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Old 12-01-2009, 12:33 AM
txice txice is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 88
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The timer I'm using for the pumps currently can only go as low as 15 minute increments. Which I guess is actually pretty good for the type of timer we have because now all I can find in the stores are similar style timers that only go as low as 30 minute increments.

The roots were indeed getting to the point where they would be touching the water.

I moved the tomato plants (along with a few of the pepper plants) into the new system shortly after making my initial post. In this new system I'm using 3.75" net pots filled with hydroton. The roots were wound up a little bit with only a tiny bit poking through the bottom of the net pot....so roots hanging in the water won't be an issue again for a while yet. When I put the plant in the new system, I left the pump running continuously while the family and I went to go see a movie (2nd trip for the girls to see New Moon...they were geeked...but I digress). When we left one of the stems of the tomato plant was just about 1/4" from actually drooping low enough to touch the top of my container lid. When we got back from the movie and I came up to check on the plants, that same stem was propped back up and hanging a good 3 or so inches from the lid. The leaves look a bit happier as well. So with a continued flow of water again it has appeared to have helped, at least in the short term.

Once I can make a couple of timer swap outs, I was debating either leaving them on for the entire light cycle again...or at least going to a 15 on/15 off cycle and see if they do better that way. The hydroton in the net pots seems to hold moisture a tad better than just the roots hanging in mid air too.

Still trying to get the hang of this stuff. At least I'm going on 4 weeks in and haven't just outright killed anything yet...heh. So I guess I'm not totally screwing this up yet .
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