Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I just started a dwc aquaponics system. i have been starting with putting lettuce in the system, but the plants seem to fall over. they keep growing though. in my netcups i use 60% coco coir and 40% vermiculite. the material sucks up a lot of water and is completly moist. should the material be really wet or is this bad?

Welcome to the forum Bart

Several things can cause this, the most common are low light and damping off. If the stems look like they have collapsed right where they enter the media then it is probably damping off and the media is too wet. The light color indicates they aren't getting enough nitrogen but this could be because of damping off or root problems, not just a lack of food. Maybe they were started in low light before moving them into the DWC?

Is the raft floating ? If case then the perlite/coir wont really be ideal as it will be saturated.
you can soon tell - is it wet....

option 1 is to run without media - in which case you need to setup as a proper DWC and ensure air etc.

option 2 is to replace perlite with a coarse media (rock or clay balls) - that may be ok.

option 3 is to lift the raft so there is an airgap and just the bottom of the pot is touching the water.

option 4 is to raise the pots or use larger pots so only the bottom of the pot is in water.

* in option 3 or 4 the perlite/cor will wick so pots will stay damp/moist and the plant will happily send is feeder roots out into the water as long as it has some air roots.

finally how is your system set up ? (describe it or provide some photos)

are you running a filter ?

I had a little raft setup I played around with for awhile tried different gravels as a experiment all grew the same

Screened small gravel off the roadside (watch for chemical residue) , small gravel from concrete mix and small riverstone the riverstone was easy to use.

Of course I jammed too many plants in with crowding issues

The water must be crystal clear if your pumping fish tank water to your raft you will always have trouble

Just try some gravel keep it simple

thanks, i think it was the amount of sunlight that was the problem with the seedling. i have started some new seeds in the sun and they look good!