AKMARK, RickyShaw, other MasterBlend, FloraNova users - AKMAR

[Ricky Shaw]

I had not grown in containers until this year. Admittedly I do have some gardening experience, but this container stuff offers a higher chance of success than anything I've seen. And it's simple as 1-2-3, just figure how many pots you want.

1. get you 3, 15gal fabric pots at megastore greenhouse
2. and a bag of ProMix HP from a garden center
3. then some chemgro 4-18-38, mag sulafte, cal nitrate from Hydro-Gardens Inc

[Ricky Shaw]

I mix in 55gal drums and hand water, because I enjoy carrying 2 gal watering cans to individual plants till I'm senseless.

[PureHarvest]

Here is where I was getting the issue:
Seedling plants: Conductivity 1200ppm + source water
( 1.60 mhos + source water)

When I set my Hanna to PPM, the number would be like 8-900. If I switched it to EC, it was low too. I used the rates on the package and triple checked the weights of each ingredient etc.

I will check my notes tonight to tell you exactly what I was getting.

[Ricky Shaw]

I believe the Hanna's are set to .5 conversion from the factory. So a reading of 800ppm should be 1600 millisiemen on the EC setting.

We may have the same Hanna, check it out, we can compare later.

[PureHarvest]

My EC readout must be in Mhos because it is usually a decimal like 1.2 or 1.5

[AKmark]

Pure Harvest, change your meter to 0.74 for your conversion for HG's mix and recommendation, then your PPM and EC will match.
This is the formula (PPM/ EC = conversion) (EC X conversion = PPM)

[AKmark]

These were grown with FN grow, it works decent too.

[Ricky Shaw]

What about taste you say. Two of my varieties placed in the top ten of the Boulder Taste of Tomato Festival this year, and Mark's built a livelihood on selling to restaurants and at market. My ancient neighbor, who's taught me so much about gardening, thinks they taste better than his grown in the ground. I'm just saying these are delicious tomatoes, if there were any question.

[Rajun Gardener]

When do you chop the bottom leaves and how often. I notice if I leave them on the plant they grow crazy big so I chop them but is there a proper time to do this.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by AKmark

These were grown with FN grow, it works decent too.

Yes, that is decent - lol. I'd be thrilled with 25% of that.

Mark / Ricky - So you feed every time you water? Do you ever just water to flush?

Rajun - Do you use the dutch buckets outside? Any pictures?

[AKmark]

Rajun, when a truss begins to ripen pop the leaves off, and keep doing it as each truss starts to ripen. Now in the South, you may need to keep them on a bit longer because of sunscald, I cannot answer that, so I am assuming it may be beneficial.
Barb, every time I water, you can flush once in a while. I start off a season watering until a small amount leaches out, as the summer progresses I water less per time, but never let them dry out, the taste can be exceptional.
Ricky mentioned taste regarding a question. SUPERIOR is what comes to mind. It may be because we can give a plant exactly what it wants since the media is not full of anything besides beneficial bacteria, and we measure everything, every time.

[Ricky Shaw]

Yes, it's nutrient enriched water every time. In perspective, this is a weak solution that is meant to supply the plants needs only till the next watering. Ideally, cutting down on deposits and salts building up in the media.

More perspective, a friend's well water deemed drinkable in neighboring Weld County, has dissolved solids at 2800 millisiemens. The nutrient mix I feed the plants is 2000 millisiemens.

I'ved used up the last of the Floranova and had been totally on the ChemGro since August. Buying the 25lb sack, and including the price of Cal and Mag the mix costs me 3 cents a gallon. I'm close to the shipping point and that helps, but anyone should be able to do this for under 7 cents gal.

Two-thirds of that glass with a mix of the three products for a 55gal drum, and it works great on petunias.

[Rajun Gardener]

Barb, I use the dutch buckets in the greenhouse in winter only but I want to try them outside this coming season. I did put a tutorial up with all the parts to build the system and it has a few pictures. http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=40938

AKmark thanks for that tip. I've been randomly clipping the leaves off when they get too big just to keep the plant clean. They seem to grow so fast it's hard to keep them trimmed especially the suckers.

[AKmark]

This is a decent article on flavor, and I can also say I agree with much of it. I have grown tomatoes for 25 years in AK under various conditions and also used many different methods, in garden, raised beds, different media's, temps, many controls. The method I use currently is not just because I want to do it that way, they are the best methods I have ever used, based on results, yield and FLAVOR. Anyway, this is worth looking at, you can also look at the older studies.
http://ucanr.edu/sites/nm/files/76647.pdf

[newgardener_tx]

What is the volume of your glass? I want to figure out how much each salt to add to the 55 gal drum. Thanks.

[/QUOTE]Two-thirds of that glass with a mix of the three products for a 55gal drum, and it works great on petunias.[/QUOTE]