When to move rockwool seedlings to dutch buckets

[Stan]

Your plants and tomatoes look beautiful!!! I told you, you would have so many tomatoes you would have to start giving them away. Each plant must weigh a lot with all the tomatoes growing all over. You did an amazing job with your first successful grow, congrats!!!

I wouldn’t worry so much with temp of the nutrient water. if you are able to keep it in low 70’s upper 60’s great. I’ve had my reservoir in the mid 80’s and tomatoes were still doing fine.


Make sure you save the seeds from some tomatoes. Scrape them out of 2-3 tomatoes into a window screen type colander, rinse them off with fresh water until you get that gel off of them. Let them sit and dry on a cutting board for a couple hours. Use a butter knife to get the seeds that are sticking to the board all piled up and place them in a paper envelop for a few months and they’ll be ready to be used for a future grow.


I already have a couple seedlings growing won’t be able to get them in the 5 gallon buckets till mid May when there’s no chance of frost at night. We’ve had crazy fluctuations in temps the past 2 weeks up here.

[gdgdad]

Hey Stan, hope all’s well. Tomatoes are doing great and to date we’ve picked well over 70 pounds! Canned 8 pints of Salsa, 8 pints whole tomatoes and still have people coming by and picking tomatoes! Plants seem to be slowing down a bit, still easily a hundred in the green stage, but not as large as in the beginning (early March). Is that normal? (see pics) I did back off nutrients to 50% on March 7th. – should I stay at that ratio? As for my ambitious endeavor… being the hydroponic/Dutch bucket tomatoes turned out so well, I’ve started on a four rail / 31 net cup NFT system (see pics). I just completed building a 21 net cup aeroponic cloner/ seed starter (with a varmit guard that will double as a humidity dome when covered with Saran wrap). I need to order an additional interval timer. Later in the summer, I’ll be building a permanent half-hoop green house (uncovered most of the year) to house the Dutch buckets and rail system. Again, an ambitious plan but I think I can pull it off. I’ll keep you (and the blog) posted.

[Stan]

OK you should start getting new plants ready to replace the ones you have. When these plants get over 10ft the size of the tomatoes gets smaller unless you are growing cherry tomatoes. Here's 2 different ways to do this.

1. The fast way pluck big suckers from your current plants put them in neoprene collars then into that cloner.

2. Start new plants from seeds in rockwool in net cups.

If you go with #1 run the cloner 24hrs a day until you see a good amount of roots forming. Then you can reduce the watering time. Use 10% nutrients in the cloner for the suckers.

With rockwool you want to run the water for 10 minutes or until the rockwool is completely saturated. Then again as you did the first time you don't want the sprayers off for long and let the rockwool dry out. So you might have to run it 24hrs a day until it spouts and roots start forming. Once roots start to show add a small amount of nutrients.

Once you start 1 or 2 or both and they have roots drastically cut down on the nutrients of your current plants down to maybe 10 percent since they are on the last stage.

With the rails I suggest putting the large plants on top and the smaller plants on the bottom. As for making it a NFT system I' am not a fan of doing it this way. I started with rails and found using the 360 degree sprayers with give you healthier plants. The root system will be gigantic with a aeroponic rail system. With a NFT system only those roots sitting in the water will thrive. With aeroponic spray system the root system will be like a bush coming out of the net pots. After a while you won't be able to lift those net pots to see the roots in an aeroponic rail. Thats just my opinion you could build it either way.

When you get the hole cutter for the net pots make sure you drill the holes with the drill in reverse for the rails. Yes in reverse otherwise it won't cut the net pot hole smooth using the drill the other way. The other way you will end up with big chips and will need to buy a new post.

As for the new cloner very nice work!! You are becoming a pro at this!

[gdgdad]

Stan, Thanks for all the great advice and tips. I can see your point about the NFT flow technique – although water height can be adjusted, it would rely on roots being the same length. That’s unlikely for different varieties of plants. How did you configure the sprayers in the 5X5 fence post? A single PVC line down the center with sprayers between net cups? I’ve attached a preliminary rail layout plan and if I went with sprayers, it looks like it would take about 27 sprayers. I’m not sure the pump I have could run that many (or I could upgrade to a bigger pump). Also, I may be way to “aggressive” in the number of net cups. Any recommendations on net cups per 4’ section? This is still in the planning stage, no 5X5 fence rails (and caps) purchased as yet, but I have enough sprayers and PVC. Your thoughts / advice?

[Stan]

Why make 4 5X5 4ft sections when you can make 2 5X5 8ft sections? I did it this way a couple years back 1 8ft rail had tomato and pepper plants in 11 3/1/2 inch net pots. The other 8ft rail I had 17 2inch net pots mostly for strawberries. Both ran off the same reservoir I used a splitter to feed both rail sprayers at the same time. I place 1 sprayer between every 2 net pots. The below thread link has pic of both rails.

http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...ead.php?t=2475

Pic 1 below shows how i get the PVC into the rail. I use a rubber grommet.

Pic 2 is look inside the rail for what I use as a drain back to the reservoir. I bought this piece at Lowes/Home Depot in the electrical section for less than $2 1 side has thread (male) and the outside piece is female. I drilled the openings so the water could drain.

The end covers for the rails I used "Food Grade Caulking" to seal them in place to prevent leaks. I also used the caulking for the inside drain again to seal so no leaks. Don't use any other caulking it's toxic except for food grade.

Last but not least yse you need a strong pump for the sprayers but you will be watering the plants less than you do with Dutch Buckets.

[Stan]

I forgot to mention you'll nee to insert 2 screens 1 on the bottom of the drain piece in the 5X5 and 1 right where the water drains back into the reservoir. This will prevent the sprayers from becoming clogged by root mater during the grow season.

[gdgdad]

Stan, thanks for the great advice and tips. I placed one 360 sprayer between “pairs” of net cups, not in between each – that GREATLY reduced the number of sprayers. I’m down to 12 – 360 and 3 180 sprayers. I too used grommets to get the feed line into the rail. For the drain line, I cut PVC couplers and made ~ ¼” high “rings”, then I fed ½” PVC pipe through the rail and glued to either straight or angled coupler (see pics). Water level in the rails should not exceed about ¼”. I did find the food grade caulk you suggested. As for the pump, I just happened to have a ¼ hp. 1,800 GPH Submersible pump from years ago. Now it’s clean and test, check for leaks and make repairs where necessary. I do have to order another interval timer – then I should be good to go. As for my next “crop”, I’m anxious to use those seeds you sent me, so I’m staying with 4 Dutch buckets: 2 with the “3 lb. tomatoes”, 1 with the other seeds you sent and one cherry. I’ll be “firing up” the cloner soon for tomatoes and veggie seeds. Lastly, tomatoes still going strong, whole new "batch" up high. Had to wrap hoop house in bird netting - wood peckers were ruining tomatoes.


Thanks!