Roma Tomatoes - Day 13 through 16

Not much to update but I do have some photos. The first is the tomato plant at 13 days.



This is the plant at 16 days. It has grown a bit taller and has a thicker stem.



In two days I will be changing the nutrient solution. This time it will be the Mid-Grown formulation according to the General Hydroponics chart.

Lighting source - pt. 2 DIY reflector hood.

The first part of the grow was started with a CFL bulb in a clip on light hood.  These are under $7 at Wal Mart and it is handy to have a couple around the house.  For the second part of the grow a 10W 6700K CFL bulb for a coral reef nano aquarium is being used.  It is longer than your typical CFL spaghetti bulb and thus a different style of hood is needed.  A proper hood was made from a piece of 12" x  24" aluminum picked up from Lowes.



A template was drawn up in TurboCAD and then transferred to the aluminum sheet. 



Used some tin snips to cut the aluminum.  Bent the metal up and pop riveted it together.  One of the original lamp hoods was used for it clamping brackets.  Drilled a hole and threaded the lamp base on.  Fit like a glove.  This is what it looks like from the bottom.



If I were to do it all over again I would make it 1.5-2" shorter.  All in all it did not come out bad and will be effective.

Lettuce - day 3

This is a second hydroponic setup. It is a one station raft system.  The water container is a CD case picked up from Wal Mart and wrapped in black duct tape.  A small airstone is at the center under the net cup.  The foam is recycled from a Star Wars Millennium Falcon plate.  With this foam the net cup sits 1/4" below the foam.  Air is provided by a Top Fin air pump sized for a 10 gallon aquarium.  A aluminum hood has been made for my 5x5 LED array.  This setup has the main purpose of testing the LED array.



Three days ago lettuce was started in rockwool cube the same way the Roma tomatoes were started. I used the "black seeded simpson" lettuce from Ferry-Morse. It only took two days to sprout.



This system holds 3/4 gallon of nutrient solution. I mixed it as a one gallon batch. Used 2.5 ml of FloraMicro, 2.5 ml FloriaGrow, and 2.5 ml FloraBloom. There is a little bit of waste of 1/4 gallon but that is ok. It will be put on my dirt garden outside.

Roma Tomatoes - Day 11

So the seedlings started showing roots through the bottom and sides of the rockwool cube.  Time to set one of them into the bubble bucket.  First the nutrient solution was mixed up.  It is important to mix the Floragrow nutrients in the correct order.  My system is 3 gallons.  To the water I added 7.5ml of FloraNutrients and then mixed well.  Then 7.5ml of FloraGro and 7.5ml of FloraBloom, mixing well after each is added.  Don't premix or add all 3 at once or some of the nutrients will not be available to the plants.  After the nutrients have been added and mixed adjust the pH of the solution.  Always do this after adding the nutrients as they change the pH.  When adjusting the pH up or down do it in small steps.   Once the pH is right the solution is then added to the bubble bucket and the airstone is turned on.




This is the system setup in my closet.  It was put here just to be out of the way.  All gardens need a Nome.




Now with the hydroton and the tomato seedling planted.  This will be what the system will look like.  Hopefully the light I have selected will work out.  At 10W that is the equivalent of a 40W bulb according to sources on the internet.

Lighting source

In previous attempts I had made a LED array. This time around I will be using CFL bulbs. For seed starting a lower power CFL is being used. This bulb was purchased for photo developing circuit boards. It was chosen for the amount of UV rays it produces. In the past I have used it with seed starting with great success.




The hood used to hold the bulb is a clamp on lamp. Have had a pair of these for years and they work great. A 1" x 1" x 4' strip of wood has been screwed to the wall. This will allow the light to be adjusted up and down as needed. For the main grow bulb I have chosen a Ultra Sun 6500K 10W CFL.




This bulb is used in salt water aquariums with small reef tanks for growing coral. It will replicate the sun here in Florida and should be good for plant growth. 6500K lights are also sold for hydroponic use but are much more expensive. This bulb cost under $11 where a similar bulb sold a hydroponics supplier would be $20-80. Time will tell if this is a good choice for hydroponics or not.

Roma Tomatoes - Day 6

After starting the seeds is rockwool cubes it only took 2 days for seedlings to appear.  On day three the rockwool cubes were taken out of the plastic bag and they were put in a clear plastic dome.  A ziplock resealable bowl was used.  Not clear but it let enough light pass through.  On day 4 the dome was taken off and I just made sure the cubes did not dry out.  This is at day 6 and the seedlings are about 1.5" high and have already started on there second set of leaves.  Won't be too long before I plant then in the net pot an put them in the hydro system.

General Hydroponics - Flora series nutrients

For this round of growing I have chosen the FloraGro,  FloraMicro, and FloraBloom advanced nutrient system from General Hydroponics.  Basically this system was chosen due to a well known good track record and is used by NASA. 




On the General Hydroponics website they have a calculator for how to use the nutrient solution.  This is there recommendations but as you know it may need some manipulation depending on what you are growing.  For this run I will using their recommended ratios.  My batch of nutrients will be made 3 gallons at a time.  Here is what they recommend for my size system:




Each of the reservoir changes are one week intervals.  As you can see there are three other products listed.  We will only be using Gro, Micro and Bloom.  To maintain the proper pH balance in the system I will be using the General Hydroponics "pH Control Kit".




There are two solutions for adjusting the pH. Base "pH UP" and acid "pH Down". Also there is the pH test solution. To measure the pH you place the recommended amount of water to be tested in the test vial and add drops of the solution. The test sample will turn color from green to red and this indicates the pH of the sample. Using the Up or Down will modify the water. Lemon juice can also be used to adjust the pH down.

Here we grow again.

It has been a year since I took a break from hydroponics. Now it is time to start again. Things have been learned from my failure. First use proper nutrient solution made for hydroponics. Trying to take Miracle Gro and add micronutrients does not work. Second use a light source made for growing. Three start the plants right. That means soaking the rockwool cube for 30-60 minutes in a 5.5 ph balanced water. For my cubes I used tap water which was a ph of over 7. In order to lower it lemon juice was added until the water was at 5.5ph. Roma tomato seeds were added and then the cubes were placed into a ziplock bag. It was not sealed, a small gap for air was left. Hopefully in 3-10 days I will have seedlings. Only one is needed but the other 2 will not goto waste.