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A Whole Lotta Roots

A project log for The Little Green Tower

A mist-based tower system for growing leafy green vegetables

chris-johnsonChris Johnson 12/04/2018 at 05:020 Comments

Just a quick picture to show off the tremendous root growth.  The plants are about 5 weeks old except the one on the bottom of the frame which is six weeks old.  Click on the picture and zoom in to get a good view of how dense the roots are.

You can see that there is some algae on the sides near the top, but it's a lot better than the previous system.

So far I have not changed the water from the original fill.  I've been adding Calcium/Magnesium and a bit of regular fertilizer, and adjusting the pH by hand after monitoring the plots.  Below is a screenshot of the plot from the last 8 days.  The EC takes a dive when the water level gets below the level of the sensor, so you can tell that you need to add water.  The temperature goes down when you add water.  You can also see the EC/pH spikes where the fertilizer and pH were adjusted.  The pH tends to rise as the plants exchange H+/OH- ions to take up the nutrients.

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