I have an ebb and flow setup and I just noticed roots going through drainage hole down into my reservoir. Is there a way to pull them out without killing my plants. They are one month old and are nice and bushy. Any help would be appreciated.
I tried tugging on them to get them out but it seems to be 4 plants intertwinedgoing through. They are in 4 inch net pots with hydroton. I also filled tray around net pots with hydroton. I’m thinking that was a mistake.
Roots growing is a very good thing. Just cut out the roots…plenty more and they grow back.
NOW…ur mistake was starting plants in small containers. Those plants need at least 3 gallon container…5 gallon would be better. The grow rocks are the right thing for DWC.
YOUR plants look great.
2 Likes
I don’t know if he pops in on the public side but @Bogleg is doing an ebb and flow tray quite successfully. Perhaps he’ll see this and weigh in.
2 Likes
I use big ass totes and I’ve had mine come down the drain into the nutrients a couple times. I just let them do their thing once and when I cleaned my reservoir the next grow I pulled the tubes and just pushed them back in the tote and a week later there they were.
2 Likes
Thanks for the advice everyone. This is my first grow ever. I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t hurt them by pulling roots out of the tube. I am actually going to try dwc with the next setup to see which one produces the most. Me and a friend are trying a couple different setups before we get a license to grow larger scale. Trying to find that perfect setup but also keep it relatively cheap in the beginning.
That’s really cool - I haven’t had that happen to me. I have tried a few different ways of growing so far in my tray. I tried one gallon cloth pots with hydroton and the roots grew way past the pots - but I keep plants away from the drain fittings. Then I tried putting a lid over the top of it and hanging net pots - and I had lots of roots in it but none made it down into the hoses to the reservoir.
And now I am back to setting pots into the tray but am using these small 5" plastic square pots:
Plants are young, but I am just now seeing roots start to emerge out of the small holes on the bottom of the pots.
Are the roots actually growing down through the drain fitting? Perhaps you could wrap the drain fitting with something like a piece of pantyhose or similar item. @TDubWilly and others have run RDWC systems in the past (which are more likely to end up with clogged lines/filters/etc from roots) and probably has some good ideas on how to prevent something like this occuring.
I don’t think it will present a significant problem as long as it’s flooding and draining properly.
2 Likes
I think a physical barricade would be necessary to prevent root infiltration IMO.
2 Likes
Mine too. Something to consider for next time
You can also do like tanlover said and just cut them out of the way but I would simply monitor water flow and as long as it keeps moving them your fine.
Remember when your building hydro systems that roots will always have a tendency too want to grow where the water is moving the most because it will have the highest volume of o²
2 Likes