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gr33ntea

Hydroponic Lophs

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I did this i think 4 weeks ago and one of my lophs that was 25mm has grown to 30mm in that period.
I wanted to see what would happen so i tried it with two lophs first to see if they would rot or not. THey didn't so i put them all in. They are under t8 fluro lights.

They are still young i am not sure if they will swell up and look like water balloons like the ones grafted on pereskiopsis.
I do not submerge the entire root in water as i believe that would rot it, the main root stalk is only 1/3 submerged in water.
Will update to see where this leads


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This one is my biggest it has some stretch marks on it (the 30mm one)
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This one is the control group, it is around 20mm, growing on rocks, i havent watered it properly so it is unfortunately a poor control group.
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I do not know the advantages of hydroponic lophs, i am thinking of taking one of the hydroponic lophs that is the same size as another one and placing it in soil and watering it regularly so i can atleast have a proper control group to compare and shit

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awesome, can you explain a bit about the nutes you're using & the concentrations etc?

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I am also interested in what nutrients you are using, if any?

I personally would have used a bigger container that's black as well as an air stone.

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awesome, can you explain a bit about the nutes you're using & the concentrations etc?

I mix 3ml of some hydroponic liquid in 1 litre of water and give it that. The fertilizer is very very standard, one or two people said to me it was a shit cheap brand.

For the past two weeks it has had only tap water.

I am going to buy proper fert and give it some though. It is under t8 lights for 12 hours a day.

Edit: lol i should also change the water, it looks yuck. :S

Edited by gr33ntea

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Nice job. I've started a similar experiment with trichocereus and lopho however started from cuttings rather than seedling. I change the water once a month and it doesn't seem to have caused any problems yet. The lopho cutting growing in water for about the same time as you but the growth has not been as much because of the cold weather (winter) and lower amount of roots. Mine is growth outside using sunlight so the growth should be a little slower than yours due to the amount of light.The trichocereus is already 4 months in and is growing rather quickly despite the cold weather (Just under an inch per month)

If anyone is interested in looking at the progress

www.thenook.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=87527#entry958402

Gimli is right in suggesting the use of a black container. I've noticed quicker It's nice that its clear for taking pictures however your roots will grow faster in dark container. Hydroponic lophos seems to be common practice in Thailand.

This can be done with any cactus however you should not submerge any of the roots in the water and only allow the new roots to touch the water. The root tips become 'water roots' allowing the cacti to grow without rotting. http://keinhong.tripod.com/hydroponics.html This website sheds some light into this topic

Lapshin also has two articles on this topic explaining a bit of how a grower does this

http://www.lapshin.org/cultivar/kniga/hydro-v1-e.htm

http://www.lapshin.org/cultivar/kniga/hydro-v2.htm

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Gimli is right in suggesting the use of a black container. I've noticed quicker It's nice that its clear for taking pictures however your roots will grow faster in dark container. Hydroponic lophos seems to be common practice in Thailand.

I should have said it was more due to the fact that since light can get to the water algae will flourish.

I had this problem a while back with a dwc system I had running, switched from white to black buckets and no worries.

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Nice job. I've started a similar experiment with trichocereus and lopho however started from cuttings rather than seedling. I change the water once a month and it doesn't seem to have caused any problems yet. The lopho cutting growing in water for about the same time as you but the growth has not been as much because of the cold weather (winter) and lower amount of roots. Mine is growth outside using sunlight so the growth should be a little slower than yours due to the amount of light.The trichocereus is already 4 months in and is growing rather quickly despite the cold weather (Just under an inch per month)

If anyone is interested in looking at the progress

www.thenook.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=87527#entry958402

Gimli is right in suggesting the use of a black container. I've noticed quicker It's nice that its clear for taking pictures however your roots will grow faster in dark container. Hydroponic lophos seems to be common practice in Thailand.

This can be done with any cactus however you should not submerge any of the roots in the water and only allow the new roots to touch the water. The root tips become 'water roots' allowing the cacti to grow without rotting. http://keinhong.tripod.com/hydroponics.html This website sheds some light into this topic

Lapshin also has two articles on this topic explaining a bit of how a grower does this

http://www.lapshin.org/cultivar/kniga/hydro-v1-e.htm

http://www.lapshin.org/cultivar/kniga/hydro-v2.htm

Awesome! Thanks for the links Shaman

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I should have said it was more due to the fact that since light can get to the water algae will flourish.

I had this problem a while back with a dwc system I had running, switched from white to black buckets and no worries.

A small amount of H2O2 will fix/prevent any algae from growing but roots grow grow better in the dark. Noticed typo from my last post... "I've noticed quicker" root growth when the roots had the amount of light exposed to them reduced; placed my amber jars into black plastic.

I posted new pics of my water cacti on the nook as a follow up to this thread. Sorry for not posting pics here but I want to keep my updates exclusive to thenook :)

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Do you have a bubbler in your set up? Someone told me if you grow Lophophora too fast they can have hollow spots but I never researched it.

Also maybe it would be best to do aero/hydro with pereskiopsis grafted lophs for the optimal growth.

Edited by doxneed2c-me

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If you push the growth too much via grafting (possibly also hydro) lophophora and trichocereus both have hollow spots in the center. This seems to be very common with crested cacti when grafted IME.

A bubbler isn't a necessity with this setup but MAY provide some benefit. I change my tap water/nutes once a month and don't have trouble with roots lacking oxygen or w.e. maybe someone can do a side by side comparison with a bubbler vs monthly water change vs weekly water change.

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Im sure ive heard of them exploding or splitting really badly from sucking up to much water so be careful of that I guess.

But great idea I wonder what happens in winter when they hardly grow? Seems like having them in water over winter could be problematic....

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My grafts split from over watering would this have the same problem or is that only an issue with grafted plants?

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This is interesting, I didnt think you could grow cacti hydroponicly.

I have a water farm and grow tomatoes in it last year but I didnt have a power supply but I do have power this year. I will have to see how they grow.

I tried growing chilies a couple of years back but they started to get yellow leafs and the fruits didnt have much heat in them. Im new to growing using hydroponics iv been intrested in it.

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I once grew one "semi-hydroponically" without any soil on the roots by periodically "submerging" the whole cactus, roots and all in a mild fertilizer solution for about 12 hours until it re-hydrated, then let it dry out again. It seemed to look fine and was apparently unharmed by the treatment although it was probably not optimal :wink:

This process went on for several months until i finally just decided to re-plant it.

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Aeroponics seems like it would work pretty well doxneed2c-me

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Coir chunks give positive results when used in conjunction with a complete nute solution. It also allows for dry rest periods.

Edited by Gunter
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Coir chunks give positive results when used in conjunction with a complete nute solution. It also allows for dry rest periods.

How about vermiculite? Cause i got so much of that.

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The one i had in the soil.... it died, i messed it up somehow. i put in poor soil, so no control group, but i took measurements so I can see how much it grew.

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An update, they have gotten a little bigger. I got some green algae or something growing in the water,
They are under t8 lights and a heat mat. I havent replaced the water in like 4 weeks.

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nice interesting, thread and links

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if you make the box nontransparent so that sunlight doesn't get in,... the algea will not grow at all or as well.

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I love the look of that setup, pretty cool being able to see the roots.
Like the others said though, its probably best to change to a black container and add some H2O2 to get rid of the algae.
Certainly going to keep an eye on this thread!
awesome stuff

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