Neew and in need of help

[sfttailpaul]

Thank you for even reading this.
I am experimenting with plants grown via Hydroponics (soil-less and in water) and the assumption that when growing plants in mother earth, a plant is "grounded" to the earth via their roots. When growing Hydroponically, there is no "connection" to earth. I want to run electrodes (12 ga. solid wire) into the root structure of Hydroponically grown vegetables and then tie them to the ground of a (USA) 120VAC system. My concern is that of trickle voltage that could run back from the house ground into the plants destroying them (electrocution).
Can someone please show me a simple method to create a one-way path from the plant to ground so that nothing can come back from ground to the plant? Nothing exotic, just something simple and oh yes, affordable too...
I would be most grateful. I assume that the actual voltage potential would be low but have to be capable of a spike or anything the current system has to offer. I am in California and at the mercy of PGE, the most unstable system in the country.
I thank you in advance...

[pebe]

I don't understand what you are trying to do. Random ground currents will give rise to varying voltages at points separated along the ground. By connecting your hydroponics water to an AC mains ground some distance away you will be bringing its voltage potential to your local water. If you stand on the ground and touch a plant in that water there will be a voltage difference between that plant and you. The result will be that a small current will flow. Isn't that what you are trying to avoid?

You would do better if you fitted a grounding pin near the hydroponics and connected to it a wire that hung into the water. Everything would then be at the same voltage.

[sfttailpaul]

Pebe,
Thank you for your reply. I was trying to avoid a diatribe when describing my theory.
What I want to do is use 12 ga. solid wire (stripped off insulation) used as the electrode that goes into the plants root mass (and thus the nutrient solution-highly conductive also), then connect all these individual electrodes together and run this into the ground terminal of a 120VAC household receptacle. My concern is the voltage that can be present there feeding back into the plant's electrodes causing certain death (?), so I was thinking that some form of a blocking circuit or a one-way safety or diode to block the "back feed" if it is ever present (shouldn't be but have seen it this way in the past). I don't know what I am doing and just might be worrying about nothing but don't want to see months of hard work, time and money go up in smoke.
I have seen some research on this subject (grounding plants that aren't in the ground) butt cannot find anything like what I am describing above.
I thank you again for your time and help.
Sincerely,
Paul

[pebe]

You missed my point entirely. I suggested that instead of grounding to the local electricity supply, you should ground your hydroponics with a wire that had one end dipped into the water and the other end connected to a grounding spike in the ground beside your plants.

In that way, everything - the water, your plants, the ground, and you - would all be at the same voltage and no current would flow anywhere. So there would be no need for any device to block it.

[sfttailpaul]

Thank you. I certainly missed your first point but finally, this round, I "got it" that's an easy one, again thank you.
Paul