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Need question answered please?
- Thread starter Buds4u2nv
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greekgardner
Member
HUH............
What is a cord root?
Google got nothing.
Google got nothing.
By dropping the water level anything bellow the net pot you are robbing yourself of space for your feeding roots to grow. As mentioned above, only big thick roots for support and nutrient transport grow in this space, not roots that feed, which is what you're after.
Having an air gap is a misconception of DWC, run without one for best results, if you don't believe me, google Heath Robinson, the guy who invented DWC as we know (by accident)
The need of an airpump is another well known fallacy.
Notice how all the roots bellow the water are nice fine feeding roots? Then the ones that came out the sides of the netpot are thick and gnarley, because they're above water level, I'd be better off with a "net pot" with holes on the bottom only, which is what I'll do next. Dropping your water level anything bellow the bottom of the netpot will rob you of root space. Your plant turning it's roots into big thick cord roots to survive, and wasting energy doing so. More root space, less cord roots, and less energy stolen for a survival mechanism means bigger fatter buds for you at the end.
Having an air gap is a misconception of DWC, run without one for best results, if you don't believe me, google Heath Robinson, the guy who invented DWC as we know (by accident)
The need of an airpump is another well known fallacy.
Notice how all the roots bellow the water are nice fine feeding roots? Then the ones that came out the sides of the netpot are thick and gnarley, because they're above water level, I'd be better off with a "net pot" with holes on the bottom only, which is what I'll do next. Dropping your water level anything bellow the bottom of the netpot will rob you of root space. Your plant turning it's roots into big thick cord roots to survive, and wasting energy doing so. More root space, less cord roots, and less energy stolen for a survival mechanism means bigger fatter buds for you at the end.
About as true as pot can grow tall!
The finer roots are simply more efficient.never heard Heath invented DWC? the most memorable system I remember Heath running
was recirculating water farm set up. maybe I missed something back then.
sure wasn't by accident. I believe the 420 community deserves some credit.
He wasn't the only one. I still run the same basic set up 10 years later.
Eliminates imbalance's between control and other buckets. Don't think he invented it though. If you use the waterfarm set up with square buckets you can run it lower than the net pot due to the top feed and the hydroton bucket being so large. net pot don't have near the room as the square pots. square pots also have to be drilled out to allow roots to pass into lower bucket.
top feed in conjunction with dwc eliminates having the bottom of net pot flooded waiting on roots to escape net pot. use water farm ring or a regular drip feed they both work equally well.
I run mine 1 to 2 inches below net pots with a top feed. More efficient and less problematic than DWC alone.
Good luck
GT
was recirculating water farm set up. maybe I missed something back then.
sure wasn't by accident. I believe the 420 community deserves some credit.
He wasn't the only one. I still run the same basic set up 10 years later.
Eliminates imbalance's between control and other buckets. Don't think he invented it though. If you use the waterfarm set up with square buckets you can run it lower than the net pot due to the top feed and the hydroton bucket being so large. net pot don't have near the room as the square pots. square pots also have to be drilled out to allow roots to pass into lower bucket.
top feed in conjunction with dwc eliminates having the bottom of net pot flooded waiting on roots to escape net pot. use water farm ring or a regular drip feed they both work equally well.
I run mine 1 to 2 inches below net pots with a top feed. More efficient and less problematic than DWC alone.
Good luck
GT
Ditto!
Also incorporating a 1/4 hp chiller and Igloo coolers, instead of buckets. With insulated 3" piping and about 100 gallons total in my system 1/4 hp should be plenty. Aquarium hobbiests really like the TradeWinds chillers not so much it seems w/the ViaAqua Polar Bear which I heard is supposed to be a premium more expensive unit. Same w/Teco brand (also Teco seems pretty inefficient). Teco does have an excellent evaporation system (but pricey) for your res: the e-chill. Other popular chiller brands: Eco-plus, aquaLOGIC and Universal Marine.Keeping your water cooler will help keep your root system healthy too. Some like 65 degress, I try for 70-72 as roots have some more vigor at those higher temps. But lower temps do have more DO (dissolved oxygen).
I don't want to do a side by side to see how lower water levels work with no top feed because I know my yields will be less but don't know by how much... Top feed also helps big time when plants are young and roots haven't hit water level in buckets. The hydroton is fine when I was worrying about overwatering young plants, just have to watch my Rapid Rooters as they like to hold water more (and rockwool even more so).
StoneFree knows the deal. never tried water kegs. good idea if you have heat issues.
forgot about chiller. same here try for around 72 degrees. never have to many heat issues that an occasional frozen bottle didn't fix. Aquarium heater works fine in winter. I keep an aquarium thermometer in my control. As long as its in the green let it roll.
I might have to check out a decent cooler make her even more low maintenance
You can also run a power head in your control and make a bio bucket system. If your real industrious you can add an aquarium with fish and make an aquaponics system and let the fish feed your plants.
As you can tell DWC goes far beyond our small community.
forgot about chiller. same here try for around 72 degrees. never have to many heat issues that an occasional frozen bottle didn't fix. Aquarium heater works fine in winter. I keep an aquarium thermometer in my control. As long as its in the green let it roll.
I might have to check out a decent cooler make her even more low maintenance
You can also run a power head in your control and make a bio bucket system. If your real industrious you can add an aquarium with fish and make an aquaponics system and let the fish feed your plants.
As you can tell DWC goes far beyond our small community.
Did you mean roots like these?
Roots exposed to air tend to become hard thanks to substances like lignin (and maybe suberin, cutin, cutan?) that don't let pass pretty anything trough the spaces between cells and in cellular barriers covered with these substances.
This only happen when roots are exposed to air, but please notice that even if an old big root is in the water from its born, it will tend to become hard anyway like the ones in the pictures I posted.
When they become so big and hard, it means they are ''main roots'' and they no longer need a direct assimilation as they prefer to produce secondary roots for this.
Only ''hair roots'' are missed as they are useless for the plant in a medium composed substantially of water
This kind of protection increase the mechanical resistance, help with fungi, and more important, when a root become lignified, it can't traspirate so the internal pressure wich transpiration is heavy linked, is not affected from water loss from the roots, stem, petioles, all parts of the plant that have to be closed to keep an higher pressure for raising the water from the roots upwards, even at 3 or 4 meters high.
Young roots can also be modified to make photosynthesis during their life, it's not so rare to see some green on roots exposed to air and light, and I don't mean algae.
That said, DWC is deep water culture and I think plants prefer to be fully submerged.
Hope it helps
This is interesting: Transport and Logistics Inside the Cannabis Plant
Cannabis Root-growth, and the short-life span of the hair vessels
A root mostly grows at it’s tip. Close up to the newly formed cells is the root-unit, which controls the new-cell build up: a regular little root-factory. This production unit (meristern), moves forward along with it’s growth. Behind these tips, the newly formed cells are stretched out (cell-stretching). This part is followed by the hair-region, which is only a small part of the whole root. Still, the latter is the only part where water and nutrients are taken in.
Because roots continuously grow at the tip, the root-hair region shifts along with it. In effect, this means the hairs have to be built up and broken down every few days.
Water transport inside the cannabis roots
The hair-vessels are of a delicate structure, and are surrounded by thin shells, through which water and unsolved nutrients may easily pass. The resistance to water here is minimal. The outer surface is increased enormously by branching out. In the middle of the root we find the central cylinder: the highway up. Water flows here from the hair-vessels. This section has the largest resistance to water, for many membranes have to be passed through here. In the hair-root region, the plant has an enormous force outer surface, which has intensive contract with it’s environment.
Clearly visible here, is the narrow contact between hair-vessels and soil-particles. Absorbing water does not come from active transport, but could well be compared to the cotton of an oil-lamp continuously sucking up oil towards the place of combustion (towards the flame).
The intake of water by the roots is controlled through it’s suction. This has to be lower than that of the soil (otherwise water would flow from the roots into the soil). With extremely dry soil this may actually happen!). this water-suction is dependant on the amount of resistance water encounters in penetrating the root. The resistance is among other factors, influenced by the soil-temperature. This on account of the fact that water’s viscosity (it’s toughness) rises when the temperature drops (the water becomes thick). If the bottom is warm, this means low water resistance, but if it is cold, resistance becomes high.
The second, and largest driving force behind water absorption is perspiration (the evaporation of water from the leaves). When much is evaporated, the suction in the roots grows larger (like with a fungus). Evaporating water from the leaves is in tune with the air-humidity (low R.H. = much evaporation, and vice versa) inside the room.
Cannabis Root-growth, and the short-life span of the hair vessels
A root mostly grows at it’s tip. Close up to the newly formed cells is the root-unit, which controls the new-cell build up: a regular little root-factory. This production unit (meristern), moves forward along with it’s growth. Behind these tips, the newly formed cells are stretched out (cell-stretching). This part is followed by the hair-region, which is only a small part of the whole root. Still, the latter is the only part where water and nutrients are taken in.
Because roots continuously grow at the tip, the root-hair region shifts along with it. In effect, this means the hairs have to be built up and broken down every few days.
Water transport inside the cannabis roots
The hair-vessels are of a delicate structure, and are surrounded by thin shells, through which water and unsolved nutrients may easily pass. The resistance to water here is minimal. The outer surface is increased enormously by branching out. In the middle of the root we find the central cylinder: the highway up. Water flows here from the hair-vessels. This section has the largest resistance to water, for many membranes have to be passed through here. In the hair-root region, the plant has an enormous force outer surface, which has intensive contract with it’s environment.
Clearly visible here, is the narrow contact between hair-vessels and soil-particles. Absorbing water does not come from active transport, but could well be compared to the cotton of an oil-lamp continuously sucking up oil towards the place of combustion (towards the flame).
The intake of water by the roots is controlled through it’s suction. This has to be lower than that of the soil (otherwise water would flow from the roots into the soil). With extremely dry soil this may actually happen!). this water-suction is dependant on the amount of resistance water encounters in penetrating the root. The resistance is among other factors, influenced by the soil-temperature. This on account of the fact that water’s viscosity (it’s toughness) rises when the temperature drops (the water becomes thick). If the bottom is warm, this means low water resistance, but if it is cold, resistance becomes high.
The second, and largest driving force behind water absorption is perspiration (the evaporation of water from the leaves). When much is evaporated, the suction in the roots grows larger (like with a fungus). Evaporating water from the leaves is in tune with the air-humidity (low R.H. = much evaporation, and vice versa) inside the room.
I think water and a lot of other molecules can enter the plant (even if a barrier is present) in every part of the plant, in different quantity, with different methods and environment...it's not simple.
However, coming to the topic, the hairs of the roots you can observe in a substrate different from water, in dwc setup do not occur. Roots have a real necessity of the ''hair'' only to search for water, when the water is always there, no hairs are formed, substantially because they're useless and water/solutes uptake are things relegated to the secondary roots and to the main roots themselves (even in less quantity).
looks to me that cord roots developed in noreson's system due to the restrictive nature of the pot. In that regard the pot would have to be flooded higher than the top holes to attempt to prevent cord root . Also drilling more holes would help a great deal. even so the root growth even with cord roots are impressive.
Looks like Koolbloom nutrients love that pink stuff. hate cleaning that pink crap off what a pain.
Looks like Koolbloom nutrients love that pink stuff. hate cleaning that pink crap off what a pain.
