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Originally Posted by hydrophotobio
Looking absolutely beautiful! DWC hauls major butt so expect insane growth, especially if you're forcing a lot of oxygen through the nutrient solution! |
Thank you, the stuff is gorgeous! And to say that DWC hauls major butt is right on the money. This is just unreal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by biloyp
Beautiful plants, really growing well and I know that light really did the trick. I am hoping your tomato plants don't take over by growing too much. How are you gonna support the tomato plants...cage or stick?? I think you should move the totes some so the cucs have some room. Looks ;like they may just grow down onto the floor which would be ok. I know cucs need lots of water so no problem there ha-ha.I think I need to get a lamp like yours. I am growing lettuce and spinach...spinach not doing too well but the lettuce has provided us with about 6 bowls of salad...But I am in the middle of a home renovation so I can't devote a whole lot of time to my hydro. Thanks for the pics and info.
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Thanks for the compliment! Funny you should mention about moving things around due to size concerns. The pics below will reveal that you may have seen into my hydroponics future haha! As far as the support for cukes and tomatoes go I am going to put pieces of wire fencing in the grow room to help hold everything up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GpsFrontier
Hello PaulF,
Great looking growth, It won't be long before the taller plants outgrow the space. Are you sure the added $70 is all the heater, and not the light as well?
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The light was definitely some of it. But the first month I ran the light it added about $15.00 to my electric bill so the majority of the increase was the heater. But I have to say, without the heat on at all the plants seem to be doing fine.
So, another week and another update. The closet continues to amaze! The growth is exponential. I really could never have imagined it would be like this. Having been a soil gardener for years I was expecting growth more along that type of rate. I guess not!
I had to re-arrange the cukes and tomatoes. The tomatoes were so tall they were shading everything else, and the cukes were running so much that I knew everything was going to get tangled up. So I moved the two to opposing totes and put them on the outsides. Everything is a much better fit now.
Water consumption has gone up drastically on the tomatoes. It wouldn't be a huge problem except the strawberries have very puny root systems and end up getting dried out. In the first picture if you look at the tote on the right the strawberries in the middle net pot are all wilted. When I went down to take these pics I found them like that, I put a gallon of water in and by tonight they will be back up and happy.
On a side note, I am an Air National Guard member and Uncle Sam has seen fit to send me to Europe for a couple of weeks. So there will be no updates for the next three weeks. My wife will be taking care of the garden while I am gone. I can only imagine what things will look like when I get back. Enough blabbing though, onto the pics.
The growth in only a week is just staggering. I thought the stuff looked big last week! I am going to put some wire fence on the out sides of the two totes. I figure it will give the cukes something to hold onto and it will allow the tomatoes support when they come.
I have been wanting to take one of these root system pics since the first day I planted everything! Finally here it is. Notice how small the strawberry root system is. I hope my wife keeps up with the water level while I am gone! Check out those tomatoe roots!
Look at all those baby cukes. I have lost count of how many are growing down there now. I thought it was going to be tough to hand pollinate them. It is so easy. You only need to gently rub the flowers together and by the next day you can tell it has taken by the way the base of the cuke gets shiny. It is really cool!
One of the bigger cukes. I have two or three this size now.
Gigantic Romaine leaves! And look at that healthy strawberry plant, they love it in there.
And the thing I have been waiting for the most! Flowers on my tomatoes. They have yet to open up but soon I hope.
See you in three weeks! Thanks to everyone following along.