Keesje
Well-Known Member
Adding an air stone in an E&F set up is unnecessary. (If this is what you did)
There is already so much oxygen available with E&F.
For 2 reasons:
1. The pump agitates the water (the stream and the water rising in the tray) thus a maximum DO.
2. After the water has drained away, the roots stay wet. Wet roots surrounded by oxygen in gaseous state. Perfect. In my opinion one of the main benefits of E&F.
Also, think about this: If you give water in soil or cocos, do you have an air stone in your res? No, because there is no need for it.
Oxygen will reach the wet roots slipping through the small holes/spaces/channels between the grains. Only if you overwater you will block these holes; you fill them up with water.
What we call 'overwatering' is actually blocking oxygen to reach the roots. Impossible with E&F. (another benefit of E&F)
There are probably 2 reasons why your DWC performed better:
1. In your DWC set up the roots could grow more, larger, wide spread. More roots mean more uptake of water, oxygen, nutrients
2. In DWC the plants have water, oxygen, nutrients available 24/7.
You could do 2 things (but you already did)
1. Make sure the roots have the same space as in DWC. In open light all roots that will stick out the netpot, will die.
By covering the tray you not only made the algae go away, you also gave roots space to grow. There will also be a high humidity under the cover. Perfect for the roots.
2. Get a higher interval of wet/dry in E&F. Scientific research has been conducted and it has been found that a higher watering interval resulted in better plant growth. So why not every hour for 15 minutes? You can't drown them or something like that, as there is plenty of DO once you fill the tray.
Nice, these '1' & '2' points
There is already so much oxygen available with E&F.
For 2 reasons:
1. The pump agitates the water (the stream and the water rising in the tray) thus a maximum DO.
2. After the water has drained away, the roots stay wet. Wet roots surrounded by oxygen in gaseous state. Perfect. In my opinion one of the main benefits of E&F.
Also, think about this: If you give water in soil or cocos, do you have an air stone in your res? No, because there is no need for it.
Oxygen will reach the wet roots slipping through the small holes/spaces/channels between the grains. Only if you overwater you will block these holes; you fill them up with water.
What we call 'overwatering' is actually blocking oxygen to reach the roots. Impossible with E&F. (another benefit of E&F)
There are probably 2 reasons why your DWC performed better:
1. In your DWC set up the roots could grow more, larger, wide spread. More roots mean more uptake of water, oxygen, nutrients
2. In DWC the plants have water, oxygen, nutrients available 24/7.
You could do 2 things (but you already did)
1. Make sure the roots have the same space as in DWC. In open light all roots that will stick out the netpot, will die.
By covering the tray you not only made the algae go away, you also gave roots space to grow. There will also be a high humidity under the cover. Perfect for the roots.
2. Get a higher interval of wet/dry in E&F. Scientific research has been conducted and it has been found that a higher watering interval resulted in better plant growth. So why not every hour for 15 minutes? You can't drown them or something like that, as there is plenty of DO once you fill the tray.
Nice, these '1' & '2' points
