Harlequin,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harlequin
I'm thinking about growing root vegies (carrots etc.) and I'm struggling a little with the mental shape of how the system would work. At the moment my experience is all with NFT systems growing leafy plants.
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I had similar thoughts and plans lately (manly about carrots actually), and have been concerned about it in quite the same way. The depth for the carrots, an appropriate media for roots to develop nicely, etc.
What I have to tell you firstly: forget straight away about perlite and/or vermiculite in a ebb/flow system. Because this material is way to light (when dry anyways) and will, when flooded from below - rise over the edge and drop out!
Have you thought about gravel in a Ebb/Flood system instead? Well, it's in fact hard to draw the line between coarse Sand and fine Gravel, - but one has to find the best grain size for carrots and roots. Fine enough to keep good moisture and good root formation - but rough enough to drain properly during the ebb cycle. The other alternative are (expanded) clay pebbles of a smaller size. I am actually using a mix of small clay pebbles and coarse sand in some setups (drip and recycle in buckets system).
Another suggestion about carrots: there is one special variety of carrots that forms ball-oval shaped roots of a much smaller size. (Romeo or Tonda Di Parigi from Italy) If using this kind of variety, there is no need for a deep bed. A hight of roughly 3-5 inches would be high enough. This gives you much more flexibility for your bed reservoir (less high) and much less volume of (expensive) media is needed per square foot!
Romeo and Tonda Di Parigi carrots
As I haven't build or used any ebb/flood system yet i've also been reflecting about (supplementary) drip-units first, actually because I wasn't comfortable with the idea of just fooding the whole thing. I guess these thoughts come naturally when only using dripping and such
But actually the ebb/flood system has explicitly the advantage of not needing any complicate(d) dripping or spraying system. That's actually the good thing about it. The other plus is, that the drain cycle is providing perfect drain and good oxygenation of roots. Plants that don't like high root humidity in media (such as many capsicum species) thrive really well in these kind of setups. The clear disadvantage is that you cannot grow seedlings - or rather difficultly.