Will the roots DRY OUT or DROWN!!!?

[Easy Roller]

:confused: So i have the light ...BUT WHAT SYSTEM TO USE?...i.e.with Ebb and Flow ..or Nutriant Film.?
Basically i'm concerned about the timings i should use within my set up...HOW LONG CAN ROOTS BE WITHOUT WATER FOR ? HOW LONG CAN ROOTS BE SUBMERGED IN SOLUTION FOR? ....and WITH 'NFT' ONLY THE ROOT TIP GETS THE DRINK!!! [WHILE THE ROOT'S MID-SECTION IS LEFT DANGLING IN DRY AIR.]..DOES THE ROOT NOT DRY OUT THIS WAY? :confused: ? Please shed some lite on subject all u 'Knowitalls'! , because it is crunch time in 'Easy Roller's Grow Yard' ....much obliged!

[turtle420]

Roots grow.

With NFT, you're going to end up with a couple of inches of roots that the "mid-section" is dangling in dry air... Ok, but the root grows. After that mid-air root part, you'll have a long-ass piece of roots... all submerged in... the... wait for it... Nutrient Film!!! :D

[Easy Roller]

yeh but what is the distance of the plant pot bottom to the drink...and how shallow is the drink solution?

[Zandor]

It's not uncommon for the first 12" of dirt to be dry and plants still grow fine in nature. The roots are able to perform uptake of nutrients just fine with out the root ball drying out. The Humidity of the grow chamber will keep the root ball from drying out. With NFT you just need to make sure you have good drainage and flow. You don't want the roots to block the flow of nutrients to the other plants back up and over flow the grow chamber making a mess on the floor.

Ebb & flow you water about 15 min every hour to 2 hours or somewhere in-between. Time will very from strain to strain and plant to plant.

Before you start to grow in Hydroponics you may want to pick up a good book for reference so you can tell when you get good sound advice or just crap talk.

That's the hardest part of growing, knowing when to ask, what to ask, and who to ask. Then to know if it's the right advice or just a 14 year old kid playing with mommy's computer and telling you BS.

[Easy Roller]

Thanks for knowledge Z...i'll probably goes for NFT just for the sheer simplicity of it! bBut thats the info i needed.

[Easy Roller]

Oh and how deep should the film be ..or is it literally a fine shallw film?

[latewood]

the depth should be 1/16-1/8" deep, but I don't think nft is the simplest way to grow hydro...maybe you should do a little more research, before...

[fallenbythe]

I have recently invested in a nft setup and i was surprised at actually how strait forward (not easy) but strait forward they are to run. i found that once you get the theory behind it and get into a routine with it, it does the work for you! i will spend about 30 mins each day just checking things and topping up the tank and im sure you could do it in a lot less than this, but one thing i would say is that depending on the size of the system you are going to buy, you need to make sure you can empty the entire reservoir once a week with ease, if you've got a small system then your only talking about a few buckets full a week but when you have a larger system you need to think about where all that water is going to go and how your going to get it there and also get water back up (or down) to the garden. Anyway i hope this will help you in planning your endeavour as these are things i neglected to properly consider when i bought my first nft system

in the end, i did some plumbing and thats made my life in the garden 357% easier.

Best of luck with your grow,

Fallen. :thumbsup:

[Easy Roller]

Thanks indeed..allround! Its going to be either NFT or Ebb&Flow as i already have an old pump from my fish keeping days... ironic really ...that u can also 'smoke' fish!

[fallenbythe]

"HeHe" :rasta: fishfishfishfish :rasta:

[fallenbythe]

lets grow some fish and have a smokeup!

Sorry but that did somewhat ammuse me.


Fallen.