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best system for tomatoes?


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  #21  
Old 06-29-2011, 10:58 AM
perzyk perzyk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by animus_divinus View Post
well.. i think ill look into getting the coco products around here.. im in a rather small town so.. no guarantees on that.. might just order it online

but yeah.. a drip system should do fine, ill get a cheap watering can for backup...

ill take a look at the different drip systems though.. some seem to use an aquarium air pump to move water, others are just a simple fountain pump, but they all seem to have a ring of black hose attached to a PVC T that dips into the bucket

lucky for me my local hardware store carries all this stuff in bulk so i can buy what i need for cents per foot
You will need drip fittings as well... You can get them from an online hydro store.

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  #22  
Old 06-29-2011, 06:58 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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There are some drip systems that use a air pump to raise water up to the drip ring, they seem to work OK for single plant systems, but will get quite complicated to expand into multiple plant systems. I have never used an air pump for water flow in a drip system myself. Also those systems require a reservoir just below the bucket holding the plant, and naturally because of space those reservoirs are usually small. Then in order to increase the reservoir size it would require a water pump to circulate water between a larger second reservoir, and the smaller one just below the plant.

I posted this link before (http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...w-systems.html), but this drip system is about as simple as it gets for me.

Simply put it uses 5 gallon buckets filled with growing medium for the plants roots. The water (and nutrients) are pumped up to the top drip ring, and slowly drip out soaking the growing medium on its way down to the bottom of the bucket. At the bottom of the bucket is a through hole (also called a bulkhead fitting), big enough so the water will drain out faster than it drips in (so the water wont back up in the bucket). That drain simply runs back into the reservoir, where it gets pumped back up to the drip ring again. If you want I can e-mail you my complete instructions on building it. If you want me to e-mail you the instructions, click on the link to my website in my signature "Home Hydroponic Systems" and send me a e-mail to the address on the contact us page asking for them. It's not complicated, but the instructions are in PDF so I'm unable to post them to this forum. The system I built is for 4 plants, but it's easily scaled to as many plants as you want. One plant, or twenty plants, the principal is still the same. The only real difference would be the size of the reservoir to accommodate more plants.

The reservoir I used for this system is the 18 gallon storage tote I got at wal-mart for under $4, but in the future I would use a larger reservoir for 4 large plants like that (live and learn). Each plant could drink as much as 2 gallons of water a day when they got large, and that caused huge fluctuations in nutrient concentrations because combined they could drink almost half the reservoirs water. But for 1 or 2 plants that reservoir size should work OK for plants that big (you don't need to fill it to the top while the plants are small). And it's real easy to switch over to a larger one later if necessary.

P.S.
You don't really need special drip emitters (fittings). They just tend to clog anyway, as well as a need a certain amount of back pressure to work also. I just cut the tubing to size for the drip ring. Take a paperclip and heat the tip with a candle, then poke some holes in the tubing for the water to drip out of. Again real simple, and cheep.
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  #23  
Old 07-02-2011, 01:09 PM
animus_divinus animus_divinus is offline
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one more question.. should my grow medium with a drip setup be all coconut coir, or a 50/50 mix with perlite?
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  #24  
Old 07-02-2011, 05:44 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I'm not sure what the benefit of mixing them would be? Depending on where you get it, and in what quantities, the perlite is most likely more expensive. The coco coir/chips will hold moisture better than the perlite. But if you were not using the coco chips, and used the coco coir and wanted to add the perlite for a less dense and better aerated medium, that might be beneficial. But again that's why I like using the chips, they don't compact over time like the small particle regular coir can. Bottom line it wouldn't hurt anything to mix coco coir/chips with perlite, but it will most likely be more expensive.
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  #25  
Old 07-03-2011, 04:06 AM
animus_divinus animus_divinus is offline
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are the coco chips perishable?.. meaning would i have to replace it at certain intervals or is it a component i wont have to worry about in the future?

i have to order online anyway since no one around here carries these things
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  #26  
Old 07-03-2011, 06:50 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Coco chips/coir isn't perishable in the sense that as long as it's not stored wet where mold can grow, and stored so it's dry in a closed container (to keep it from airborne spores etc.) it will last until you use it. But it's not really reusable like grow rocks are. You can try to clean and sanitize it for reuse, but it will be extremely difficult to separate the root mass from the coco coir/chips. The organic mater (roots, leaves) that were missed can feed pathogens, and/or disease to your new plants. So I simply don't even try to reuse it, I just stick it on the compost pile after I use it.

The coco coir/chips do slowly decompose, but you wont need to replace it while the plants are growing, unless maybe your growing some real long term plants like trees that you grow for years. Then you'll probably want to transplant them into some new coco chips/coir after 2-3 years, but I don't know if that would be needed for sure.
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  #27  
Old 07-03-2011, 07:28 PM
animus_divinus animus_divinus is offline
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well, im growing some indeterminate plants that are killed by frost, but i wont have frost so they wont stop growing, ill have to prune them so they dont take over my house... so i was looking for something i can keep the plant in withuot having to change mediums for the many years i intend to have it
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  #28  
Old 07-03-2011, 10:36 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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You plan to keep growing the same tomato plant in hydroponics for years? As well as pruning it so it wont get bigger than 2x2x4 feet? Have you grown the same tomato plant for years before? As well as in the same 5 gallon bucket for years? That dosen't sound like it would be very productive.
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  #29  
Old 07-04-2011, 04:26 AM
animus_divinus animus_divinus is offline
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i dont know.. i might change it yearly, but if only to experiment with other varieties of tomorros, since at this point im thinking of growing the black from tula tomatoes which look nice and seem to be a high yield.... plus people wont eat my tomatoes since theyll think theyre diseased
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  #30  
Old 07-05-2011, 02:38 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Well, good luck with that. But you'll get much better yield from new tomato plants every 3-6 months. Given the right growing conditions, tomato plants will reach your size limit of 2x2x4 in about one month (6-8 weeks from seed). Then once the tomatoes have ripened and been harvested, few new branches, and thus tomato's will grow in that small space (given your pruning plan). After about 6 months or so, you'll just basically be trying to keep alive a large root bound spent twig. Though you can always give it a try and see what happens. But, commercial tomato farms want high yields, and they simply start new plants to regularly replace the spent ones (2-3 times a year). And their tomato plants are much larger as well (8-12 feet tall). I would imagine if it were productive to use the same tomato plants year after year by just pruning them, commercial tomato farms would already be doing it.

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