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Gearing up for a new grow

W

wordwiz

This is a ~12' x 4' hydro system, built using mostly scrap pieces of wood and materials laying around. The base is 2x4s from a demolished shed, the flooring is slats from a picket fence, the side and end walls 3/8" particle board. The interior will be lined with swimming pool liner from an inground/above ground pool I took down several years ago. Not sure what I will end up using for the top, but probably particle board.

It will be aeroponics, using patio and similar type misters, or simply very small holes (3/64") drilled into 1/2" PVC pipe - I have to experiment. I will probably allow some water to pool to protect against a pump failure or electrical outage. I will have room for three rows of eleven plants growing under three 600-watt MH lamps. The nuits will be from EcoGrow at first, then EcoBloom once they accumulate about 1300 Growing Degree Days. The tomatoes are mostly determinates with an average DTM of 70.

The bottom acceptable harvest over 120 days is 660 pounds of fruit I can sell. That's about 100 pounds less than I got from 60 plants growing in the garden in 2009 which was an average year.

Shoot for the stars, be satisfied with hitting the top of the tallest trees.

Mike
 
Datil Patch said:
How much will the EcoGrow and EcoBloom cost for the total grow? How much solution are you expecting to use?
Click to expand...

I ordered two 8 oz (454 grams) of EcoGrow which came to about $25 including shipping. I have lots of EcoBloom. The directions say to use ~10 grams per gallon. It will probably take about 30 gallons to start the flow, then I am figuring I will need to add 1-2 gallons per week, depending on how much the plants use.


WickedMojo said:
awesome man, are you gonna run this setup over winter in your greenhouse?
Click to expand...
Not in the GH, Mojo, but in the basement. I can't afford both the light and heat in the GH from mid-December to mid-February. One benefit of using the basement: the grow is just under where Linda and I both work most of the time. It's usually chilly in the room but I should get a reasonable amount of heat from the lights.

Mike
 
Good luck let us know how it goes and dont forget the pics :)

If you dont mind me asking, how much are you planning on getting per pound??
 
OZZZ,

$1.50 in the very dead of winter, whether retail or wholesale. The last couple of years, the cheapest place for the cardboard variety was $1.89 at a produce store but the supermarkets usually approached $4/lb.

Mike
 
I'm not bashing your choice of nutes. But if you are looking to go commercial then you are going to be eaten alive in the cost of those nutes.
 
Datil,

How do you figure? $24 for 660 pounds? That's less than 4¢ per pound and that includes all the solution it will take to basically fill the system. It's like DWC - yeah, filling 30 four gallon buckets will use up a lot of solution at first but after that it doesn't take much to add each week. Plus, most other nuits I have looked at - with the exception of using Tomato-tone - do not have the percentage of calcium I need. BER is a problem with toms. Plus, if I was going commercial with it (meaning 500 or more plants), which I hope to do in time, I would buy in much larger sizes and more than cut that cost in half.

SS,

I'm lining the box with a swimming pool liner. It's UV resistant but more important, safe for humans to play around in. Loves a pH of 6.5 or so. It's also easy to work with - much easier than anything else I have tried.

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
SS,

I'm lining the box with a swimming pool liner. It's UV resistant but more important, safe for humans to play around in. Loves a pH of 6.5 or so. It's also easy to work with - much easier than anything else I have tried.

Mike
Click to expand...
Yes, I understand you're lining the box, but moisture is prone to condensation when a surface temp is lower than the surrounding air and I was worried about the pool liner being cooled by the solution and sweating.
 
By the numbers...

For your $25.oo
2- 8oz(454g) bottles at 10g to the gal yeilds 90.8gal of solution.

to make 1000 gal of solution with Eco-Gro you will need 22 more bottles of concentrate.
What is your cost of solution?


I spent $45.oo(shipping included) at Hydro-Gardens
I had Magnesium Sulfate(Epsom salt) on hand
5 lbs of Chem-Gro Tomato formula 4-18-38
5lbs of Calcium Nitrate
MIx ratio
Quantity of Fertilizer
5 lbs. Chem-Gro 4-18-38
5 lbs. Calcium Nitrate
2.5lbs. Magnesium Sulfate
Quantity of Water 1,000 gallons

1000 gal of solution for under $50.00


I make my solution by the gallon.
1/4 tbsp Chem-Gro
1/4 tbsp Calcium Nitrate
1/8 tbsp Magnesium Sulfate(Epsom salt)

Whether you actually get 660lbs of tomatos is wishfull thinking until you actually have the tomatos on the vine. Is Eco- Gro better than Hydro-Gardens, I don't know. What I do know is there is a significant cost savings and HG answers questions when I call them.
 
Datil,

The cost is not the overriding factor this go-round. I "know" EgoGrow/Bloom works and works well. So does Tomato-tome with Fish Emulsion though one needs to let it brew for a few days. I want to see how multiple plants do under the conditions I will be growing them. Not the same varieties even - I have ten types started. Variety X may be very productive and give me 35 pounds of fruit. Variety Y may yield only five. But two variables I will not have to contend with are the type of nuits or lighting. I know what has worked for me in the past in these two areas. If I was doing this big-scale, I would buy the ingredients and mix my own.

Tis true that if wishes were horses then beggars would ride. I can sit in front of this monitor and use the keyboard 24/7 researching tomato growing, average yields per variety, ideal conditions, etc. That and $1 will get me a small sandwich at McDonalds. Or I can do as much research as possible and then try growing them. At the worst, I'll be out $350 plus my time. At ten pounds per plant, I'll break even. At 20 pounds, I clear about $900. But in each scenario, I'll enjoy a hobby that is more fun than playing pool at a bar.

Yeah, in the long run, it is about the money. But in the short term, it's seeing how things grow.

SS,

I haven't tried lining wood with a pool liner but in the years I had the pool, I never saw a bit of condensation on the walls. I may be wrong, but the wood, the water, the liner - they should all be about the same temps as they will be sitting in the same place.

After the grow is over, I can always disassemble everything and see how it looks. If I was going to do this large-scale, I would look at different materials. Not sure what - maybe fiberglass, concrete, PVC. Actually, I'm not sure if I would go aeroponics - I know I wouldn't try it with nozzles unless I had a super-dee-dupor filtration system.

Mike
 
Thanks for the input. Ill be following along I want to see how this works out for ya. What outlet are you using to sell the tomatoes?? Are you selling to one individual outlet or several smaller outlets ... or even on a customer to customer basis??

Im curious where 700 lbs of tomatoes go in a hurry lol. Its going to be a fun project any way you slice it ;)
 
Ozzz,

Over the last couple of years, I've developed some customers who are interested in buying tomatoes. A restaurant that wants 25-50 pounds per week, employees at a hardware store that want 10 pounds every seven days, a barber shop that will gratefully buy 5 pounds at a time, individuals who will take 2-3 pounds per week. But that is without trying. I know of two delis within four miles that can use 10-20 pounds per week and a discount produce store that could buy as much as 100 pounds at a time. Plus, I own a newspaper where I can advertise them being for sale. I know I can get rid of every pound I can grow.

Mike
 
Right on, I believe (I havent really looked into it) that in my state you need to have some sort of license to be able to sell produce. I guess Im not really sure if its a national requirement or on the state level. Did you have to apply for a license or certification of some sort??
 
Ozzz,

Only if I want to claim organic status. That's like a three-year ordeal which I am not about to go through. I can use semantics and proclaim that my toms were grown without using anything but organic fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, just not claim they they are organically grown produce! Go figure!

Mike
 
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