Hi Guys
Im new to hydroponics and im on my first grow. Im using a recirculating top fed drip system. My plants are in 18 litre net pots filled with hydrotron, which are sitting on top of 25 litre bottom pots. The bottom pots are all plumbed back into the main reservoir, so that as the solution drains through the hydrotron and into the bottom pot, gravity recirculates it back to the main res. The res and the bottom pots are at the same level, so there is constantly about 6 inches of solution in both the bottom pots and the res.
In the main reservoir is an air pump, and also a pump to pump the nutrient solution to my drip feed lines.
My question is...should I be leaving the feed pump on constantly, so that it is constantly dripping oxygenated water through the growing medium and into the bottom pots, which then circulates it back into the main res?
What has lead me to this question is, the plants are only 26 days old and already the roots have grown through the holes in the top pots, and they are sitting in the solution that is constantly in the bottom pot (about 6 inches of it).
At the moment im watering them for 3 hours at a time every 4 hours during my lights on cycle, but im worried that when the lights go off and i stop watering, the roots that are sitting in water in the bottom pots might not be getting enough oxygen? Which I suspect is happening, because they are getting droopy a fair bit.
If you want to see pics of my setup my grow thread is here: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/182181-my-super-skunk-hydro-grow.html
Thanks
Im new to hydroponics and im on my first grow. Im using a recirculating top fed drip system. My plants are in 18 litre net pots filled with hydrotron, which are sitting on top of 25 litre bottom pots. The bottom pots are all plumbed back into the main reservoir, so that as the solution drains through the hydrotron and into the bottom pot, gravity recirculates it back to the main res. The res and the bottom pots are at the same level, so there is constantly about 6 inches of solution in both the bottom pots and the res.
In the main reservoir is an air pump, and also a pump to pump the nutrient solution to my drip feed lines.
My question is...should I be leaving the feed pump on constantly, so that it is constantly dripping oxygenated water through the growing medium and into the bottom pots, which then circulates it back into the main res?
What has lead me to this question is, the plants are only 26 days old and already the roots have grown through the holes in the top pots, and they are sitting in the solution that is constantly in the bottom pot (about 6 inches of it).
At the moment im watering them for 3 hours at a time every 4 hours during my lights on cycle, but im worried that when the lights go off and i stop watering, the roots that are sitting in water in the bottom pots might not be getting enough oxygen? Which I suspect is happening, because they are getting droopy a fair bit.
If you want to see pics of my setup my grow thread is here: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/182181-my-super-skunk-hydro-grow.html
Thanks
