Media Troubleshooting: Reading the Root Zone Backward
A symptom-to-cause decision framework for the irrigation-media stack — uneven canopy, EC drift, hydrophobic channeling, algae, and lockout — that separates a plumbing problem from a chemistry problem from a steering problem, tuned for coco and rockwool.
Most 'nutrient problems' are irrigation problems wearing a costume
The leaf tells you something is wrong; it rarely tells you which layer failed. A tip-burned, uneven, chlorotic canopy can originate in the plumbing (uneven emitters), the chemistry (salt creep, pH drift), or the steering (drybacks too deep, runoff too low). Diagnosing in the wrong layer wastes a crop. This lesson is a decision framework: read the root-zone data backward from symptom to root cause, in the order that isolates the fastest.
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