Hydroponics

pickles7, Feb 17, 6:59am
What are you growing at the moment!.
I am clearing out my glass house, getting it ready to grow lettuce spring onions, cucumbers. I have those growing now, I am working around them.
tomatonut, Feb 17, 7:14am
Second round of Taupo tomato's and cukes.
Chives.
Just remember if you are growing lettuce in the same nutrient to lower the CF as they don't like it to be as strong.
Regards.
Rosco
pickles7, Feb 17, 1:22pm
ok, I only run 1 pump, that will be why they have been a bit bitter.I have just put another 2 gullies in on the other side of the glass house, and may have to look at another pump. It is a fun way to grow, and fast. Bugs are not as big a problem, as they are in the soil. I grew chili one year, I could have supplied India with them.
pickles7, Mar 14, 10:50am
I have flowers on my cucumber plants in my green house. I have not bothered with them before but thought if they grew well I will grow gherkins early spring in there using a hydroponic system, warming the nutrients, using DEEP WATER CULTURE.So far I am very pleased.
trader_84, Mar 14, 1:18pm
Got a pic of your setup, pickles!
pickles7, Mar 15, 8:31am
gee I am unsure now as to the fruits, I have counted 3 telegraph cuc's and still the 2 apple, today. I am amazed at how fast things are coming along. I have found the telegraph cuc's on the side runners. It is the first time I have grown them. I am wishing now I planted the gherkins.
nico606, Mar 15, 10:20am
I'm growing 4 varieties of tomatos in an NFT system. Just given them a dose of ripening formula to get them finished so I can start on a winter crop, just got to find the right variety to grow over winter.
I've grown many types of plants in hydro, its amazing how fast they grow once they get going, actually ends up being a bit of a mess as I cant keep up with pruning after a while most of the time.
I grew tobacco last year in a deep water culture system, worked really well, very easy to do and a very inexpensive system to make. I also grew some strawberries in a DWC system a couple years ago, they were the best strawberries I've ever grown.
Wish I had a bigger area to work with, there is so much I would like to do hydroponically, so many variations of different systems to try out.
I have a friend that grows in an aeroponic system, his stems and roots get so big his wick pots end up being destroyed.
I also use a variation of DWC for getting clones to root, I've found this to be the most successful cloning method.
pickles7, Mar 15, 10:45am
Nice pics, your glass house is huge, mine is only good for 10 buckets on one side. I will put 4 gullies on the other side and run two pumps for different crops.
I suspended the inner pots from the roof of the glass house so the bottoms of the pots would be about 5 cm above the bottom of the nutrient bucket, and have something to tie the vines to. I started with the growing pots 2 cm in the solution, now that the roots are well into the nutrients I am lifting the pots up a bit. Not ideal but it started out an experiment, I am finding it easier to deal to, than the gullies. I have had a rather large set up before but as like you, I discovered the nutrients for one crop are not the best for another. No one want 60 lettuces at once lol.
I have been feeding the cucumbers with fresh nutrients each week and topping up with water as required between changes. I do test, and found the nutrients were getting a bit too strong, the plants are take up more water. So far the nutrients are crystal clear, roots are white and clean , something I was always fighting using the gullies. Emptying the buckets will get harder as the plants grow larger, I am thinking of a 12 volt shower pump would be ideal.
trader_84, Mar 15, 11:23am
Pickles, what power requirements does your system currently require! I mean in terms of pumps/air stone etc. How big are your pump(s)! I'm just being a noseybody, lol! We have only got one of the small tables up and running at the moment and its using a 30W pump and a 25W air stone. I know exactly how much we are paying per kWh and how many of them are used during a 31 day period. it follows I know how much we are obtaining a lettuce for . and smirk when I see them at Countdown. I ask out of interest only.
trader_84, Mar 15, 11:38am
We've got a reasonably sized Tunnelhouse that is for the most part - empty. We are lazy arsed gardeners. We sorta have these 'do this do that' sorta moments . then longgggggg (and frequent, haha!) periods of 'do nothing' I used to be anal about getting the mix right also - but not no more though. Lettuce at around 12 or so works best for us but . most of the time its anywhere between 8 and 20, lol! We do alright. How many days does it take you to get a lettuce of a normal size - say equivalent in size to Pak'n'Saves. I've found the best mix of nutrient to be stuff from Otaki Hydroponics. I've got nothing to do with them - just saying.
pickles7, Mar 15, 11:44am
nico606. I am wanting to get a few tomatoes going as well, my Husband thinks the smaller tomatoes may be better, I have some seed, may get some in later, nothing ventured nothing gained. I know what you are saying re. plants going wild. lol.I had chillies growing for two years until the roots blocked the gullies, they took up every available space. I have had a big gully system,I now think small and do it well, keep it fun not a chore.
Tobacco would have taken up a lot of space, poison to other plants.and to us.I am a "HAS BEEN a smoker". I grew my own as well once but the trouble to get a good tasting ciggy was not worth it.
I like the look of the aeroponic system, looks safe unless the pump fails, like the gullies, arrrrgh, had a few of those, no kiss of life for the plants, hence the need to try another system.
DWC for getting clones to root, sounds like a goer, can you please give us a detailed way to try or a you tube clip, I would surely give it a go.
What sort of space have you got! if you want a glass house think of buying the plastic from Mega mart, and some lengths of PVC pipe, do the half round. I did that and had a solid bottom from my waist down once worked a treat.
pickles7, Mar 15, 11:50am
lol I am not using a pump at the moment but will buy a shower one to empty the buckets rather than spend out for tubing grommets etc. right now we can pick the cuc's up and empty the buckets but another week or two and that will be very difficult. I do run an air pump during the day. Last time I did hydro p I did not notice a hike in the power, that was running a pump and air pump continually.
nico606, Mar 15, 12:22pm
Pickles, I know what you mean about tobacco not tasting that good (unless your prepared go to alot of trouble), this was one of the factors of me giving up. I could have cured and flavored it properly, but then I'd probably be still smoking, would be hard to give up if its free and tastes good.
The cloner.I just use a piece of NFT gully, I put it on its side, drill a few holes that the stems will fit into, put an airstone in the gully, attach to pump, seal both ends of gully with end caps, fill with water and turn airpump on. Took me about a week to get roots on my chilli cutting, about 3 days for all my tomato cuttings.
Would be easy to do something similiar with buckets, you would just need a lid for the bucket that you can drill holes into for your stems to go into and maintain the water level.
Just google rapid cloner or bubble cloner for other variations.
The thing I like about these types of systems is you can maintain the right temperature with a water heater and you can choose to use rockwool or just bare stems depending on the system.
pickles7, Mar 15, 12:38pm
lolyou'r not short of feed then . offer her the best cut.
pickles7, Mar 15, 12:54pm
re smoking;
you and me both, probably be still smoking, would be hard to give up if its free and tastes good. I got one lot tasting real nice, but, only one. I decided to drink the rum and stop smoking.
I will give the cuttings a go, I have a very small pump be good for that. I made up some Willow tree tea for cuttings,really did not think it was going to work and it didn't.
I have the cucumbers in potting mix darn it, too late to take them out now I fear, I have 2 crappy looking plants I could try 1 of those.
pickles7, Mar 15, 3:44pm
wow! What a great lot of tomatoes. I did not see them before. I am up to that challenge for sure.
trader_84, Mar 15, 4:01pm
Haha! Pickles - you don't want to be. Reading the above posts I think we have all had similar experiences to some extent. 60 lettuces in one go - yep been there a few times. When we had those big tables humming along . we had those sorts of quantities coming on line that everybody that visited left here with lettuce and tomatoes. If they didn't want any we told them we'd be offended, haha! The real winners were the moo moo's in the back paddock. They absolutely love lettuce :))) Bit of a waste though. Re the tomatoes . we started to keep them pruned but in the end gave up and let them take over everything. What a bastardo of a task to clean them up. They choked the small sized gullies that much that the water just about refused to flow - really. When we finally pulled them all the root system came out in one piece and was rectangle in shape . we had to chop the plants off as close to the roots as possible so when the root system was pulled out the end of the gullie - the stems just needed poking down as they passed the holes. Long story short - never again tomatoes in small gullies. They would have done the same in the 150,mm gullies also i reckon. I reckon (here we go, lol!) I reckon that 2 or 3 decent tomatoe plants in large NFT buckets would be the go. But yeah . just our experience. But heaps of tomatoes though, aye! Haha! :)))
pickles7, Apr 18, 11:01pm
lol,sounded like my chillies, same family. I haven't been bothered with tomatoes as my Husband likes to grow them. This year he didn't, so I will throw a few different seeds in and take pot luck with them over winter.