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!
