hello, my friend,
I am a hydro grower, but I hand water. The medium I use is called fytocell. it is a good medium but it does have some problems fro me. Here is a run down on it:
"Is Fytocell for Hydroponics?
Fytocell has been developed to be used as 100% hydroponic growing media on its own, but can be mixed with perlite, rockwool, coir and even clay balls.
What systems can I use Fytocell in?
Fytocell will work well in a dripper or hand watered run to waste system.
Will Fytocell work in a recirculating system?
Absolutely. Either in a dripper, or flood & drain recirculating system.
Do I need to prepare Fytocell for planting?
Ideally yes. It does not matter whether you are running to waste or recirculating, it is best to run just water through the system for 24 hours. At the end of this period dump this water and start with a 1/4 or 1/2 strength nutrient solution.
Should I saturate Fytocell before starting?
If you are not going to flush the system as above, you will need to saturate the Fytocell with water in the bag for 24 hours. This also stops Fytocell being too fluffy.
Do I need to pH adjust Fytocell?
No. Fytocell comes already pH adjusted between, 5.5 – 7.0
Does Fytocell have any nutritional value?
No
When using a recirculating system, do I need to do anything different?
Fytocell has a combination of particle sizes. It is best to place a pot sock or a stocking in your pot to stop these fines. In addition, it is better if you can place a filter over your pump intake. With recirculating for 24 hours you will greatly reduce the amount of fines.
How do I plant the advanced plant into a pot of Fytocell?
Most advanced plants are grown in rockwool cubes / blocks or FytoClone. With rockwool it is very important that you place the cube/block on top of the Fytocell or only slightly into it, ie 5 mm.
Why sit the advanced plant rockwool block on top?
If the top of the rockwool block is planted flush with the top of the Fytocell, it can not self regulate its water / air content. As Fytocell holds up to 60% water and after that releases excess water, it gives this excess to the rockwool. The root environment of the young plant becomes too wet with very little air. Creating an anaerobic situation and the young plant will die quickly.
What irrigation regime do I use in the first 0-14 days after planting the advanced plant?
Much depends on your environment, but because Fytocell holds a large amount of water you are better to water slightly less for this period. If the Fytocell starts to dry out you can slowly increase the amount of water either by volume per cycle or the number cycles.
What irrigation regime should I use in a dripper system after 14 days?
Fytocell is very flexible because it holds a lot of water and air, but still flushes and drains well.
Anyone switching from rockwool should not have to change a thing. The old adage little and often works well.
Switching from coir. After the initial 14 day period and as the roots get down into the Fytocell, Fytocell is far more tolerant to greater amounts of water than coir.
Switching from clay balls and perlite is a bit more dramatic. They both hold less water and so they are watered more often.
In summary Fytocell can be watered a range of ways from once every 1-2 days to a number of small waterings throughout the day. Fytocell does not require a large volume of water 3 - 4 or more times a day, all things being equal regarding, environment, pot and plant size.
What irrigation regime should I use in a flood & drain system after 14 days?
Fytocell is a denser product than either clay balls or rockwool. This means Fytocell relies on capillary action to move the water upwards. You may have to initially flood the tray for longer and to a higher level. However you will probably only have to do this once per day. Always pull back on the watering initially. You can always increase it if necessary.
How can I expect plants to grow and look in Fytocell?
The initial 0-14 days the plant may look like it is sitting still. In this time the plant is furiously putting roots down into the Fytocell. You then see the plant explode in growth.
Fytocell Qualities
Physical
The air / water ratio in Fytocell is unique with approximately 37- 40% being air and 57- 60% water. The remaining 3% is dry / solid matter and unpenetrable. This means there is almost no barrier to root growth in a physical sense.
Temperature Heat/Cool
Many substrates / medias hold either an excessive amount of air or water, but not reasonable quantities of both. As Fytocell holds this 57% water it acts as a great insulator under warm conditions, slower to heat up during the day and once warm offering some heat in the evening. Air is very quick to either heat up or cool down.
This is also why when using Fytocell and FytoClone under cool conditions that you must provide some kind of artificial heat. Due to the fact that moisture content is good at approx 60%, if the air temperature is very cold the water will become cool over time and therefore is also slower to warm up.
Moisture
The ability of Fytocell to hold water is very good. Due to this fact Fytocell can be watered slightly differently than many media. This can be done in either small irrigations, at a regular interval, or a larger irrigation perhaps as little as once per day or even 2-3 days.
Plant Available Water
Fytocell while containing good ratios of air and water has no problem in giving what water it does have, to the roots’ as they require it. For example a 10L or 2.3 gal pot saturated, holds approximately 5L or 1.2gal of water. In experiments, plants have been able to stay green and grow in these pots even to the point where there is not even a drop of water left in the Fytocell. There is of course some stress, but there is no other media that does this.
The plant available water abilities of Fytocell are amazing.
Capillary Action
Fytocell has excellent capillary action. It takes up water both vertically and horizontally. A pot with holes in the bottom, filled with Fytocell, will draw water upwards approximately 15cm or 6 inches. This water will move at an even level up through the pot. It will not saturate to a percentage higher than approximately 60% by volume when drawing water from below.
Drainage
Fytocell drains by gravity. As long as the water/nutrient solution has some where to drain to, it will never hold more that approximately 60% moisture by volume.
If Fytocell is watered too much, and too often, you may not allow enough time for Fytocell to gravity drain.
Cation Exchange
Fytocell has a low cation exchange ability, which means it flushes salt build up easily.
Fytocell Flakes
Part of the success of Fytocell is it’s large air component. Therefore when placing the saturated Flakes in the pot do not compress these down. This does mean over time there may be some natural slumpage, but this will have no effect on the established plant. If you want to you can top up the pot.
Fytocell Slabs
These are not as robust as some other media types, however this has absolutely no bearing on Fytocells’ great performance. If the slabs break, just manually push them back together. Due to the way Fytocell holds air/water and it’s great capillary action
These cracks/breaks do NOT cause a problem."
it holds heaps of air and stays moist, but for me this is a problem, as I supplement my basic chemical nutrient with organics - seaweed, fish emulsion and other additives that are organic;
I have had a problem with fungus guants because of this so I had to cover the top of the medium with a deep layer of expanded clay.
also a green algae develops on the top of the medium, which not only attracts them but also looks ugly.
I use big pots 52 liters( around 13 gallons) and, using this medium they are hard to flush, as it takes around 30 liters (around 8 gallons) before any water comes out the drain holes of the pot.
They are bloody heavy too, as I have to carry them into my laundry to flush them(they is a tiled floor in there with a drain).
the other side of this is that I only have to water them around every week or so, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Have you thought of using a light mover, they allow you to cover a greater area with less lights?
Or have you thought of using the cool tubes?
I run my lights of a night when it is cooler.
my exhaust fan, which is a very powerful one(a Cann fan) is wrapped in about 4 heavy woolen blankets, and it reduces the noise it makes down to about 20% of what it would otherwise, and with a speed controller, it can hardly be heard; in fact sometimes I have to check to see if it is on.
I have neighbors that live very close.
The flashing is from my coil ballast; I have managed to purchase 2 digital ballasts, but the other lights(one 400watt, and one 600 watt) are the old magnetic ballasts.
a good digital ballast sends a pulse of energy through the discharge tube anywhere from 20,000 to 28,000 times per second.
a magnetic ballast sends a pulse through the tube at 60 times per second;
we see this light as being continuous, and it is only through a digital camera that our eyes see the flickering;
this is why digital ballasts can give 30%% more light.
with heat, in summer, running them of a night will not be enough to keep the heat down, even though my room is large(I only use a small section of it for my grow space, about 30% of the total volume of the room, so that the heat has a greater volume in which to dissipate.
In the middle of summer, I will either have to connect the cool tubes to an exhaust fan, or run an air conditioner, or perhaps both(just to take the load of the a/c, and save money on power.)
with the haze 1, I veged her for 9 weeks; she is now over 13 weeks old, but I trained her by bending the branches, after nipping her once, to grow outwards rather than up;
it is hard to tell with the video, but she is over 5 feet in circumference, and around 2 feet high.
all the best, my friend,
and happy growing
