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!
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!
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.
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?
