We Love Hydroponics

[Meerkat]

Been using this system for about 4 or 4 years now and it is really great. I had pics on photobucket [ refuse to pay ransom to the 'imo' crooks ] 6 tomato plants exact same size and age. Kept 3 in containers and 3 in hydroponic buckets. 2 weeks later hydros were almost 3 times the size.

 

[Meerkat]

This guy is so easy to understand and really knows his hydroponics. He is where we learned how to use this system.

We had problem with something not sure what it was, but we learned you can take a whole lot of leaves off tomato plants and still grow lots of tomatoes. Last week I stripped a couple of the transplants down a good bit still doing fine and have blooms on them. The ones I grew from seeds are fine and so far no surgery on them.

 

[Meerkat]

Planted these first week in Nov..

Our GH in 2015

 

[Meerkat]

Taken today of reservoir squash and roots.

 

[Meerkat]

Tomatoes today.

 

[Meerkat]

Just left GH and temp is already below 50. Going down fast, so have heat in there and rearranged plants and closed off over half of GH ,divided it with polyurethane. So maybe save some. Tomatoes stopped blooming since cold snap for last week .
Should have put on second poly wrap early now not able. NEVER put off till tomorrow what you can do today . Tomorrow you may not be able. .Now I have frost bit hands and strained back lifting all the plants some 40 lb.s or more.

 

[Meerkat]

Easy GH, this is the one we did first several yr.s ago.


This should save us on heat and condensation. Too bad we didn't do this a couple months ago when we redid the plastic poly. Tonight it will be about 22F and that is not good. We have space heater in GH now.

 

[Meerkat]

Took this pic 20 minutes ago. Planted these in Nov. today is Dec.20th,2017.

After going thru 2 hrd freezes we somehow managed to save this squash. Now weather is like late spring in the low 80s and high 70s. Very unusual even for N.Florida .
Ordered heater for GH. Propane was ridiculous, 4- 20 lb. tanks cost $60.Either that or throw away all 110 plants.

These are in hydro reservours. Using pebbles for medium.

Below is broccoli planted same time early Nov.

 

[Meerkat]

Toms, planted Nov. In hydroponic buckets using Master Blend but may change to Canna, 2 of these are store bought transplants , res we started from seeds. Ours is so much better than store bought. We grew first in container using compost only for nutrients then transplanted to hydro buckets this week. . They also took the freeze better than store bought.

 

[idragrace]

Many years ago I raised tomatoes in a modified hydroponic system with about 1600 plants. Would like a lot more technical information on how your system works and what improvements have been made since 1975 to 1985. The tomato seeds we used were special varieties from Holland with excellent taste and a normal shelf life of about 2 weeks with out refrigeration.
This was a very busy time in life but enjoyed every minute. By the way those are good looking tomatoes.

 

[Meerkat]

This was taken about 3 maybe 4 years ago when we set back up hydros in new greenhouse. We had them in a leanto that was half this size.

edit

 

[Meerkat]

This was our first year using hydros. I think it was 3 years not sure.

 

[Meerkat]

Many years ago I raised tomatoes in a modified hydroponic system with about 1600 plants. Would like a lot more technical information on how your system works and what improvements have been made since 1975 to 1985. The tomato seeds we used were special varieties from Holland with excellent taste and a normal shelf life of about 2 weeks with out refrigeration.
This was a very busy time in life but enjoyed every minute. By the way those are good looking tomatoes.

I put up pics from a site I didn't want to lose so now I can answer your questions.

We use simple formula for hydros. Master Blend or Canna are two we use. We stuck with master blend because of price. Plus it works good as you can see in our photos, but so does Canna..

We use pea gravel in net pots . sometimes put rocks to hold down water lines, we used lava rocks cause they were here.
On reservoir we use food grade vinyl but in beginning we used poly plastic for liner. Air stones with pump.
I found a good place to order from if it is still up. I'll have to look it up.

 

[Meerkat]

Best place I found for supplies is AlliedAqua. You may find a better place but that one is where we bought most supplies.
They sell live fish too and aquaponic. We tried aquaponics but too much work keeping water clear and finding a non toxic chealating for iron, most use copper and not even sure you need it at all. But that is what they tell us.

I forgot where we bought it but BLT is one that came up just to give you idea about food grade liners. They are NOT CHEAP! Look around to find best price. Start off with 4 mil poly if you want to see if water growing is right for you.plastic


We tried growing everything in hydro here are some nice hot peppers we grew in buckets.




I like pea gravel because it is easy to sterilize, never has to be replaced and works great for meduim in net pots.

 

[Meerkat]

Setting up hydro,

We like dark buckets to keep water clear. We had white food grade but will need to cover them .

 

[Meerkat]

A good idea to keep seedlings warm in cold weather. Outside string lights under the water proof containers.



This took us a couple years to set up Gh and slowly buy materials for the system. We waste a lot of time on aquaponics because we just were not set up for it and so we gave away fish and went hydro. Aquaponics work really great for some people though. Here in Fl. the water just gets too hot to keep clear. Also we could not grow food for the fish and didn't want to buy fish meal.

 

[idragrace]

Does your fertilizer solution feed through the pea gravel continuous or does it alternate with clear water? Is the fertilizer solution recycled through the pots and if so how do you maintain the proper concentration? If it is not recycled what do you do with the excess?
In our operation 5gal plastic bags with drain holes were used for the containers. The media was an equal mixture of peat moss vermiculite and pearl lite which held the fertilizer solution ( which was very dilute) so the only time the plants got watered was when the soil dried. Any excess just went into the greenhouse floor.
Have you had any insect problems and if so how do you take care of the critters?
If these questions do not make sense please feel free to question the questions.

 

[Meerkat]

Does your fertilizer solution feed through the pea gravel continuous or does it alternate with clear water? Is the fertilizer solution recycled through the pots and if so how do you maintain the proper concentration? If it is not recycled what do you do with the excess?
In our operation 5gal plastic bags with drain holes were used for the containers. The media was an equal mixture of peat moss vermiculite and pearl lite which held the fertilizer solution ( which was very dilute) so the only time the plants got watered was when the soil dried. Any excess just went into the greenhouse floor.
Have you had any insect problems and if so how do you take care of the critters?
If these questions do not make sense please feel free to question the questions.

It is on a timer and it feeds continuously. It comes on 8 times in 24 hr period. No clear water. When we add as much water to it as you ddi to make the first solution then you should change it and add new water and new fertilizer. This happens about every couple months. According to weather, in hot weather or evaporation plus what plants drink. About every 10 to 14 weeks.
Our water stays in system all teh time, it never drains except into the pipes then back into the reservoir that hold the fertilizer solution. Go look at the pics above it may show a little.
We have no insect problems I have picked off a couple catapillars with hands and just threw them out. But we don't and never have used any kind of pest control. No critters either. Dog guards ' HER ' GH. She loves to go check on it.

In the reservoir we don't circulate like buckets, we have air stones and pump for that on timer. Same thing when it evaporates we put more water fertilizer when it gets low. When you add as much water as you intially put in then change it.

 

[idragrace]

This system is a lot more efficient than what we used. How many months do you grow the tomatoes before they are replaced with a new crop?

 

[skittles]

@idragrace
Cardinal Farms in South Sioux City runs hydroponics and they replace their tomatoes every year around the 1st of January.

 

[Meerkat]

This system is a lot more efficient than what we used. How many months do you grow the tomatoes before they are replaced with a new crop?

They keep producing till the heat starts affecting them, we add shade cloth and they are ok till usually around last of May early June. We grow mostly heirlooms never hybrids.
If you start seed in August inside they are ready to put out in late Sept. but have to keep cooled with fan and shade till weather cools.This year we got a late start. Plus had a couple hard freezes which always stopped the blooming.
Tomatoes like it between 60 low 85 high.

 

[Meerkat]

@idragrace
Cardinal Farms in South Sioux City runs hydroponics and they replace their tomatoes every year around the 1st of January.

They have theirs climate controlled. We can't afford that kind of system.

 

[Meerkat]

Also we tried organic for hydro. The smell was not good so we went back to chemicals till we can find a better natural one. I was afriad of the bacteria on thing like lettuce and other raw type produce.
Of course they say [ whoever they is ] that these in Master Blend are the same ones we have used in farming for past 100 or more years.. All our containers are organic compost we make though.
And Canna hydro feritlizer was good too. Maybe check the one with best ingredients.

 

[Meerkat]

Talk about nutes aka nutrients.

We used this one a few years ago and it did good as any. But more expensive. I think price went down will see.
www.canna.com






Canna Nutes produced in the Nietherlands.
https://youtu.be/PRTGSD5XnVM

 

[Meerkat]

Our buckets only have pea gravel filled net pots. Buckets are totally empty. Water runs over roots through the lines every so often according to timer setting.


Our timer is great has worked for years now. Hydrocultural product. Hydrofarm. another place to buy hydro supplies, or Allied either one.

www.hydrofarm.com





This lettuce was the first plant we grew. We used Canna Fertilizer in beginning.

 

[skittles]

@Meerkat Nice pics!

I have the nets and the soil plugs sitting in the garage from a project I thought about messing with a few years ago. However I don't have a greenhouse yet. Need to save some money and get one built.

Kind of hard when my wife likes to eat out, and buy trinkets like cheap jewelry and water bottles. She gets mad because I ask her where she wants to eat all the time. I tell her "food IS food" and I don't give a flying crap. We have regular fights because "I don't make decisions in this house". Honey... I do make decisions you don't like them. I suggest buying the $5 box from Hardees 20 minutes away with a double cheeseburger and spicy chicken sandwich, small fry, small drink and cookie and she doesn't want that either.

If it was up to me I'd eat a couple different dishes, including slightly cooked potatoes with salsa cheese and sour cream, as well as ramen and mixed veggies on a fairly regular basis. She doesn't like either dish on a regular basis nor does she like to cook on a regular basis. Aggravating. I do cook breakfast pretty regularly though.

 

[Meerkat]

@Meerkat Nice pics!

I have the nets and the soil plugs sitting in the garage from a project I thought about messing with a few years ago. However I don't have a greenhouse yet. Need to save some money and get one built.

Kind of hard when my wife likes to eat out, and buy trinkets like cheap jewelry and water bottles. She gets mad because I ask her where she wants to eat all the time. I tell her "food IS food" and I don't give a flying crap. We have regular fights because "I don't make decisions in this house". Honey... I do make decisions you don't like them. I suggest buying the $5 box from Hardees 20 minutes away with a double cheeseburger and spicy chicken sandwich, small fry, small drink and cookie and she doesn't want that either.

If it was up to me I'd eat a couple different dishes, including slightly cooked potatoes with salsa cheese and sour cream, as well as ramen and mixed veggies on a fairly regular basis. She doesn't like either dish on a regular basis nor does she like to cook on a regular basis. Aggravating. I do cook breakfast pretty regularly though.

Hoop or plastic poly Gh are great and the cheapest way to go. That is what our is.
Can you make a leanto against your house? Check county codes. You need at least 6 hours of sun to grow food .

I just got my poly film delivered 20 minutes ago to replace roof and walls. . Found some GreenHouse oly at a great price. And it is really clear so we can see in and out of GH. Start off small and ad as you go. Good thing about hoop houses is you can add on forever.
i would not skimp on aireator or pump and timer, 3 most important to me.

all hydro pots, aireators, gromlets, etc.
www.AlliedAqua.com

www.hydrofarm.com


Below is where we got great deal on poly film covering

www.growerssupply.com

 

[Meerkat]

Just took this pictures to show yall inside bucket and reservoir. No medium inside buckets at all.

2 squash this size already, and several close. Will leave it till get a enough to cook a pot. Nit bad for late Dec.,huh?

 

[Terri9630]

This system is a lot more efficient than what we used. How many months do you grow the tomatoes before they are replaced with a new crop?

Tomatoes are perrineals, they will last for years if protected from the cold.

 

[Meerkat]

Tomatoes are perrineals, they will last for years if protected from the cold.

Thanks Terri. for the info. I know we put bell peppers in building one winter and they came back and really produced too. Didn't try toms yet.