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markmahlum

abbreviations

markmahlum
14 years ago

Is there a dictionary of hydroponics abbreviations? I struggle to keep up because I don't know what the abbreviations stand for, being a newbie.

Thanks, Mark

Comments (7)

  • grizzman
    14 years ago

    Not that I am aware of. Some common ones here:
    DWC - Deep Water Culture
    EnF - Ebb and Flow
    NFT - Nutrient Film Technique
    Aero - Areoponic system
    rez - reservoir
    nutes - nutrients or nutrient solution
    EC - electric conductivity - a general measure of dissolved solids in water
    ppm - parts per million
    N-P-K - Nitrogen-Phosporus-Potassium
    Those are the ones that immediately come to my mind.

  • urbangardenfarmer
    14 years ago

    What ever abbreviations your having trouble with, post them on this thread and we'll break it down for you. Grizz covered everything I could think of.

  • markmahlum
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    What is Deep Water Culture? Is that when you use a raft and an aerator and leave the plant roots submerged 100% of the time?

    What is bag culture? the nutrients I bought give me a formula of 1 tsp per gallon if bag culture.

    I grew up on on a farm and have a lot of college chemistry so I have a pretty good working knowledge of botany and plant function as well as fertilizers. It's the hydroponics I know very little about.

    I must add, there are some very knowledgeable people on this forum. Thanks for what you've taught me.

    Mark

  • urbangardenfarmer
    14 years ago

    Hey Mark. Deep water culture is pretty much any hydroponic system where your plant roots are submerged in aerated water 24/7. whether it be a raft or net cups in a bucket lid.

    Bag culture is using a drip line to feed your plants in a plastic poly bag, filled with hydroponic medium. I would bet you can use that same dosage of nutrient with other hydroponic methods.

  • markmahlum
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    A correction. I said I'd had a lot of college chemistry. I meant to say quite a bit of biology. with enough chemistry to have a basic knowledge of that science.

    Thanks for your helpful responses.

    I currently have 3 plastic containers with net cups in a lid. They are in solution 24/7 and I aerate them. The first one has 11 lettuces and because of the extraordinarily cloudy winter this year, they were fairly stagnant. Their growth has exploded this week, however.

    In a second (deeper) container, I have planted 2 peppers, 1 cuc and 1 pole bean. At the same time that I placed the peppers in solution I planted two of the same variety in pots and placed them next to the hydroponics container. The peppers in the solution are 2-3 times larger than the ones in pots, already. Quite interesting.

    I have done the same thing with lettuces, cucs, spinach, cilantro, parsley and pole beans (planting some in pots and some in hydroponics). The only plant that hasn't responded well to the hydroponics is the spinach (2). The cilantro has exploded compared to the potted ones.

    Interesting, though not very scientific results so far.

    Mark

  • grizzman
    14 years ago

    how do you get your spinach to sprout? I have a terrible time getting it to sprout, so much so that I basically quit trying.

  • markmahlum
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Spinach is really tough.

    Put them in a wet paper towel and then in a sandwich baggie. Then put that in the refrigerator or a cool spot. I achieve 50-60% after a couple of weeks that way.

    Mark

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