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New guys take on a DWC, with pics.
Hi Everyone-
For the last 6 months or so hydroponics has had me fascinated. About 6 weeks ago I started gathering up parts and pieces to do my own indoor hydroponic vegetable garden. I made the mistake of mentioning to the fellows at work I was interested in hydroponics and all I got was a bunch of flak about being a pot farmer, sheesh. :rolleyes: I just want fresh veggies year round. I live very far North in the US and our growing season here is pretty short. So if you have a bad garden you are kind of sunk for the entire Fall and Winter season. I thought it would be fun to try and do a hydro grow before the Spring plant comes along just to see what happens! I tried to do this on a shoestring budget and so far I am into the whole project for about $200. I think my setup could be replicated for probably half of that but I splurged on a few things. Anyway onto my pics. After a lot of reading I decided that a deep water culture looked like the easiest and cheapest method, and probably most important it looked simple. So I bought a pair of 20 gallon storage totes, some 4 inch plastic pots, a bag of vermiculite, and a bag of perlite which I mixed as my growing medium. I brought all that home and made my DWC tubs. I then scoured E-Bay and found a guy selling 400 Watt Metal Halide Hi-Bay light fixtures he had salvaged from a warehouse somewhere, he was selling them for $50 shipped. As a bonus they had already been converted to 110 Volts. I put a $2.49 plug on the stub of cord that extended from the ballast. I know a lot of people bad mouth the hi-bay fixture for hydro gardening. For me it looks like it will work pretty good. The reflector seems to focus the light very nicely on my two tubs, and for fifty bucks with bulb, ballast, reflector, and shipped to my door it was hard to beat. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298512887 I had a couple of old mirrors that I had been holding onto from a home remodeling project I had done several years ago and I thought they might help with the light situation. Look at how much more light is being reflected onto those pots in relation to the pic above, pretty amazing! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298513447 Another $60 spent at my local Lowe's got me two sheets of Dow Tuff-R foil backed foam insulation and some door hardware in the form of hinges and a latch. Yep, that is duct tape holding the two pieces together. What can I say, it works. Not pictured is the opposite side of the Tuff-R which has a super reflective foil surface on it. The grow area is 4'X4'. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298513514 A view inside my little grow room. Notice now that the DWC tubs are simply flooded with brilliant MH light. You can also see my thermometer/hygrometer. I am a little worried that the basement is a bit too cold. With the hi-bay light off the temp will drop to around 52 F, after about 2 hours of light run time the temp will reach 65 F. Any input on how this will work for growing veggies? In the left of the photo on the floor you can see my little dual port air pump, it is ridiculously loud and will either get sealed in a box and surrounded with foam, or thrown out, its incessant buzzing is very annoying. In the mirror on the back wall you call clearly see the two barbed fittings I siliconed in as drains for the DWC tubs. The MH light is on a heavy duty timer and set to run 16 on, 8 off right now. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298513675 Here is a shot of the two DWC drain tubes running out to a pair of shut off valves and terminating right over a convenient floor drain. This spot in my basement was picked for this very reason. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298514079 And finally a picture from this afternoon. My cucumber seedlings are ready to be transplanted tomorrow. Today I made up 16 gallons of nutrient solution with General Hydroponics nutrients in the form of Flora-Gro, Flora-Bloom, and Flora-Micro. I used the GH test kit to adjust the PH to right at 6.0. And here is my DWC tub full of water and bubbling. I can hardly wait to get those seedlings in there tomorrow and see what happens! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298514414 I still have lettuce, two varieties of peppers, and Roma tomatoes in seedling stage. The cukes are just so far ahead of the others they need to be transplanted. So I am going to give a shot. I will try to update this thread weekly with grow progress! |
Hello PaulF,
You did a great job on a budget. As for the temp that might be a bit cold. 52 with the lights off (night time) shouldn't be much of a problem, although 65 when the lights are on (daytime) will probably be a bit cold for everything other than the lettuce. Especially the peppers that I believe are a warm weather plant, and prefer temps 80 degrees (F) or above. You might experience slow growth, and/or a lack of flowers/fruit on them. Also I would wonder about the water temp, temps below about 65 degrees (F) will also add to slow growth. You can use a fish tank heater to help keep the water temp's in check. Just get one that has a adjustable thermostat and try not to set it above 72 degrees. Also make sure it stays submerged in the water, but not in contact with the plastic tubs. Water temps above 75-78 can add heat stress to the plant, above 80 can cause the plant to stop or abort fruiting. Personally I think you will find that cucumber and tomato plants will be to big for that space. What is that black tube looking thing the bubbles are coming out of? Does it stay down at the bottom of the tub without weights? |
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36" Permeable Flexible Air Stone - EZ Hydroponics & Organics On another note - do the totes need to be so deep? seems like you will have a hard time getting the lids on with how they are bulging out. Also - perhaps to help the temps you could add some insulation over the concrete walls (behind the mirrors)? otherwise GREAT JOB! I'm getting ready to start my first DIY hydro setup and I love seeing pics of others projects! |
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I thought the 4'X4' room would be quite big enough but now I am not so sure. I am afraid the tomatoes and cukes are going to get huge! Your question about the black tube in the bottom of the bucket is answered below! Quote:
As far as the depth on the totes go, I bought 20 gallon totes for my project. I did this because everything I read online said that once your plants really get to rocking and rolling they will eat up nutrients FAST and you will go nuts chasing your Ph. So the idea is that with a huge nutrient reservoir you can go a couple of weeks before you flush and refill them. Hence the reason I plumbed in the drains. As far as the reservoirs bowing, for right now once the tops are snapped on they hold their shape. Once I have established a good root system I plan on reducing the nutrient level. Right now the nutrient solution comes right up and the bottom half inch of the pots is submerged. But once the roots are established I plan on reducing that so they can get more oxygen. In other words the roots will be exposed to open air before they get submerged in the nutrient solution. Early this morning I transplanted some of my cuke seedlings. I took them from the seed starter trays and very carefully rinsed all the peat off the roots. I was shocked at how large the root system was for something I planted from seed less than two weeks ago. I then planted them in my DWC pots and gave them a light shot of weak nutrients. Within two hours the leaves were deeply curled, obviously from the shock of transplant. Two hours after that the leaves had straightened out and they were looking healthy again. By late evening they appeared to have grown a lot since this morning! We will see what tomorrow brings. Here is a pic from early this morning just after the transplant took place. I think they look great. I should have taken a picture before the MH light shut off because I swear they grew noticably over the day. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1298601979 |
Excellent!
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Your cucs will want to spread out and your tomatoes will want to grow up and out. To me it seems that you may not have enough space but keep going with it and see what happens. As for pollinating, I believe both need some help from bees or maybe shaking them might help (not sure). I am gonna grow lettuce and pepper since peppers are self pollinating and lettuce don't flower. I am going to try and grow lettuce and peppers fro now and maybe jump into tomatoes later. I would say keep going with what you have, keep good records and post so we can all learn and contribute to the world of hydroponics!
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Paul, do you intend on supplementing with HPS for red spectrum when it comes time to flower and fruit those maters and cukes? I am interested in seeing your solution.
The lighting system is what is preventing me from moving to flowering veggies because of initial expense and continuing expense. You caught a great deal on the light setup, so that puts you well ahead of the curve. Adding the red spectrum (to me) seems to be the challenge. Great setup! |
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I'm with you, I think the cukes and tomatoes are going to need a lot more space. But for the time being I'm going to do as you suggest and just keep on going with what I have. Pollination of the tomatoes will be handled with a little oscillating fan mounted on the wall, from what I have read they are very easy to pollinate. The cukes I will pollinate by hand by taking male flowers and dabbing them on the female flowers, should I even make it that far! I will hopefully keep this post updated with progress as I go. Quote:
As much as I would love to supplement with HPS I am trying to keep the budget on the shoestring level. I know there are HPS conversion bulbs available that will work in a MH fixture but I am just going to stick with the MH bulb as the conversion bulbs cost more than I paid for the entire MH fixture shipped to my door! Keep an eye on E-Bay if you are interested in doing an indoor HID setup. There are a bunch of hi-bay fixtures on there right now for the same amount I paid for mine. My biggest concern is what it will do to my electric bill. The lights are designed around a 220 volt power source. So I am assuming that the amp draw is going to go up being fed from a 110 volt feed. Therefore I assume the 400 watt bulb is probably drawing the same as say maybe a 600 watt bulb, although that is only a guess at best! But even at 400 watts running 16 hours a day I am sure there will be a significant jump in my monthly bill. Don't underestimate the lowly MH light for your entire veggie grow from start to finish. There are A LOT of documented grows out there that used MH from start to finish and have had great results. Admittedly they are for marijuana but the principles are still pretty much the same. I'm not in this at all for pot growth but I have to say, the folks that have documented their marijuana grows online have helped me a lot with ideas and tips! Judging by what I see online, if people put as much effort into growing vegetables in their closets as they do growing pot I think a lot of grocery stores would have no need for a produce section! :p |
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1 Week In
My first weekly update. It works, I shouldn't be surprised but it is actually working! So far so good. With the light on a 16 hour cycle the grow room makes it almost to 70 degrees during the day. Not overly warm but better than I had initially thought. Check out the growth on my cukes! They are rockin'! Surprisingly there are NO roots coming out of the bottoms of the pots yet. I am a little surprised at that to be honest but the plants are definitely growing well. My other seedlings are still a ways off from being ready to transplant so it's just gonna be the cukes for a bit longer. I'll be anxious to see how they look in another week. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...droponics8.jpg |
Hey Paul,
Yeah you are correct about the current draw concerning the 400 watt @ 110 vac and the 600 @ 220 vac. They are about the same so the power savings won;t be so great. But I have seen a T5 HO (High output) floursc, fixtures online wfor about $175. To that is a bit much. On that same site, you can purchase T5 Blue or Red Spectrim lamps for a decent price. So if you are electrically inclined, buying the parts necc. it is possible to build your own. I am thinking of doing this but for now, I want to get my DWC, lettuce and leafy green system gong first. But when I do build my own T5 light fixture, I will be willing to share how to do it. Anyways, I spent some time getting my supplies together for my first ever DWC system. I initially went on Amazon.com and found everything I needed to start. Net cups, propagation material, Nutrients, PH/TDS meter, heat mat, growing medium etc. Anyways, the total came to about $120. But the shipping was about $60 alone. So I shopped around and ordered from 4 different sites and got everything I needed for under $100 and shipping way under the $60. So my lesson learned was to definitely shop around for your supplies. When my supplies arrive, I will post more and some pics as well. Take care and Happy Hydroponic'ing. |
hey biloyp-
Thanks for the encouragement! Please do post pics when you get started. For me a lot of this is a guessing game so it is always good to see others peoples arrangements. Today makes two weeks on from my planting and things are going pretty good. I am implementing some big changes for next week though! 1: I ordered an el-cheapo E-Bay LED panel. It supposedly is equivalent to a 250W HPS but draws only 14 watts. It will help with the tremendous amount of electricity that the MH is currently drawing and do away with the annoying 60 cycle hum that is so prevalent in my house. Even being housed behind the TUFF-R, which admittedly does do a good job of muffling the hum, it is still annoying. So we will see if these LED panels actually work. 2: I ordered a 1500 Watt space heater to go in the grow room. I am thinking of putting the heater on the same timer the grow light is currently on. And I think keeping the room at a constant 75 degrees F during the light on cycle should be very easy to do for not much cost. The whole grow room is only 16 Sq Ft! An added benefit is that the space heater has a blower in it to help stir the air in there. And I thought I would post up the pictures of week 0, week 1, and week 2. There is some definite growth happening but STILL no roots out the bottom of the pots! I can see a root system going in one of the pots but it has yet to acutally leave pot and extend down into the nutrients, although the bottoms of the pots are submerged so the roots are by default bathed in the solution. My tomato seedling have great second leaves and are getting rather spindly so I think they will be planted over the weekend. I can't wait. Zero week. (Anyone who has been through USAF basic training will be familiar zero week. :D ) http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...droponics7.jpg Week one. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...droponics8.jpg And week two. Definite good growth since last week. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...droponics9.jpg |
Looking good!e
1500 watt space heater @ 110 vac is about 12 amps. Just make sure your timer can handle that much current plus whatever else you have going through your timer. If you can run it off of 220v then the current draw will be about half that.
An LED panel that draws 14 watts, to me that sounds like a lot for LED's. Are these the real bright ones cuz not all LED's are the same. But if they work for you then go for it. BUt now you have a space heater drawing a fair amount of current and LED lamps drawing a good amount. To me that is a lot of current. Just plz be careful of the heat buildup through your timer. Your plants are looking pretty good. I was thinking about your cucs and how they will want to crawl up a little but definitely out. I used an old screen door or trellis to let them crawl on. If I can get a bit of time between a bedroom renovation and work, I can't wait to get started on building my DWC and also propagating for outside planting as well. Well keep up the good work and again plz be careful with the heat buildup. P.S. Not sure what Zero week is but I am an retired Coastie and might it be similar to your last week in boot camp? |
Big changes for this week!
My electric bill showed up and the 400W metal halide light only increased my electric bill by $15.00. So I guess it wasn't all that bad. But sadly the light developed a very annoying habit of shutting off on its own anytime there was a power draw somewhere else in the house, i.e. fridge coming on, power tool being run, etc. etc. etc. I think it is an undercurrent issue. These lights really are designed to be run on 220 VAC not 110. So I guess I decided to redo my lighting at just the right time. I did my first nutrient change. My tote had popped open on one side due to the water making it bow out. I left it like that for 3 days. It turns out 3 days is more than enough time for algae to start growing like mad! So I ended up draining the reservoir and spending about 20 minutes wiping every square inch of the interior that had green algae all over. I mixed fresh nutrient solution and bumped up the strength according to the General Hydroponics directions. It seems to be working awesome! I also secured the top of the tote with some clothespins, low tech, but it works. My LED panel that I bought on E-Bay showed up. I was pretty underwhelmed. They claim it produces as much light as a 250W HPS bulb. I'm thinking probably not. :rolleyes: Here is how it looked in the finished install. It just didn't seem to produce enough light to put it anywhere else. This was probably $33.00 thrown away but who knows, maybe it will work out great. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1300409694 I decided I was going to need A LOT more light to replace the MH fixture. So I built a very low tech CFL fixture. I used a piece of 6" air duct style pipe I bought at Lowes. I put two bulb sockets in it. I bought 100W CFL bulbs, one in the 6500K range and one in the 3500K range. I thought it was a pretty clever way to cover the full spectrum of light to be honest! It only took about 20 minutes to put together and cost a bit under $30.00. Here are the parts sitting on my table. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1300410126 And here is the finished light hanging in my grow room. It provides an astonishing amount of illumination! In the first picture you can clearly see the two different colored bulbs. Notice in both pics you can see my little ceramic space heater. This has helped out a lot I think. Also notice my seedlings sitting under the light. They are waiting to be transplanted. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1300410194 http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1300410323 And finally a grow update. I planted the tomatoes two days ago and they have shown growth already, I'm impressed! The cukes are really starting to roll now. I hope this keeps going this well! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1300410777 To close out this weeks update I'll tell you that the flexible air stones I bought suck. They get clogged up with something, I'm not sure what and need to be wiped off every few days or they start putting out almost no air. I may just drop the air hose in the reservoir and let it bubble like that. |
Sorry to hear the LED panel wasn't what was expected. They often tell you that they put out enough light to replace a specific wattage MH or HPS, but I have never herd anyone who has bought one agree. They always wind up needing to spend more money on lighting to compensate. I like the way you built your cfl lighting, although to be honest, I don't think that is going to be enough light output for much more than small seedlings. When using Florescent (cfl included), it isn't the the replacement wattage that matters, it's the actual wattage.
In other words you may have 2 cfl bulbs that replace 100 watt regular bulbs, but their actual wattage is probably something like 20 watts each. For a total of 40 watts. So in comparison if they were placed close enough to the plants (because with florescent the light intensity drops much quicker than with HID) they would be similar to a 40 watt MH bulb (not a 200 watt MH/HPS bulb). I have a brand new package of cfl's in front of me and they are 60 watt replacement bulbs, but use only 15 watts. So I would have something like an equivalent to a 30 watt MH. That wouldn't be able to grow much of anything other than to provide some light for seedlings. I had a similar problem with with the first air stones/tubes I bought. They were the straight round ones that looked neat, but like yours they quickly clogged and I couldn't clean them out. So in the trash they went. Though I haven't had any problems or issues with the regular square stone ones. You really should use a air stone because it defuses large air bubbles into tiny ones. A bunch of tiny air bubbles is a lot better in a water culture system. There's a lot more surface area of air bubbles, and that's needed for the oxygen molecules to be absorbed by the water. I got mine at wal-mart in the pet supply's (next to the fish tanks), and ran about $1.60 each ($2.50 for the large ones). But they sell them any ware they sell pet supply's for fish. |
Was the MH bulb new? If not, the turning off issue was probably caused by the bulb going bad. New bulbs are around 30 bucks.
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Some LED manufactures make crazy claims about their product and it gives LEDs a bad reputation. Truth is you need about 360W of LED to effectively grow in a 4x4 area. Main advantages are the bushy growth and lack of heat.
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A lot of LED manufactures make outrageous claims about their lights. It puts LEDs in a bad light all together and it's a shame because used correctly you really can get great results from LEDs. A 45W panel is just bearly enough light to grow 1 pepper plant and actually get peppers. For a 4x4 grow space I have found 4 UFOs (360W) to be the ideal amount of lights. I have grown strawberries, cucubmers, cherry tomatoes, all sorts of peppers, and many more things with this setup.
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"But sadly the light developed a very annoying habit of shutting off on its own anytime there was a power draw somewhere else in the house"
Did that annoying habit show up about the same time the 1500 watt heater did? 1500 watt heater, 400 watt MH I think you're approaching the limit of safety on a 20 amp circuit. What else were you running on that circuit? Air pump, basement lights ect? I'm a plumber not an electrician, but I"m pretty sure I'm right on this, please check with someone. |
Not a whole lot to report this week.
I am still slogging along with the crappy air snakes but I am planning on ordering some good air stones this week as well as some net pots and some rock wool so I can get my other DWC tub up and running. I don't think my growing medium or standard pots are the best choices. But having said that, the growth these are now showing is amazing. I can't believe in one week how much they have changed. The LED and the two CFL's are apparently working exceptionally well. The space heater is probably contributing quite a bit as well. The tomatoes are all showing good root systems out the bottoms of the pots and have easily doubled in size after a little over a week. The cukes are actually starting to overlap each other. It is awesome! More to come next week when I swap out the nutrients again and move up to the aggressive growth stage with the GH nutrients. I don't know how it could get a whole lot more aggressive than it is right now but we will see! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ponics11-1.jpg |
Just something to keep in mind.... I started 4 tomato plants in a tub just like yours.... When the plants were about a foot tall, I decided to transplant each plant to its own 5 gallon bucket. Even at a foot tall, all the roots were intertwined and difficult to get apart. Today the plants are about 5 feet tall, and the root system takes up the entire 5 gallon bucket, and each one drinks about a gallon of water a day... And my tomatoes are only the size of grapes so I have a way to go.
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The LED panel can always be used as a stand alone for "starts". But...it looks like it would add to the red spectrum enough to enhance flowering of those cukes.
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hey PaulF
Things are looking really good. I totally understand your led pain. The first ones I got on ebay claimed that it would be good for a 9 sq foot space but the reality is that it will only cover a 1 foot square at 6 inches. I currently have it above some potted kitchen herbs and they do grow but its no where near the specs online. |
Sorry to hear about the LED panel. It's decent for smaller kitchen herbs and starting seedlings, but not much more.
I'm in agreement with Gps, you're going to need more room. Also, run a separate circuit for your heater. Anything running 1kW or more should be on its own separate circuit to avoid overloading the others. Metal Halide lamps, especially those 400w types using older magnetic ballasts, have a HEAVY initial draw (digital ballasts do not cause this issue as badly but it still exists,) and if the 1500w heater is on that same circuit you're guaranteed to cause yourself issues. Be wary of LED right now. While I've had great success in both home and commercial setups, most sellers of LED equipment are selling you nonsense, as cable has noted. |
Hey all-
The current draw issue isn't a big deal. The heater has a high/low setting. The high is 1500W and the low is 750W. The heater ALWAYS stays on low so it is never drawing more than 750 watts. The circuit this is on is independent and supports only the hydroponics setup. So I have the heater (750W), two 100W equivalent CFL's (23W draw each for 46W total), the LED panel (14W), and the air pump, maybe 100W or so? Not sure. So total draw at any given time on this circuit is a grand total of 910 Watts. I am totally safe. The growth continues to be impressive. The two CFL's in my Bubba fixture and the LED panel are more than enough light to make my little indoor garden ROCK. I had planned on doing a nutrient change today and stepping up to the "Aggressive Growth" strength of the GH nutrients but I didn't get around to it. Maybe tomorrow. I'm not really sure it is even worth it to be honest. And the pics. The first picture is one that was taken two weeks ago when I had just planted my tomatoes, just for reference purposes. Check out how much everything has grown since then. It has all more than doubled, it's amazing! I am still fascinated with how well this works despite the lack of any soil and just artificial light. More coming next week. Two weeks ago. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics10.jpg Today, this stuff is getting big. What a change in only two short weeks. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...oponics125.jpg |
Another weekly update for anyone following along.
A few changes for this week. Two days ago I drained the nutrients and upped them to the "Aggressive Vegetative Growth" schedule on the GH bottle. Wow. It works, and it works big time! The growth has been explosive in just 48 hours. I also decided that my 4" flower pots with tiny holes in the bottom were a big stumbling block. I had one tomato and one cuke that had put roots out through the holes in the bottom of the flower pots. Both of those plants were markedly bigger than the ones that still had root systems contained in the pots. I bought some net pots and some expanded clay pellets and transplanted everything. I have to say that the expanded clay pellets are also a lot more visually appealing to me for some reason. The plants just look really nice coming out of those little clay balls. All the plants took a hit and went into shock but within a couple of hours they were back and healthy. I have never seen plants recover so quickly from transplant shock. It usually takes at least 24 hours, with hydroponics it practically happens while you watch. I threw out the flexible air stones. They were junk. When I changed nutrients on Tuesday I cleaned them again and they were putting out lots of bubbles. On Wednesday it was back to just a few bubbles here and there. I bought two 10" air stones at Wal-Mart for 3 dollars each and they put out a HUGE amount of bubbles. Lesson learned here. And finally I have decided I will be going back to my original MH high bay light. I am going to spring for the 32 dollar bulb. As I get more and more plant growth I realize the CFL's will only do so much. And I just don't think they are up to the task of lighting this setup when I have a dozen plants going. Stay tuned, more to come. Check out this growth in only a week. I am continually amazed at how well this works. I think you could easily measure the growth that happens each day, it is astonishing! I really can't believe how good this is working in just a little dark corner of my basement. Oh yeah, the cukes have got flowers on them if you can believe that! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1302226394 |
Has it really been only a week?
I don't know if anyone is still following along. But since I am have having fun doing it I am going to keep updating this post. Like I said in my last post I decided to bring my MH lamp back to life. I bought the rather expensive bulb after I found some evidence that the symptoms my light was displaying were the EXACT thing one would see when a MH bulb is at the end of its life. To make a long story short my MH light is rocking and even my big noisy shop vac can't make it kick off. So my $50 MH light ended up costing me $82 when I put a new bulb in it. Not a big deal. What IS a big deal is the astonishing growth that has occurred since I: Re-potted everything in net pots. Switched the nutrients to the GH "Agressive" formulation. And most importantly brought this monster HID light back to life! So probably the the net pots and the nutrient strength helped quite a bit. But I think a fully functional, 16 hours of Metal Halide light blasting down on my plants has made a HUGE difference. I started the second 20 gallon tote and it is sporting lettuce, two peppers (which are pathetic!), and strawberries. I planted it all on last Saturday (04/09/2011) and the lettuce has easily tripled in size, and the strawberries have already put out flowers! The real story however is the tote with the Tomatoes and Cukes. The Tomatoes are nothing short of enormous since just a week ago. And the cukes that had just put out some wimpy flowers last Thursday have now got actual cukes on them! I have hand pollinated the female flowers and it is working great. Cukes in my basement, from plants that have never seen the light of day and have NO dirt underneath them. It just boggles my mind. More to come next week. Can it keep up like this? I can't imagine it, but who knows! A good shot showing my MH lamp with its new lease of life. My homebuilt CFL fixture and the joke of an LED panel are gone. As I am sure most everyone knows there is no replacement for HID lights. Some of us just are slow learners. Note that the DWC on the left is fully planted and kicking butt! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1302832683 Look at that Romaine! And the strawberries, they have doubled in size since I brought them home from Lowes last Saturday as sad little things. The only thing that has me stumped are the peppers, and to be honest, after the tomatoes they are the things I wanted to have the most. Well, I'm not giving up yet. I did see some growth on them today, but only very little. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1302833006 And what is this? I know, not very exciting, but it is to me! A cucumber, growing in my basement. I should mention I did the cukes so I could have homemade pickles when I wanted them. I am a pickle FREAK. I could live on them. And here is the start of my next batch of pickles, just grown in my basement! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1302833181 And finally I have saved the best for last. Compare the photo below of my cukes and tomatoes to the one above that was taken only a week ago. I have it here in my basement and I can hardly believe it. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1302833383 What will next week bring? I am continually amazed by my own hydro grow! |
Looks good.
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Looking good, get prepared to seperate and trellis those plants as they get larger their nutrient needs will make growing them in the same system a problem. Yields won't be nearly as high because they all need a slightly different pH and EC
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Looking real good keep up the great posts
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Thanks for the encouragement guys. I appreciate it. :)
As for this week, I hate to sound like a broken record, but, DANG! This DWC is absolutely ROCKIN'! I am just blown away. I think the plants are probably doubling in size on a weekly basis. And I have to do almost nothing to keep up with them. I have noted a sizable increase in water consumption but that is very easy to keep up with. The bad news is the space heater, oh my, the space heater! I had been using it to keep the grow room at 75 degrees 24 hours per day. Well, the power bill showed up and guess what? It added 70 dollars to the bill prior! D'oh! So the space heater has been relegated to keeping the grow room at 58-60 degrees at night and the MH lamp keeps the room at 66-68 degrees during the day. So far there have been no ill effects. I have got cukes coming on like crazy! Probably at least a dozen growing right now. I have had to pollinate them all by hand but all of them took. The peppers have shown growth which makes me think they might work out. The strawberries that flowered I pollinated by hand and they are sporting little bitty strawberries now, how cool! Still not a single flower on the tomatoes, but soon I hope. The tomatoes are putting everything else to shame size wise, they are just incredible. The basement now smells like tomato plants all the time. It is really quite nice. More to come for those of you following. The pictures below tell the real story. Now who said that surplus High Bay lights don't work good for hydroponic applications? http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1303435456 My Romaine is delicious! And every leaf is perfect. Caesar salad from my basement? Now this is livin'! :D How can you beat it? Check out those strawberries too, they are lovin life in my hydro closet. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1303435525 To give a sense of scale as to how much these tomato plants are growing I put a bottle of Sam Adams in there. Check out the stalk on that plant, unreal! I can't get over how FAST this stuff is growing and how big it is. Look at the size of the leaves on the cukes, and all the flowers! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1303435636 And finally my standard overhead shot of the tomatoes and cukes. They have gotten so big that this pic has lost its impact. The plants are all just starting to look like one big mass of green! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1303435761 More pics next week! |
Looking absolutely beautiful! DWC hauls major butt so expect insane growth, especially if you're forcing a lot of oxygen through the nutrient solution!
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Beautiful plants, really growing well and I know that light really did the trick. I am hoping your tomato plants don't take over by growing too much. How are you gonna support the tomato plants...cage or stick?? I think you should move the totes some so the cucs have some room. Looks ;like they may just grow down onto the floor whicch would be ok. I know cucs need lots of water so no problem there ha-ha.I think I need to get a lamp like yours. I am growing lettuce and spinach...spinach not doing too well but the lettuce has provided us with about 6 bowls of salad...But I am in the middle of a home renovation so I can't devote a whole lot of time to my hydro. Thanks for the pics and info.
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Hello PaulF,
Great looking growth, It won't be long before the taller plants outgrow the space. Are you sure the added $70 is all the heater, and not the light as well? |
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So, another week and another update. The closet continues to amaze! The growth is exponential. I really could never have imagined it would be like this. Having been a soil gardener for years I was expecting growth more along that type of rate. I guess not! I had to re-arrange the cukes and tomatoes. The tomatoes were so tall they were shading everything else, and the cukes were running so much that I knew everything was going to get tangled up. So I moved the two to opposing totes and put them on the outsides. Everything is a much better fit now. Water consumption has gone up drastically on the tomatoes. It wouldn't be a huge problem except the strawberries have very puny root systems and end up getting dried out. In the first picture if you look at the tote on the right the strawberries in the middle net pot are all wilted. When I went down to take these pics I found them like that, I put a gallon of water in and by tonight they will be back up and happy. On a side note, I am an Air National Guard member and Uncle Sam has seen fit to send me to Europe for a couple of weeks. So there will be no updates for the next three weeks. My wife will be taking care of the garden while I am gone. I can only imagine what things will look like when I get back. Enough blabbing though, onto the pics. The growth in only a week is just staggering. I thought the stuff looked big last week! I am going to put some wire fence on the out sides of the two totes. I figure it will give the cukes something to hold onto and it will allow the tomatoes support when they come. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics28.jpg I have been wanting to take one of these root system pics since the first day I planted everything! Finally here it is. Notice how small the strawberry root system is. I hope my wife keeps up with the water level while I am gone! Check out those tomatoe roots! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics23.jpg Look at all those baby cukes. I have lost count of how many are growing down there now. I thought it was going to be tough to hand pollinate them. It is so easy. You only need to gently rub the flowers together and by the next day you can tell it has taken by the way the base of the cuke gets shiny. It is really cool! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics25.jpg One of the bigger cukes. I have two or three this size now. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics26.jpg Gigantic Romaine leaves! And look at that healthy strawberry plant, they love it in there. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics24.jpg And the thing I have been waiting for the most! Flowers on my tomatoes. They have yet to open up but soon I hope. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics27.jpg See you in three weeks! Thanks to everyone following along. |
Looking good. Stay safe in Europe, and come home in one piece. I look forward to seeing what those things look like in 3 weeks as well.
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I made it back. I had planned on updating this coming Thursday to keep with my weekly schedule but I thought people might like to see this.
What was waiting for me in my grow room FAR exceeded my greatest expecations. My wife did a great job taking care of things for me, the tub with the tomatoes drank about 1/2 gallon of water per day. The one with the lettuce and the cukes drank far less. And I think this contributed to a big problem. One of the cukes looked very unhealthy and was quite limp. I lifted the plant out of the tub and found the roots very yellowed and generally unhealthy looking. I figured it was a nutrient issue but strangely all the other plants in that tub looked fine. Out of curiosity I checked the pH level, it was at 4.5!!!! Yikes. So I immediately decided to do a full nutrient change on both tubs. Before I started I checked the one with the tomatoes and it was still at 6.5. I can only guess that the constant addition of fresh water the pH stayed where it needed in one tub and was drastically altered in the other due to the needs of the plants in there, but that is a very amateur guess. Long story longer, nutrients are now fresh in both tubs now but the one cuke plant is looking like it is not going to make it. I changed to the "Blooming and Ripening" schedule per the GH instructions. It is a shame about the sick plant though because it has a lot of nice thumb sized cukes on it. Live and learn I guess. Before I get to this weeks pics I want to throw out a couple of things I have learned on this grow purely by accident. 1. The drains built into the tubs were beginners dumb luck on my part. I don't know how I would change out the nutrients without them. The plants and root systems are so big now that lifting the lids and temporarily setting them somewhere so I could pull the tubs out to drain them isn't feasible. Thank God I did that! 2. Having this downstairs with the closest water source upstairs is a HUGE pain in the butt. Each tub needs 17 gallons of nutrient solution. A 5 gallon bucket of nutrient solution is very heavy and easily spilled while going down the stairs. Do the math, it is a lot of trips back and forth. 3. Surplus MH lights rock. Despite what I read prior to doing this the warehouse style light DOES work. I was reading a thread in the lighting section of the forum where someone said that MH will give you tall stringy tomatoe plants. If that is the case then I guess my MH light must not be working right. Take a look at the pics below and tell me what you think. Finally some pics! This is what greeted me when I opened the door. I actually laughed out loud, I couldn't believe it! Now those are some bushy tomatoes. And from a warehouse light that isn't even wearing a grow style reflector, how cool is that? http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics33.jpg My peppers have finally started to come on. They are looking very healthy. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics30.jpg Blossoms all over the tomatoes! Some have pollinated. But to be on the safe side I took a swab and hand pollinated every one I could find. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics34.jpg Look at the size of that stalk on the tomatoe! These are some HEALTHY plants! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics29.jpg An actual strawberry, there are 4 like this. About the size of raspberries right now, time will tell if they ripen and produce tasty fruit. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics31.jpg And as usual, I saved the best for last. How about those cukes? I am awed at how big these two are. I have another half dozen on the two other healthy plants that are thumb sized or a bit bigger. My first batch of pickles will be coming the next couple of weeks. I can't wait! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...roponics32.jpg More to come next week. |
I guess i don't know, but I bet your cukes could come back now that u've fixed the nutrients. But man, those all look nice (if not a little cramped). Looks like you should eat some salads :).
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Hello PaulF,
Glad you made it back. Your plants look like they grew twice as big while you were gone. Ya your right your pH issue was probably due to all the added water if it wasn't pH adjusted first. But the larger plants will take up more nutrients faster as well, and that changes the mineral content of the water, and will affect the pH also. That happens faster with larger plants. Quote:
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Another update!
Saturday of last weekend was a BAD day. On Friday I had checked in on my garden and thought the tomato plants looked a little droopy. I didn't worry about it too much though. I came back late Saturday morning and found total devastation! All 3 plants were totally limp and falling over. I couldn't believe it. After looking things over for a few minutes I realized I couldn't hear any bubbling at all from my air pump. I lifted the lid on my tote with the tomato plants and saw no bubbles at all. In fact the only thing I could see were roots, EVERYWHERE. I finally fished out the air stone and it was completely wrapped in tomato roots. It was really quite amazing. The root systems had become so enormous that they actually completely covered and then blocked the air stone from putting any oxygen into the nutrient solution, unreal! This is what greeted me on Saturday morning. Obviously dying tomato plants! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1306894473 So after getting pretty upset at what had happened I made a trip to my local hydro store. Even though I live in the sticks I have really good hydroponic outlet only about 15 minutes away. The guy there gave me some great advice. I bought a fresh supply of GH nutrients and came home and did a full nutrient flush and change. I also added another air pump and 2 more stones. Long story longer, my plants came back to life and are kicking butt once more. The moral of this story, THE MORE O2 THE BETTER. Big plants need big amounts of oxygen. I dodged a bullet on this one. My hydro closet is back up and healthy again! Here is something pretty cool. A fully ripe strawberry. Not very big, about the size of a walnut. But dang, it sure is pretty! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1306894766 My cukes are just amazing. Two more weeks and I will harvest everything I have and make some pickles, I have got 6 really nice cukes going right now. I am going to make a batch of bread and butter chips. I think they are going to rock. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1306894874 http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1306894897 And finally some of my many Roma tomatoes that are coming on. Thank God I saved these plants. These tomatoes are growing at an astonishing rate. I can't wait to pick fresh tomatoes, from my basement, and slap them on a homemade pizza. How delicious does that sound? http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1306894994 |
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