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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Mac’s Hydroponic Garden
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MacGyver Guru  Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Crew I tossed up a short little AVI movie on Youtube showing my hydroponic garden. Very soon, I will have a small wind turbine supplying extra air on windy days and evenings. I have my fingers in lots of pies since retiring. As soon as this posts, I'll get back to building the little wind-pumping turbine I just spoke of. Mac's DWC Hydroponic Garden . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Mac Tomatoes look healthy be interested to see how they crop, I tried it years ago myself but not much success, I used vermiculite as a root support medium with cyclic fill and empty on the containers, looked great but low cropping compared to compost grown plants. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Hi Bob I do this as a hobby only. Suffice to say, it's a rather EXPENSIVE hobby, but a hobby none the less. Part of the expense comes from my pH and nutrient testing tools. I use a Bluelab "Truncheon" (manufactured in Australia - over $100) to test the potency of my growing medium. It measures the growing salts' concentration. Each species of plant grows in its own "ideal" concentration. The Bluelab truncheon is the "gold standard" for the industry. I grow my tomatoes at an "EC" (electrical conductivity) of 2.0 to 2.4 with heavier feeding used once the trusses set with fruit. If you look carefully, you can see a couple of "patio" tomatoes sitting on top of a couple of the growing chamber lids. I don't use any growing medium except water. The plants are started in a peat "Jiffy Pot" and once sprouted and showing roots, I transfer the Jiffy Pot into a 2" "Net Pot" which hangs in a 2" hole cut into the top of the growing chamber's lid. The growing chamber, by the way, is just a black, plastic 5-gallon bucket with an air hose dangled inside, a weight on its end to hold it on the bottom. I chose black to keep light off the roots. I get tomatoes like there's no tomorrow. A single plant can produce as much as 200 pounds of tomatoes! . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Nice garden, keep us posted! Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Mac What variety of tomatoes are you using as I would like to have a go again this year and try the bubbles as against flood and drain. Your yield is truly impressive, all I could get was two or three pounds before the bush wilted. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Bob My original tomato plants were from "heirloom" seeds I purchased from SeedTraders.com. I like cherry tomatoes the best and find I am able to consume them better than either patio or beefsteak types, although I do grow patio tomatoes and you can see a couple sitting on growing chambers in the pictures I posted on Youtube. Once I find a species I like, I no longer buy seeds. What I do is snip off a stem from a living plant and toss it into my "cloner". A cloner is just another growing chamber, but instead of bubbling air through the growing media, the water inside is pumped using a tiny submersible pump. The water column squirts up and hits the lid of the growing chamber and splatters all over the stems housed in net pots dangling in holes in the lid. The growing media is laced with a chemical that induces vestigial root growth (rooting hormone) and in a matter of about a week, I have a genetically equal plant with roots and all. I then take that new plant and grow it with all the rest like I show on the video. I grow tomatoes year round. In the colder months, I grow them still, but I "supercrop" them. What that means is, I damage the main stems by crushing them about once a week. This causes the plant to "repair" the injury by thickening and strengthening that area. This makes the stems more like trunks, so when the fruit finally sets after the weather warms up a bit, the plant will actually hold hundreds of pounds of maters! . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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