I don't think I would have the plants any closer than 20 cm, that's about 8 inches. I cut 3'' holes 8'' apart for my strawberry's, that seemed to work well for mine, but I wasn't growing vertically (pictures attached). Vertically might allow them to be a little closer though. The pictures are the latest ones that I have of them but they did get bunched up real well. Shortly after the pictures I had to give up on the strawberry's because the summer temperatures were making the
nutrient temperature too high, slowly killing the plants.
Quote:
|
basically the set up i have in mind is going to have the strawberries in vertical pvc pipes
|
I think the vertical design you are going for is like the one that I have also (pictures attached), side ports going all the way down to the bottom of the tube of course. That should work fine for strawberry's although I am not sure about using the perlite, only because it's real small and will probably fall through the holes in the baskets. The plans I have for this design is for an areoponic system. I just think running a drip line to each basket would be difficult. Another problem I can see as a
drip system is the exposed roots inside the tube. As the roots grow through the baskets, they will become exposed to the air and will dry out quickly. I am not sure how you will be able to get enough moisture to them as a drip system. You could fill the tube with the
growing medium and not use baskets at all, but that would cost to much for me to consider doing. Though I am not sure the diameter of tube you will be using, mine is planed for an 8'' to 10'' wide tube.
It sounds like you will have the
lights in a central position, and the vertical tubes with the plants in them surrounding the lights (picture attached). I have no doubt that will work, but don't think it will be very efficient. There will be at least 50% of the tube with the plants in it that wont get enough light to grow anything. For me, that would kind of defeat the purpose of using vertical tubes in the first place.
I only have experience with one type of nutrient,
General Hydroponics Flora Series Nutrients. So my recommendation here would be a little one sided, because I haven't used anything else to compare them to. I personally like the Flora series myself, so I am sure you would also. If you do decide to go with them use 10 mL each of Micro, Gro and Bloom per gallon of water. This mix is good for all continuously flowering/fruiting plants like tomato's, peppers etc.. I had 32 strawberry plants and counted over 200 flowers on them at one time, some plants had as much as 15 to 20 flowers on one plant, even clusters of flowers. It might be a bit one sided, but don't think you could go wrong with the Flora series nutrients.