Net pot size question/ large scale hydro help

I am planning an 30 plant hydro system and have a question about the size of net pot I should use. I typically use the pre-fabed 6" lids that fit over the top of 5 gallon buckets, but to save money I was going to buy plain lids and drill a 4" hole and just drop the pre vegged plant right in there. (the plants grow for 2 weeks in an aeroponic system in the 4" netpots filled with hydroton, so the roots are well developed when they are moved into the 30 pot system).

So my question is will the plants be able to grow well if the roots are simply suspended in the buckets from the netpot? Or should i provide the plant with a bigger net pot so it can develop more roots than just the hanging ones?

Once in the 30 pot system they will be fed by a 1/8" emmiter line coming from a 1/2" line fed by a 660 GPH pump that is always on. (Should it always be on? i heard somewhere that 15 on 45 off is good.) There is about an inch of water in the bottom of each bucket before it drains back to the res thru a 3/4" line. There is about 150 liters in the system.

Any help is appreciated!
if you have any ideas for improvements they are welcome!

That's fine man... the roots hanging down out of a net pot submerged in nutes is the premise behind deep water culture. There are a few things that will bite you in the ass if you don't watch for it. Water should be below 70* completly dark... no light leaks. And you will also do well to run bennies or sterilizers to help prevent root slime.

As for net pot size no worries there either. A lot of people just use 2" net pots with foam collars from start to harvest. In fact I usually recommend people use smaller net pots in dwc so the roots get into the icy cold super charged nute solution faster.

Malevolence said:

That's fine man... the roots hanging down out of a net pot submerged in nutes is the premise behind deep water culture. There are a few things that will bite you in the ass if you don't watch for it. Water should be below 70* completly dark... no light leaks. And you will also do well to run bennies or sterilizers to help prevent root slime.

As for net pot size no worries there either. A lot of people just use 2" net pots with foam collars from start to harvest. In fact I usually recommend people use smaller net pots in dwc so the roots get into the icy cold super charged nute solution faster.

Click to expand...

He right, it's does'nt really matter what size net pot you use aslong as the stem has alot of room to grow and really if you think about it, the net pot is just there to hold the plant in place the roots dangle down and always find the water, its the roots natural behaviour to grow out and find water.

Thanks for the info, any opinions on the pump being on a timer or constantly dripping onto the plants?

Y'all have some weird ass avatars. You gotta be careful with those net pots and 5 gal buckets though. I used 3.5 inch net pots in 5 gal buckets before and they tended to tip easily within the pre-cut circle. Not because they weren't properly sized, but because of the way the lid bent and interacted with the pot itself. Also because a couple of my plants were over 6 ft tall because my grow partner insisted we grow giants. Hard to explain without a visual but yeah. I'd just use the foam inserts. If not and you just use regular net pots with hydroton, you can always craft/buy a net to screen them up with. God, that paragraph felt like forever and a half.