Hey, cactus! Thanks for your input.
Welcome again to the wonderful world of growing, darthfader!
Cactus, the media wicks are working fine.
Ppk #1 is the only one that has been almost solely bottom watered. On #2 I noticed a little bit heavier growth with an occasional top watering . This top watering has been repeated on all since then.
Originally I would put large amounts through the medium. Actually trying to top the res through the medium.
Then I began putting less and less volume through the medium. Finishing by topping the res directly. Now i'm using just enough to moisten the medium from the top, and all the rest directly into the res.
It is obvious this produces a heavier plant, but not by a great deal over bottom watering alone.
The first 4 ppk's are all turface and were compared to each other.
It has yet to be demonstrated whether other media combinations will behave the same.
With coco's tremendous capillary potential you may be able to offset the difference in growth represented by these watering treatments by increasing the ratio of coco. My highest % coco plant is still only 30%.
At first I was at a loss to explain why this is a phenomena at all. After all, the plants were getting almost all their water and nutrients from below.
“In fact, on my last couple turface grows, I watered slowly till I first saw runoff, then I plugged my runoff line (at the very bottom of the bucket – no res volume). I’d allow a couple hours for the turface to evenly absorb the water and then unplug the line. No further runoff occurred, so I was operating with essentially zero runoff.”
recognize your statement? It has intrigued me since I read it.
I think this excerpt explains both:
“Water movement in glass bead porous media 1. Experiments of capillary rise and hysteresis
Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis
J. W. Biggar
D. R. Nielsen
Glass beads serving as a model for ideal soil are enclosed in a rectangular glass chamber model. A TV camera associated with a microscope was used to record the processes of capillary rise and drainage. It is clearly shown during capillary rise that the fluid exhibits a “jump” behavior at the neck of the pores in an initially dry profile or at the bottom of the water film in an initially wet profile. Under an initially dry condition, the jump initiates at the particle with smallest diameter. The jump process continues to higher elevations until at equilibrium the surface tensile force is balanced by the hydrostatic force. The wetting front at that time is readily observed as flat and saturated. Under an initially wet condition, capillary rise occurs as a water film thickening process associated with the jump process. Trapped air behind the wetting front renders the wetting front irregular and unsaturated. The capillary rise into an initially wet porous medium can be higher than that into an initially dry profile. During the drying process, large surface areas associated with the gas-liquid interface develop, allowing the porous medium to retain more water than during the wetting process at the same pressure. That mechanism explains better the hysteresis phenomenon in porous media in contrast to other mechanisms that now prevail.”
Welcome again to the wonderful world of growing, darthfader!
Cactus, the media wicks are working fine.
Ppk #1 is the only one that has been almost solely bottom watered. On #2 I noticed a little bit heavier growth with an occasional top watering . This top watering has been repeated on all since then.
Originally I would put large amounts through the medium. Actually trying to top the res through the medium.
Then I began putting less and less volume through the medium. Finishing by topping the res directly. Now i'm using just enough to moisten the medium from the top, and all the rest directly into the res.
It is obvious this produces a heavier plant, but not by a great deal over bottom watering alone.
The first 4 ppk's are all turface and were compared to each other.
It has yet to be demonstrated whether other media combinations will behave the same.
With coco's tremendous capillary potential you may be able to offset the difference in growth represented by these watering treatments by increasing the ratio of coco. My highest % coco plant is still only 30%.
At first I was at a loss to explain why this is a phenomena at all. After all, the plants were getting almost all their water and nutrients from below.
“In fact, on my last couple turface grows, I watered slowly till I first saw runoff, then I plugged my runoff line (at the very bottom of the bucket – no res volume). I’d allow a couple hours for the turface to evenly absorb the water and then unplug the line. No further runoff occurred, so I was operating with essentially zero runoff.”
recognize your statement? It has intrigued me since I read it.
I think this excerpt explains both:
“Water movement in glass bead porous media 1. Experiments of capillary rise and hysteresis
Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis
J. W. Biggar
D. R. Nielsen
Glass beads serving as a model for ideal soil are enclosed in a rectangular glass chamber model. A TV camera associated with a microscope was used to record the processes of capillary rise and drainage. It is clearly shown during capillary rise that the fluid exhibits a “jump” behavior at the neck of the pores in an initially dry profile or at the bottom of the water film in an initially wet profile. Under an initially dry condition, the jump initiates at the particle with smallest diameter. The jump process continues to higher elevations until at equilibrium the surface tensile force is balanced by the hydrostatic force. The wetting front at that time is readily observed as flat and saturated. Under an initially wet condition, capillary rise occurs as a water film thickening process associated with the jump process. Trapped air behind the wetting front renders the wetting front irregular and unsaturated. The capillary rise into an initially wet porous medium can be higher than that into an initially dry profile. During the drying process, large surface areas associated with the gas-liquid interface develop, allowing the porous medium to retain more water than during the wetting process at the same pressure. That mechanism explains better the hysteresis phenomenon in porous media in contrast to other mechanisms that now prevail.”
delta9nxs...
! 
as you mentioned, the light top watering w/ bottom staying wet +++!
