This coupled with the fact that you are then adding dissolved salts in the tank and in turn you are possibly in a hard water area, you get precipitation of the salts and the calcium that build up on and around the impeller of the pump. Once this impeller begins to attract precipitation, it is not long until it either gives up spinning completely or that it does not deliver enough water to satisfy the plants’ needs, resulting in crop failure. Pump failure can be overcome through regular cleaning and maintenance of the pump or indeed regular replacements of the pumps. As mentioned earlier, these are very inexpensive pumps and therefore can be regularly replaced without financial worry.

Another downside with this technique is due to the fact that the roots are constantly submerged in water, so the plants are very prone to bacterial disease like pythium. Again, this can be overcome via regular dumping of the nutrient reservoir and adding products to the nutrient solution that have active ingredients that minimise the threat of root rot and moulds.

The last drawback is that heavy yielding plants tend to fall over in a NFT system. This is due to the fact that the roots grow out flat and long giving the plants no stability. As they grow older and bigger you will need to support the fruits or flowers otherwise they simply topple over. Supporting them is easy using yo-yos, string, canes or some growers use a scroge. This is simply netting stretched out over the growing area. The plants then grow up through this netting which in turn helps support the plants.

All of the above to one side, these systems are very productive and are an excellent inexpensive teaching aid to the principle of hydroponics. Also with this beautiful innovation the world of hydroponics might not be with us as this technique was the first adopted and used by many growers all over the planet, paving the way for our very own hydroponics revolution. One has to take one’s hat off to the British inventor that pioneered this technique. I mean, what made someone think: I know let’s grow plants in a soilless medium using nothing but a film of nutrient to do it in. Off the wall you could say!

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