Indoor Head Start

[Gerardo]

Beautiful. Dwarfs look healthy and strong. Dwarfs take fertigation like champs, even while others are crying ouch it burns.

Rosella P is impressive, I hope many of those flowers go the distance. Hearty fruit.
SScarlet has beautiful leaves. Did you get a chance to taste the big one from earlier posts?
Wild Fred tasted pretty good to me, and was quite productive, enough to merit more plants.

Hope the regular indet catch up.

[Nematode]

PH looks like they are getting pushed pretty hard.
Im no pro, but when they are super dark and the tips hook under I back off on the N or EC a little. I have noticed they can have trouble setting fruit. These were heirloom indeterminates.

[PureHarvest]

Yeah, I posted on a thread in General Disc. titled Rosella Purple Production.

I gave it 8 out of 10.

Good strong tomato flavor and baalnce of sweet and acid. But not as sweet as I would have thought.

Spudleaf is early and a workhorse so far compared to the other 8 types I have.

Loxton lad looks like it is gonna be a machine too, along with rosella.

[PureHarvest]

Originally Posted by Nematode

PH looks like they are getting pushed pretty hard.
Im no pro, but when they are super dark and the tips hook under I back off on the N or EC a little. I have noticed they can have trouble setting fruit. These were heirloom indeterminates.

The chemgro schedule calls for 1500 ppm where I am right now, but I am only at 1375.

But I hear what you are saying.
The fruit set is good and is happening on all varieties and plants. First two trusses have set on most and the 3rd truss is in bloom.
The plants are nowhere near as dark green as my dwarfs, but something still seems amiss. New growth is hooking down.
The Black Beauty really took a beating from wind and are stringy as heck, but are loaded with flowers and small fruit.
The Delicious, Pierce's Pride, and Paul Robeson have nice fruit set, but the plants are not as lush as the indeterminates I grew last year nor as dark green.

I am due for a plain water flush and will do that tomorrow.

I am most likely gonna back off the chemgro and cal nitrate on my next tank to see what happens.

[Nematode]

Plain water flush can be hard on them, and can ruin fruits. Just make sure there is some runoff each day, 10-30% of the feed amount. That will prevent salt buildup.
You can put a pan under one or 2 pots to check.
Tip burn is the real give away that ec is too high, if they are setting fruit, you should be ok.

[Ricky Shaw]

Looks good all in all PH, and that leaf roll is something I get here a lot. The big beef almost always, still produce, but look weak.

So this flush, tell me, how often you flush? And just a clear rinse?

[Nematode]

BTW they do look good.

[PureHarvest]

duplicate post

[PureHarvest]

Hydro gardens tomato manual says to flush the lines periodically with plain water to keep stuff from building up. That is what I meant. I also let the spray stakes get flushed out too, which obviously sprays a little water into the bags.
When I run my solution, I do make sure some is coming out the bottom.
I do need to do a better job measuring run off and testing the EC of the run off.
If the run off EC is 30% higher than the input EC, then salts are accumulating and running plain water is recommended.
Because I have not been doing that, I feel that doing a little periodioc line and spray stake flush isn't a bad thing.
But measuring runoff would be the way to roll.
I guess that is the time challenge when this is a part time gig.
Thanks for all the comments guys, and a good reminder about runoff EC, nematode. I will measure tomorrow.

[PureHarvest]

Nematode, I don't have any tip burn.
And all my fruit are hard green right now.
But point well taken. They won't be green forever.
Time to measure runoff EC.
I thought about putting a pan under a bag of two, but what keeps the bag from wicking the solution back up before you get out there at the end of the day to measure?

[clkeiper]

Pureharvest, your tomatoes look fabulous. I was wondering how high is your structure, though? How tall do you let your tomatoes grow before dropping the lines?

[Nematode]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

Nematode, I don't have any tip burn.
And all my fruit are hard green right now.
But point well taken. They won't be green forever.
Time to measure runoff EC.
I thought about putting a pan under a bag of two, but what keeps the bag from wicking the solution back up before you get out there at the end of the day to measure?

You can set the bags on something non wicking in the pan, flat stones, upside down pie pan...tripod of upside down coffee cups, you get the idea.
I haven't read the HG manual, and wouldn't want to advise you against anything in it.
Dont let me put you off your game, the plants look good, was just making an observation that some look close to their limit on nute strength, and if they werent setting well, or had some tip burn, backing off (especially N) slightly or checking for adequate runoff might be a benefit. Your plants look better than mine so consider the source

[PureHarvest]

CL, thanks.
My tunnel is 12' at the center peak, but the outside rows of plants only have about 6-8 feet.
Basically you could grow as high as you feel like climbing. However, once you harvest the lowest truss of fruit, you remove the leaves below where that truss was and then lower the plant. Typically the lower truss is finishing about when you should see the plant top get 6-8 up to the string.
My set up is not ideal for the center 2 rows because my spools are so high up. I will have to use a tall step ladder. But, lowering is not a daily or weekly chore, so no biggie.
Between suckering, trellis clipping, removing leaves after harvest,and eventually lowering plants, I was very interested to see what yields I could get with dwarfs to reduce all that labor.
I enjoy it, but my time is not endless.
If I could do this full time, then the yield potential of the full size plants would justify the labor.

[PureHarvest]

Nematode I appreciate your input because you seem to have taken the time to learn this stuff too. And hydro gardens have been doing this forever but they are not God, so I do not discount opinions that contradict them.
I am no expert either lol
Just trying to figure out as I go
The dwarf plants make me feel and look like a professional.
The full size, not so much. But the season is still young.
I think part of the problem is that I am lacking a little patience with production and maybe not perceiving them fairly.

[PureHarvest]

Nema, u might enjoy reading some of this:

http://esquibb.com/wp-content/upload...matoManual.pdf