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Quote: lampshadehelmet said: I do pretty much the same thing as you, assuming there is a submersible water pump and air pump in the barrel. You can try adding more air/better stone and making your barrel more light proof. I haven't used the PBP so I cannot say if its something else, but I think you are getting microbial growth.
You probably have poorly aerated water and using stagnant water is not the best idea. You must get as much oxygen to the roots as possible through both letting medium dry before watering and using aerated water.
I wonder if it's bacteria or just sediment.
Also there's no need to let coco dry out, there's also no need to let soil dry out. Soil should never fall below 40% or so moisture content and it's best to keep it at 40-60% moisture content using a tensionometer.
Quote: lampshadehelmet said: I do pretty much the same thing as you, assuming there is a submersible water pump and air pump in the barrel. You can try adding more air/better stone and making your barrel more light proof. I haven't used the PBP so I cannot say if its something else, but I think you are getting microbial growth.
You probably have poorly aerated water and using stagnant water is not the best idea. You must get as much oxygen to the roots as possible through both letting medium dry before watering and using aerated water.
I wonder if it's bacteria or just sediment.
Also there's no need to let coco dry out, there's also no need to let soil dry out. Soil should never fall below 40% or so moisture content and it's best to keep it at 40-60% moisture content using a tensionometer.
I've actually read several studies in various phytology journals that encourage a drench/dry cycle for increased growth rate because the lack of available nutrition/water encourages the plant to release hormones for root stimulation. The underground biomass increases to seek out moisture which in turn increases available uptake which accelerates growth, as well as stimulating cytokinin and auxin production to accelerate shoot growth. I would never dry a soil out completely, but dropping to 20% or so can certainly be beneficial.
As for the PBP, it often looks like that in a reservoir, but I would encourage some further lightproofing steps to be taken on that bucket to minimize bacterial culture.
I've actually read several studies in various phytology journals that encourage a drench/dry cycle for increased growth rate because the lack of available nutrition/water encourages the plant to release hormones for root stimulation. The underground biomass increases to seek out moisture which in turn increases available uptake which accelerates growth, as well as stimulating cytokinin and auxin production to accelerate shoot growth. I would never dry a soil out completely, but dropping to 20% or so can certainly be beneficial.
As for the PBP, it often looks like that in a reservoir, but I would encourage some further lightproofing steps to be taken on that bucket to minimize bacterial culture.
Studies can show a lot of things some factual, some conditional, and some completely false. I am sure with some searching one could find numerous studies against a wet dry cycle. How dry do they let the soil get in the studies? How well will the soil rewet at 20% moisture content? Do these studies compare a wet dry cycle @ whatever moisture content for the dry vs a moderate minimal @ say40%? Do these studies do any benchmarks or are they only observing that there's added hormone production?
Would you let the upper or middle portions of the soil reach 20%moisture content? If you let the middle portions reach 20%, surely the upper portions would be lower unless you have a very elaborate watering system.
IMO, letting your moisture content fall that low, you're probably going to run the risk of damaging root hairs and your microbes in the upper portions of your soil where they are most concentrated. In my coco soil trials(where I made a soil out of mostly coco with a 1.5cm of worm castings ontop) I found that the best performance was achieved when I didn't let the upper layer dry out at all.
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