Today we found that another plant had brown leaves and was essentially dead. We pulled that one and now have one plant left. Interestingly enough, we pulled out the healthy plant to look at the root structure and found that it only had one long white root. The white root suggests that it is living and healthy. However, the fact that it is only one makes us thing that the plant still has not taken to the medium correctly. The clay balls may be too loose of a setting for plants that young, and therefore do not give it the support we want. This could explain the lack of growth we have seen. We will have to brainstorm a solution to the problem and try to implement it. Unfortunately, time is running out! (Joe Steinmacher)
In an effort to keep the last living plant “rooted” we installed a support ring in the hydroton, hoping that it would keep the media from shifting during the flood cycle. The last plant is alive but it doesn’t look particularly healthy. We also believe that the fish waste, the plant’s source of nutrition is not being dispersed through the grow bed well enough to support proper growth.