Roots in Noots

[Mushaman]

I'm wondering if I can do away with the clay/verm/perl mix I have in the trays underneath these tubes - the roots can grow straight out of the bottom of the tubes and could sit in a layer of nutes .. instead of growing down into the base tray medium?

 

If I put a 'skirt' around the base of the tubes to stop lite gettin to the roots and changed the nutes in the base tray regularly, would this likely give better growth than the current setup? :scratchin - If that'd work I can just transplant into a tube of clay balls sittining over the tray of nutes. Or would it be better to fill the base tray with clayballs instead of just nutes?

 

I am about to transplant some clonez so any advice would be appreciated.

MM

[Pure]

yes you could easly do what your wanting and get good resaults from it , infact it's probably one of the most commonly known hydo methods for people outside the hydroponics comunity it is called NFT

 

now as far as your setup goes provided you give a slight down hill slope in your tray or tube gravity will do most of the work for you , just have a hole at eighter end of the tray/tube that leads to a resevoir ( an inlet and outlet

for water) , a small pond pump would be required to ge the water up the first section of the system as it's gotta go against gravity , but once you can get it to flow into the above tray/tube the rest of the work is done for you buy mother nature

one thing to remain aware of thought is that N.F.T. systems are very susceptible to power outs and pump failures. because there is no medium for water to hold to the roots will dry out very rapidly whenever the flow of nutrient solution is interrupted which can cause huge issues for people that can't be around allot for the crop, but all systems have down sides do don't let that totaly deter you from your choice

 

If you have a look around the site you can get lots of different variations people have tried and done , just have a search for nft systems or nutrient+film and if you need anymore info or want more detailed info just ask away and i'm sure someone will have all the info you need

[animal]

If your roots are sitting in nutes the solution must be getting constantly oxygenated by either an airstone in a DWC or by a constant flow in NFT. Sitting stagnant is no good and the part of the rootzone that is submerged in the solution needs to be mediumless if that makes sense.

[Mushaman]

If your roots are sitting in nutes the solution must be getting constantly oxygenated by either an airstone in a DWC or by a constant flow in NFT.  Sitting stagnant is no good and the part of the rootzone that is submerged in the solution needs to be mediumless if that makes sense.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Thanks animal,

 

Yep, it made sense - and I was thinking of doing 5 of those trays ... I got one spare air pump and airstone but i think buying another 4 may be wasting my money .... probably best to just use the medium I'm using ... put up with the messiness :scratchin - would there be significantly better growth do you think if I did go to the time and expense of converting ?

[Mushaman]

yes you could easly do what your wanting and get good resaults from it , infact it's probably one of the most commonly known hydo methods for people outside the hydroponics comunity it is called NFT

 

Heya Pure,

thanks for the info - I am running an AIrponic system right next to this project and I really wanted to try a "with medium' grow - I have already run into a problem with a self inflicted power out - i knocked a plug out and the pump for one AIrponic tub stopped for 3-4 hours ... it was horrible, but they all recovered. So even though I wanna do a medium based grow, couldnt help wondering if it was the best. One last question, would converting to NFT give me quicker growth or a better end result (in the tubes and trays I have) or do you think the medium I'm using will be as effective/good/better/worse?

[animal]

Probably not worth it purely from a yield point of view. The only reason you'd tinker with a grow thats already working is if you want to because its your hobby and you like experimenting with different things. If it improves your grow or wrecks it either way you're going to learn something from it.

[Pure]

personaly I would not mess with a system half way through a cycle there is just so little to gain from it whilst so much to loose, when it comes to the speed of growth in vegitation , yes it's undoubtably true that aeroponics , NFT , DWC ect are all faster than a medium that is drip fed or fed buy other methods , the main reason being the access to large amounts of air and a constant feed of nutes whenever they need it

but when it comes to flower the plants you won't notice the difference from one system to another unless the vegged plants are allowed to grow bigger than the plants growing in a medium ( in most cases )

[Chato]

Hey Mush your sort of working in reverse bro. A lot of people start with nft and progress to other styles of hydro, probably cause as Pure said it's quite well known to the outside world, fairly simple and used extensively to grow other crops. Aero is quite tricky and a relatively new style of growing. imo it's the duck's nuts in terms of explosive growth and a truly mad way to grow. Good to try em all though and see which suits your purpose best and it's heaps of fun trying.

grow hard

chato

[Mushaman]

Animal - Pure and Chato

thanks guys for the advice - I've been trying to decide what to do with the four other trays .. like how to set them up ... I wouldn't touch the current tray again ... when I added the base tray medium I damaged a few of the roots and nearly all 10 went into a fairly lengthy stress phase .. yellowing droopy leaves and no growth - yeh, so I will just proceed as planned I think and fill the new trays with exactly the same mix as the current tray. Chato you're right, basically this is all concentrated FUN !

 

I know I'm doing things a little sideways and backwards ... comes of reading too many books over 6 months with minimal crossover in terms of the advice given ...

Aeroponics has spolied the medium grow for me a bit coz its so much faster .... incredibly fast when I look over the pix I've taken and compare over a week :reallyexcited: but I keep creeping off to look at the DWC pix and dreaming hmmm

 

so I think my patience factor will rule and I will focus on Aero - but having seen those beautiful beasties like Chatos grown DWC .. I think I will have a go with that next - flower out everything I have in the medium first. :scratchin

 

Thanks again guys, appreciate your advice and experience.

MM

[Chato]

I dream about aero Mush! Too difficult in my present circumstances but i can't wait to try it again. Starting with aero will give you a great education and there is no right or wrong way anyway. I love DWC it's a lot of fun but i might try super bubblers (big dwc) or Krusty Bucktets next. Wish I had more time and space to do em all! good luck m8