Future plans

There is no doubt in my mind that I will do much less soil type gardening and much more hydroponics. The reasons are simple. No need to worry about nutrients, and water. It is easily monitored with hydroponics, and not so easy when it is in the soil. No need to worry about harmful pests, microbes, etc..

My systems are rapidly growing and I have no where to put the new plants. Check out my mister box. I now have cukes, peppers and more tomatoes that will soon need transplanting. My solution is to build a aeroponic rail system. I will provide a few links to a great DIY guys youtube, and also where you can buy a good system. Systems run from about $700-$1200. I think I can make one for about $300.

Super Cropper About $700.

Grow Maxx Grow Maxx 35 about $1200.

Both of these are super systems.

DIY Guy This guy built his own. It is a very nice system. I would guess it cost $500 plus. He has a lot of plumbing that I would not use with the system I plant to build.


building rails And here is how he actually built the rails. Also you can find links to his other projects here.

I will head to Home Depot and Lowes tomorrow and buy a couple of vinyl fence posts so I can start on my system.

By the way, I just got two heavy duty plastic boxes delivered to my door from Lowes for $$2.56 each plus a grand total of $7.00 for S&H. They did not have any in stock at my local Lowes so I ordered them from their web site. I think they made a mistake by listing them so cheap. I am very happy with them. Each are 17 gallons.

And here is one more photo of my cloner box that is loaded with plants that will soon need a new home.

Plant support and lighting

I have had to learn the hard way. My very first tomatoes have no supports. If you will notice in earlier photos they are leaning against the wall. Well, I waited too long and they simply grew too fast. I am afraid to try adding support as I might damage the plants.

On my newer plants I have come up with a trellis system. You can get tomato cages and/or trellis at Lowes or Home Depot. I already had a few cages. I also got a couple of the tomato trellises for $6.00 each. You can make three supports from these as they are flat and can easily be taken appart and bent to suit your needs.

All I did was bend in a circle fashion and then drill holes in bucket lid, insert wires in holes and then bend them over for support. I also discovered that I could get brooder lamps and insert them right over the plants by sliding them down inside the wires. You can move them right down on top of the plants and move them up as the plants grow. These brooder reflectors can be bought for about $9.00 each at Walmart, Lowes, or Tractor Supply. I am using a 23 watt 6500K CFL which is equivalent to 100 watt incadensant. When I want the plant to bloom I convert to a 2500K bulb which is more of the red light spectrum. You could also screw in a Y if you wanted to add two bulbs. This is the ideal setup for bucket systems, as you can lift the lids to check your solution and the plant and all will still be supported with the trellis.

Notice my cucumber. It has doubled in size since I took this photo a week ago. Should be picking cukes in 5-6 weeks.

2 month updates

Seems hard to believe that two months have already elasped since I started this project. My regular garden is pretty well gone, but I still do have tomatoes, peppers and some pole beans. The quality is starting to go down hill, but they are still better than store bought.

It seems that I learn something new every day. Here is my latest updates.

There is now no doubt in my mind that short cut to nutrient solutions is a no no. I first started with Green Air Products hydroponic nutrients on one tomato and then used miracle grow on another tomato. All looked good for a couple of days. After one week there was a noticable different. The GAP was twice as big and the main stalk was much thicker. So now I have converted all to GAP nutrients. I just today ordered two gallons of GAP nuets. One gallon each of the micro base, and grow solutions. They are pricey at $27, but highly concentrated. Each gallon will make 768 gallons of solution. I have yet to use the GAP bloom solution. I will do this with a couple of my early buckets later on this weekend. I will also cut my lights back to 12 hours today to encourage blooming and fruitation. Kind of funny since I had several of my plants outside and they were already blooming due to the shortening of the days. My biggest hydro tomatoes are now near tennis ball size. Since they are of the early girl variety, I expect them to be ripe by early Oct..

And here are some of my latest pics. Actually these pics are two weeks old. The tomatoes are clear to the ceiling now, and I will have to move the buckets off of the shelves and set on the floor. Once I cut the light back and add the bloom nuets I am hoping vegetative growth will slow down.

If you will notice, in the background I have sheets of styrofoam insulation with foil backing. I already had several sheets laying around, and they make the ideal light relector. Eventually I will make a grow closet around my plants. That way light will remain concentrated to encourage maximum growth.