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#1
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My 2015 Dutch Bucket vs Aeroponic Tomato Challenge
I've been growing tomatoes using a self built aeroponic system. This year I decided to build a Dutch Bucket system to see which would produce the largest and better tasting tomatoes. Here's some pics of the Dutch Bucket and Aeroponic systems and the tomatoes on them.
The Dutch Bucket system was up and running 6 weeks earlier than the Aeroponic system. I used the same nutrients in both systems. Even though the Dutch Bucket system had a 6 week head start the Aeroponic system caught up really fast and actually surpassed the Dutch Bucket in height and growth. The tomatoes on the Aeroponic were larger and had a slightly better taste than those grown in the Dutch Bucket. Will try this again next year but this time will start up both systems at the same time. If you have any questions i will gladly answer. Last edited by Stan; 12-13-2015 at 02:48 PM. |
#2
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Hello Stan,
I'm going to go out on a limb and say you must like tomato's. I'm also courteous about a few things. 1. That's a good size air pump in the pictures. Do you have a air line for each individual bucket? Or are you just aerating the main reservoir? 2. I assume the tomato's in the square vinyl fence post tube are the aeroponic grown plants. Those roots must be packed tight for such a large root mass to be in there. Are they compacted? 3. Is it a low pressure aeroponic system, or a high pressure aeroponic system? 4. You may mot really be able to answer this, especially since the the dutch bucket plants had a 6 week start. But do you know which ones drank up the most water? 5. Were you using the same size reservoir (total water volume) for both systems? And growing the same type, and amount of plants in both systems? 6. You said the aeroponically grown plants grew much quicker, and larger fruit. Were there any other possible variables that could have contributed to this? Like maybe the aeroponic plants were able to get more sunlight, pH swings, water temps, water volume, nutrient change schedules etc. etc.. |
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The Dutch Bucket was started the first week in June the aeroponic was started 6 weeks later in July. The aeroponic was started when it was brutally hot and the plants just took off and thrived. Next year will do the same but will do the same amount of plants with same size reservoir. Last edited by Stan; 11-26-2015 at 12:46 AM. |
#4
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Why don't you leave the air pump on 24/7? That's interesting about the root mass, any idea why the root mass in the aero system is so small? Do you trim those plants a lot?
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I thought of using a small 1500 psi pressure washer I can get for about $100 to get the PSI needed, and modifying it for the aeroponic system. But just don't think the motor wold last long constantly being turned on and off all the time. Their just not designed to take that. Plus it would be noisy. The pressurized tank would run quiet. Just use a small air compressor like the ones you can buy for your car to pump up your tires to pressurize it once or twice a week to keep the PSI up. Quote:
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 11-28-2015 at 08:17 PM. |
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Last year I grew twice the amount of plants using the aeroponic I had to fluctuate between 1/2 and 3/4 strength with the nutrients depending on how healthy the plants looked. Again I'm still experimenting and might try 1/4 strength from beginning to end with 10 - 12 plants next year. Also want to point out even though you see hydroton on the top of the Dutch Buckets they are actually growing in Perlite. I started the plants aeroponically and transfered them all as is directly to the Dutch Buckets that are filled with Perlite. Last edited by Stan; 11-29-2015 at 06:13 PM. |
#6
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I took small container that held about 3/4 of a gallon of water. I put the air pump in my freezer and closed the door with the plug and air line hanging out the bottom. The air going in the air pump isn't going to get much cooler than directly from the freezer. I took the temp of the water before the experiment witch was somewhere around room temp. I put the air stone in the water and plugged in the air pump. I let it run like this for at least an hour pumping frozen air through the air pump and stone in the water. With less than a gallon of water the temp should change very quickly, but after more than an hour the water temp didn't even change 1 degree. I also grew some strawberry's last summer in a non-recirculating system. I used a 32 gallon Trash Can for the reservoir. I insulated this trash can well by warping 4 layers of bubble-wrap insulation around it and warping that with white duct tape for a tight fit. Then I made a lid for the trash can out of two layers of 2 inch thick Styrofoam insulation. I also set the trash can on a layer of high density Styrofoam insulation so heat couldn't radiate up through the bottom sitting on the ground. Our daytime temps were were between 108 and 120 degrees. Our night time temps were over 100 degrees (even at 4-5 am). I would need to fill this reservoir about once a week to make sure it never run dry, it used about 2.5 gallons per day. When I filled it I added about 10, 1/2 gallon ice blocks (5 gallons of ice) so the water was ice cold. The water in this reservoir. would remain at least cool to the touch all week. There were a few times near the end of the week when there was only about 5-10 gallons of water left that I added a block or two more ice. But for the most part it stayed cool to the touch all week long. I used a twin output air pump for 60 gallon aquariums in this reservoir, and let it run 24/7. Not so much for the dissolved oxygen, but mostly for the rising air bubbles to keep the nutrients mixed evenly and from settling at the bottom. But despite running the air pump 24/7 and with air temps between 100 degrees at night and 120 during the day. There didn't seem to be much if any affect on water temp from the air pump. Running it 24/7 with those kind of air temps, the water temp change should be very quickly noticeable, one day, two max. But like the cold air test, it just wasn't an issue. Quote:
P.S. I always mark the inside of all my reservoirs. This way I will know exactly how much water to replace as the plants drink it up. That way the nutrient solution isn't to diluted or concentrated when I replace it. Knowing the volume of water I'm adding back also allows me to be able to average out how much water each plant is drinking daily. Comparing different size plants isn't all that hard either. Just break it down to percentages. Like if a plants foliage is 25% bigger, I would expect it to drink 25% more water. Here is an example: Example 1 Plant 2 is about 25% bigger than plant 1 plant 1- drinks 2 gallons of water per day plant 2- drinks 2.5 gallons of water per day Plant 2 is drinking 25% more water, but is also 25% bigger. Therefor I cam conclude that for it's size plant 1 is drinking the same amount of water as plant 2. Example 2, Plant-2 is 50% bigger than plant 1 plant 1- drinks 2 gallons of water per day plant 2- drinks 3.5 gallons of water per day In this example plant 2 is 50% bigger, but is drinking 75% more water than plant 1. Considering plant 2 is 50% bigger than plant 1, I would expect it to drink 50% more water as well. So 75% minus 50% (size difference) equals 25%. So I can conclude plant 2 is drinking 25% more water than plant 1 in an equal comparison, even though the plants are different sizes. Anyhow that's how I do it. |
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