Thank, I will check that out!

Everybody is "getting into" hydroponics
 

So I just couldn't resist posting this. I woke up to the cat in the seedling nursery. I guess everybody in the house is excited about hydroponics :D

Is it just me or does it look like some of those seedlings are falling over in that third pic.

yes, a few of them are. I don't know why, temp is ok, water level in the resv is ok. I've been looking on-line to day to try and figure it out. I pulg the light in when the sun comes up and unplug it when the sun goes down. I think because it got too leggy it can not support the weight of the new leaves. IDK Those are lettuce seedlings if it helps

I see the kitty is liking the light.

Kitty does like the light, however I think I overwatered the resevior when I added in the first of the nutes a few days ago and soaked the cubes. I think some of them may be damping off which sucks. There are still seeds sprouting daily. I found a web site that said some hydrogen peroxide may help so I squeezed out the excess water out of the cubes and added a few drops of it to the stalk area where it goes down into the starter cube and in the resevior. IDK, they are still bent over this morning but they are green and the tops look good. I don't see any discoloring of the roots out the bottom or on the stock that I can see. I tore open a cube to look at the root inside the cube and did not see any discoloration either. It is just some of lettuce seedlings and maybe a tomato plant (or maybe I squeezed it too hard getting the excess water out of the cube because it was fine before I did that). The new seedlings that have come up over the last 2 or 3 days all look fine. I think I will go to town and get another try for the ones that still look ok to tray and save them. The others I probably should throw out, but I'm going to wait to see if that is really what it is. Anybody have any other ideas?

So I was really feeling down about the little guys inside and I went outside to check on the system outside, WOW! After getting the PH down the roots have explooded. They are now about 10 inches long and probably at least 3 times as many. AND I think I see some growth out of the canalopes. The PH was in the high 6's, but still in the 6's, so I added some more PH down, only a few drops to get to 6.0. I think I may be getting it. Going to go into town today and see if the flormata dry is in yet because I think that will solve my PH problems.
I am a little worried about the heat this week; finally gonna see some summer temps in the 90's. I am worried about the nute temp but I think that if it gets too high I will use some frozen pop bottles to try and cool it down till I can come up with something better. I have a coworker that has a small dorm fridg who is going to give it to me for my hydroponics (maybe so I shut up about it???) and I have been looking at the coiled hose system others have tried.

Yep, those look like smaller versions of my bush beans.

fintuckyfarms
I was going to mention last night that if the cubes were over watered that could be suffocating the roots. Mainly because I wasn't sure what you meant by the water level in the reservoir being fine. I'm not really sure what kind of reservoir your using for it either, although I can only assume that is referring to the tray with the seeds in it sitting in another tray that has water in it. If those cubes are anything like roockwool cubes, they will suck up lots of water until their saturated. That basically drowns the roots suffocating them, and can be another reason some of those seeds haven't grown also.

When I over water my cubes, I don't ring them out, I'll place them on dry paper towels. When the paper towels get soaked, I place the cubes on more dry paper towels. The paper towels suck the water right out of the cubes quickly, and without damaging them at all. If I have a large amount of cubes to dry out, I'll use regular cloth hand or bath towels, and do the same thing. You want the cubes damp, but not soaked. Also I know you took off the humidity dome to lower the light, but taking the dome off will allow the damp cubes to dry out much faster. I assume that you may have compensated for that by allowing the cubes to suck up more water. But I'm guessing that lead to them becoming too saturated instead. Perhaps a shorter dome lid would help.

Ya, if the the water temp gets to high you'll have plant problems. Sticking Ice in the reservoir helps and is a good temporary solution. But if you can acquire a small fridge, and don't mind the electrical cost to run it, that should work quite well. As you mentioned using coils inside the fridge is an easy enough way to use the fridge without much modification. To make it as efficient as possible, first keep it in a place out of the sun with good air circulation. Like an air conditioner, the surrounding air temp has an effect on how cool it can get as well as how hard it works. Then I would use as many metal coils as I can, and place them inside as large of a container of water as I can fit in the fridge. Then as you know, simply pump the nutrient solution through the coils in the fridge, and back to the reservoir. But you may need to insulate the reservoir to keep your nice cool water from heating back up quickly.

P.S.
I have a feeling that giving you a fridge wont shut you up, you'll probably just have a lot more to talk about. But don't tell your coworker that...

So I have been very busy today! I solved my issue with hot nutes, started a second DWC for the little guys in the house that were ready to be moved out and were not showing any signs of dampening. I also bought a second seedling tray to move the seedlings that were not showing signs of dampening but were not ready to move into the DWC. I moved the seedling that are showing signs of dampening outside in the sun and breeze hopeing that will dry them out more and maybe save them, doubt it but maybe.

So I went and bought a $3 foam cooler, $5 fountian pump, $6 coil of clear flexable tubing, 4 $1.69 adapters, some fast drying silicone and some fishing weights.

I added the pump to the nute tank, ran a line out thru the nute tank thru the cooler and back to the nute tank. I am just going to fill the cooler with ice and salt when needed to cool the nute tank down. I am still going to add some bubble wrap around the nute tank and the exposed lines.

I used the fish weights to clamp onto the air stones to keep them in place, then I got tired of that and just clamped them to some twine and presto it holds it them in place.

Why didn't I think of paper towels :confused: Well, I hope I will not have to use that particular tip again.

So today's update: I have baby beans!!! There are at least 4 showing so far and the squash/pumpking is starting to really put on some more leaves and roots. The cantalope is finally starting to show some growth and the roots are looking good also. PH is the key, no if and's or butt's.

The plants in the new DWC are doing great, really watching for any signs of dampening, but so far so good. I really tried to make sure the cube was not in the water, just the roots so the cube did not get soaked. The little guys I transfered to a new tray are all still looking good and growing, 6 new seedlings yesterday and over night. The ones with dampening not doing so well, I think they got too dried out in the sun yesterday but I really did not have any hope of saving them anyway; lesson learned!

So my nute cooler is working like a charm! ;) Dropped the nute temp from high 90's to low 80's. Going to put some more containers in the freezer so I dont have to buy ice, but I can't believe how well it works. All but one of the seedlings in the new DWC are looking good; one tomato plant is kind of swaying to one side like it has dampening. All the ones I put in the new tray are looking really good and several new ones have sprouted. I tossed some of the lettuce that was affected by the dampening, should probable toss them all and bleech the tray but I'm gonna wait a few more days. Hope everyone is having a great day! Back to work tomorrow for me, gotta make some more $$$ so I can spend it on my new hobby :D
Guess they are getting hit hard at work with fires. Please everybody be careful with fires and sparks; a lot of good people put their lifes on the line to try and protect you and your property. Please help them help you by making sure there is no fuel near you home or property and if you have to call 911, please, please try not to panic and know where you are at ( address or even a intersection is helpful).

Plants are looking great! I haven't figured out yet if I need to insulate my tubes or reservoir, since we haven't had enough sun yet. I like your solution though.

So I am really frustrated today…. My local hydroponics store is still out of PH down and my order of nutes is still backordered. :eek: I could have ordered it online and have had it 3 times by now, but I wanted to support my local store. UGH, it is so frustrating. They gave me a free gallon of "tea" since I traveled so far to get there. They make it there at the store and I don't think most of the clients that use it are growing veggies. Don't really know what it is but I have read some posts about it online. Suppose to be good for the roots, IDK. Has anybody else used this?

Compost tea is basically just as it sounds, a tea made of compost, and is generally used as a supplement to your nutrient solution. It can be made of a "HUGE" variety of, and combination of different things. Thus how good it is, is really up to who made it. But generally you take good quality compost, beneficial acids, beneficial microbes, and brew then together into a liquid. You can either make a large teabag, or strain out the solids later. The main difference between the way regular tea is made, and compost tea is made, is the water temp. The water temp should be about room temp, hot water will kill the beneficial microbes. But another difference is the use of a large blubber in the bottom of the brewer. This helps keep the the brew churning, as well as promotes the growth of the beneficial microbes. Compost tea can be a good additive to use with your nutrients, though I wouldn't consider it a replacement for hydroponic nutrients. Though some people do make their own, and use only the compost tea as their nutrients.

Here's an article about compost tea, and how it's made:
Organic Compost Tea for your hydroponic system

P.S.
I do understand wanting to support your local hydroponic supply store (any store). But I never willingly pay for anything when they say it's on back-order (unless I cant get it anywhere else). Simply because when something is on back-order there is never any guarantee when you will receive the product. You could wind up waiting weeks or even months before the product comes in. Meanwhile they hold your money hostage, and you usually cant cancel the order. So if you get the product from another source, your stuck with two of them. It may be a nice gesture, but compost tea dosen't cost them much to make. They should have given you some of another brand of "actual nutrients" they had on hand to get you by instead (in my opinion).

So I went back to my local store today and they gave me FLORA NOVA GROW since my order is still backordered. They told me that even though it is a 2 part system they are two separate parts and it should solve my PH problem. They also gave me some more PH down since their shipment is MIA. That was pretty cool however I have to question the company they are buying from. Their origional shipment was suppose to be in two weeks ago and then a for sure will be there Wednesday. Ummm it's Friday and it is still a no show. I would switch companies if I were them. They had people come in from the next state (aprox 45 minute drive) on Wednesday for their product. They are going to have to double order just to keep up with demand now.

Anyway, does anybody use the FLORA NOVA GROW? How did ya like it?

I use floranova and like it. I bought some floramato and am waiting to use it on the next nutrient change. Since I have lifted my nutrient container off the concrete floor my pH has remained stable I have not had to adjust it since then. I am gonna switch water supplies here and go before my softener and also buy some of the bottled water as well just to run an experiment.

Thanks for the info! Stuck at work till 8pm, but I will do a nute change when I get home and try it out.

I was under the impression that the flora nova series still needed both parts to work right. But after looking at the General Hydroponics website, as well as their nutrient calculator for the flora nova series, it looks like they are right, they are single part nutrients and the two parts are just for different phases. The GRO is for plants growing vegetation and/or don't flower, and the bloom is for plants that are ready to flower. The flora nova series does have pH buffers in it to help stabilize pH (most commercially made nutrients do). That's much better than the compost tea, even so hopefully your order will be in soon so you don't need to worry about it.

P.S.
Even though I live in western Arizona, I am somewhat familiar with Washington state because I used to drive trucks through the 11 western states. Unfortunately when driving trucks you don't really get time to "sight see" (unless you can see it from the road as you go by), but I've been through some city's in southeast Washington like Kennewick, Walla Walla, Yakima, Ellensburg, and many times to Spokane. As much as I loved traveling through the Rockie Mountains, I really liked the northwest even more. Especially the northern Rockies (in the US) from Spokane WA, to Bozeman MT is probably the most beautiful country I've seen.

Nutrient Calculator (make sure if it isn't already their, to change the "1. Option, Nutrient System" to the Flora Nova option)

crad
That sounds like an interesting experiment, running 3 separate systems with everything the same expect the water supply.

I live just outside Kennewick in Finley. (actually have a Kennewick address)There is a truck stop there at the "General Store" where a lot of guys stop over for the night.

I just have the one bean plant in flower/fruit right now so I think I can get by on it till the good stuff comes in :)