Quote:
Originally Posted by GregoryJ
GPSFrontier -thanks for the reply. My system fills in about 2 minutes, so I made a digital cycle timer and will try a setting of 2 on / 18 off for three cycles per hour. I liked your point about feeding at night, so I added a light sensor and will have it cycle 2 on / 28 off or twice per hour at night. Is there a maximum dry time that the roots will dry out? Would a cycle every hour at night be too much dry time? trial and error - lots to learn! Thanks
|
Well I have read that some people don't water during the dark period at all. You might want to keep an eye on them at night for a few days and look for any signs of wilting, if there is then increase the amount of watering. With my peppers I am using
grow rocks for a
growing medium and I water for 30min on and 2 1/2 hr off. With my strawberry's I am using coco chips as a growing medium and water once a night from 11:30pm to 1:00 am. It gets dark at about 8pm and light at about 5am right now. The coco chops hold moisture about twice as long as the grow rocks do, but the 3in baskets are a lot smaller than the 2 letter bottles the peppers are growing in. I would be interested in knowing how you built your own digital timer and how well it works? Also if you can set it for as many cycles as you need to? They don't have much of a selection at Home Depot or Lowe's and the irrigation timers are very expensive.