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It's true! I got into it because winter tomatoes are butts, I treat it as a hobby though so I'm not trying to make the most economical tomatoes. Anyway I'm stealing some of this intro post from the thread that got archived. quote:
Wikipedia is smarter and more comprehensive than I'd ever be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics Things you'll probably totally want no matter what system you use. A light source. Sun can work if you want to do it outdoors/greenhouse, if not you'll probably want a grow light. Leafy greens don't really need much while on the other hand something like tomatoes will appreciate plenty of light. Containers. You may be like me and be paranoid and insist on food safe, while if you don't care you can use that cheap rubbermaid tote. Really food safe buckets are pretty flexible and they make mesh bucket lids that you can just put on top of them. You can also in theory get them for free/cheap from bakeries and the like. Growing medium. It's going to be clay pellets in all likelihood however other options exist (I'm presently using grow stones). Air pump/ air stone and the tubing/fittings to put it all together. Plants love them some oxygen. Nutrients, you're growing medium isn't going to provide them. If you're an idiot you can call them nutes, I'll hate you for it. Meters. ph and tds. (allows you to measure your nutrient solution concentration). I've been pretty bad about bothering with this, I even have a sweet bluelab one I haven't been bothered to set up. Apparently my water is close enough to what my plants want. You may need ph down/ and up depending on your water. A drill. A step/spade drill bits or a hole saws. (holes HOLES) Let's look at what I'm presently doing. This will be ebb and flow (a pump fills a control bucket until the float switches tell it to switch off and drain via another pump controlled by another set of float switches, a timer controls how often) when I get more 3/4 tubing. As it is now it'd be considered a deep water culture system I guess with not nearly enough oxygen with the plants just sitting in nutrient solution. Not photoed my crappy little air pump, a better one and more stones are on the way well they would if it wasn't Sunday. Spend spend spend!   Well I'm lying that bottom picture was taken when there was no water in the buckets, they aren't even connected. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Nov 24, 2020 |
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May 14, 2018 03:27
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Can confirm, hydroponics is (are?) cool and good. I've been growing cuttings from last year's pepper plants hydroponically, and surprisingly most of them didn't die! And by "hydroponically" I mean "put the cuttings in some rock wool in net cups in some quart-sized Mason jars with hydroponic solution".
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May 14, 2018 04:37
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nmfree posted:Can confirm, hydroponics is (are?) cool and good. https://www.epicgardening.com/the-kratky-method/
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May 14, 2018 06:07
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Currently have two tents going in my room: one has a pair of bubbler buckets with a pair of White Widow while the other has a bucket with my katuk and two 5 gallon nursery pots with my yacon. If I had my way I'd have a room with nothing but vegetables in it. Someday.
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May 14, 2018 10:38
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Stretch Marx posted:Currently have two tents going in my room: one has a pair of bubbler buckets with a pair of White Widow while the other has a bucket with my katuk and two 5 gallon nursery pots with my yacon. If I had my way I'd have a room with nothing but vegetables in it. Someday. Well I plan on moving stuff from this basement to the other basement to hopefully gain more space. I want a space for garbage, maybe a work space and of course a place for more plants. (mustard greens probably)
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May 14, 2018 19:25
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I have had best success with the five gallon buckets and fish pumps Deep Water Culture setup.
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May 14, 2018 23:09
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Duck and Cover posted:Well I plan on moving stuff from this basement to the other basement to hopefully gain more space. I want a space for garbage, maybe a work space and of course a place for more plants. (mustard greens probably) When I can I plan on cloning my katuk and setting up a bucket for it. I want to see how much of the stuff I can grow in a small space.
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May 15, 2018 02:24
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Guess I should deal with calibrating my ph meter. Rut roh that's too high. I used some ph down and it's now at 6.4ish. (I'm not sure I mixed it completely before I declared it good enough) 2ish hours later.... Hey why are you back at 7. (it's the growstones) I think I should have left this alone 5.8 but I think the growstones are going to keep that creeping up (it was at like 4.5 at one point I think) or maybe they won't guess I'll find out after bed. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 18:57 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 03:15
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Can we post aquaponics, too? Sad grow bed:  Happy fish:  My wife had a baby in January so my grow bed is in a very bad state as I've basically only been feeding the fish and cleaning the swirl filter since then. As you can see, all that is growing in it is a giant basil plant, some parsley, and some carrots. I don't remember why I planted carrots, but they overcame and killed everything around them.
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May 17, 2018 15:19
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I don't know if this counts, but here is what I do with my peppers every year. Its nice because I can use them over and over again. The peppers grow really well using this system. So much so I did the same thing for all my herbs. I now have so many herbs I have to freeze them in oil and fill up my freezer. 
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May 17, 2018 15:26
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Arven posted:Can we post aquaponics, too? Sure what are Aquaponics but hydroponics plus fish poop. Flaggy posted:I don't know if this counts, but here is what I do with my peppers every year. Its nice because I can use them over and over again. The peppers grow really well using this system. So much so I did the same thing for all my herbs. I now have so many herbs I have to freeze them in oil and fill up my freezer. This may be the wrong term but I'd consider it semi hydroponicsish. It has the word hydroponics so it totally counts.
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May 17, 2018 16:11
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When I lowered the ph the calcium carbonate in the growstone seemed to react raising my ph back up. I went to bed at 5.8 woke up at 6.5. Also woke up to foamy and murky solution, I think I may switch to a different growing medium.
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 17:49 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 18:22
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Duck and Cover posted:When I lowered the ph the calcium carbonate in the growstone seem to react raising my ph back up. I went to bed at 5.8 woke up at 6.5. Also woke up to foamy and murky solution, I think I may switch to a different growing medium. This is partially why I prefer clay pebbles. They're sterile, pH neutral, airate and help drain, and you can wash them in dawn soap and reuse them. I have 50 L that I've been using for years.
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May 19, 2018 12:54
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Stretch Marx posted:This is partially why I prefer clay pebbles. They're sterile, pH neutral, airate and help drain, and you can wash them in dawn soap and reuse them. I have 50 L that I've been using for years. I wanted something that could hold onto water better. My plan is to get expanded shale which while hard to find is available to me. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 17:48 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 19, 2018 17:45
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Duck and Cover posted:I wanted something that could hold onto water better. My plan is to get expanded shale which while hard to find is available to me. Well they sort of absorb water and will float in it if it can't. But I do find it's good for keep evaporation down as it shades very well.
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May 19, 2018 18:24
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Stretch Marx posted:Well they sort of absorb water and will float in it if it can't. But I do find it's good for keep evaporation down as it shades very well. I have some I used for my first system (fogponics) it's just why not get something more porous? Besides the expanded shale is 25 cents a liter and the fact that it's harder to get makes me want it more.
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May 19, 2018 20:11
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Buy buy buy! Shelving, garbage can, a scoop, air tubing, hydrogen peroxide, telescoping brush. Containers for growing medium, since the place doesn't bag it. Well it's still cheaper than skiing and I can sleep late. Besides I haven't skied for a like 15 years anyway.
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 03:28 on May 23, 2018 |
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May 23, 2018 03:04
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Well I guess I shouldn't ignore my thread.  Oh look some expanded shale. Sifting sucks but that's okay I only have...  Oh gently caress. Those totes are 17 gallons/64 liters each and I got all 3 filled.  I bought a hose, and a sprayer because my faucet is far enough away I wanted to be able to stop the flow. (also it's sexy green, its phalates or whatever may or may not kill me but whatever) What you want plant pictures? Fine fine.   One of my tomato plants has yellowed edges, and brighter leaves which is interesting I should probably try figuring that out at some point. Also I'm seeing drooping leaves. I'm tempted to chuck them outside and start over, maybe I will although I did bother setting up supports. Anyway I've decided not to set up the ebb and flow for now because it'd get in the way of cleaning out/organizing the many many things in the basement. Also that expanded shale cost me 50 bucks (well 48 I think but I'm not going to ask for change for 2 bucks) plus whatever the cost of the gas I burned. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 03:31 on May 31, 2018 |
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May 31, 2018 03:12
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I had ebb and flow going for a while but it broke last fall so I jury rigged it to work with constant flow, and just let it go ever since. I've noticed literally no difference.
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May 31, 2018 03:37
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Arven posted:I had ebb and flow going for a while but it broke last fall so I jury rigged it to work with constant flow, and just let it go ever since. I've noticed literally no difference. Well right now they're just sitting there with air stones, well 3 out of 4 are. Seems to be working alright at least until I expand and want the airstones for individual deep water culture buckets.
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May 31, 2018 03:55
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It's interesting finding videos on youtube that are well done but don't really have many views. Anyway I found these videos https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFarmerTyler the ones I've watched seem to be pretty good. (well the cleaning your system one was kind of cheesy but whatever)
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Jun 8, 2018 |
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Jun 8, 2018 05:55
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Might just be because I'm on the mobile app but your links are broken
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Jun 8, 2018 12:12
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Arven posted:Might just be because I'm on the mobile app but your links are broken Fixed somethingawful url parser was to blame.
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Jun 8, 2018 15:39
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 I have some flowers but no fruit yet.
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Jun 8, 2018 19:22
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What's your airflow like in there? I wonder if there's enough for them to self-pollinate.
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Jun 8, 2018 20:01
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kedo posted:What's your airflow like in there? I wonder if there's enough for them to self-pollinate. Presently there's a small fan behind that blue drum. I'm using a vibrating toothbrush behind the flowers to shake pollen free.
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Jun 8, 2018 20:04
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There seems to be some sort of growth on one of my poor plants.
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Jun 10, 2018 02:39
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What's going on there, why are the stems/stalks cut?
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Jun 10, 2018 19:22
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VERTiG0 posted:What's going on there, why are the stems/stalks cut? Pruning I probably should have done earlier. Maybe I was too heavy handed but I don't really want one plant taking all the light from another. I'm by no means an expert this is my second time growing tomatoes and the last time it was one plant by itself.
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Jun 10, 2018 20:10
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I recently discovered this channel and I'm now going to harvest my fish and tear down my aquaponics setup and go full into hydroponics instead. I was drawn into aquaponics because I liked the idea of a closed system as a cost saving measure, but in practicality you end up spending way more on fish food than you ever will on fertilizer. I've been running my aquaponics for about 2 years now and, even though it's a relatively small system, it just isn't worth it. I've realized you have to go large scale for aquaponics to work- small systems can't take a PH hit as easily and require a lot more cleaning. If any one part of the system stops working while you're away for 8+ hours some or all of your fish die. I may do aquaponics again some day, but not until I move in a few years and have a much larger yard to do this stuff in.
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Jun 11, 2018 19:16
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I'd feel bad not buying whatever the fish need to be comfortable, for plants I can skip it. For example my water temperature is a bit higher then ideal, I could buy a chiller to lower it but I don't need to. Someone might find my to buy list interesting or maybe not but it is content and I don't feel like walking all the way downstairs to take another picture of my plants. (more fruit) table (https://www.uline.com/BL_37/Steel-Assembly-Tables?keywords=work+table) peg board air filter? 2 metal rod for hanging things from. part cabinet white board trays poppin? whiteboard/notepad paper par meter water chiller? GFCI outlet extension (old enough house, had I realized I should have asked for all the outlets in the basement to be replaced when the new outlet was put in) https://www.uline.com/BL_3708/Clear-Retail-Tubes Maybe more shelving. Par meter? (it measures light) Depending on if I want junk ($111) or something decent ($300-550ish) , or something amazing (that can graph light spectrums, that'll be like 1k+ unless https://www.seneye.com/devices/seneye-reef can do it).
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Jun 13, 2018 18:40
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You say tomato I say tomato as well. Not shown one of the tomato plants losing support and flopping over.
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Jun 15, 2018 00:27
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  I don't know if anyone noticed this hidden among my mess but I've given up on attaching the control box to the bucket with sticky tape, I'm thinking hot glue when I'm done with this grow.
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Jun 19, 2018 18:25
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I'm the guy who killed the last thread and I'm currently between seasons in my grow tent. The last "season" started in like Sept 2016, went through to the cutback of May 2017, and finally the giant plant purge of May 2018. I'm kinda peppered out and might try some other vegetables next time around. I've had no problems with maintaining pH with GS-1 GrowStones, the same stones having been in use for 1.75 years. At first the pH rode a little high so I was supplementing the RO water I added to the system with about 0.1-0.2ml/L of "pH Down". After a couple of months I stopped needing it, and a few months after that I started needing "pH Up" at a concentration of 0.2-0.25ml/L to keep the pH in my acceptable range of 5.7-5.9. I think the General Hydroponics Flora series has a lot to do with that, because it drops the pH quite a bit on its own. I am planning on changing my lighting a bit-- the plants really really dig growing directly at the 2x COB emitters. I'm also trying to imagine a more modular irrigation system so I can more easily switch plants around. Duck and Cover, how big are those bits that you have in the buckets that the tomatoes are growing in. Are they like almost-bucket-sized or small, with the intention that the roots just dangle down? The growstone works great for holding water so I only water twice a day and even that might be more than necessary. If I can do something like you've got with buckets with drop-in meshes filled with growstone that would be awesome.
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Jun 22, 2018 16:01
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CapnBry posted:I'm the guy who killed the last thread and I'm currently between seasons in my grow tent. The last "season" started in like Sept 2016, went through to the cutback of May 2017, and finally the giant plant purge of May 2018. I'm kinda peppered out and might try some other vegetables next time around. My growstones did stabilizes awhile a go but I'm still going to try expanded shale next grow (I went to the hassle of going to get it). I'm using https://generalhydroponics.com/maxiseries/ which definitly seems to drop the PH down and since my water is roughly 7 it allows I'm not finding ph down/up necessary. I'm finding the powder kind of a hassle to mix though probably because I tend to try to mix it with water directly out of the tap and so it's too cold to dissolve it easily. It's kind of in between the idea being I wanted a bit of a buffer in case ebb and flow failure which I haven't bothered to set up yet. They're pretty much big net pots https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-HG...net+pot+10+inch Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Jun 22, 2018 |
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Jun 22, 2018 16:31
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Duck and Cover posted:It's kind of in between the idea being I wanted a bit of a buffer in case ebb and flow failure which I haven't bothered to set up yet. They're pretty much big net pots https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-HG...net+pot+10+inch I am also laughing at your poor control box sticky tape situation. I must have half a dozen things around my house that were meant to be secured with double-sided tape but instead they are located on the floor roughly close to where they fell off numerous layers of a wide gamut of tape adhesives.
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Jun 22, 2018 19:14
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CapnBry posted:Thanks for the link. Those look to be somewhat close to the volume to what I have now, 7 gallon fabric pots which have been cut down to be 12" diameter x 6" tall, so that's probably enough space to grow in. It does occur to me that I also could 3D print something similar, although I can't quite make them wide enough to not fall into a standard 5 gallon bucket. The buckets are so appealing because they are so ubiquitous and cheap, and cost is important to me considering the 10-20 cents worth of daily electricity needed to run the system means that pretty much anything I grow is grown at a loss compared to supermarket shopping. Buckets kind of rule. They're so flexible, you can pretty easily find food grade ones, and they don't really cost much. (some places give them out). The tricky part is finding the thicker ones (90 mill probably unecessary) that are food grade and aren't killing you in shipping. The white ones I ordered through Home Depot but they no longer seem to offer the thicker ones. I found uline was a decent choice, although apparently they are the crazy type of republican supporter, so if that bums you out too much then good luck. I haven't done the math for electricity, it's expensive in this state so I'm going to guess high. In the spring/summer I probably shouldn't bother with indoor growing but I wanted to compare them to outdoor grown ones. (well that was the plan but that didn't happen) That was the heavy duty tape too, so I'm going to probably try glue of some sort next. I probably should have designed the system so the plants sit lower, my basement has low ceilings. Low enough that my grow tent was too tall. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Jun 22, 2018 |
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Jun 22, 2018 22:37
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Jun 24, 2018 01:50
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Super exciting news! My wall mountable fan and masonry bits came. Not so exciting news I don't have concrete anchors and I'm too lazy to go to Home Depot and the Ace closed at 4 (I could have gone but I didn't want to feel rushed, and again lazy). Wow what an exciting update. You really brought it on yourself for not filling the thread with super rad hydroponic setups.
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jun 25, 2018 |
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Jun 24, 2018 23:58
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What lights are you using? Are they going to be enough for tomatoes??
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Jun 25, 2018 17:48
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