Unleashing Ebb and Flow Hydroponics
What keeps me so interested in hydroponics is the vast amount of different methods for growing. With just a little imagination, you can design systems for just about any application, whether that be a small hobbyist setup for growing hydroponic lettuce, or a large commercial system. In this series, I’m going to highlight one of the most popular hydroponic growing methods: the ebb and flow system. You’ll learn about the advantages to ebb and flow systems, as well as their downsides, and I’ll even show you how to build one on a budget. Let’s get started!
What Makes the Ebb and Flow Method So Awesome?
These systems are designed to be easy to build and use. To understand why it’s such a popular growing method, let’s take a look at exactly how they work.
Unlike deep water culture, ebb and flow systems do not keep a plant’s roots permanently suspended in the nutrient solution. Instead, they fill a table with the nutrient solution a set number of times per day, delivering the food and moisture to the root systems in specific doses. When the table is dry, the roots have a chance to absorb oxygen, ensuring that they don’t drown.
Ebb and Flow Benefits
I would consider deep water culture to be an even lower maintenance system than ebb and flow setups – but ebb and flow has some specific advantages. First, you can have a greater surface area to grow your plants by going the ebb and flow route. Because your reservoir is not directly connected to your plants, you can expand the size of your flood table. In DWC, your reservoir is also the container you grow your plants in. So, if you want a larger growing area, you have to enlarge your reservoir. Pretty soon you end up with an extremely heavy setup, which can be a real hassle.
It’s also easier to control the temperature of your nutrient solution when it doesn’t have to be in the same container as your plants. I’ve noticed that I have some trouble with DWC systems if I use them outdoors, because the reservoir simply draws in too much heat from the sun. Pretty soon I’ve created an ideal growing environment for a lot of different pathogens and my plants’ roots are absolutely hating me. Not a recipe for growing success.
The Basic Setup
Here’s a quick breakdown of what my ebb and flow table looks like. Like any other hydroponic method, there are many ways you can build one. I decided to purchase a 2′x2′ ebb and flow table from HydroFarm. The rest was built out of materials I bought at Home Depot and Petco.
How It Works – In Detail
You have a reservoir that is filled with your nutrient solution and is oxygenated with airstones. At the base of the reservoir, a water pump is installed.
Above the reservoir you have your flood table. This is where your plants will be growing. You need to fill this up with a growing medium so the roots of your plants have something to grab onto.
The only tricky part of the setup is the mechanism for flooding and draining your table. All you need for that is some tubing running from your water pump up to your table, and an overflow valve to ensure that the table doesn’t spill water all over the place. The last part of the equation is a pump timer to turn your water pump on and off at set times throughout the day.
Tutorial Coming Soon
I’m going to put together a cheap, DIY tutorial video and post for ebb and flow pretty soon. Stay tuned!
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Kevin is the creator of Epic Gardening, a community dedicated to teaching urban gardening, hydroponics, and aquaponics. He enjoys skateboarding, piano, guitar, business, and experimenting with all kinds of gardening techniques
For another take on the Ebb&Flow system which I personally like the best, check out then Ebb&Grow kit made by CAPP. It consists of a 55 gallon drum Rez, a controller bucket which is where the timer etc are located, and 12x 5 gallon buckets which is where the plants go.
This system is great because you can expand it to something like 40 plant sites by just buying some extra buckets and tubing, and it all runs off the same 55 gallon drum.
I use this for my larger plants like tomatoes and cucumber because I can space the buckets far apart and there is plenty of room and support for each plant. I actually have tomatoe cages around my buckets too, something you can’t do with the Ebb&Frow tables.
Ebb&flow is my favorite hydroponic system because letting the roots air out for a while lends itself to some exotics growth, plus you can keep the rez somewhere cool so the temp doesn’t get to high and just run tubes out to the plants. The whole thing is mainly gravity based so as long as its on a level surface you can set it up however you like. This is important for me since I do all my growing outdoors so cool rez temps and the ability to space out the buckets is optimum for me.
Great article!
I saw a video of the CAPP system a while back and basically salivated all over the keyboard. Looks amazing.
I’m jealous you’ve got so much outdoor space. I make do with what I have, which is two balconies that get sun about 50% of the day. Can’t complain, though – sunlight > paying for electricity any day of the week.
As far as ebb and flow, I’m starting to warm up to it. I used to do strictly DWC, but you can’t build a hydroponics site around one method! Separating the res from the grow area has a lot of advantages that make it overall better for larger grows like what you’ve got going on. Thanks!
Man I only get 50% sun where I’m at too since my two story house shades my whole operation for most of the day. They would be lucky to get 5 hours of actual direct sun (if that). But yet they grow like it ain’t no thang!
http://i.imgur.com/Ey2Jn.jpg
Hey, if I had your backyard I’d be happy with 50% sun! I make do with what I’ve got, but I can’t complain at all..balcony hydroponics is a really fun application. BTW, really enjoy what you’re doing over at outdoor hydro. Great idea – might want to collaborate on a post sometime soon!