Soil-less Vs. Hydro

I use a coco blend and am messing around with dwc. Had some problems with the dwc but once under control the plant out grew the coco in a few weeks. Keep in mind the roots grow out of the rockwool and into the water. I don't think you'll get near as much air in the coco. just my thoughts.

Yea if you are going to use a medium make it coco

I've never used coco - is it inert or does it require PH adjustments and stuff?

I have a killer hybrid DWC / ebb & flow / aerobic system in mind that will be DWC but drain away the solution so the roots hang in air for however long you choose as often as you choose. The system will give max aeration, prevent root rot and best of all, if the system fails it just falls back to a regular DWC. You would need a total power failure or for two pumps to fail for the system to go down.

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it though. But I guess if people have grown side by side and seen a definite difference it makes it worth it. Maybe I should get my prototype up and running.

I'm using a tsp of garden lime per gal of coco blend. Then just run my water between 6 and 6.5.

coco is inert and holds air so well you dont even need perlite. Ive thought about the design your talking about, have it set up like aero but just have the root zone flooded for a couple minutes every so often. Here check this guy out

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=137937

Originally Posted by smppro

coco is inert and holds air so well you dont even need perlite. Ive thought about the design your talking about, have it set up like aero but just have the root zone flooded for a couple minutes every so often. Here check this guy out

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=137937

Well, for a small setup you can just make a simple ebb & flow using a large reservoir and some large 2' X 3' cement mixing tubs from Lowe's. You cover the top with their blue Styrofoam in which you drill 3" holes and insert net pots. These tubs do need a frame.

Now you have an instant Ebb & flow / aeroponic system. The trouble with something like this when you get into a larger setup is that it requires massive amounts of water and it is hard to spread your plants out.

I'm thinking about several dozen plants with a separate vertical PVC column per plant. And the columns would be on the floor.

Prototype coming soon.

Originally Posted by RickWhite

Well, for a small setup you can just make a simple ebb & flow using a large reservoir and some large 2' X 3' cement mixing tubs from Lowe's. You cover the top with their blue Styrofoam in which you drill 3" holes and insert net pots. These tubs do need a frame.

Now you have an instant Ebb & flow / aeroponic system. The trouble with something like this when you get into a larger setup is that it requires massive amounts of water and it is hard to spread your plants out.

I'm thinking about several dozen plants with a separate vertical PVC column per plant. And the columns would be on the floor.

Prototype coming soon.

I use the concrete mixing tubs for ebb n flo too, they are perfect

Depending on the coco and how fine it was processed you still do need perlite. Even with Canna which is supposed to be semi long fiber and be fine as a stand alone I add perlite and a mild amount of some compost.

Coco is going to hold water for a while so you might as well give it better aeration.

like 99% of plant mass comes from the air, more air, more plant.