Sorry if this is a bit of a noob question, but that's pretty much what I am when it comes to all things hydro. For my next grow, I'm seriously considering switching from soil and was pretty much set on NFT, until I read that it's probably one of the worst systems in terms of plant survivability during a power outage.

I'm thinking about flood and drain now, but can anyone please fill me in on how the various systems rate, when it comes to a sustained period without electricity?

It's just that I'm paranoid about coming home from work or a day out, only to find an entire crop lost to dehydration. I need something where the plants can manage, for the best part of a day without the pump working.

maybe a wilma with coco or anything that feeds once a day and you could hand water

ive done nft for 2 years and never had a power outage or pump failier

Sounds like you're probably better off with soil then.

On a different note, growing in coco with a dripper system or flood and drain might do you though.

Well power outages are a pain for just about any plants, but look at it this way. if there's a power outage they tend to not last an extreamly long time and most roots can take a little abuse when your not home and able to look over it. If that's a major worry of yours though, DWC might be your best bet. if the power goes out the air stones stop pushing air into the water but the water should hold enough air to get you past the power outage. Also, with ebb and flow you risk the power outage falling into one of your flood cycles, and have to wait for the next. if your running 1 hour between floods it can be a bit of time.

With that said. everything outside of soil can come to some problems when the power goes out. I'm going DWC because if worse comes to worse i can add some H2O2 to my water until the power comes back up. This is just my thoughts on the subject but i'm still a bit of a noob when it comes to growing.

Cheers for the replies, I'll take a look at some dripper systems. I was thinking about coco slabs the other day, being that they're organic and what not.

We only get power cuts here once or twice a year, but when we do get them, they can last for hours. It's not often, but we do get em, and it'll be luck that I'm out that day.

EDIT: just seen madhatta's post. I'll have a look at DWC too, cheers.

Hi MOJ

if you were to look at everything from a worst case scenario then you would probably never leave the house. I haven't used NFT but I know people whom find this method very reliable and highly productive, I wouldn't let the possibility of a pump failure stop me from trying it out. What if the drippers block on your drip system or the pump fails on a flood & drain? All of these things are possible ,but what about ease of use, practicality for you own situation and the ability to mod it to really suit your needs.

Just my 2c mate

Goodluck

coco hand watering
auto pot
wick system
All require no leccy

ok for power outage 1 hour or so

Flood and drain
dripper/dutch pot (depends on media)
nft with spreader matt

worse
nft no matt
aeroponics
Dwc/bubblers
drippers using clay/rock est

My plants in NFT will happily go 24 hours with a dead pump. They just did...only lowryders tho I suppose bigger plants may suffer quicker.

my nft has gone days without the pump working...i set mine up with the matting in the water though so capillary action is a safety backup

off the top of my head the most reliable hydro system for power failures would be the hempy bucket/irb

just a bucket with a hole an inch or so from the bottom...medium can be perlite/vermiculte mix...there's been some really well documented grows using these systems...they yield well and as there's no working parts it's a safe bet for power cuts etc

Hi folks, thanks very much for the suggestions!

Okay, so now I think I'm convinced that NFT will be fine. For stealth purposes (if I went the NFT route), I was planning on dipping the end of the speader matt in the water anyway, so I guess it has two benefits

I found some nifty looking Jiffy coco blocks earlier too, that look suitable for NFT, that I'd like to try intead of rockwool.

i wouldnt dip the spreader matt in the res it will get more than enough water

If you do leave the mat in the water get an air stone, Air stones a good idea anyways but essential if you are not letting the water drop back into the tank.

Leaving the mat in the res does reduce that trickle noise to zero. An air pump is loads better, especially in the smaller NFT tanks where the mini pump doesn't swirl the water around enough. The top of the water gets scummy without one.

So with the end dipped into the res, it turns into a wick system. I've run plants like this for over two weeks and although not growing at full speed, they survived.

24hours of no power won't worry them too much.

All the drippers etc etc, i'd never leave alone for 48 hours or more. There's too many connections to leak or pop off or squirt or something, all over my attic, into next door, down their wall to the awaiting fire service...

Cheers folks for the advice, within a couple of days I should be the proud owner of an NFT 424. I can't wait to get my growdrobe finished and get it running

gotta be ebb + flood me thinks, as your completly saturating all the clay balls when flooding which holds water for quite a long time, compared to all the other systems where it doesn't saturate all the balls...

I'd put a tenner on the e+f system surviving the longest (the last man standing)

Autopot - Gravity feed, no pumps, timers or electric.

if the powers out for that long and your there why not just poor the water in by wateren can only need to cut a small hole in the lid to put the end in ....
jobs a gooden

With bubblers, the bigger the air pump the better. I've had airline come adrift and not notice till she drooped, so maybe a few days without air? Once had the pump die on me, they went 5 days with once a day manual aeration, poured one bucket into another a few times.

I'm more worried about light cycles, my timers are mechanical, had better swap them over to electronic.

There are none. Had a hurricane come through this summer. Power was out for a month. Plants were dead within 3 days. With no oxygen in the water, they drowned.

Once I get the harvest in on the current grow (at the end of the month - if God wills it) I am going to build a custom cabinet and scale down my operation from a large closet grow to a smaller perpetual garden gig. Yeah, no power is no fun. But then again, you already knew that I'd wager.

Why don't we get together and knock back some frosty ones and lament the loss of life?