Fog design, please provide input

I have been racking my brain for a while now trying to come up with a new design for my aeromist fogger. I may have hit on it, give me your thoughts plz.

I intend to use my last failed project as a starting point. Pictures will soon follow. I have 3 fence post rails already set up, but they were used in a high pressure aero attempt that failed. The failure was in the high pressure system more then the fog portion of the design. I know these rails will work great with fog. The problem has been with the supplemental watering that I will also need to do. I figured the best way to handle that is to simply flood the bottom of the rail with water. If I install a fountain or something similar on one end of slightly tilted rails then the water will gently flow along the bottom of the rail. Any roots that make contact with the bottom of the rail will then have access to a steady water source and not impact any fog roots that I develop high up in the rail. My issues with fog have always stemmed from the fact that fog roots do not enjoy being splashed with large micron water droplets. Additionally if I can grow a nice root mat at the bottom of the rail, then fog roots will likely grow up from the bottom of the rail from the roots that are down there as long as the water level is low.

I think this is a great solution. Up till know I have been racking my brain on how to develop a system that allows me to flood the chamber with water because I know my fogger cant do it alone. At the same time I need to protect my fog roots as much as possible. The solution seems to be that some of the roots will need to be diverted in some manner to give them contact with water, while allowing the rest of the roots access to fog. All previous solutions that I have designed or thought up assume I will dunk all my roots into a water chamber of some sort, but this rail flood solution allows me to control, to a degree, which roots will contact water and which wont.

I wont even bother you with the details of plumbing at this point. I really just need a confirmation of concept. Can I adequately feed my plants all the additional water that they will need by simply flowing water across the bottom of the fence post rail all while flooding the entire chamber with fog?

Part of me wants to redesign using simpler methods like a DWC, but I have seen the benefits of fog and must insist that it can be done. I just need to tinker with it till I can make it work while avoiding the disadvantages such as over heating and dehydration.

I think that would work, but I do want emphasize, and I believe you mentioned it, that if you stick (some of) your roots into the nutrients at the bottom, make sure it is fairly fast moving, and perhaps put something in the bottom that will make the water move in varying directions, such as a bit of gravel or even just a few well chosen rocks which will help aerate that water.

spaceneedle

Funny your response. I was just about to get on and pose that very idea. It seems that what I am talking about doing is NFT as I now understand it. Additionally I have read some posts from Oldmac, who will hopefully chime in here soon enough, that talks about this very idea when responding to someone elses concept. His idea turned out to be the very thing I am trying to do. Apparently just about everyone who winds up buying an ultrasonic fogger seems to take the same path of discovery and wind up at the same conclusions that I am now. Hopefully I will have a proven system soon enough to be able to post the results. There are no good fog write ups for this kind of fogger. At any rate, my idea was this:

Line the bottom of the fence post with one single layer of hydroton. It just so happens that I have several bags already. Then locate and install either a single spray head or a fountain at one end to supply the supplemental watering. The flow of water should be no higher then about half way up the layer of hydroton. As you mentioned earlier the water would flow and mix around, but it would be a gentle enough flow to not splash my fog roots. Also it occurs to me that since I will be using air stones and low water levels that I could probably leave the water running 24/7 which would keep things simple in terms of timers and pump wear. I will also be using 24/7 fog which again is a benefit in terms of timers and pumps. I am fully aware from others and my own experiences that using dry fog 24/7 is about the most successful way to use this kind of fog without much fear of root rot. So given the fog environment and assuming I install a layer of hydroton, I eventually expect to find the roots firmly rooted to the bottom and actually begin to grow fog roots back upwards. My wife seems to think that roots are incapable of growing upwards so I don't know about my last statement. None the less I think a layer of hydroton would be better then a bare ass bottom like you say. If nothing else it would even out the water flow.

Yo again PDT,

You are talking NFT/fog here. Flow of water on the bottom of the rails, to feed the water roots and introduce fog to hopefully get fine roots near the top.

I did NFT years ago, using plastic gutters that had plastic covers. Holes drilled in the covers for 3" net pots. You will find that once the roots reach the bottom of the gutters or rails it will dam up the return water very effectively. I'm not sure that adding hydrotron will help or make worst that problem. I had to place perforated right-angle material on the bottom of the gutters to insure a return to the rez. (I found I could "dam-up" over 20 gals of nutrient solution in 24' of gutter). This led me to adding the drain channel, and also led me to use misters in the top of the gutter trays.:D It is also the last grow machine I built that used a recirculating system and resevoir.

BTW, left an answer about the 3" collars....but was just thinking now, why not use 2" net pots and blackstar collars? I'm pretty sure you could grow just as large with the 2" as a 3".:)

ok im officially concerned about my idea now. Are you telling me that NFT doesn't work in this system? Isn't this exactly, without the fog of course, how the Aeroflow 60 works? Or does it mist from above?

If I do install misters above the rail, wont that just damage the fog roots?

One more question oldmac, do you see any reason to ever use netpots? Why not just use the collars by themselves?

NFT/fog would be a viable system, IMHO. I was just pointing out the potential problem with putting something in the bottom of your rails and the problem of roots daming up return flow. I added misters to the system as a cheap way to keep roots happy without having to step up to a 50 gallon rez. It was also my introduction to a poor man's aero system, and led me to research aeroponics.

You are correct that misters will not help to produce the fine roots you are looking for, and would not play well with the fog. NFT with added fog seems like a hybred system that would work.:D

I use collars only when using the EZ-clonners, but in the grow trays it's collars with net pots. The object is to support the plant, the collar will hold the stem till roots form. Then when the roots grow thru the net pot they are also supported there, so then there are 2 points supported and once the roots reach the bottom of the tray (as in my system) and form a root mat they are very stable. BTW in NFT systems, even with net pots, plants have a tendency to "lean" upstream, against the nutrient flow as roots are pushed slighly downstream.;)

Ok, so, with an aeroflo 36 you wouldnt necessarily need mister in the lines. What if you just had water spitting out of the hose at a 45 degree angle almost, hitting the lower wall, causing a mist spattering back up onto the roots. Is that ok? or is plugging the holes with a mister better. Is 24/7 ok on the 900gph pump? Thanks.