ebb and flow vs constant flow

[glenn wilkerson]

simple question almost which one is better

[Allisyn Wood]

Yeah?? I thought some of the stuff would do better with a little more of a break (drying out time).  Guess I'll not mess with it too much then!  Thanks for the heads up.  Definitely don't want to be redoing anything... again... :) Save that for ANOTHER garden! Hahaha!

TCLynx said:

If your siphons are working, then you are fine without the timer.  When you get to the point of switching to a timer/indexing valve system then you will probably need to switch to standpipe drains and skip the siphons.

[TCLynx]

There is a trial going on over at BYAP that seems to show that most plants don't care too much one way or the other as to timed flood and drain, constant flood or siphon flood and drain.  There is some variation from one system to the other but from the pictures it doesn't look like a drastic variation.

 

If the plants are acting like it's too wet for them, see if the water is flooding too high and perhaps you can make the plants happier by adding more media to the beds so the surface stays dryer.  Most plants see far more upset about wet ankles/knees but are actually fine with wet feet so to speak.