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Many questions about hydroponics!
I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos about hydroponics and I would like to get started! From my understanding using hydroponics is far more efficient than using soil. I live in Minnesota, where the growing season is very short. Hydroponics sounds like the ideal solution to enable me to garden all year round. I have many questions which I haven't found answers yet.
Can the grow lights be run 24 x 7 to increase production, or do plants need to rest from the light? Are there diminishing returns running the lighting 24 hours a day verses about 12 to 16 hours a day? If the lighting is run 24 x 7, should the watering in a non-static system also be cycled 24 x 7? Roots need to be in the dark. I assume in as close to total darkness as possible. The hydroponic growing channels seem to always be constructed with white colored plastic. If black plastic was used, inside the channel would probably be darker. However, outside the channel, the black color would absorb more light instead of reflecting light in the growing area. Does the white colored plastic provide a dark enough environment for the roots, while allowing more reflecting light in the growing area? led grow lights might be the best lighting solution, since the heat problems are eliminated and the energy consumption is drastically reduced. Is the main negative against LED the higher cost, compared to using HID or hps lighting? There are many types of LED lighting. Some systems are priced below $100 and others are $1,000 and more. Are the less expensive LED lighting a good compromise instead of purchasing the expensive LED lighting? Is there a point of diminishing returns that is beyond the less expensive LED lighting? In Minnesota, the growing season is quite short. The tomatoes and pepper crops I grow outside seem to be at their peak of production, when they are all killed by the eventual frost that always comes after a short summer season. When growing plants inside in a controlled environment, can plants produce crops continuously for years, do they go through cycles, or do they taper off production over time? What is the ideal liquid temperature range? How important is accurately measuring PH? Is a cheap $20 tester good enough, or is it important to spend closer to $200 for a better quality PH tester? I am using city water that I plan to let sit in containers for a day or two before the water is added to the nutrient tank. I plan to use the MHPGardener Masterblend hydroponic nutrient mix. Which of the 4 methods, Ebb & Flow, Drip Method, Nutrient Film Technique, or Passive System produces the best results and which produces the worst results? Is there a large productivity difference between the four methods? |
#2
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Hello Davephan,
This reply will be in two parts because it's to long to all fit in one post. Quote:
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It's not hard to light proof the root zone no mater what color the plastic is, and/or how much light gets through it. I used to paint it black to block light, then a few coats of white to reflect light, and this does work well as long as you sand the plastic so the paint sticks well. Paint wont last years on smooth plastic, so scuffing it up with sandpaper first gives it a good surface to stick to. But I don't really do that much any more. Where I live here in the desert I often need to insulate the root zone also. The insulation itself acts as a light barrier. I also find it easy to laminate panda plastic on any plastic. Panda plastic is black on one side and white on the other. Just cut the plastic to size, then spray some spray adhesive on both, then wrap with the panda plastic. When I want rows of tubes, I usually use ADS (Advanced Drainage Systems) tubing, it's white on the outside, and black on the inside. For the water feed lines I mostly use black vinyl and irrigation tubing, if it's going to be in the sun, I cover it with pipe insulation. Quote:
First, yes the LED bulbs are much cooler than a HID bulb, but the wattage used by LED's is generated by the circuitry, not the bulb itself. A 40 watt LED light fixture is going to generate 40 watts of heat, it's just that the heat isn't radiating from the bulbs, so the bulbs are cool to the touch. But the fixture itself still has 40 watts of heat to get rid of. Second, the actual amount of wattage needed to grow your plants with LED's will be almost the same as with HID lighting. Energy costs are based on wattage. So if your using the same amount of wattage using LED's, there is no energy savings. Manufactures base their claims on the wattage of their LED light fixtures, not on what it takes to grow a particular plant. In other words if you need ten 40 watt LED light fixtures to grow one tomato plant, that's the same wattage as a 400 watt HID light. Thus the same energy consumption and energy cost. Despite what manufactures want you to think, just because a particular LED light fixture uses less wattage doesn't make it equal or comparable in growing your plants. But with the right LED light fixtures and spaced correctly, it is possible to lower energy costs 10% to 20%, but nowhere near the point that the LED manufactures and retailers want you to believe. Quote:
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If you want a non stop year long supply, you'll want to rotate plants. As an example: if you want to have 2 tomato plants of a continuous supply of tomato's. You should design a hydroponic system that will grow 6 plants simultaneously. 2 new plants, 2 four month old plants, and 2 eight month old plants. This way every 4 months you can rotate the old plants out, and replace them with new plants. This way you will have a constant supply of tomato's, and new plants growing tomato's that will be ready to harvest in the future when it's time to pull the old plants out. You would start the new plants a few weeks ahead of time in a prorogation system so they are big enough to transplant into the main system when it's time to rotate the old ones out. Quote:
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#3
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Hello Davephan,
This is part 2 of the post Quote:
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Drip System Ebb- Flow (Flood & Drain) N.F.T. (Nutrient Film Technique) Water Culture Aeroponics Wick System I'm guessing by the term "passive" your referring to a wick and/or water culture system. In hydroponics the term "passive" is often used to refer to systems that don't have any moving parts. But while water culture systems and wick systems are often to referred to as hydroponic systems without any moving parts, they are both two very different types of systems. As for which type of system produces the best and witch produce the worst results, there are pros and cons for all of the 6 types of hydroponic systems and it depends largely on the application, and what your growing. There is no single best type of system for all applications. The difference between the types of hydroponic systems is in how the water, nutrients, and oxygen are delivered to the roots of the plants. While it's possible to grow any plant in any of the six types of hydroponic systems, what makes one better than another for growing a particular plant is understanding how each of the six type of systems work and what the needs of the plant are. Then it's a mater of matching the plants with the system that fits the needs of the plants best, as well s with the space you have to work with, the materials you have (and/or have funds for), and designing the system to take care of the needs of the plant. The best type of hydroponic system for any plant is the system you design to take care of the needs of the plant. Even though you can design it to work well, it wouldn't be my choice to use a NFT system to grow large plants like tomatoes and peppers. However it may be my first choice for smaller short term plants like lettuce. But again depending on other environmental factors, I may not want to use a NFT system for lettuce either. It's all in how you design it that maters. |
#4
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Thanks for all your answers! I checked out your website, and a I learned a lot more. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know! Thanks for all the advise too!
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#5
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I just received my hydroponic fertilizer in the mail. I plan to do the MHPGardener mix of Masterblend 4-18-38, plus calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate. I don't have a way to measure pH yet. I plan to buy a pH testing meter and testing strips.
I was wondering how critical pH is for hydroponic gardening. If I just took tap water, let it sit overnight or a couple days, then attempted to use the water without testing the pH, would the results be significantly worse than if I waited until I purchase a method to test the pH. How much of a difference does adjusting pH make? Is it a huge difference? Or a minor difference? I'm guessing it depends on how far off the pH to the ideal range. I understand the recommended range for tomatoes and peppers is 6.4 to 6.7. Another question. Is there a difference between the taste of hydroponically grown produce verses soil grown produce? I've experienced a huge improvement in taste from my soil grown tomatoes and peppers, compared to the grocery store tomatoes and peppers. |
#6
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Hello Davephan,
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Second, using tap water may be a problem as well. Most water supply's are high in some dissolved minerals like calcium, manganese, iron etc. etc. These excess minerals through off the balance of your nutrient solution. And Again here when calcium and iron concentrations are high they want to bond together, even when the pH is in the right range. Sometimes this iron and calcium bonding is refereed to as "fall out" or "precipitation." Quote:
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As for the difference in taste between tomato's you grew in soil yourself and what you buy at the store. That has to do with shelf life. You need to remember store bought produce is picked early before it's actually ripe and had a chance to develop it's full flavor. That's done to prolong it's shelf life. The stores cant sell soft, bruised, or moldy fruit, so they need them to last as long as they can before they get soft so they will sell before they have to through them away. Ripe tomatoes will get soft in 1-2 days, and peppers not much longer. When you pick your tomato's and peppers at home you don't pick them before their ripe and place them on the counter or in the fridge, then wait a week or two to eat them I'm betting. You pick them when their ripe and eat or use them within a day or two. That's why there's such a big difference in taste between what you buy at the store and grow yourself. I mean think about it, everybody is guilty of it, including me. When you go to buy tomatoes (any produce) at the store you feel them to make sure their firm and not soft or bruised right. The reason their firm is because their not ripe. But if their soft you know they wont last long and seem like their even rotting, so you choose the firm ones. When you pick them at home they are softer than the ones you buy at the store, but you know their fresh, and your going to use them right away anyhow. They taste much better because you let them actually ripen before you picked them. If the store did that they would have to throw them away by the time they got to the store. Just the bulk weight alone would squash the ones on the bottom of the pile right away. All that would be left by the time they got to the store is tomato sauce. But we are all so used to the bland tasting produce we buy from the store, that's it just seems amazing when you taste home grown produce. Night and day. Last edited by GpsFrontier; 04-22-2016 at 08:03 PM. |
#7
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Thanks for the advice! I will buy the pH testing drops, plus pH up and down.
I plan to start off with tap city water and let it sit for a day or two. I assume that letting it sit before using it will improve the water for growing plants. At what point in time to I measure the pH and adjust the pH? I'm not sure if there is a optimum time to let the water sit before using it. Would filtered water from my refrigerator or using a filtered water pitcher like Brita or Zero Water be better than using city tap water? After the pH is tested, adjusted, and re-tested, the hydroponic fertilizer is added. Does the pH need to be measured again, and the pH re-adjusted again? Does adding the fertilizer change the pH. After the nutrient mix is created, how often does the pH need to be retested and re-adjusted? Is there a way I can determine when to add more nutrient as the plants consume the nutrients? I assume there is a way to test for the nutrient concentration. About how long would the nutrient last before throwing out the mix and starting with a new batch? |
#8
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Hello Davephan,
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As for Britta and Zero water, again much better than tap water. and most likely even better than the refrigerator water. Zero water would be the better than Britta because it has a 5 stage filter that includes a ion filters needed to take out dissolved solids. Britta just uses carbon filters, and you need ion filters to take out dissolved solids. Quote:
As a Hint. If you get the General Hydroponics pH drops, the directions say to fill the vile 1/2 way and add 2-3 drops. What I do is fill the vile about 1/6 and use 1 drop. In other words, instead of using 3 drops, I use 1/3 the water and only one drop. you get the exact same color, just less water. Don't worry you don't need to be exact measuring, and it's easy to read the colors. In fact If you look on the right side of this section of this page pH adjusters, I created a visual color scale. I did the typical 1/2 vial and 3 drops for the pictures so it's bigger. But I only need 1/3 the water and one drop to test pH like I mentioned. Quote:
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Watching your plants and paying attention to changes will tell you exactly when the nutrients are depleted. New baby leaves will start turning light green/yellow. That means the nutrients are depleted. There could be other reasons for leaves turning yellow, but experience will tell you if the yellowing may be a result of other issues, or it's just time to change the nutrients. Water volume relative to plant size, and water uptake are factors that affect how long the nutrient solution will last. Again those factors are explained in the "What size reservoir do I need" article I posted a link to above. Observation and paying attention to your plants daily is how you gain experience. Quote:
When you use a TDS/PPM/EC meter to adjust and bring back up nutrient concentrations, your adding a balanced nutrient to an unbalanced nutrient solution. So now the nutrients that were depleted most are still somewhat depleted, and the ones that weren't used as much are now in excess. Because the TDS/PPM/EC meter cant tell you what is in the water, only the total combined value of everything combined, it cant tell you how unbalanced it is. If you just keep adding nutrients back to bring the TDS/PPM/EC meter reading to a specific level, over time the nutrient solution will become more and more unbalanced to the point where the nutrients the plants use most are very deleted, and the others are at toxic levels. Even though your TDS/PPM/EC meter readings are in the right range. That's why I don't bother with them. A good TDS/PPM/EC meter will cost over $100, and I can buy enough nutrients to make 5,000 gallons of nutrients for that. So I'd rather have the nutrients to grow plants with than neat toys. Quote:
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