[GpsFrontier]

Originally Posted by Cliver_McGyver

You have a very large collection for a home hobbyist!
I still have 3 week before I can plan out. I want to do strawberries and the guy at golden acres and sunny side nursery's say they get starters with out dirt for transplant.

I will be doing an aeroponics system with a spare bellows pump I have!

I will feed for 1 minute every hour - spraying in to rockwool!

So what PH are you trying to maintain? - solution temp, and frequency of flooding?

Are strawberries a light or heavey feeder?

And do you add the flowering minerals when they start to flower or after a few flowers have formed...?

And pinching back or adding humidity? this topic has so many questions, I am sure they have been asked before but are not in a tutorial page...

A lot of questions I know but you seem to have much experience in this.

I don't really have that much experience yet. I have been looking into Hydroponics for over ten years, but these are the first systems that I have ever put in use. I do want to some day grow commercially though, to sell at the farmers market and locally. Originally I wanted to move to Alaska and build a indoor Hydroponic farm and sell fresh produce to the restaurants and such in the dead of winter when it is 30 below outside. Real fresh produce grown locally rather than being shipped in from thousands or miles away should fetch a good profit and still be reasonably priced.

Some how I took a right turn from California to Alaska and ended up in Arizona. But, I figure there's no time like the present to get it going (ten years later). I am using the pH tester drops to check pH level and I am trying to keep the pH at 6.0 for both the peppers and strawberry's. Just do a search for "pH level for hydroponic strawberry's" or any other plant you want and compare a few different results to get a good Idea of what to keep it at. Here is one I found: Level of pH in Hydroponics

The flood and drain cycles are different for the strawberry's and peppers. For the peppers I am using a 1/2hr on and 1/2hr off during daylight (night it only goes on twice for 30min each) mainly because the timer only has 1/2hr minimum on and off times. It only takes 10min to flood but I don't want the roots to go more than 30min without getting water and getting to dry. Also with the peppers I am using grow rocks for a growing medium but with the strawberry's I am using coco chips. The coco chips hold moisture much better and so I don't need to water as much. The strawberry's are getting 1hr on (it takes 40min to flood the whole system) and 2hr or 1 1/2hr off depending on the heat. I can change that to 1hr on and 1hr off when it gets even hotter.

I am planning to change the Strawberry system into a aeroponic system next time because that will use a lot less water and thus nutrients for the same amount of plants. But I am not finding much in the way of pumps that don't cost an arm and a leg with the pressure required for that many emitters.

The nutrient solution temp is a problem here in Arizona. Ideally it should be between 68 and 72 degrees. I check this by just sticking my fingers in it to see if it feels cool (high tech I know), if it is warm then I am dumping ice (made from revers osmosis water) in to cool it down. That also replaces the water lost by evaporation and the plants drinking. I cant really dig in the ground to keep them in the cooler ground because it is mostly rock. Soon I will be insulating the nutrient solution tanks by using a little larger container and lining it with spray insulation foam (from Home Depot) then placing the nutrient tank in it basically making it an ice chest. I also cover them to keep the sun off of them.

I am currently looking into the feasibility of using food grade Liquid Nitration to cool the nutrient solution down. Weather directly added to the nutrient solution or in a recirculating system running through metal coils in the solution. Plants need nitrogen to feed on anyway, but I don't know if the addition of Liquid Nitrogen will throw off the balance of the rest of the nutrients. It doesn't have any bad affects on humans and is safe to eat (they pour cream in it to make ice cream instantly) you just cant touch it while it is at a sub zero temp. It looks like the price for the Liquid Nitrogen would be around $2.00 a gallon and easily obtained from any welding supply house. There is also the cost of the storage container that I think might be a bit pricey, but only needed to be purchased once then just refilled. Also a concern is, how long that it will retain its sub zero temp in the storage container.

I know that the peppers are heavy feeders but I don't really know about the strawberry's. I have read that it takes 1/2 letter of nutrient solution to feed 1 strawberry plant (I am not sure if that was full grown or not) but if that is true and I have 32 strawberry plants that would be 16 letters or about 4 gallons of solution required to feed them. It takes 55 gallons of solution to flood the system and leave a few gallons in the reservoir so it doesn't run the pump dry (that's the reason I am considering changing it to an aeroponic system). So if they are heavy feeders it isn't really a problem for me. But General Hydroponics has a tech department that you can e-mail and find out: tech@genhydro.com they ususly get back to you within 24hr's.

I am using the Flora series nutrient system from General Hydroponic. It is a 3 part nutrient system that you need all 3 parts to make work, but you can adjust the parts to your plants and there phase's of growing. According to the General Hydroponic tech department plants like peppers and strawberry's that flower and produce fruit through their entire life cycle require equal amounts of all 3 at 10mil (2 tsp) per gallon of water and that seems to work well for me, I am getting a lot of growth as well as flowers.

I am growing outside so I don't have control of humidity. It's dry this time of year in Lake Havasu until late July when the monsoon season starts. but I would suggest not keeping strawberry's in a humid environment if you have control of that. In California I grew strawberry's in the ground and know that they don't really like wet leaves and it also causes the berry's to rot right on the plant. As for peppers they generally grow well in the hot southwest where it is dry and not humid so I would keep them well ventilated with dry air if you can also.

I saw the pictures you have in the "building my system" thread and it looks like you are doing two different systems, a drip system and the aeroponic system. I like the way you cut out the holes, I did mine freehand and that was a pain.