Slow Growing Plants

[GpsFrontier]

30 liters would be roughly 7 gallons, I can't Imagen that being a problem for plants that size even though peppers are heavy feeders. If the plants that are in potting soil are getting the same lighting and are growing faster I would think that the lighting is sufficient. I would half to say the problem must be in the nutrients. I don't know what you are using because you said it is a special blend so I cant even look it up. I would consider talking to the guy at the Hydro store to see if he has any thoughts. Also from the pictures and your statement that there are 5 emitters I am wondering if they are being fully saturated. From the pictures, it doesn't look like is the baskets are getting the spray but I am sure that is because you have the lid up, although you say the pressure is lacking. I know that with areoponics it is important to fully saturate the root system and most people overlook this because with each emitter they loose pressure. With one row of emitters down the center the outside of the baskets wont be getting the solution. If I understand correctly you are also using a drip system that should offset that problem.

I guess, through the possess of elimination I would want to look at the nutrients. You may want to look up the pepper plant pH level, I kept my Bell peppers at 6.0 but yours might want something different if they are different type. At this point, because of your problem I would want to change the nutrients each week until I was able to learn more (just in case). That amount of nutrient solution for those small plants you could cut back to about 4 gallons of solution if cost is a problem, and if you have that ability? Also more frequent nutrient solution changes cuts down on algae and bacteria problems having the time to grow. I had a similar problem years ago with a single strawberry plant, I had growing in grow rocks. I never checked the pH because I didn't have a tester, but I don't think that it grew at all in a month that I gave it a shot. I was using dry mixable nutrients (I don't remember what kind). If the system is not light proof then algae and bacteria will be a problem.

I am looking for pumps that will support something like 24 to 48 emitters minimum.

[JD4x4]

I came across some misters that I'm using in my outdoor soil/container garden which use 10 gph (38 lph?) each, and they have nice varieties of patterns available. At 50 psi regulated hose pressure with a 10 gph restrictor their green full-circle spinners will spray about a 7 foot circle, so way lower pressure and/or flow shouldn't be an issue I'm guessing. They have some other non-spinning fan nozzles that also do well on low pressure/low flow.

Made by MisterLandscaper and they are sold in the US at Lowes stores. I don't know if that helps anyone, but I am going to try them when I build a small aeroponic system.

My outdoor soil green & red sweet peppers are slow growing as well & I have just transplanted them into an outdoor ebb & flow to see if they speed up any. My other soil plants (tomato, cucumber, yellow squash and a banana pepper) have already started producing.

[GpsFrontier]

I had read somewhere a while ago about the misters/emitters used in aeroponics and that the water droplets that came out needed to be within a certain size range to be effective. I don't know how correct that is but any emitters designed for areponics should be fine. Although while trying to find out more about that particular issue with areponics I have found some good information on aeroponics and I just thought I would post the link to it for anyone that was interested.

Aeroponics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[GpsFrontier]

I still need to find out more but here is a little bit that I just copied and pasted here

"The key to root development in an aeroponic environment is the size of the water droplet. In commercial applications, a hydro-atomizing spray is employed to cover large areas of roots utilizing air pressure misting.

A variation of the mist technique employs the use of ultrasonic nebulizers or foggers to mist nutrient solutions in low-pressure aeroponic devices.

Water droplet size is crucial for sustaining aeroponic growth. Too large of a water droplet means less oxygen is available to the root system. Too fine of a water droplet, such as those generated by the ultra-sonic mister, produce excessive root hair without developing a lateral root system for sustained growth in an aeroponic system.

Mineralization of the ultra-sonic traducers requires maintenance and potential for component failure. This is also a shortcoming of metal spray jets and misters. Restricted access to the water causes the plant to lose turgidity and wilt."

[RedHerring]

I'm thinking it might be a light problem. I added another "daylight" tube a few days ago and things seem to be looking up. I'll see if I can find some more light sources around. Is there a possibility of adding too much light? They're all relatively efficient light sources, not generating much heat or UV, but can there be too much of a good thing?

I didn't really know that the water droplet size made that much of a difference. I can't really get new sprayers so the ones I've got will have to do the job.

[GpsFrontier]

Originally Posted by RedHerring

I'm thinking it might be a light problem. I added another "daylight" tube a few days ago and things seem to be looking up. I'll see if I can find some more light sources around. Is there a possibility of adding too much light? They're all relatively efficient light sources, not generating much heat or UV, but can there be too much of a good thing?

I didn't really know that the water droplet size made that much of a difference. I can't really get new sprayers so the ones I've got will have to do the job.

That quoted statement was really talking about a true aeroponic system, where there is no growing medium at all. With your system because you have the baskets with the grow rocks I don't see the water droplet size would be a possible problem until the roots start hanging down from the baskets and are in direct contact with water droplets. I Would just want to make sure that the growing medium in the baskets is getting fully saturated.

I ruled out lighting because I thought that your control plants (plants in the soil) were getting the same lighting and doing fine. But if adding the light seems to help you might be on the right track. I am not real familiar with lighting issues because I use natural light right now. Although I cant remember anyone ever having a problem with too much light unless they were talking about the wrong lighting or too much heat building up and cooking the plants.

[nilsen]

Originally Posted by RedHerring

I'm thinking it might be a light problem. I added another "daylight" tube a few days ago and things seem to be looking up. I'll see if I can find some more light sources around. Is there a possibility of adding too much light? They're all relatively efficient light sources, not generating much heat or UV, but can there be too much of a good thing?

I didn't really know that the water droplet size made that much of a difference. I can't really get new sprayers so the ones I've got will have to do the job.

My System also uses a sprayer and it seems the hydron clay balls were being staurated just fine, I wouldn't worry about that.

As for the lights, I had a 125W CFL "blue" spectrum for growing and it just didn't cut it for about 6 plants, I added 4 smaller bulbs, 2 RED and 2 BLUE (normal CFL's) and the change was immediate. The plants just shot up. Was great.

Cape town, Nice man, I'm From Durban.