HELP....overwatering in bubbleponics

Sorry I don't have pictures, I'm still trying to find the camera.

I'm just trying out hydroponics to see if I like it, so I'm lacking a ppm meter.

Anyway...I have two plants. Both have popped up, and put on their first set of leaves, and are working on the second set. I have both of these plants in a bubbleponics/aeroponic system. I use a 40 gallon capacity air pump with two twelve inch air stones. I'm using an 18 gallon tank filled half way with 9 gallons. The problem is that the plants seem to experience overwatering just from the bubble splash that hits the bottom of the netpot, I haven't even turned on the pump and sprayers yet.

Are the plants to young to be in the system yet? How do you avoid this overwatering problem?

Thanks

Maybe try one or a smaller air stone? Maybe manipulate the stone to emit air bubble sideways instead of up? Less water?

Are you sure it is overwatering? Are you using nutes at the moment?

Geozander said:

Are you sure it is overwatering? Are you using nutes at the moment?

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I am using nutes, at 1/4. This doesn't appear to be nute burn, but I've been wrong before. When the plants are placed in the system, the leaves slowly start drooping like they were over watered. If this is a nute problem, how large should the plant be before they get nutrients? Also....why would nutes at a low streanth bother them when they need some kind of feed. The energy and nutes they have from the seed won't carry them much past sprouting....will it?

I can only talk from limited experience. I have never grown from seed using a bubbler only from cuttings. As soon as my cuttings root, they are straight into my system. Seedlings are far more delicate than cuttings. If i was growing from seed myself, i would put them straight into my system as you have on weak nutes. Do you have a good distribution of bubbles under the roots? What kind of temp do you have your water/nutes at?

Geozander said:

If i was growing from seed myself, i would put them straight into my system as you have on weak nutes. Do you have a good distribution of bubbles under the roots? What kind of temp do you have your water/nutes at?

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Temp runs from 65-73. I keep ice bottles in the res in order to control the temp after the light has been on for a few hours. The bubble distribution is good. I use two 12" airstones. As for the roots, the way that I was watering, was to let the splash from the air bubbles hit the bottom of the hydroton, which should water the roots. Also when I place the plants in the system, the roots are not yet large enough to stick out of the netpot, they are still in the hydroton by an inch or so. Would it be better to let the roots get larger before placing them in the system?

i had the same problem my first two grows... the simple solution is to place your rockwool higher in the net pod. i use to burry it thinking it would be better...... i know its souds crazy but you can overwater in hydro.... i put my cubes even with the top of my netpods, so i can see top top of my rockwool. untill i seed the roots comming out the bottom i let the water hit the bottom of my cups, and still water every other day .... you want the bottom half of your cube moist at all times. the top half should be dry....

Well....I seem to have found a good balance. I killed, or maybe just really stressed two small plants doing it. Bubbleponic, I tried what you suggested, and the plants actually dried out more. But I also didn't stick with what you said. First I removed the water pump and sprayers. I found out that the sprayers are better for a cloning system, which I can do in the future. I filled the tank till the water almost touches the netpots, then put the airpump on a timer. I removed the hydroton and rockwool, and now I'm just using neoprene to hold the plants. So basicly I have splash from the air bubbles that is keeping the rootzone moist.

I broke down and got a TDS meter. So now I'm trying to figure that out. My water is about 325 ppm out of the tap. I added enough nutes to bring this up to 500 ppm. These are very small plants, right now they are working on their second set of serated leaves. And right now their root hangs down to the bottom of the 3" netpot. I can't say that they are thriving, but at least they're not dead yet.

BTW...if anyone can answer this, what does EC mean? I've seen it mentioned in a few posts, but haven't figured out what it stands for yet.

When I start my plants in a system like this, or even on a flood and drain table, I water them from the top for a few days till the roots get goin on thier own.

Tap water. Dont "add" the strength of the nutes you want to the ppm of the tap water. Example... If you want to give then 5oo ppm right now, dont add the 500 ppm of food on top of the 325 comin out of the tap, make it combined. So with tap water of roughly 300 ppm, you only need 200 ppm of food. Here's why... You dont know what that 300+ coming from your tap consists of so adding 500 to the 300 from the tap can do damage if theyre not able to handle it.

I had the same problem. I was using tap water and then changed to distilled water. Once I changed to distilled water everything worked itself out. Be careful of ph'ing distilled water because it takes MUCH less ph down solution to lower the ph than with tap water. Always add nutes before you ph also. My plants were crappy until they grew fresh new roots. Took a week or so after I changed the water. Never let algae build up, smell the water daily for signs of algae. I had root rot from algae and once I fixed the light leak in my bucket and switched to distilled water instead of tap water things were great.

theres no such thing as over watering in a bubbleponics system...but theres such thing as not enough aeration. more bubbles and turn on the aero

I think this is simply dirty water or weak root system

At this stage in it's growth, you need to be looking at the rockwool cube. It needs to be moist, but not dripping wet. You alter this by lowering or raising the water level in the container (it takes a while to get used to it. I was recommended to keep one pot and cube in there without a plant just as a gague). If it's too wet too early on then the stem can rot and/or the plant can easily suffocate.

tip top toker said:

At this stage in it's growth, you need to be looking at the rockwool cube. It needs to be moist, but not dripping wet.

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I'm not using rockwool anymore, I switched to neoprene inserts. I completely removed the hydroton.

To be more clear on the symptoms, initially after placing the plants into the system, the leaves would sag and curl under, then wilt. This would happen within an hour. I suspected that the sprayers were simply over watering.

As for this being dirty water or root issues. I changed the res water before putting the plants in, so it wasn't dirty. However it could be that I simply placed the plants into the system before they were ready, thus having a weak root system. I also noticed a little bit of a slimy algae covering my air-stones, I cleaned it off and used H2O2. We'll see what happens, but so far the plants are doing fine with these changes. Thanks, and + rep for everyone.

If you're not using organic food, add h2o2 daily, like 3 ml per gallon and it'll take care of the algea issue.

Smrt said:

If you're not using organic food, add h2o2 daily, like 3 ml per gallon and it'll take care of the algea issue.

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I'm using Flora Nova Grow. I've read that it's organic, and I've also read that it is not organic. So at the moment I have no clue.

EC stands for electrical conductivity mate.

Geozander said:

EC stands for electrical conductivity mate.

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Thanks for the answer mate.