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Does the miracle grow for tomatoes plus the epson salt and calcium chloride do well as a nutrient solution. Is there anything I should add?
Some members say yes. I will be running my own test soon. Stay tuned.
i have peppers up about 4" and now the tips are turning brown am i puting to much solution into the sys claude
could be
Slow start: I kept my plants under 2 4' fluorescents until they were about 1 1/2 feet tall. Lower branches are small on all plants three plants still 1 ft. tall the rest 2 1/2 ft. are they bad plants or is it due to low light. now I have a 400 MH for the last week. Will they get bushier under the new light.
It's the different variety of plant is what determines if a plant is bushy or spindly. Some plants do poorly no mater how good your grow rooms is because good indoor plants are bread. When you get a plant with good characteristics clone it over and over again to keep it going. You can take a clone from a clone for a couple years before losing it.
hey ron,getting pretty hot up here in no. fla.i want to put shadecloth over the greenhouse for the summer but am confused about the type.how much shade do i need for tomatoes & hot peppers.also,does the % for the cloth pertain to the amount of shade or the sun which is allowed to pass thru?great site
It how much sun it keeps out. I have went from 40 % which wasn't enough to 70% with good results growing tomatoes and peppers. Old timers here in FL said I couldn't grow under that much shade cloth but I never listen to the so called experts.
Would 2 70 watt hps bulbs be suitable for a 5 plants sytem (reduced version of 11 plant). That's the only bulbs I can find here, should I get 3?
Yes and yes.
I'm having trouble finding calcium choride, is there any chemical than can replace calcium chloride in a nutrient solution? Or do you have any suggestions on where to find it. None of the places around here sell it or hydroponic nutrient solution.
I order everything I need on the internet. Me and the
UPS driver is on a first name bases.
Try:
 | www.wormsway.com |
| www.aquaticeco.com |
| www.hydro-gardens.com |
| V-J Growers Supply 800 222-4503 |
Could someone give me some basic info about hydroponic gardening in general. I am doing a science project and I need some help to get an "A"
Why Howdy!! I just stumbled onto your site, so please forgive a dumb question. I saw some pic.s and there seems to be dirt in the gallon jugs, I was under the inpression that "hydroponics" was just water? What else can you use instead of dirt? How do you keep the dirt from mixing with the water and cloging the pump? Thats all for now, clang93239@aol.com
No They are grow rocks. No dirt on this web site.
my name is Dan,from New York, i have entered into the world of hyroponics this winter by growing lettuce in pvc pipe in our cellar. my next experiment will be strawberries in vinyl gutter pipe. what kind of a solution should i use. thanks
www.hydro-gardens.com has hydro fertilizer formulated for individual plants.
Now that it is getting warmer, I notice that my nutrient solution is evaporating quite quickly. My question is when I am replacing the water, should I put pure water in, or water plus nutrients? It seems like the nutrients would still be in the tank since they won't evaporate, so I don't want to burn the plants with too much juice.
No you always add solution when you add water to keep the same strength. Just don't add as much.
I have a SOG (sea of Green) VHS tape would explain all u need to know only $10.00 e-mail if interested..........papaperu@yahoo.com P.S. Excellent yields minnimun effort..........
Ron,
For plants that I would like to encourage leaf growth, I was planning on using a metal halide light, as learned from your site, to promote leaf growth on certain plants. As long as I keep the environment stable, can I keep the MH light on 24 hours a day without harming the plants? Will this actually increase growth? Thanks Ron, great web site dude!
Yes 24 hours is OK. Plants only need a dark period if you want them to flower unless they are like tomato plants which are indeterminate which means they grow and produce fruits continually.
Hello Ron! You definitely got a good thing goin here! Keep up the good work. Now I was wondering if you could entertain my curiosity for a second. I have a 175w MH that I keep about 6-9" above my plants. The temps are 70-75 degrees at the tops. My question is, would such a small distance from light to plant cause them to shy away (practically growing down to the medium)? Besides that, they seem healthy. Thank you Ron.
75 degrees isn't to hot so it can't be from heat. Maybe it's the type of plant. Plants usually elongate if they aren't getting enough light so maybe yours are getting plenty. Try backing off the light some and see how they act.
What kind of vegetables are compatible for growing in 2 liter bottles? Can you name about five or six? I am not sure what vegetables will do well in such restricted space. I am new to hydro and am not familiar with different types of veggies that can grow in about 2 liters of space. I am using your 11 plant system.
You can grow a lot of different
vegetables as you can see in the pictures. With hydroponics you don't need as
much root space as you do with dirt because you feed the roots with nutrient
solution every 30 minutes or so.
What is more important is the distance between the bottle themselves. The 11
plant is so compact that it is not practical for large plants. 12 inches apart
is better and will give each plant 1 sq. ft. of growing space.
I have a timer that has only 4 on and 4 off settings. As a result, I can only water four times a day. I would like to transplant a tomato plant from soil to growrocks with bits of rockwool. Will placing chunks of rockwool around the central portion of the root system provide enough moisture to the plant until the next watering?
Rockwool does hold moisture longer than rocks but I don't know if just 4 waterings will be enough. The principle behind hydroponics is that you want to force feed your plants so they won't waste energy having to produce roots looking for food. You want all the energy going to produce fruit so you need to make sure you supply your plant roots with plenty of nutrient rich solution as often as possible.
I am new to hydroponics and have a general question.
When do you transplant the seedlings to the hydroponics system. In general I am talking about the 11 plant system that you have plans for. Also what is used to support the plant?
Thanks.
When they are well rooted wash off the dirt or vermiculite . Place in a half cup of rocks. Fill the rest of the cup with rocks.
I'm assuming calcium chloride is used in the nutrient solution mix you give to add calcium to the plants. Am I correct in assuming this, if so do you think a calcium powder supplement for reptiles work instead? Thankyou
Have no idea. You must have me mistaken for someone who actually knows what he is doing.
I wish everyone a happy 4-20-00!!
Also I have a small tip. I got this stuff at Wal-Mart called 'The Welder' and it is excellent for patching up leaks. Its like $3.00 for a giant tube of it. I had massive leaks because I suck at building stuff and it fixed all of them.
l8r
p.s. ron I'm having trouble using a proxy server and posting messages on this message base.
Same answer as above.
Hey Ron! Thank you for your advice on my "inverted" plants. Now, I've got another one if you will.... I've got my little 175 watter' right? Well, i've got a 75w hps that if i was to use, the two bulbs would be 2-4 inches apart. Would too much heat build up and burn my house down, or, is it at all feasible? I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on it. .......MAINA'
Without venting probably.
Hey guys,
I was wondering about lighting. I'm growing in a small space, 1' deep by 21" inches wide and 85" tall. I will have four 18"/15 watt cool white fluorescents surrounding my little plants and two 18"/15 watters right on top of them. Will this be enough light to allow healthy growth up to a height of 8-10"? I'm growing in which hydroponics in 3" Rockwool cubes with a 12-7-7 nutrient. I really hope this will work :-)
If you grow with fluorescents that is the way to do it. Line the hole chamber with lights and put them as close to the plants as possible.
Ron, Do I need an air pump as well as a sub. water pump for a small hydroponics unit? Marg
Yes For about 10 bucks it's one of the cheapest things you can do to assure that your plant roots get enough oxygen. It's especially helpful if you have to let your garden circulate because of a cheep timer.
What type of growing medium goes into the cups of these growing systems pictured here?
Do the roots just dangle in the solution? How do you secure your plants and stop them from falling over?
I tie them up with string if they need it.
What's the biggest plants you can have in these systems? Do the roots ever get restricted in these systems.
About 4 or 5 ft. With hydroponics you don't need a lot of roots for plants to grow because you bring the nutrient rich solution to the roots every few minutes. Dirt plants have to grow more and more roots to search for the food they need.
Thanks for any help.
Is there an easy way to get some magnesium in a usable form to my plants? The nutrient solution I use has only .5%. I'm going to get a micro solution soon, but I have to drive 2 hours to get to the nearest hydro-shop! (BIG PAIN) So I was looking for a 'quick fix' for my babies.
Yes Epson Salt. Found everywhere.
Oh yeah, one other thing....I just asked about the magnesium. I'm wondering how you keep track of ppm by simply keeping track of how much nutrient solution you put in each gallon? Or does how many tsps. ,1/4tsps ,etc... that you put in each gallon replace ppm if you cant directly monitor it. I've read your horror stories about tds pens.... if you pay that money, it must be a worthy tool, right? If you cant tell, I'm a novice looking for some info, and all 32 pages here have helped me alot....THANKS.
Yes. The directions on your nutrient bottle should say
that if you added say one teaspoon of solution per gallon of water will give you
a PPM of say 1000 PPM. So if you wanted to keep your solution at 1000 PPM Every
time you need to add water to your tank you would put 1 teaspoon of concentrated
nutrient solution to every gallon of water you add to your tank.
I just got a flyer in the mail from www.aquaticeco.com
and they have waterproof TDS (PPM) Pens and pH Testers
for $55.50 You can't do much better than that.
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