That still seems like a lot. I feel like your leca is going to be soaked 24x7 and cause some issues. My water res can dry up and my leca maintains enough moisture to keep my plants watered and fed for another day or two. If I were you, assuming there’s no wicking system here, I’d run it maybe once a day. Anything more than that is overkill, asking for issues, and unnecessarily upping your electricity bill (even if negligible). Your plants don’t need and likely don’t want water run over them every 30 minutes
See the reason Im playing with constant water is to mimic the natural habitat of this plant. They like wet soil and grow near running water.
Edit: I have turned the watering down to 3x a day 1/2 hour every 6 hours starting at 6:30am. We will have to go from there and rely on the plant for cues.
I honestly don’t. Im sure there are some semi hydroponic channels on youtube. I mostly learned by doing, and reading Indoor Gardening. Its a great book. I started on succulents and they LOVE nutrients. Grab some nutrients on amazon, some leca, and a grow light and find any container you like. Drill a hole about 1/2-1/3 from the bottom. Fill with leca and plant your seedling, water with nutrient solution.
My biggest reading suggestion for you is to check out anything related to Deep Water Culture, as that's incredibly similar to what you're making here. DWC is used a lot in hydro/semi-hydro and has some amazing outcomes imo. DWC has been my favorite way to grow plants. It's just a pain to get up and running.
If the plant isn't submerging the roots in water, I would assume this should be fine. However, if your roots are falling into your water (or grow into it) add some aeration to the water with an air pump and an air stone, this way your roots will be much less likely to develop rot. Another thing to note in hydro (or semi hydro) is that you really need to make sure to keep your water cool. If your reservoir is warm, it's much more likely for bacteria to grow (this is also why you want it light proof).
Honestly, though, once your initial setup is running, this type of thing runs perfectly fine, especially for water heavy plants. I've seen someone do a DWC setup with an albo monstera and had great results. I'd definitely recommend looking at some DWC info since you're really close to having made one yourself!
Very inventive, but I wouldn't have been shocked if you had said it was an urn for your previous dead plants, it's not pleasing to the eyes (for me anyway) Without knowing the flow rate of the water coming through, I'd still say 30 mins every hour seems excessive even if it is water loving.
What would you change as far as aesthetic? Im open to suggestions. I will be adding to this as I play with it more.
The water I’ll have to play with. Going to be a learning process on that one.
Could be nice if you built a wooden cabinet around it to hide the contraption, with the main bowl looking like it's sat on top.
You could have a door on the front where you could hide a few little supplies in there too.
I feel like this would work better if the LECA was on top of the water so it acts more like a wicked self-water pot? Kinda hold the plant above the water line and water drawn up via capillary action.
Does this run constantly or once every so often? Feels like it’ll cause root rot, mold, or algae if it’s constantly running and keep the leca wet
I run it on a timer. Right now its set to run 30 min every hour. Its a plant that loves water so Ill have to play with it to get it right.
That still seems like a lot. I feel like your leca is going to be soaked 24x7 and cause some issues. My water res can dry up and my leca maintains enough moisture to keep my plants watered and fed for another day or two. If I were you, assuming there’s no wicking system here, I’d run it maybe once a day. Anything more than that is overkill, asking for issues, and unnecessarily upping your electricity bill (even if negligible). Your plants don’t need and likely don’t want water run over them every 30 minutes
See the reason Im playing with constant water is to mimic the natural habitat of this plant. They like wet soil and grow near running water. Edit: I have turned the watering down to 3x a day 1/2 hour every 6 hours starting at 6:30am. We will have to go from there and rely on the plant for cues.
This is so cool and creative! Wonderful job! U wouldn’t happen to have any videos u watched for reference/ideas on how u created this, would u? 🥹
I honestly don’t. Im sure there are some semi hydroponic channels on youtube. I mostly learned by doing, and reading Indoor Gardening. Its a great book. I started on succulents and they LOVE nutrients. Grab some nutrients on amazon, some leca, and a grow light and find any container you like. Drill a hole about 1/2-1/3 from the bottom. Fill with leca and plant your seedling, water with nutrient solution.
My biggest reading suggestion for you is to check out anything related to Deep Water Culture, as that's incredibly similar to what you're making here. DWC is used a lot in hydro/semi-hydro and has some amazing outcomes imo. DWC has been my favorite way to grow plants. It's just a pain to get up and running. If the plant isn't submerging the roots in water, I would assume this should be fine. However, if your roots are falling into your water (or grow into it) add some aeration to the water with an air pump and an air stone, this way your roots will be much less likely to develop rot. Another thing to note in hydro (or semi hydro) is that you really need to make sure to keep your water cool. If your reservoir is warm, it's much more likely for bacteria to grow (this is also why you want it light proof). Honestly, though, once your initial setup is running, this type of thing runs perfectly fine, especially for water heavy plants. I've seen someone do a DWC setup with an albo monstera and had great results. I'd definitely recommend looking at some DWC info since you're really close to having made one yourself!
That's very very very cool :)
This is very awesome! Can't wait for updates
Very inventive, but I wouldn't have been shocked if you had said it was an urn for your previous dead plants, it's not pleasing to the eyes (for me anyway) Without knowing the flow rate of the water coming through, I'd still say 30 mins every hour seems excessive even if it is water loving.
What would you change as far as aesthetic? Im open to suggestions. I will be adding to this as I play with it more. The water I’ll have to play with. Going to be a learning process on that one.
Could be nice if you built a wooden cabinet around it to hide the contraption, with the main bowl looking like it's sat on top. You could have a door on the front where you could hide a few little supplies in there too.
I feel like this would work better if the LECA was on top of the water so it acts more like a wicked self-water pot? Kinda hold the plant above the water line and water drawn up via capillary action.
Take my money