I am one of the many who has suffered from their plants dampening off and I am sick of it. I was thinking of making some changes to the lid to help. I want to add 2 inches to the lid to raise it up. My buddies who grow in 5 gallon buckets have the water level much lower/further from the growing medium than the grobo and never experience dampening off. I would simply glue 2” white plastic strips and tape them in place at the corners. I feel the 2 extra inches of clearance would go a long way preventing dampening off. Thoughts?
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I would wonder about debris falling into the DWC reservoir since there would be a gap from the spacer? That also would mean that light could be reflected into the water tank which would be bad.
Doesn’t the new basket design + lid sit higher?
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The new lid sits the same as the last one except the peat pod just sent as long so doesn’t go as far down. I have the peat pods and am still seeing dampening off.
As far as light leakage, no. I would simply make the flat lid more like a box, adding the 2 inches to the side walls only. Hard to explain I guess. No extra debris would fall, just make a flat lid into a raised lid with walls so no light would enter and the extra clearance over the reservoir may prevent the dampening is all I am thinking.
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Been thinking about this as well. I’m wondering if the problem could be solved by drilling holes into the plastic on the bottom of the portion that holds the coco, allowing for a little air flow onto the coco from the air gap in the reservoir - like a net cup.
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After experimenting with the new peat pods I can honestly say that if you do not suffer from damping down you are very lucky. I found that the peat pods stay WAY TOO SATURATED, and I have had 2 seeds that stopped growing as soon as the tap root broke out of the seed shell.
I don’t see this being resolved by starting in the Start either. The peat pods are literally more absorbent than a sponge.
From here on out I will be using FloraFlex’s new 40/40 incubator plugs. I have 3 going right now that I started in the FF plugs. Not trying to act as a salesman, just pointing out an alternative to the peat pods and the normal Grobo coco pods, which also retain way too much water.
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You can pull your pod up so that the only thing that is exposed beneath the lids are the roots.
I pull my pod up all the way up so that the lid ends up acting as a splash shield. As long as the roots are in the water, you should be able to pull the pod up much higher to avoid it from getting wet.
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The problem is no one should have to do this. Your response just makes me feel more and more like there is a serious design issue with the machines.
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Sorry did not mean to offend you @VermontGrobo, was trying to toss my 2 cents to help out the conversation here 
Not offended, just pointing out that people shouldn’t have to do something like this. I have personally tried adjusting the height of my coco pods with the same results. I can only see the issue being worse with the peat pods due to their absorbency that surpasses that of Shamwow.
I just began this last plant in the Start and it grew amazingly. Beautiful roots and the bottom leaves didn’t die in the first couple weeks like they always did in the Grobo. I did see some dampening off in the Start until I removed the wick. Wick removal needs to happen as soon as the roots meet the water. I transplanted it to the Grobo and it continues to flourish. I do have a fan in the plant and I have not seen any further signs of dampening off. Like I said before, I lost 6 plants in a row to dampening off so I know it very well. Don’t give up yet
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@Wake,
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(I Was Playing Around With Heightening The Pod As Well): (I’m Still Not Finished With The Consept Of Heightening The Start Too):
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@Wake,
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(Please Share With Us Your Outcome As Well): {
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Not what I was thinking but you are trying to accomplish the same goal. Let us know how it turn out.
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