Bottom Watering

Ali’i said:

Seems to be working...View attachment 4065205View attachment 4065205

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Looks a bit space age, I'll stick to NFT

If you water from the top, the soil at the bottom of the planter will still be wet even tho the top portion of the soil dries out. This is simply because water doesn't evaporate as quickly at the bottom. Also, your bottom roots will draw up the water it needs from there, not from the root growth near the top. My planters soil reads dry at the top, but if I stick the probe down further near the bottom, the needle points to "wet." I'll keep the top soil moist by spritzing it, but will wait until the bottom soil gets drier before watering again. This will prevent overwatering problems like root rot. Bottom watering is inviting all kinds of nasty things to happen down there (from bugs to fungus to root rot).

bazoomer said:

I've never watered my bottom !

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The new Japanese toilets do it for you!

WyoGrow said:

BTW, I am not using nutrients. The nutes are in my soil mix. All I do to my water is RO/DI it and then pH it to neutral. No possibility of building up "salts" if I am not introducing them.

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I was told by my soil guy that with living soils or organic super soils that bottom watering is preferred because otherwise the runoff is throwing away precious food.