Noob to hydro, first attempt at NFT system

[GpsFrontier]

I know the plants aren't really big enough to be drinking much water right now, so you don't want to dilute your nutrient solution as the ice melts. But when they get bigger and start drinking up more water, you can just replace the water their drinking daily with ice blocks. That at way you can do both (add ice and water) at the same time, thus help keep the nutrient solution cool, while topping off the water volume.

P.S.
Depending on how much ice you add daily (frozen water volume), you may want to pH adjust the water before you freeze it. If not, it can change your nutrient solution pH. Depending on the pH of the water source and volume of water your adding in ice daily, it can change the pH fairly quickly. If you pH adjust the water before you freeze it, you won't have that problem. To make it easier, I'll pH adjust about 5 gallons of water at a time, then freeze it a few blocks at a time (using cleaned out butter or whip cream tubs) until I'm out of room. Then just use the ice blocks as I need them, and their already pH adjusted. There's been a few times I have even frozen nutrient solution, so when I added the ice it also added some more nutrients to the reservoir. I did so because I wanted all the water I added back to be ice because I needed the cooling effect, but I also wanted to add some nutrient solution back as well. So I just froze it first.

[brandonbelew]

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

I know the plants aren't really big enough to be drinking much water right now, so you don't want to dilute your nutrient solution as the ice melts. But when they get bigger and start drinking up more water, you can just replace the water their drinking daily with ice blocks. That at way you can do both (add ice and water) at the same time, thus help keep the nutrient solution cool, while topping off the water volume.

P.S.
Depending on how much ice you add daily (frozen water volume), you may want to pH adjust the water before you freeze it. If not, it can change your nutrient solution pH. Depending on the pH of the water source and volume of water your adding in ice daily, it can change the pH fairly quickly. If you pH adjust the water before you freeze it, you won't have that problem. To make it easier, I'll pH adjust about 5 gallons of water at a time, then freeze it a few blocks at a time (using cleaned out butter or whip cream tubs) until I'm out of room. Then just use the ice blocks as I need them, and their already pH adjusted. There's been a few times I have even frozen nutrient solution, so when I added the ice it also added some more nutrients to the reservoir. I did so because I wanted all the water I added back to be ice because I needed the cooling effect, but I also wanted to add some nutrient solution back as well. So I just froze it first.

I'm not actually exposing the ice to the water. I took 2 - 1 liter pop bottles and filled them with water and froze them. I just take them out and pop them in the freezer in the evening and repeat the process. It seems to be working out OK. It'll work at least until the temperature outside warms up and my AC starts running more frequently.

[GpsFrontier]

Yes, I know your not exposing the ice to the nutrient solution at this point. Your putting the water in plastic bottles and freezing it, so when the water in the bottles melts it stays in the plastic bottles. I'm just saying when the plants get bigger and start drinking more water and you start having to replace that water volume the plants are drinking with more water. Instead of replacing that water volume with water, you can replace that water volume with ice instead. Thus, not use the plastic bottles.

[brandonbelew]

I hadn't had a chance to update my blog recently but I wanted to share what the status of my garden is. It's growing pretty big. I switched from the MH to HPS after about a week. The HPS is causing the plants to get, as Bernie Sanders would say "YUGE". They each have at least one runner, and a couple of them have one or two berries growing. The largest so far is about the size of a nickel.

I have got around the super high water temperature for the most part. I added a few more gallons to the reservoir and lowered the light intensity to 75%. The water is now staying around 68-75. A little on the high side on colder days when the AC doesn't run, but as the weather warms outside and the AC runs more frequently the temps seem to be dropping.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello brandonbelew,
Sounds like their doing good, any new pictures?

P.S.
Have you gotten your new strawberry plants in the system yet?

[brandonbelew]

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

Hello brandonbelew,
Sounds like their doing good, any new pictures?

P.S.
Have you gotten your new strawberry plants in the system yet?

Sure, attaching a few here taken today.

The white "pineberries" are started but only a couple of them are doing anything. My wife has 5 going in potting soil that i'll probably transfer over to replace the ones that didn't grow.







And now for the new guys

[brandonbelew]

Something bad happened

It's been 2 weeks or so back but... I had a water flow issue that I didn't catch for 13 or so hours. The front row of my plants died during that time. They went all floppy and stayed green for a week or so then started drying out and dying. I trimmed them back hoping for a miracle but I don't think they'll survive.

Is there a better grow medium or something I can add to the grow medium to make them not die so fast if something happens with the water? For example a pump going out or in this case the water dropping slightly below the top of the pump inlet? I've been checking it more frequently, adding about 5 gallons of nutrients a week.

Also the plants that are thriving are spitting out berries but they are fairly tiny and don't seem to get very big. Any suggestions? Should I change my light cycle? I'm still running 16 hours on and i've increased my nutrients to the high end of the range on the mix chart.

Thanks!

[GpsFrontier]

Hello brandonbelew,

What caused the water flow problem???

My favorite growing media is coco coir/chips. Not only is it inexpensive, but it holds moisture well, and without being saturated. However it doesn't mater what growing media you use when the roots are hanging in mid air. The only roots that benefit from the growing media are the roots in the growing media. The roots hanging out of the basket/s in mid air will dry out very quickly regardless. The more growing media you use, the more roots that growing media can hold. That's part of designing the hydroponic system.

Another part of designing the hydroponic system is deciding on the water level in the off cycle. If you design the system so there is a small pocket of water/nutrient solution 1/2 inch to one inch at the bottom of the tubes during the off cycle, the roots that hang out of the baskets can still access water during the off cycle, as well as if there is a water flow problem. That helps even watering, and can buy you some time in case of a problem. However strawberry's don't like wet feet, so you wouldn't want the water pocket at the bottom to be to deep for them.

If your nutrient reservoir water level is doping to low for the pump, your reservoir is to small for your plants. You don't want your reservoir water level to drop below 75% of full volume. When it does it causes major fluctuations in your nutrient concentrations, and that's stressful for your plants. Stressed plants aren't healthy plants. When you replace the water the plants drink, you want to add plain water, not nutrient solution. By adding nutrient solution back instead of plain water, you increases your nutrient concentrations. Again causing stress for the plants.

You could increase your light time to 18 hours on. I could be wrong, but I thought you were using the Verti-Gro nutrients? I didn't know they had a mixing chart. But since I use them myself. I know the directions. Equal parts 15 ml (1 tbsp) per gallon of water of both fertilizer and calcium nitrate for full strength nutrient solution.

I believe you said your plants were growing runners. Are you cutting them off? They will take energy from the mother plant, and not produce anything. You can get them to root into a growing media, then when they do, cut them from the mother plant. But depending on the variety of strawberry, they will need to over-winter before they produce any fruit. Strawberry plants don't produce fruit the first year (except for a specific varieties).

I have two articles written by by Dr. Lynette Morgan I could send you if you send me a private message with an e-mail address you want them sent to.

HOW TO GROW STRAWBERRIES
Berry Bonanza: Growing Indoor Strawberries

I cant just post a link to them because they aren't online anymore, but I have them saved in text documents I can e-mail you.