to the root zone. Due to the depth of the pod (9-10 inches) and quality of the pump, the system takes 3-4 minutes to flood and 3-4 minutes to drain, resulting in a rapid flood and rapid drain. The water, due to its large volume coupled with its tall cylindrical pods, acts as a big piston pushing all the old air out then sucking new air in with approximately three times the pull compared to existing shallow depth flood and drains that are generally available, thereby getting considerably more air to the root zone. The system incorporates a couple of safety features, one being a shallow reservoir built into each pod so if a power cut strikes or the pump fails, your plants won’t die. The Hydro Pod also has an overflow safety feature so if your pump gets stuck in the on position, then the whole system acts as a very deep trough NFT; no water spillage all over the floor to mop up. With the depth of grow pods the system incorporates excellent support for your bigger plants. Again, due to the size of root space, you can grow up to 3 plants in each pod. The Hydro Pod system can come built to measure, the systems can be built into any shape of room optimising the space available, the smallest being a two pod, the four pod, then an eight pod, then sixteen pod system, to whatever size or shape you wish. Each pod can be removed separately without disturbing the existing pods within the system, allowing you to start and finish plants at separate times or enabling the removal of diseased and unwanted plants without disturbing the other plants in the system. You can even turn the pods individually creating even more growth. We believe no such system has had so much thought and time put into its evolution which is still ongoing. Plans to develop an ebb and flow aero pod along the same principles are in the pipeline. If you’re into HID light cultivation, the sixteen pod system can fit snugly into 1.5 m2 ; that’s 16-48 plants under one 600w or 1000w light.” New Products: Hydro Pod Ebb and Floods from Future Grow Magazine Flood and drain systems are easy to install and are very user-friendly. The secret to their success is their simplicity. Ideal for the beginner or the professional. Provides an excellent foundation for expansion. The only drawback, and yes, there is one, is that as with any hydroponics technique that employs clay pebbles as its medium, the clay pebbles do need to be washed thoroughly before use and between crops. Apart from that, this technique is a real winner.