Tomato Plants are not producing....

[Freshwater]

Very cool T'Mater,

One word of caution, as you have been vegging these guys out under florescent lighting. You are going to want to harden them off prior to putting them into full sun. I would put up some type of shade cloth, and gradually remove it over a week.

Make sure your plastic green house doesn't get too hot. Remember it's designed to retain heat. Are you in an area that is/was seeing those double digit temp. numbers?

Oh, and what is this rain you speak of? Is that the stuff that falls out of the sky in the winter?

In the winter I let it fill my reservoir, then adjust my p.h. and nutrient PPM after...remember rain is generally pure good water. Though I think you might get a hell-of-a-lot more rain than I do. You might need to devise a cover...not plastic!!! Remember our little green house heat retention system...same thing, and you don't want to cook your roots.

I've seen some of the farms that run Crop King equipment cut Styrofoam "plugs" that the plants grow up through. Might be worth looking into if you get that must rain.


Todd

[GpsFrontier]

I personally don't usually get that much rain to worry about. But if it does rain, the little amount of water that makes it into my system and reservoir, is just that much less water I need to add/replace from what the plants drink up. And with the reservoir placed underneath a table or bench, very little rain water can make it's way inside from the reservoir itself. I also keep an eye on the 10 day weather forecast in my area at intellicast.com (just put in your zip for your local weather forecast). If there's heavy rain forecasted, I just plan my nutrient changes for after the heavy rains.

[T'Mater]

Ok new ?, what size dripper's are you running and how do you keep those booger's from clogging up?

I'm about tempted to not even run dripper's....

Also, it seem's i'm getting flower's but they dont seem to have like the yellow flower part's, just the green outside what's that mean? Mind you i've just got the set up outside about a week and am seem a big improvement and haven't gotten to see what the new flower's are going to do so this might be a premature question.

[Freshwater]

Hey T-Mater,

Personally I run drip stakes, they are pretty much wide open basket style emitter stakes. They do not create any back pressure. I do regular flushes every 4-5-6 days or so depending on how much nutrient my plants are up-taking. (i.e. when the res. runs dry)

Two reasons for this are to prevent nutrient lockout on the plant roots themselves, and to keep my emitters or drip stakes clear.

Give your plants and flowers some time... they are going through a huge change in lighting and getting used to their new non-controlled climate.

Todd

[GpsFrontier]

Hello T'Mater,
I don't use any dippers at all in my drip systems. I just use tubing, and poke holes in it where I want them with a small (hot) paperclip. I just heat the tip of the paperclip with a candle. I know the tubing in the picture is clear, but that was all I had at the moment when I first set up that system. I eventually changed it over to black tubing to block light, and thus algae growth in the tube. I' not sure if you mean the yellow pedals have fallen off and all that's left is the green bud. If so, that's normal. The flower pedals fall off of tomato plants before the fruit begins to grow. If that isn't what you mean, then I would agree with Freshwater, give them a few more weeks to get used to the new lighting and environment.

[T'Mater]

Hey Freshwater, i was going back and doing some rereading and i seen where you said you let your tank get to about empty then refill and check EC/PH. How are you keeping your EC down long enough to get it that low?

My EC seem's to keep rising, i'm assuming from water evapurating.

When you flush your system are you just using PH stable water and dumping in each bucket? I kind of think that maybe i'm not cleaning the root's good enough when i flush is why i ask. Might also be why my EC is going up, as my system run's it's bringing back more nute's that have been hanging in the bottom of the bato buckets.

[T'Mater]

It seem's my new flower's are not being flower's but i'm just getting the outside green shell forming, i've taken some picture's to show you what i'm talking about.

And let me know if i'm just being impatient you won't hurt my feelings. It was a week ago today that i changed nutes and moved everything outside. I'm just in that depressed state cause things are not producing and i'm dieing to taste a hydroponic grown tomato that i've grown.

I've also included a picture showing what my new leave's are doing, they are browning at the tip's. And i noticed that i even had a real small flower brown and i guess die before it really got going.

Trying to keep PH between 5.5 and 6.5, seem's to be going up a lot. Think i was reading your's was doing the same thing Freshwater so i'm assuming that part is ok. Unless i'm not getting the PH lowered fast enough and that's causing a problem.

My PPM/EC tends to hang around 1200/2.4ish and goes up real slowly. So i'm not to concerned there.

I've started watering my plant's for 15min every 1hr, i can't water less then 15min cause that's how my timer is set. Thinking i might have been over watering my plant's.