Root problems!
My plants are 5 weeks old and I have them in a homebuilt nft system with a 90L res. The tubes are 11 cm in diameter.
The plants are in rockwol cubes (9x9x9cm) which are in net pots that I have put in the tubes. No direct light gets in the tubes.
The water is flowing about 2-3 cm below the net pots, and I am using ATA Clean to prevent algea, and sensi advansed nutrients (PH perfect). The water is fresh tap water (which I drink every day and I feel fine).
water temp: 19°c-22°c
EC:1.7
room temp:18°c-26°c(depends on light period)
lots of air circulation in the room
humidity:50%-75%
PH( going to calibrate my new meter soon)
promlem: The roots do not seem to grow down in the flowing water, as soon as they grow out of the rockwool cubes(which all of them do now) they slowly become dark brown and simply die,at first I thought they were just drying up but I keep the cubes moist and now they just look very droppy at times, and the roots in the same condition as before. I have been watering them by hand for the past month with a bit of fertilizer now and then, apart from being droppy they look ok. I have also put a little shower fan on to one of the tubes as an experiment to blow air around the roots to see what that does.
My thoughts where that mabey the roots are too warm??
I am new to hydro!
Can someone please point it out what I am doing wrong or not doing what I should do?
And thanks for a great community.
even though your res may be around 67-70*f i found in nft using rails that the root zone will absorb a lot more heat from the room. beneficials like greatwhite can help. my new system is a rail inside of a larger rail and filled with expanding foam insulation, big difference in heat transfer tests. try wrapping your rails in bubble insulation.
So it is a heat problem then?
Would it not fix it if I just blow more air through the tubes so that the root zone gets colder?
without pics its hard to say for sure. as for blowing air through the rails, are you doing this now? i keep mine as sealed as i can. roots dont like air. when i harvest i have a 2" thick mat of roots from end to end of the rail.
Originally Posted by superstoner1
Ok, now I finally understand what you are talking about... How many degrees difference did it make?
The insulation might get wet? No
How did you fit them in there... did you use inner shell 4 inch, out sell 5 inch and stuff foam inbetween?
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i am going to start a journal when i finish a few projects but this pic will give you an idea. i use foam collar pieces to center the rails and used a spray foam insulation. i drilled a few holes in the outer shell for getting the foam in all areas and taped them over to hold it in til cure
Sounds to me like your water level in your tubes is way too low. Also, what type of tubes are you using? Is light penetrating? If so, you need to fix that as well.
Cool your res, and wrap your tubes in that silver bubble insulation at lowes/home depot. When I ran NFT that was the KEY to keep healthy white roots, cooling reservior (which I did with pop bottles) and then wrapping the tubes and keeping the insides cool.
I didn't like battling humidty because of NFT always spraying in the room.
an nft or aero system really shouldnt affect room rh. it should be contained and let the plants put the moisture out.
Make sure your tubes are lightproof.
Also consider using a cooler (instead of a rubbermaid tub) for a reservoir. They're insulated and keep water cold for much longer. Then freeze some 2L water bottles and drop em in to cool your res.
powdered donuts make me go nuts
Want to use PGRs? Give this a read: http://www.manicbotanix.com/index.ph...d=27&Itemid=14
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