Nematode's not yet epic Hydroponic thread

[brengolio]

Wow
How nice
I pulled all my plants up a week ago
Now I have to wait till the fall



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[brengolio]

Nematode
What kind of tomato is that on the bottom right, below the green tomato?

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[Nematode]

The pale one with the protrusion is Fish Lake.
A very tasty heart type. That one got picked early for some reason.

[bower]

They look mighty fine, Nematode!
Garlic is looking super cool as well... whoda thunk you could grow garlic hydroponically?! I'm simply amazed...

[Nematode]

Originally Posted by bower

They look mighty fine, Nematode!
Garlic is looking super cool as well... whoda thunk you could grow garlic hydroponically?! I'm simply amazed...

The pine shavings are hit or miss.
Garlic in coir bags had smaller tops and larger bulbs.
Not a fair test actially, all the garlic got hand watered with nutrient solution but not very much of it. Actually was shocked to get full sized bulbs from the garlic in coir.

[Ricky Shaw]

I thought you were down and out with herbicide damage. You got some good maters there brother!

[dokutaaguriin]

Thank-you very sharing your pics! Beautiful.
Jeff, very envious of your haul.

[Nematode]

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

I thought you were down and out with herbicide damage. You got some good maters there brother!

They pulled through OK, better than last year.
Lots of odd shaped small fruits, who knows if its cold catfacing or herbicide damage or wet feet or too much N, but there are bigger ones T'd up and ready to ripen off.

[Nematode]

My hydro system for better or worse, uses relatively small amounts of grow media, with frequent small (5-10 times per day)irrigations of nutrient solution. To prevent salt build up, a small amount of nutrient solution is flushed through each day as a result of the feedings.

This creates a need for media with a relatively high air filled porosity or AFP to prevent water logging.
Perlite has very high AFP I think 50-70%, but very low water holding capacity.
It wicks ok, so is ideal for containers with a reservoir, like Bato buckets.
This is good because it will work with a variety of plant sizes ant types on the same feed system.
Peppers and tomato can be on the same feed valve with no problems.


A small scale test last season showed that riococo 200 grow bags work ok for tomato and cucumber.

This year it looks like the 200 series is a little too wet, tomatoes are a little smaller than they should be and there is some BER. Not bad really, but I am sure they could be better.
Peppers are completely unhappy in this media and require manual intervention to keep them alive.(let them dry out to wilt stage weekly)
Cucumbers, melons, and asian eggplant seem to love the wetter media, they didn't do as well in perlite.

Riococo 300 is a drier media, and one I will try in 2017


Media. AFP
200. 10%
300. 25%

Pro mix 23%
Metro mix 19%

Clay loams 3-11%
Well structured loams 10-15%

http://hortamericas.com/wp-content/u...Properties.jpg

[AKmark]

Looking good Nematode, enjoy the many fruits.

[Nematode]

Hydroponic sweet potatoes.
Pine shaving media.
Will try again under better conditions.
These were too many slips in the bucket, shaded and run a little too dry for half the season due to blocked emitter.
Curing now.