Nutrient Film Technique is uniquely simple. It involves a shallow film of nutrient solution constantly recirculating past the roots of your plants. Nutrient solution is pumped from the tank to the channel, over the plants roots and back into the tank.

It's this recirculating film that differentiates N.F.T from other hydroponic growing methods. Sperader Mats are used on N.F.T systems to make sure the water spreads evenly across the channel, it also provides an easy way for the roots to grow throughout the spreader mat and hold themselves above the water alowing the root better acsess to oxygen.

The key to N.F.T is to have the root system of the plants well established. The most common fault in N.F.T is trying to apply the plants to the beds before they have established a good root structure, this causes to Rockwool cubes to instead become water logged this can cause detrimental effects upon your plants.

Although N.F.T. systems are designed to run constantly we find that younger plants only need the water to be on for 15 mins out of every hour, which will gradually increase every week or so for the plants life until it is constant.

If you are concerned about this problem you can either put the N.F.T. pumps onto a timer so they are running periodically, or alternatively increase the slope so the plant has less access to the water.

Article provided courtesy of Grotec Hydroponics. Distribution by HydroponicSearch.com - The Hydroponics Gardening Search Engine & Educational Community Site.