Cleaning and Sanitizing ???

[GpsFrontier]

I'm a bit confused because you keep referring to humidity in the root zone. Humidity implies water vapor, but I think you are referring to "moisture" which is the water content in the growing medium (not vaporize, in the air). If I remember correctly your running NFT type system, but have a PVC tube with holes running through the NFT channel to spray water on the growing medium from below. The biggest issue with that is getting enough water pressure to spray the water out of enough holes for good even coverage. But a simple solution is to run a flexible line on top of the NFT channel, directly over the tops of the baskets. Then just poke some holes in the flexible tubing right over the baskets to drip the water directly down on the growing medium. That requires a LOT less water pressure, and making the holes exactly where you want them gives even coverage.

Another simple solution is to close off both ends of the NFT channel, run your fill line in the top end of the tube (like normal). But on the other end install a through hole (bulkhead fitting) in the bottom (for a overflow back to the reservoir). Then on the inside of the NFT channel insert a piece of tubing into the through hole (bulkhead fitting). Basically that temporarily converts the NFT system into a "flood and drain" system, and you can control the water height inside the NFT channel by the height of the piece of tubing you insert into the bulkhead fitting. When the roots reach far enough down, you can easily convert it back to a NFT system by taking out the pice of tubing from the bulkhead fitting, and letting the pump run 24/7.

Other than getting water to the roots, it dosen't matter how long your roots are for a healthy plant. In fact roots are more likely to grow long when they are lacking water. They grow longer to search out more water sources. But when they have plenty of water, they don't need to search for moisture. Thus they just don't need to grow longer roots, and instead focus energy on growing foliage.

[jamromhem]

The water hitting the growing medium is plenty to support the plants. The air is way to dry sitting in the tube. You are right on the setup. The roots that try to grow out of the medium dry up and die, so I haven't been able to use the system as NFT, only the spray is maintaining the plants.

That is what I am refering to, the air is too dry to let the roots extend down to the film.

[GpsFrontier]

Ya, as soon as the roots come out of the growing medium they will die unless they are continuously misted (a aeroponic system). Even in a aeroponic system where the roots hang in mid air and are subject to high humidity levels, the roots still need to be misted way more often than flood and drain system cycles. Generally aeroponic systems cycle something like 1 minute or less on, and 5 minutes or less off. What you need to do is get the roots to grow long enough (to the bottom of the NFT tube) before you can run it as a NFT system. That's why I recommended raising the water level in the NFT tubes (as a flood and drain system) to keep the roots wet until they reach the bottom of the NFT channel. Dripping the water down from dippers can work for this purpose as well, by keeping them wet as the water drips down the roots on its way to the bottom of the NFT channel. However dripping it down from above may take more trial and error to get just right, as well as less complicated than starting it as a flood and drain setup. So running it as a flood and drain system is simplest and cheapest to me. Either that, or build a separate system (like a simple water culture system) to keep them in until the roots are long enough.

Also If I'm not mistaken your using the polyester material as a growing medium, and from what it sounds like the polyester material just dosen't hold moisture very well (but actually rather poorly). That would be contributing to the problem because it should be able to hold moisture when suspended in the air. If not it would need constant moisture from some source to keep the main root-ball wet. Thus rather than being able to slowly drip moisture down the roots as they grow down (from the growing medium), it rapidly drips all the moisture out quickly. Leaving the main root-ball to dry out, and nothing to drip down to keep the roots searching for the moisture at the bottom of the NFT channel wet until they get there.

P.S.
I would bet if you simply filled a couple of baskets with coco chips/fiber and stuck your plants in it (even with the polyester material), and changed nothing else (assuming your spraying the bottom of the baskets with a 15 or 30 minute on/off cycle), the plants in the coco chips would grow roots out of the growing medium, and all the way down to the bottom of the NFT tube.

[jamromhem]

Yes I have thought about making a more efficient system to replace my current one. This was deffinitly a learnign experience for me, and will give me plenty of room to think for the future. I am definitly moving away from the STG in my system as my mindset on the whole thing has reset to my normal growing techniques, and the less than natural look of my system is starting to bother me lol..

I will be letting what is in the system grow for now. I have the watering cycles down to help the plants grow, the roots are staying in the STG, but the plants are growing. It also changed my mindset on the way plants grow a little.. The size of root balls are a little less important in a hydroponics system, as the roots will take in up to a maximum of what they are physically capable of doing as long as it is readily available (which is the point of hydroponics). The plants are growing well on the 15/15 cycle and even the sad basil is starting to recover well and is pushing new leaves again.

[T'Mater]

Have you seen STG's video on using there stuff with an NFT system? I personally liked the STG, but then again i'm new to hydroponic's and loved the simplisity of the product. Thought about building an NFT system to play with during the winter months.

Sure To Grow root mass in an NFT system - YouTube

[GpsFrontier]

I don't doubt the STG product works well, provided the user understands it's property's (as with any growing media). But I have never really considered using the STG product due to it's relativity high cost. It has similar proprieties to rockwool, but don't think it wicks up water as much (so it's supposed to help aerate the roots better). And it always seems to cost much more than rockwool. And I don't even like using rockwool for anything other than seedlings, mostly because it cost too much. So I just don't even buy rockwool, unless it's the 1 inch starter cubes.

P.S.
It's hard to tell from the video, but those NFT channels are quite shallow, and from the top I don't see any baskets or clips holding the growing media up. So to me it looks like the the STG cubes are sitting directly on the bottom of the NFT channels in the stream of water where they get moisture 24/7. That would indicate they surly don't wick up water the way rockwool does, or they would be waterlogged. That's just what I mean by understanding the properties of the growing media your using, and using a growing media that suites your needed. Or adjusting your system to accommodate the properties of the growing media.

[T'Mater]

When you say high cost, you talking about the 1.5" starter cubes? Cause where i get mine they are equal to or with in a dime of each other STG vs Rockwool.

Now i do have to say that there are a lot of hydroponic stores that are jacking up the prices on STG. To the point even STG was helping some friends start up an online store. I order'd my 6x6 from them and they sent me 4x4's, i went straight to STG after i couldn't get ahold of the internet ppl. They appoligezed and explained what was going on with that company and 1day shipped me replacement 6x6 cubes and told me to just keep the 4x4's.

I can tell you from my experience the starter cubes will suck up water very well. It's the bigger cubes that drain well. The 4x4 and the 6x6 drain well and allow good air flow.

Film showing there water density theory. Altho i haven't tried rockwool personally. After all the studying i did. A lot of ppl were complaining about them falling apart. I didn't know what they were talking about till i seen this clip. And i understand that each company is going to show you the pro's over the con's of the competitor it's the nature of the beast. And a link to there product claim.http://www.suretogrow.com/hydroponic-supply-stg


Sure To Grow block water density - YouTube

One of the biggest things i went for with STG is it being neutral. And as you can see from the post i've started. The less i have to worry about stuff the better off i am.

Nother film of them using the starter cubes and how to put them in an NFT system.

Using Sure To Grow cubes in an NFT hydroponics system - YouTube

On a side note, just for the heck of it. I'm going to see how hard it would be to actually reuse these cubes i have tomato plant's in. More cause i'm bored and have nothing else to do.