My second system
 

Finally..... I got it going today. Only the outside plants are in it right now cuz it is way too hot to move them out there.

I still have a few things to do like add the air stones and hog panel that I'm gonna use as a trellis. I plan on wrapping both the resiviour and the tubes to help keep them cool. This is only a temp location until the green house gets built but it will do for now. The system gets early morning and mid day sun till about 3ish then it is shadded from the really hot part of the day. It is also protected from the winds we get here on the east side of the house.

I used 10' thin will pipe and now wish I would have just spent the extra $$ and went with regular PVC as this tends to bow. It makes it harder to get the water level correct. When I build the system GPSfrontier designed for me I will get regular pvc. I did not glue the joints and only have a very small leak at one of the joints thus far. The first two tubes have holes at 8" on center and the last two at 12" as I plan to grow larger plants like tomatos and peppers back there.

The system is continous flow using a 290 gpm pump I bought on-line for $9 plus free shipping. I regulate the water level by twisting the end cap that has the black tube to get the desired level. That way if the pump fails or the power goes out, there is still about 2.5"s of water in the tubes. I still need to wrap both the intake tube (it is clear) and the output tube to keep them cool and algee free. (See, I am learning lots from this site)

I am using a 50 gal rubermaid container as the resiviour right now. Not sure if this is a permenent thing as just yet as I can only put about 35 gal's in it before the sides start bulging out. But the larger volume really does help keep the temp more regulated. It is about 95 outside right now and the water is still cool to the touch.

I am not going to be able to move the squash plant into this system so I am already thinking on a ebb and flow system out of plastic 55 gal barrels that I picked up. I will probably end up moving the cantalope there also. I think I just need another pump and some more hydrodron.

Anyway, what do ya think?

So I got the plants put into the system last night around 9:30 after it cooled down to about 82 degrees. I added some twine for the plants to crawl up and wrapped the tubes to the system with some foam. I got the air stones in and going and so far (fingers crossed) they look good this am. One of the tomato plants might be in some shock but i will watch it till I have to go to work this afternoon. I put the lettuce in the system even though I don't think it will make it. Most of them are still laying over but they are growing. I just want to see what happens, but I think it will be too hot for them anyway. Thinking I might need some shade cloth, IDK. I ended up with lettuce, tomatos, peppers, zuchinni, beans, mini carrots and cantalope. Anyway second system done, up and going and now I'm thinking about the next one ;)

So ALL the flowers on both the squash and the cantalope are all male flowers, several of them. Is this normal? It has been about a week since they first flowered. I thought I would have at least one female by now.

So I am suffering from a sever lack of foresight. The cantalope have grown so much they are already clogging the pipes! So I'm gonna have to hurry and get system 3 up and running. I am going with a ebb and flow system using 1/2 55 gal barrels.

What do you mean clogging up the pipes? Are you talking about the water inlet line? Overflow line? or 4 inch pipe? The roots will always try to get into the inlet line, and overflow. But if you designed the system with maintenance in mind, that should be easy to take care of. But after rereading your original post I'm assuming the system is a NFT system because of the statement about it being a continues flow system. In which case I can see the roots of such a large plant for sure getting large enough to dam up the water flow, and can be a problem if so. I have grown 6 foot tall plants in 4 inch tubing, but as a flood and drain system. It shouldn't be to difficult to convert that NFT system into a flood and drain. Just adjusting the water inlet, and overflow lines, then add a timer. Possibly larger reservoir. A 10 foot section of 4 inch tubing can hold about 5 gallons of water when flooded. So 4 of them would likely take about 20 gallons to flood the system without running the pump dry.

Then taking into account how much water the plants drink daily. Not to mention the size (when full grown), and amount of plants in the system. A general rule of thumb is small plants like lettuce should have a minimum of 1/2 gallons of nutrient solution per plant. Medium size plants should have a minimum of 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of nutrient solution per plant. And for large plants like tomato or melon plants should have a minimum of 2 1/2 gallons of nutrient solution per plant. So adding up all the plants as well as minimum requirements for them all should give you a starting point of the reservoir size you'll want/need.

P.S.
I wouldn't worry about only having male flowers just yet. Myself I prefer the ADS tubing over PVC, mostly because it's easy to find, and it's lightproof (black inside). It is a little more flexible than schedule 40 PVC, but as long as the stand is built to support the weight evenly, that's not really a problem for me. But because my ground isn't exactly even/level itself, leveling the stands can take patience. But leveling the stands would need to be done for both ADS, or PVC type tubing.

They are clogging the 4" pipe and causing it to overflow. I think I have it adjusted but the roots are so large I can barely lift the pots out of the pipe. They have only been in there a week or so, I just can't believe their growth. They have taken off in the new system; they did not grow so fast weeks in the DWC system that I had, but the pumpkin is going crazy. It now has two female flowers with marble sized balls just under the flower. My son helped me cut two 55 gal plastic barrels in half today so that will give me 4 growing beds. I'm going to put the cantalope in one, cucumbers in one, gonna try corn in one and the last one Im gonna try baby carrots and maybe some green onions. I don't think my local store carries the overflow parts so I will have to try and make some myself out of pvc pipe and caps. I will also have to get another pump and timer some tubing and pea gravel. Tomorrow is Monday and it's a 12 hour day for me but I plan to get the system up by the weekend.

Some update picts...

So I was going to start my 3rd system today, but I forgot I work and early 12 (going in early instead of staying late). So I took the small pump out of the cooler and traded it out with the larger pump and the water stopped overflowing in the pipes. It will work till I can get system 3 up and working and it's not too hot that I need the cooler on the pumpkin. The leaves have completely shadded the resoviour so it stays much cooler. Till tomorrow;)

So yesterday I move the system to the driveway off the grass and moved some of the bigger plants out of the system into a new one. I had several plants die to both heat and earwigs but I'm gonna spray with some organic stuff I picked up. I moved several of the remaining lettuce plants back into the house in a DWC system and they are doing great. Probably gonna eat a salad for lunch! I want to fill the rest of the system, but I'm not sure what will grow the best as our summer is finally starting to show (it's already July but seems like May). Thank God we don't live in the middle of the country where the heat wave has been going on forever it seems like. I like the cooler overcast days :)

Living here in the desert, I've had to deal with heat a little bit. Though we are lucky this year, because of El Nino (or La Nina which ever it is this year), we are averring about 10 to 15 degrees cooler. Today is 106, and would normally be between 115 and 125 this late in July, as well as August. Night time lows are in the mid 80's to low 90's now, but normally the night time lows wouldn't fall below 100 again until late September. We haven't had one night time low temp above 100 all summer so far. For us this is a real mild summer, and I'm loving that.

I don't think I could live there; I'm a cool girl at heart and would love to move to Alaska. It is usually in the high 90's to 110 this time of the year here, so the cooler weather has been really nice. The weather man was joking today that we have a beautiful day a head of us for FALL. He thought he was terribly funny. Yesterday was 83 and breezy but I still got sunburned working outside. We had a large natural cover fire just on the other side of the mountian towards Hermiston. 800 acres burned, it was really smokey. Our wet spring has added a lot of fuel and now the dry wind is not helping matters.

garden update
 

So today I made a homemade hammock for the squash! It was really easy to do with some twine I had laying arround. I also saw my first sugar pea and I have flower buds on my tomatos. I think I might see the first pepper starting to form, so excited and I don't even like them.... I also had my first lettuce harvest a few days ago, yumo!

All of your plants are looking real good!:cool:

Thanks! I am learning so much about them. I am still trying to find out what kind of squash that yellow thing is. My co-worker told me it's ready to pick.

So I was right, It's a pumpkin! Took a photo into my garden center and they assured me it is not a lemon squash but a pumpkin. So happy :D

Interesting, I had no idea what kind of squash it was, I never saw a pumpkin forming before. Fresh pumpkin pie, yummy. You should be able to carve your own pumpkin you grew for Halloween too.

I have been studying those pict Simon took of the land at Epcot to see how to best hammock those suckers. They are growing so fast and the the roots have completly filled up the tote. I have about six that have pollinated and there are at least that many more getting ready to flower. I think I am going to have to set up some sort of float system for it to self water or just leave a hose on it dripping into it all day long; jkjk, well maybe not.

In the second system I still have lettuce, some carrots, peppers, tomatos, bush beans, snow peas and some spinish. Hear is the recent growth... and today we had our first "family" salad :)

It's the end of my weekend, so I thought I would show you the new stuff!

****** alert ****** alert ***** alert ****** alert ******

Do not, repeat, do not put tomato plants in a 4" pipe!

Just a friendly mental safety alert :)

I think it is time to break it apart and fish me out some roots. The pipe is solid with tomato roots and overflows no matter how I adjust the system. It is going thru about 50 gals a day and I can not afford the nutes to keep replacing it everyday. However the plants are doing great, growing everyday and I have baby tomatoes and lots of flowers all all the plants. I probably should have trimmed them sooner as they are getting a little thick, but I'm learning as I go. All the other plants in the system are doing well also and they are not clogging it up. Next crop will be in the barrels or buckets or at least a 8" pipe. Crazy plants!

I have heard that a couple times with the videos on youtube :P I have decided that my tomatoes will be in a bucket system with an in from the bucket before it and an out to the next in line with a pump in the res. That way everything circulates and the roots have enough room. It will probably take a bit more room, but the roots won't be a problem as much.

I hope you can get the roots sorted out and keep the plants going. It sounds like they are doing great and have a lot more producing to do.

I haven't grown tomato's in the 4 inch pipe, but I have grown some real tall sugar peas in them with no water flow problems, aside from the occasional roots getting into the overflow tube (that was simple and easy to clean out). I just popped it off from the outside, and stuck a knife in and cut them off. Then just stuck a small piece of wood in to push them back. I have learned that general rule of thumb, make the opening for overflow side twice as large as the inlet side. I attached some pictures of the root system in 4 inch tubing from my peas.

I have lettuce, bush beans, sugar peas, carrots, and peppers in the same system, only the tomatoes are overflowing system. I took off the end cap and just let it drain strait into the resoviour and they still overflowed. I think I am gonna go get a 6" pipe and cut it in half, put it under the existing 4" pipe and drain it back to the resoviour. That way it can overflow as much as it wants and I won't loose the expensive nutes on the ground. Temp fix, but it is the only way I can think to fix it for now. I don't think that I could move them to a different system without damaging them at this point.

I have an option that may or may not be viable to you :P. All depends on how much the situation is worth to you.

You couuld cut just before where the tomatos are (yep, cut the whole thing off) depending on what is infront of it and if the roots from that is tangled up with the tomatoes/if the plant is sacrificable.

Then you can splice on a new piece of piping to replace the cut off section. I think there wasn't anything else running through that part of the system if I remember the pics right.

Slice the cut out section doewn the center on the bottom with a rotozip/dremmel/other orbital cutting device to try to make only minor cut and minimize your damage to the roots. Repeat the task on the top and you have the plants free. Then you just need somewhere else to put them :P


It is an option. I don't know if it is a viable option for you or not, but it is a possibility, and might prevent problems with water not moving properly and causing other problems with the plants.

I have been trimming the roots on our tomatoes and peppers and have had no ill effects. i am gonna start trimming the top of my tomatoes as theyre pushing 4 ft plus and going strong. they are in bloom now.

So I went to Home Dopey and they do not carry 6" pipe. So no fix today as I got called into work and had to get some sleep. I tried running a smaller pipe down it to let some of the water run thru freely but it was too tall for the net pots. The system is doing good, but is starting to show the effects of low nutes and high ph as I am unwilling to add those so they can go straight to the ground. I hope to have a fix tomorrow, but also have to work some OT from 1600 to 2000. So anyway here is this weeks growth....

I'm not sure what shops you have in your area, but the pluming supply houses we have here sell 6 inch PVC tubing. You could also try sewer supply places, I understand they generally carry tubing larger than 6 inches. Is the tubing 100% clogged at the tomato end? I'm wondering if you reduce the water flow into the tube, it would be able to drain out before overflowing (at least for now). Another option is if the clog is only at the end with the tomato's, you could cut one or two holes for a new overflow in the 4 inch tubing before it gets to the end of the 4 inch tubing tomato's. Then use that as the overflow. The water should still flood the tube at both ends, but the overflow tube wont be obstructed by the tomato roots anymore.

Humm, interesting thought there. Yes the tomatoes are on the last pipe but there are also 3 sugar pea plants after them just before the return pipe. I have put a smaller pump on and that worked for awhile, then I put a T on the tubing from the pump so 1/2 the water goes back into the resoviour and it helps airate the system more. That worked for about a week. I like the idea of an overflow pipe, but maybe more like an ebb and flow one just before the tomatoes running on the side to just after the tomatoes. I was thinking maybe if I shoved a smaller pipe (1")along the bottom where the roots can not invade that might help also. You've got me thinking.... I will show your thumbnail to my hubby. Thanks...

So my idea totally worked! I got a piece of pipe and cut it in half and ran it the entire length of the existing pipe sort of like a tray. The water overflows from the 4" pipe to the 6" pipe and it drains directly into the resivour which also helps to aerate the resivour more. BRILLANT!!! Temp fix but it's getting the job done and I didn't have to cut or drill into the existing pipe.

ps; my husband didn't think it would work either and was shocked.

Just a couple of drawbacks to watch for. First, is any place the nutrient solution is exposed to light will begin to grow algae. Second, the system is now more susceptible to airborne pathogens and fungi. Every place that overflows, and/or gets wet is a spot where airborne dust (and everything in the air) will stick. Then with the next cycle it will wash down into the nutrient reservoir, grow, and then be able to infect the roots. Including soil born diseases from airborne dust/dirt. But I hope it works well for you. Where did you find the 6 inch PVC?

I found the 6" at Irrigation Specialist with is basically a plumbing supply store for farmers.

I have some foam insulation that I am gonna cut a lid for the new resivour and I am thinking about some sort of Plastic baggie to make a sock to cover the end and let the water run thru so there will be less exposure both to light and germs. I plan on covering the whole pipe with tinfoil which should help keep things cleaner and cooler. I'm just glad I could put the nutes and PH down back in the system. I already see the effects on the plants, things are greening up and in just one day the number of tomato flowers has doubled. Thanks for all the advise! Off to work I go (Mondays suck) and I have OT today on top of it.

Been too hot this week, the outside lettuce is starting to bolt. I've never seen it before but it is really obvious. The sugar peas are going crazy, getting at least a double handfull every two days with just the two plants. The third plant is catching up really fast and I picked the first pea off it today. The tomatoes section is almost yellow there are so many flowers now and I have tomatoes from pea size to just bigger then golf ball size. I have been pruning like crazy, but they are still really thick. From now on I will only do tomatoes in buckets because that offers more options from watering to placement to pruning and harvesting. I thought my bush bean plant was dead, but after I added nutes and got the PH down it took off again. I went outside and the largest branch with the most flowers was broke off; maybe a bird??? The bell peppers have several flowers starting, but I don't think the first flower pollinated, will have to wait and see. The system is working awesome now that it is not leaking everywhere.

sounds like the heat is helping you more than hurting you right now :P if nothing else the worst case right now seems to be the lettuce, but you have more seeds for a while if you let them finish bolting.

might be time to start some lettuce seeds inside to have them ready to replace the others for some fall leaves :P

So this last week was really hard on the plants. I was at fair and we had the hottest week of summer. I pulled the outside lettuce as they were bolting and the water was developing some sort of yucky slim. The tomatoes were doing so good, but now they are all droopy and wilted. Cooler weather is coming this week so I hope they bounce back. Did a nute change and stuck the hose up the pipe to rinse out the roots and added some bleech in this system also. The peppers are doing good but some of the leaves are wilted and turning yellow as are the sugar peas. I am hoping the nute change, rinsing and cooler temps will help them bounce back. I also harvested the carrots in this system. I think it was too early as they were short, but they were tastey!

So I pulled out a lot of plants I didn't think would make it. Still have some of the tomatoes, peppers, 1 sugar pea and the bush bean is still going. I also moved a celerly plant from inside into this system just to see what happens as it was growing into the light.

keep us posted sound like you are succeeding in your venture. did you keep any records of what you did?

I'm seeing red!