How I droughted in an top feed, recirculating hydroponic system, with a 100% hydroton medium.
The first part is to select a branch/cola, that you can consistently take a photo of, from the same exact perspective each time. To accomplish this, I simply marked a spot on my scrog Frame (made with PVC), and the angle of the phone.
When I would sit my phone on the Frame, and point it at the chosen branch/cola, I had consistent photos of the same perspective of the selected branch/cola.
If you look at that cola, you can see it's isolated, and has nothing to rest against (wich would skew the measurements).
Next take the picture.
Download an app called Image Meter (I got it from playstore).
Open the photo within the app.
Measure from the branch to where the petiole attaches to the leaf.
You can zoom in, from within the app to click each point for the measurement for the Leaf Wilt Angle (LWA).
Be sure to remember exactly where you clicked for those three points, remember consistency is key!
Your first measurement should be done right shortly after a fertigation, so that the leaf is in its most turgid/rigid state.
Then stop the feed/fertigation going to that plant.
Continue to take photos using the above method until you have gotten to almost a 50% reduction in the LWA, or 50% of you turgid state. We want to get close, but not surpass 50% change of LWA (to my understanding).
I've attached a 2nd photo here showing the continued drought with the LWA changes.
Then resume fertigation.
Here's a bit of a gif I made showing it. The camera I had setup for the gif got moved at one point, but you can clearly see the plant wilting, and some of the recovery.
And that's it folks! Thanks to Maritimer for walking me through my first drought and his patience with everything that happened. The full read is
here in my journal. My drought took roughly 4 days, using 10 Gallon buckets from The Bucket Company, with 100% hydroton inside the bucket.