Hi all ! Welcome to another update of the analog version of Space Vegetables.
Fruits and Vegetables
With the summer almost here and the sun shinning brighter and brighter every day, the fruits are starting to grow.
The Bell peppers are growing more and more each day and there's also tomatoes (if not mistaken, they're of the cherry variety) ! 
Problems
Since last weekend (or probably earlier), I noted that the water levels were getting low from week to week. It couldn't all be due to evaporation, since the reservoir has a lid and the temperature is still not that hot. So, what could it be ? Monday, my wife call me and said that the vegetables were having a leak and water was all over the place. I told her to turn off the pump and when I get home I would look in to it.
Water leakage
Every time the pump started working, a few minutes later water would overflow from the holes and start falling into the ground. But it wasn't just a bit, but a lot. Not a steady flow, but a lot of drops, enough to almost fill a 20L bucket in time (20m) the pump was active.
Because it was a week day, I didn't have the time to search for the cause and I did what I could to remedy it and don't let all the water (and nutrients) go to waste . Like a band-aid, I put 3 reservoirs beneath the tubes to get the water and every day when I arrived home, I would empty them by putting the water back into the main reservoir and in the weekend I would try to find the cause and fix it.
(un)expected problem
Came this weekend and was time to find the problem and fix it. By trial and error (viewing the tubes interior and moving the water drain from tube to tube and see if water falls to the reservoirs beneath) I was able to isolate the problem to the last tube.
And why wasn't the water flowing like the rest of the tubes causing the levels to rise and overflow ?
Well, it turns out (and you probably already figured it out) the roots of a bell pepper plant grew so big that they start to cause a blockage in the tube. The water is flowing through, but not fast enough, causing it to rise on all the other tubes. This is the biggest plant I have - from the bottom of the stem if spawns 3 other branches. No wonder its roots are big and strong.
Bypass
I did try to create a bypass - inserting a tube by the roots to help the water flow faster.
Time to try the pump again and see if it worked.
It did help a bit, but not enough. Water was still raising and overflowing, but not like before. So, I put the water pump setting on the minimum and the water stopped overflowing. It does raise a bit, but still inside the tubes. I've set a bit more of time in the timer for the pump to compensate for the decrease on the pump power.
And, let's wait for the bell peppers to grow more and the tomatoes.
Happy week all !
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