i'm very new to hydroponics and learning as i go so i am afraid i might be asking an xy question, so hear me out and please bear with me.
i screwed up the orientation of pipes in my hydroponic setup and i need/want to reconfigure a significant portion of it. water still gets to all of the plants that i have in, but the directionality of the flow will cause stagnant water at one end and is already causing a mighty rhythmic gurgling noise while the pump is on. i didn't realize it was messed up until i had already gotten sprouts into most of the slots, including one large and very healthy (looking, to me) tomato (i think) plant (name is jeromë) but i digress. in order to fix the setup so that the water flows in the proper direction from top to bottom, i need to disassemble it partially. i would need to swap the sides that the inlet and outlet are on, which obviously would require (partially?) draining the system.
i believe i could do the work relatively quickly, but while doing it, the roots of all these sprouts would be high and dry. am i going to kill off my sprouts if i reconfigure the tubes and they're out of the water for an hour or so?
edit: baby jeromë and jeromë today
by psiphre
4 Comments
It depends on the stage of growth, how large your plants are, how developed the root system is, etc. What I do when I’m working on the system is just to leave them in a bucket of water and like you said work quickly. Worst case scenario is that they’ll get a little droopy, but then going back into your NFT will allow for the oxygen to rebalance and the plant should recover rather quickly. Assuming I’m interpreting the question correctly.. been a long day working with my own plants, lol Best of luck!
Damp in air is fine. Dry in air is a problem. Grab a mister / spray bottle or something.
Do it at night or early morning in the shade. Don’t do it in the sun. Just keep them moist, should be fine.
They will be fine..actually enjoy it…if you’re worried just mist them with a water bottle…clones stay alive with no root🤷🏼♂️