I have a hydro drip system in a rubbermaid tub, I cut a hole in the lid and put my pot inside hanging over he water, I have air stones bubbling oxygen at all times and the drip system is on all the time, it has worked well but now the roots have gotten long and are now touching and submerged in the water. So will the plant be ok or will I endnup drowning my plant. What if I add more air stones?
yeah if you look at alot of the grow videos that use hydroponics and such, almost half of the plants roots are in the water, i would try using a liquid fert in the resivoir, just make sure that the roots are in darkness all the time, and when you need to put more fert or what have you, just turn on a dim enough light to where you can see what your doing while the plant is in the night portion of the cycle.
I'm only a few weeks into my grow, and they're in small pots. When I transplant them though they are going into 10" pots with this plastic screen and empty space at the bottom -- I'm assuming a resivior. Can you let roots dangle in resivior water if you're in soil too? Or should I drill some holes in the bottom to make sure it drains?
Your plant should be fine. You will ocassionally see the acronym DWC. This stands for Deep Water Culture. You also may have heard of "bubbleponics". These are both systems in which the roots partially sit submerged in water. That water is constantly fed oxygen through air stones to prevent root rot. If you want to get more airstones just to be safe, then go ahead. More highly oxygenated water around the roots can't hurt. The water is flowing in your res, not just sitting stagnant, right? Well, even if it were, you would still have some current provided by the turbulent bubbles rising from the air stones. Just make sure your roots are in pitch darkness and that they have lots and lots (and lots!) of oxygen. Your plants will be fine. In fact, it's a good thing(tm).
whatever you do, remember that light will kill roots. roots don't like to sit in water because they will drink up the available oxygen very quickly and then drown or rot in short order. To counter this you will need to make sure that any water your roots are sitting in is well oxygenated. If you have soil culture, you probably do not want to set up a drip system, unless you are certain that your soil is well aerated and that it will not hold too much water and drown your plants. From what it sounds like, however, you are asking for root rot. You will want to use vermiculite, pearlite, hydroton or something of the like when you transplant. These medium are all 'soil-less' medium and will not drown your plant in a drip system. Do some research into drip systems to better understand the water retention of various growing media.
Sorry, I might have poorly explained what I am doing. I am not looking to do a drip system. The pot that I bought came with this feature. I just wanted to know if this is good or bad for marijuana plants for soil. I will just drill a few holes under the pot to let stuff drain, I don't want to dance with the idea of root rot.
You cna use soil for marijuana, i actually prefer it cause you dont have to have a big space to use it and its less electricity, other grow mediums like rockwool are good but when you do want to run tubing, pipeing, and electrical cords and so on, soil ca be better