Month: November 2012

Lack of Nutrient

For the Week of November the 5th throughout the 9th, Erica and I found the problem of lack of nutrient in our water. Our plants showed signs of wilting due to the lack of nutrient being provided in our system. The lack of nutrient was due to just adding water to our system rather than adding the proper mix of water and nutrient solution mix. We had to just add water due  Hurricane Sandy and us not being in class to refill our nutrient water jug. Once we added the new solution we had to adjust the Ph level from 7.4 to 6.5 by adding Ph level dropping powder into our system. Here are photos that show signs of wilting in our tomatoes.

Hurricane Sandy

We did not have class Monday and Tuesday due to Hurricane Sandy. It was bad timing since we really need to fix our system. When we got to class our system seemed to be running just fine. It looked like are water level just got low and we did not notice. Due to the water being low causing the pump not to work it looks like our plants wilted. Here are some pictures to show you.

Problems

We received an email over the weekend saying:

I just went into the hydroponics lab and your systems were so low low on water that the pumps were starting to be uncovered and making loud vibration sounds. Had this gone on for another 24 hours, I’m sure the pumps would have seized.
I grabbed the only jug of solution Ir could quickly find (it was Damon’s & Julianne’s) and started pouring it in to your systems to refill the fluid. I refilled the jug with plain water 2 times to top off all of your systems.
Hopefully this will not hurt our plants. First thing Monday we will have to check out what went wrong with our system. Thanks Damon and Julianne for the solution!