First Tomato Setup

finewoodstudio · #1 02-24-2015, 02:49 PM

Looks like you are making change after change and expecting the see the result the next day. Sorry, it does not work that way. I usually make a change and expect to see a difference in a week or more. Never used a HID lamp because of their high heat output and high power consumption. you might need to have more air flow.

JHazzardB · #2 03-18-2015, 11:32 AM

Thought I'd post a quick update!

4 of my buckets were not producing any buds and grew to be super leggy. They got yanked out with some new seedlings planted (that look healthy). Pics to come.

The other 4 buckets of tomatoes are flowering like crazy and have set the random fruits but have fallen ill to BER. I've been reading up on it and have some ideas to help myself. Because it's believed to be a calcium deficiency, I've entertained the idea of not having enough calcium. I add CaNO3 to my nutrients in equal weight to my fertilizer. My base water is .68EC and I add nutrients to get to 2.5EC. So my gain in fertilizer is a little less than 1.9EC. This may not be strong enough to support the fruit. I'm considering raising this up to the 3.0EC range. Also, I've read it could be the plant cannot transport the calcium allllllll the way to the very end of the fruit. So, yesterday, I've increased my watering frequency from every 2 hours to every hour. I'm hoping this might speed up the availability of Ca and its metabolism to eat more. I dunno, it's a learning experience.

Any thoughts or questions let me know! Thanks for looking!

finewoodstudio · #3 03-18-2015, 01:06 PM

The tomatoes that were not producing were they a different variety than the ones flowering? I have noticed that some varieties do not do well and i also yank them out.

JHazzardB · #4 03-18-2015, 01:18 PM

Yeah they were 2 different varieties. I have 8 buckets and try to keep 4 different varieties to see which are better. My new little plants are going to replace what I have now when they get big enough to give me some decent suckers. Obviously not all types love hydro...

JHazzardB · #5 03-24-2015, 12:19 PM

Blossom end rot continues. I've bumped my nutrient EC to 2.5 with a base of .5 for a total EC of 3.0. I have also started using CalMag for supplemental calcium last Friday. Fruit is setting amazingly well though! Growth is good on leaves and such. I have a little fan that is putting in a nice breeze. Average temps while the lights are on is about 83-85 degrees with humidity settling between 37-50%.

JHazzardB · #6 04-07-2015, 11:27 AM

Yay for updates with pics!

Blossom End Rot continues. I know they say this is an easy thing to cure but I don't believe it. One variety of tomato (not sure what it was but it doesn't exist in the setup anymore) literally got BER on every tomato of my beautiful clusters. When I saw that, I said screw it and ripped them out. I left some others (Black Zebra I think) that hadn't been exhibiting BER so much, but they are starting to show up with it. Not every fruit, but a significant amount. This fruit is the largest I have grown to without getting BER though. That has to count for something.

I planted 4 new varieties which are doing very well. They are Brandywine, Genuwine, Roma, and Super Sweet 100. Growth is fantastic and clusters and flowers are already forming. the average bottom leaf is over 12" long and very lush green. Super Sweet is doing the best as the clusters have already started their flowering.

So the laundry list of changes.
1. Bumped nutrients to about 2.6EC + .5EC Tap water =3.1EC overall.
2. Began adding 60mL of CalMag to help. I think I'll bump this up to 100mL soon though.
3. Added Brandywine, Genuwine, Super Sweet 100, and Roma.
4. Vented my HID lamps with fan and duct work.
5. Instead of mylar for the sides, I'm using a foam board that has a reflective surface.
6. Temps are about 79F during the day and about 55-65% humidity.
7. Moved my lights up to the ceiling. This gives the plants about 6ft to grow.
8. Have a fan gently blowing in the give them some air flow.
9. Fruit set is awesome, BER sucks.
10. Watering is set every hour for 15 minutes.

JHazzardB · #7 04-14-2015, 06:02 PM

Thought I'd throw up some pics. New tomatoes are doing well. I've noticed some leaf spot virus thing that isn't very wide spread so I'm just clipping of those leaflets/leaves.

Super Sweet 100 variety seems to be a very big producer. It's going faster than any of the others. It's the only one with fruit set. All of the varieties have flowers though.

The nutrients are hovering around 2.82EC and a pH of 5.7. I think I might actually lower the nutrient concentration next time I remake the reservoirs. I don't know if I'm feeding them too much nitrogen for the Calcium uptake or whatnot so we'll see. I might reduce by about 5-10% strength.

GpsFrontier · #8 04-14-2015, 10:43 PM

What size reservoir (water volume) are you using?

JHazzardB · #9 04-14-2015, 10:51 PM

Thanks for responding GPS!! Felt like a ghost town in this thread...

My reservoir is 30 gallons but I have it filled to about 25-26 with a water fill valve attached. I know this is very small for this amount of plants (16) but the reservoir is getting remade about every 6-7 days. It stays fairly constant through the week.

Once again, thanks for stopping in