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More water movement = less growth, is that even possible?
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Author:  toffee [ May 17th, '07, 03:09 ]
Post subject:  More water movement = less growth, is that even possible?
I am using a continuos drip sytem. For the past few weeks, the 1/4" tubes were partial blocked but plants (all house plants) were doing great. Peace lilies were flowering.

I changed to some new tubes, water movement has improved. But I noticed that the plants aren't liking them. Some peace lily leaves tired looking and I haven't seen any new growth.

Could it be too wet? or too much water movement?

Thx for helping.
Author:  Hex [ May 17th, '07, 03:39 ]
Post subject: 
I`d say perhaps too wet.
If the tubes were blocked over time maybe the medium has also become restricted and the new higher flowrate is causing some unseen waterlogging of the roots.
Author:  janethesselberth [ May 17th, '07, 03:40 ]
Post subject: 
I would doubt that you could get too much water movement in a growbed. Too wet is a possibility. Pictures of your system would help us understand what your setup is.
Author:  toffee [ May 17th, '07, 04:31 ]
Post subject: 
Good point Janet, pics:

This is the tank, plants on top of the cabinets are being grown aquaponically:
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This is the powerhead used to pump water from the tank to the plants:
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I use 1/2" tubes from the pump then distribute via 1/4" tubes. The 1.4" are connected to one of this at the pot:
Image
These are the plants:
Image
Image
Image
Image

The peace lilies aren't growing much, one of them is very tired looking since the increased water movement.

Do I have enough plants to offset the nitrate etc produced by the 20 over fishes?
Author:  RupertofOZ [ May 17th, '07, 08:17 ]
Post subject: 
Toffee, I'm assuming that your pots are just drip draining through holes in the bottom of the pots.....

Maybe the holes in the pots themselves have become somewhat bloked overtime.... not a problem previously, because the plants were absorbing all/most of the water through a "slower" drip supply because of the blocked dripper tubes....

Now there's excess water which they aren't capable of absorbing and the pots aren't draining???

Just a thought? .... Can you regulate your drippers??
Author:  earthbound [ May 17th, '07, 08:30 ]
Post subject: 
I'm wondering, with a dripper like that dripping in the one spot all the time, would the roots end up growing into a certain area where the water supply is just right for them. Then if you move the dripper, most of the water might run through the gravel on the other side of the pot, where the roots haven't grown as much.. Suddenly the plant wouldn't be as happy....... ???
Author:  janethesselberth [ May 17th, '07, 09:07 ]
Post subject: 
You can get a nitrate test to check the levels, but I wouldn't think you would see dramatic changes in growth immediately if your nitrate level was low. I've grown cuttings in straight tap water for long periods. I would still vote for 'too wet'. Can you flush out the pots? What is everything potted up in? Some look like expanded clay pellets, but others look like something finer. Maybe sphagnum moss and perlite? That would worry me since sphagnum moss holds water like a sponge.
Author:  toffee [ May 17th, '07, 10:27 ]
Post subject: 
Thanks guys for helping out. These are my observations and thoughts.
Quote:
Toffee, I'm assuming that your pots are just drip draining through holes in the bottom of the pots.....

Yes, that is what I am doing.
Quote:
Maybe the holes in the pots themselves have become somewhat bloked overtime.... not a problem previously, because the plants were absorbing all/most of the water through a "slower" drip supply because of the blocked dripper tubes....Now there's excess water which they aren't capable of absorbing and the pots aren't draining???

Good point, entirely possible. On the other hand, if the drain or output is smaller than the drip or input, wouldn't there be a flood? The higher rate has been on for more than 3 days now so I am assuming that it is draining .
Quote:
I'm wondering, with a dripper like that dripping in the one spot all the time, would the roots end up growing into a certain area where the water supply is just right for them. Then if you move the dripper, most of the water might run through the gravel on the other side of the pot, where the roots haven't grown as much.. Suddenly the plant wouldn't be as happy....... ???

After reading your post, I went to check it out. I poke around on the different sides of the pot, about an inch below the surface, all media are wet. I am thinking of using 1/4" soak hose to replace single point of driping though.
Quote:
You can get a nitrate test to check the levels, but I wouldn't think you would see dramatic changes in growth immediately if your nitrate level was low. I've grown cuttings in straight tap water for long periods. I would still vote for 'too wet'. Can you flush out the pots? What is everything potted up in? Some look like expanded clay pellets, but others look like something finer. Maybe sphagnum moss and perlite? That would worry me since sphagnum moss holds water like a sponge.

I am using the left over as media, they are clay balls, Aquasoil from Schultz.

Nitrate is pretty high in this tank, constantly between 40-80ppm, I dose a couple of teaspoon of K2SO4 every 10 days or so.
Author:  steve [ May 17th, '07, 12:10 ]
Post subject: 
nice aquarium.

I have a few posts of hyroton on by existing growbed, the celery i planted in there is nearly dead compared to the rest of the growbed, the drip feed in on the oppostie side of the pot.

I think for Cont trickle feed the coverage of te mediummust be good. i'm leaning towards EB's idea.

Steve
Author:  toffee [ May 17th, '07, 13:07 ]
Post subject: 
I am wondering if the following would help the plants to grow better:

1. Use a timer to drip say 2 hours, 4 times a day and rest no drip?
2. Use 1/4" soak hose to form a circle with a "T" and connect that to the 1/4" drip hose.

I am trying use the house plants to consume the nutrients in the water and help reduce the frequency of water changes.
Author:  steve [ May 17th, '07, 15:33 ]
Post subject: 
id do the circular hose, they are usually larger, say 1/2"

you could run continuously, or say 15min every hour, wouldn't really matter
Author:  janethesselberth [ May 17th, '07, 20:13 ]
Post subject: 
You've only had the higher flow rate on for 3 days and you are seeing a difference in growth? That seems like a very short time to be gauging the growth of peace lilies and ferns. I don't think I would notice any changes in a 3 day period.
Author:  toffee [ May 17th, '07, 22:29 ]
Post subject: 
janetpelletier wrote:
You've only had the higher flow rate on for 3 days and you are seeing a difference in growth? That seems like a very short time to be gauging the growth of peace lilies and ferns. I don't think I would notice any changes in a 3 day period.


The change was almost overnight, the higher flow rate is causing the plants to look tired, especially the peace lily on the right of the top pic. It appears that the high rate isn't doing the plants any favor.
Author:  Food&Fish [ May 18th, '07, 05:36 ]
Post subject:  Re: More water movement = less growth, is that even possible
Please dont put up pictures of nice indoor plants like that misses saw them and said we could do something like that maybee we will when i find out what we means normaly she has all the ideas i do them
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