| Author |
Message |
Chris
10/14/2002 7:02:00 PM
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| having some concernes |
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I built an aeroponics unit for the fun of it. I am trying to do tomatoes, eggplant, and bunch beans. I have used ebb and flow and NTF in the past. Here's my problem, i only have the bunch beans in the system right now, but when it is running, they start to droop like they are being over watered. So I limited the sytem to two on-two off, but I go thome from class today and the system was on and they were drooping, but earlier, before school, I had watched it off and for an hour while they misters were on and they were looking just fine. I was getting great root growth for the first two -three days, little rootlets were just starting to poke out of the netcups, but now root growth has stopped, and so has the apical growth.
I have a tendancy to build stuff myself, so here is what i did. built a frame for the unit. have the underneath resevior, a hose coming from that up onto where the tanks are. The hose is clamped a tthe end and I drilled small holes and inserted tubing running into the misters hanging around the netcups. The tanks are angled so that there is flow toward the drainage in the back. I grow with foxfarms organic nutrients, just in case you wanted to know. And vegging with a 175 MH.
I hope you can give me a suggestion on what I may be doing wrong. I'm really wanting this system to work out, and could use the advice. Thank you for your time.
Chris
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The Green Thumbs
10/14/2002 9:33:00 PM
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| Re: concerns |
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| Chris, just to get this straight... your beans have been successfully growing in this system for a while, then started drooping lately? How old is your light bulb? Do you know your pH levels? |
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chris
10/14/2002 10:36:00 PM
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| re: concerns |
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| They did fine for about a about two-three days, which normally I see problems with hydroponics show up a lot quicker, than in the days spectrum. I test the pH, and leave it about 6.1-6.2. The bulb is new, and I just use it at night, i have a south facing window that I leave open during the day. My PAR meter shows they get more light from that then they do the bulb anyway, I jsut give it to them to fill in the cycle. The beans are only 6-9 inches tall right now with about four nodes per plant, but as I said the root and apical growth of the plants has slowed.I fyou want i can send you a digi picture of the setup wehn my roomate comes around. My TDS was at 950, should I maybe up the nutrients? |
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The Green Thumbs
10/15/2002 9:18:00 AM
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| Re: concerns |
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| Chris, what color are your roots? How often are you misting your plants, and how long are you misting them? One problem you could be having is that there is not enough dissolved oxygen in the water, which could cause some root rot. |
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chris
10/15/2002 10:54:00 AM
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| re concerns |
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| Th emisters are on for two hour on two hours off, this reduced that water logged look with the plants. The roots have been a healthy white color. And between the amount of waves, and the four inches from my downspout to the resevoir, i think that there should be adequate aeration to the water. |
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The Green Thumbs
10/15/2002 11:05:00 AM
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| Re: concerns |
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| Chris, I think your problem is this: because your water cycle is two hours off, your roots might be drying out too much. In aeroponic systems, we recommend no more than 30 mins on/off. 15 mins is actually preferred. The roots drying out would cause cell damage, and therefore cause wilting. You can get a 15 min. increment timer from us for $14.95 if you need one. Let me know how you turn out. |
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chris
10/16/2002 11:46:00 AM
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| re conerns |
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| A little something I have noticed, the leaves droop way more when the sunlight is only them and the system is running, when the artificial light is on them and the system is running they look fine, they also look fine when it is just the sunlight, but the ysstme is off, what the hell does this mean? |
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The Green Thumbs
10/16/2002 11:52:00 AM
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| Re: concerns |
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| Chris, that is caused by this: your plants get used to growing under artificial light, which is "weaker" than sunlight. When you transfer your plants from artificial lighting to sunlight, your plants will go into shock b/c of the blast of sunlight. A comparison could be this: human eyes get used to a room lit by a light bulb. When we go outside on a really sunny day, our eyes have to adjust to the new kind of light, and the power of the sunlight. The same goes for plants, except they are 100x more fragile than our eyes. You should try to keep only one kind of light on your plants. What you are doing to the plants right now, is probably stressing them out a great deal. Let me know if that doesn't make sense. |
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chris
10/16/2002 9:54:00 PM
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| re concerns |
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| No, actually that makes perfect sense, and i should have realized that when i checked the PAR meter. So you think that I should just leave on the MH and not use the sunlight. |
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The Green Thumbs
10/16/2002 11:07:00 PM
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| Re: concerns |
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| Well, I think you should just stay with the same kind of light, whatever you use. If you have more access to the MH, then use that. Or vice versa. |
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