So I had random high thought today and just wondered if it would theoretically be possible. Say you had a clean river flowing somewhere, could you build some sort of support system to hold a plant in a pot just above it so that the roots then grow down into the flowing river so it then acts as a natural NFT system. Obviously you wouldn't add hydro nutes to it but would something like that theoretically work. I don't grow in hydro or even have a river to try it in but just wondered if something like that was possible or just a dumb stoner thought?
I know a guy that grew his plants in sono tubes in a swamp. I'm guessing it didn't work well as he now grows in fabric pots.
I was thinking more like traditional hydro, something like a net pot with grow stones where the roots hang down into the running river and are fed by the nutrients in the river sort of like aquaponics if it was a clean river with fish in.
Sounds good in theory. But, knowing the pH of the two streams and 2 ponds on our property, it wouldn't work. I believe most water would be outside of the proper pH range to run a hydro type of setup for cannabis.
Now that I think of another discussion I had with a fellow that wanted to try growing on floating islands in a swamp. I remember researching that a swamp with stagnant water will have a very low pH due to the decaying matter. I believe that is probably the issue the guy growing in sonotubes faced. The pH in our area is above 8.1 for ground water. Seasonally it goes as high as 8.3.
Yeah I wouldn't have thought stagnant water would have been good for growing that's why I was thinking more of a river/stream. pH is something I hadn't thought of though. It's funny, I used to constantly monitor it when I grew in coco but now I'm growing organic and got rid of my pH pen I completely forget it's something to consider.
I cycle through about 18 different 10 gallon pots of no-till mix. They are all around 3-4 cycles in. I had a plant that rapidly turned yellow then white. I kind of thought it was iron lockout and sure enough it was. I ph'ed my water to around 4.0 for the next several waterings to bring it back into range. It did green the plant back up and finished fine. All that is in my journal here on GC. After harvest, I did a soil slurry test of the root zone. It came in at 7.8 pH. I've since checked two other empty pots and they were both in the 7.8-8.1 range. What this taught me was that pH does matter and for me with high bicarbonates in my water it doesn't take more than 2 cycles before it goes out of range. I believe BNW struggles with high pH as well.
@TimJ using some sulfur in an organic mix will help bring down the pH. I attached a guide for nitrogen feeds, which is how many growers determine and adjust for their pH throughout the industry.
Thanks @trojangrower. I use gypsum in my growing medium. I tried elemental sulfur to lower the pH in my flower bed to change my purchased blue Hydrangea back to blue as it turned pink. No luck after 3 years. I do have ammonium sulfate. But, haven't tried that yet.
From that article I posted: "Under conditions of severe ammonium toxicity an effective method of alleviation is a leaching treatment with gypsum. Topdress 1 tablespoon of gypsum (calcium sulfate) to each 6-inch pot and water in thoroughly with clear water. Follow with a 50 parts per million drench of calcium nitrate two hours later. The ammonium bonds with the sulfate from the gypsum and becomes highly soluble allowing it to flush easily out of the medium" This maybe a reason why your media is becoming alkaline. I stay away from gypsum, but rather because its mostly insoluble. It why a grower isn't suppose to mix epsom and calcium nitrate together, or why some reagents are added to solution before other reagents (like calmag, and Grow,Micro, Bloom, etc).
I did read that over several times to let it sink in. I believe my issue is from a gradual buildup of bicarbonates from my well water in my growing medium. I live in an area that has several large cement plants.They mine basalt and limestone from this area. Our well and ground water runs between 8.1-8.3 pH. I use around 1/2 cup of prilled gypsum per 10 gallons of medium. At that rate I do not believe it would pose a problem.
I reply you wanna check out Bernard Kratky on YT for the Kratky grow method, and yeah the oldies did something like this in old Mexico good luck
I was thinking maybe the fish poop if there was a healthy fish population in the river? But like I said this was just a random thought I had. I live in a flat in the middle of a city so it's not like I could even try this if I wanted to. Just wondered if it was possible really
Oh yeah I remember that yellow plant in your journal. I did use sulphur in my mix and tested my water before I got rid of my pens. I think it was around pH 7 and 300ppm although I'm not sure what makes up that 300. I'll try and keep an eye on it over time.
I just checked him out. Quiet interesting. I don't plan on trying it myself, just wondered if it was possible.
I think aquaponics captures the debris and passes it to the plants. I mean it could work, but it just seems like 200ppm of nitrogen is a high amount of N for a river. https://www.youtube.com/c/RobBob would be the guy to ask
That makes sense. That would have to be a lot of poop. I guess you could always try it down river from a laxative factory lol