Quote:
Originally Posted by watercatwn6535nd
My system i net pots in 5 gallon buckets with drip feeders runnning 24 hours a day. my system is fully automated so when i need to dump or flush my nutrients out i have a pump that is just for that. My growtronix turns that pump on every day for 30 seconds and dumps some of my resevior out. then the system is connected to a water supply so it autmaticlly refills what was dumped out with fresh water. then i come allong and add nutrient manually once a week or depending on whats fruiting at the time. |
I'm seeing it better now. I think the part I was missing is that I never noticed you mention the part about the drip feeders running 24 hours a day. That was probably the part of the puzzle I was missing...I can picture the system now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by watercatwn6535nd
My point was i never get rid of all the fluid in the resevoir and i have very healthy plants and my nute bill is probbaly a quarter of most of yours. a lot of product is dump donw the drain.
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Yeah, but this will be heavily dependent on reservoir size and nutrient strength. Assuming you do dump a single gallon at a time when you do this, over the course of 2 weeks it would be 14 gallons you are replacing. I do a full nutrient change every 2 weeks, but in my systems I only use 12 gallons of nutrient fluid. Assuming we use the same nutrients and mix at the same ratio to result in the same ppm readings, you'd actually be spending more than I. So I don't think it's necessarily just the method that saves the money more so than it would be factors associated with the design of the entire system, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by watercatwn6535nd
i would challenge every one to run there system tell they actaully see the plant lock out a nutrient. thats almost impossible unless you have really bad water to start with. but then you can have idea of how long your plants take to eat whats in theer and you can tell by inspecting the plant what it is defiecient on so you can then take your ppm reading and know that its probably just the nutreints your plant is currently not in need of.
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Good advice if you are smart enough about plants to know what to look for....but, alas, I am not, hehe. Yet anyways. Experience and testing will get me there eventually I guess.
