[Freshwater]

Originally Posted by T'Mater

Harvest is dead i'm pretty sure anyway's

Aww, man.... I must have missed that... though yes you are right. You learned a TON this season. I too would have pulled a plant to check out the roots.

I'll see if I can answer these, or at least what I would do. Remember that I live in Zone 10, mother nature is very kind to me and my garden.

Originally Posted by T'Mater

1. Do you go by the back of a tomato seed package to determine when you should start getting mater's? Like the plant's i planted said around 80day's, or do hydroponicly grown(if done right) seem to start producing sooner?

This is a tough one and not surprising I have a point of view on it! I do not go off the back of the seed pack for much other than is it determinate or indeterminate. The plant will blossom, when it blossoms.

AND...IMO... Hydroponically grown plants will not grow any faster/better/bigger than a perfectly balanced garden...period. Although it is much easier to perfectly balance a hydroponic nutrient system than a soil garden ;-)

Originally Posted by T'Mater

How do you know what phase your plants are in?

With Tomatoes it's easy for veg. vs. flower. Are there flowers on it? No...it's in Veg. now there are flowers?...it's flowering...lol Remember you can also control when the plant does what with the use of different levels of nutrient and light. You effectively vegged your plants for 100 days primarily through light control in your garage.

Originally Posted by T'Mater

Our goal is to try to have the plant's set up so that they start producing late March/early April.

Plant your seeds mid-January indoors, under all those florescent lights you have. Build a little greenhouse in your garage, like 4 ft x 2 ft (you have 4 ft lights right?) by maybe 4 ft tall. Get a couple warming mats for seed trays, or even better yet run them in a DWC system once the seeds have roots and throw a fish tank heater or 2 in. and you should have a huge jump on everyone else. Just keep your lights really close to the tops of the seedlings. Remember we both learned that one this year.

Todd