Hi all,
Well its been a while, and I've been scarce around these parts for a bit of time. So here's a grow log for you, to make up for lost time.
I finally caved and am taking a small step into the world of small-scale Hydroponics.
After a moderate investment (at least for me,) I came up with the following ingredients:
Then I started some tomato seeds in Rock wool and plain water, and after about a week had this:
Since these are still small seedlings, I have a simple desk lamp socket set up with a 15W LED Flood Light style bulb (equivalent to 130 conventional watts.)
In the bottle you see above, I have a custom 1/4 strength nutrient solution mixed from nutrient bottles all supplied by General Hydroponics. I used about a 1/4 strength solution so as to not kill the seedlings with full strength solution. The solution contains Flora Bloom, Flora Micro, and Flora Grow; with the addition of a small amount of CaliMagic (Calcium/Magnesium supplement) and a tiny amount of Epsom salt (sulfur). Plus about 1 cup water.
I started dosing the seedlings lightly after about a week+ from seed. I decided to do a PH test on the solution using a test kit from General Hydroponics. I found that my initial mix pH was slightly too high. More like between 6.5-7.0 on the PH scale. So I added some PH down acid to drop the PH a bit, but overcompensated slightly. So I had to add some PH up base, which brought the solution back to neutral. See below:
So here is where we are now. The seedlings are starting to put real initial leaves out. I will continue to water them with 1/4 strength solution until such time as the rockwool cubes the tomatoes are sitting in are completely wrapped in roots or close to. Since this is a deep water culture, I want a good root system in place so the plants will be able to take advantage of the full strength nutrient solution. I have not decided yet on the final growing media choice. Initially I was going to use a combination of clay pebbles and coconut coir (in a 4 parts clay to seven parts coir ratio) in order to help with moisture retention. But I am not sure the size holes that my root spa has will work well with that media. I need to experiment with the wet coconut coir to see how it expands as to whether it will fall through the holes and pollute the lines. If it is a problem I may end up just using clay pebbles. But if so i will have a moisture retention issue that will need examining. The bucket has an air pump to add oxygen, but no air stone.
Also,
I have four (yes I said four) 15W LED bulbs to choose from. At a total cost of about $200.00 just for the lights. Ouch lol. Each one emits a different type of light. Blue, Red, Far Red, and White (balanced.) My goal now is to experiment to find the right ratio of each type of light for this plant. I heard 20% blue to 80% red might work, but that is unverified. I think the blue light is for vegetative growth, red is for flowering, far red is for blooming, and white is not really for anything, but is a balanced mix of all.
So we'll see how that goes.
Happy growing all.
-Key
P.S: Oh, and here's a picture of my new computer.
. Intel i7 Kabylake processor, Dual EVGA 950 SLI-enabled graphics cards, MSI s270 military class-V motherboard, 250 SDD, 2 TB Raid 0, 32 GB Rip Jaws RAM, 850 Watt fully modular power supply, full modular Dark Base Pro ATX 900 case, Lenovo Monitor, Logitech G413 keyboard, Soundblaster Z card, NZXT full system fan control, internal LEDs ect.
And my 2017 Halloween pumpkin: Haunter!
Well its been a while, and I've been scarce around these parts for a bit of time. So here's a grow log for you, to make up for lost time.
I finally caved and am taking a small step into the world of small-scale Hydroponics.
After a moderate investment (at least for me,) I came up with the following ingredients:
Then I started some tomato seeds in Rock wool and plain water, and after about a week had this:
Since these are still small seedlings, I have a simple desk lamp socket set up with a 15W LED Flood Light style bulb (equivalent to 130 conventional watts.)
In the bottle you see above, I have a custom 1/4 strength nutrient solution mixed from nutrient bottles all supplied by General Hydroponics. I used about a 1/4 strength solution so as to not kill the seedlings with full strength solution. The solution contains Flora Bloom, Flora Micro, and Flora Grow; with the addition of a small amount of CaliMagic (Calcium/Magnesium supplement) and a tiny amount of Epsom salt (sulfur). Plus about 1 cup water.
I started dosing the seedlings lightly after about a week+ from seed. I decided to do a PH test on the solution using a test kit from General Hydroponics. I found that my initial mix pH was slightly too high. More like between 6.5-7.0 on the PH scale. So I added some PH down acid to drop the PH a bit, but overcompensated slightly. So I had to add some PH up base, which brought the solution back to neutral. See below:
So here is where we are now. The seedlings are starting to put real initial leaves out. I will continue to water them with 1/4 strength solution until such time as the rockwool cubes the tomatoes are sitting in are completely wrapped in roots or close to. Since this is a deep water culture, I want a good root system in place so the plants will be able to take advantage of the full strength nutrient solution. I have not decided yet on the final growing media choice. Initially I was going to use a combination of clay pebbles and coconut coir (in a 4 parts clay to seven parts coir ratio) in order to help with moisture retention. But I am not sure the size holes that my root spa has will work well with that media. I need to experiment with the wet coconut coir to see how it expands as to whether it will fall through the holes and pollute the lines. If it is a problem I may end up just using clay pebbles. But if so i will have a moisture retention issue that will need examining. The bucket has an air pump to add oxygen, but no air stone.
Also,
I have four (yes I said four) 15W LED bulbs to choose from. At a total cost of about $200.00 just for the lights. Ouch lol. Each one emits a different type of light. Blue, Red, Far Red, and White (balanced.) My goal now is to experiment to find the right ratio of each type of light for this plant. I heard 20% blue to 80% red might work, but that is unverified. I think the blue light is for vegetative growth, red is for flowering, far red is for blooming, and white is not really for anything, but is a balanced mix of all.
So we'll see how that goes.
Happy growing all.
-Key
P.S: Oh, and here's a picture of my new computer.
. Intel i7 Kabylake processor, Dual EVGA 950 SLI-enabled graphics cards, MSI s270 military class-V motherboard, 250 SDD, 2 TB Raid 0, 32 GB Rip Jaws RAM, 850 Watt fully modular power supply, full modular Dark Base Pro ATX 900 case, Lenovo Monitor, Logitech G413 keyboard, Soundblaster Z card, NZXT full system fan control, internal LEDs ect.
And my 2017 Halloween pumpkin: Haunter!
