Up your calcium level!

I have that Cal-Mag. It'll up that. Thansk! How long does it normally take for two early girl tomatoes to bear fruit?

That depends on a lot of factors like light, heat, nutrient, seed viability, etc.

If it were me, I'd look on the seed package and it'll tell you pretty much what to expect in the way of days from seed to harvesting fruit.

Also, it depends on if the plant is a determinate or indeterminate.

The first kind grows like a bush and is usually good for only one season. The indeterminates grow for years and are the choice of many growers, including myself, as they can be pruned and made to grow in ways different to just popping a seed into the growing medium and letting it go until it sets fruit.

Also, are you open or closed pollinating the flowers?

Open means it's outside and you are relying on insects like bees. Closed means it's inside and you have to play the part of the bee.

I grow both indoors and outside and when I'm indoors I use a battery-operated toothbrush to vibrate the flower trusses just behind the buds between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p,m. (when the temperature is elevated for the day and the pollen is beginning to fall on its own).

See, lots of stuff to consider here.

Thanks For All the Info! The kit I have never mentions how high the water level should be inside the 5 gallon bucket. Should it cover the entire Net Pot or what? Also my roots are just slightly tinted brown. The kit came with one of those 4" Bubble Disks and I don't think that is adequate for the 3-4 gallons of solution. What's your advice and what would you recommend? Is there a better aerator for my situation? I plan on getting a book on growing Hydroponic Tomatoes to better educate myself. Thank You Once Again For Your Help!

Is your light cycle 12/12? Apparently tom's will flower on a longer cycle, but won't set fruit unless there is a 12/12 or less cycle. Since I am a rookie, can anyone verify this? I have all indoor, pollinate no prob with just a fan, no need for toothbrushes, etc, but need 12/12, 18/6 seemed to do as I read.

good luck.

Toms will flower on 18/6 and produce fruit.

They will flower better on 12/12 though, and you will get more fruit.

My two Early Girl Tomatoes are on 12/12. What's strange is how the branches that grow downward never flower. So, I normally trim those off. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not-any advice? The other branches are flowering like crazy. Since my girls are indeterminate, Does anyone know how long they will live?

RE: Water level, buckets and bubbles

If you are doing DWC, the roots will find the water soon enough. The idea is to let the bubbles "pop" and as they do, they send a little spit of moisture into the air and the unit functions along the lines of a forced aeroponic set-up.

The air stone has to bubble and that's about all there is to that. It provides a motive force for the aeroponic application as well as adds oxygen to the nutrient pool. As you force oxygen, the roots should whiten up; at least the new ones. The ones already tinted brown may stay that color, I dunno.

As for the "water level" and again -- if you're unit is doing DWC -- keep the puddle at least one-third the total height BELOW the net pots. The idea is to feed the roots AIR and MISTat least initially. As the plants mature, the roots will invade the puddle and things will really take off!

Yup, good stuff here. DWC is simple. I start my units out just below the bottom of the net pot to keep good moisture. Then I just let the plants drink it down so that there's plenty of room beneath the pot for a good air gap.

Regarding the light cycle for tomatoes, I think that it's way overrated. Tomatoes bear fruit and ripen from June to freeze if they get a chance, so obviously the length of daylight doesn't play a major role there. It might influence things slightly, but it's not like a certain other plant where they simply won't mature without a certain light cycle.

My thinking is that more light equals more energy and more metabolism, and that means more growth. When you're growing tomatoes indoors you're already working from a light deficit compared to natural sunlight, so I just stick with 18/6 the whole way through.

I started this post and want to thank everyone for the excellent advice. But there is one last issue I would like to resolve. I am receiving several sets of blossoms but none of them ever set fruit. Most often they simply turn yelllow, they never open up to a flower stage. What can I do? They are getting feed Dutch Master Gold Flower, Carbo Load, Cal-Mag, RO PH adjusted water. I read that my Two Early Girl Tomatoes need a 12 degree temperature from day to night - Is this true? The two CFL Lights are on 12/12 Cycle. The plants are almost three months old. HELP!

Sounds like it's time to dawn your "bee" costume. Since you're apparently growing indoors, you're going to have to use closed pollination if you expect your plants to produce offspring (tomato fruit).

You can just shake the flower trusses with your hand or use the electric toothbrush and tickle the stems behind each flower. It's tedious, but if you want fruit . . .

Wait until you see the flowers dropping pollen, then do your thing. That's what I do in the greenhouse and it's never failed. I get tomatoes like there's no tomorrow! I usually play bee between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; that's when it's the warmest in my greenhouse.

Hi there.

Have also decided to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in hydro, have germinated the seeds in grodan cubes/rockwool blocks, but I am having alot of trouble with the tomatos, hence the blocks are at the moment in a styrofoam plate, with holes cut for the netpots, and water 4 inches below with a airstone for aeration of the roots, but the rockwool blocks with the tomatoes are constantly to wet, and the plants dont grow very well, have taken lid of the aquarium, which is only a middle stage before moving them in the NFT system, cumcbers growing well, but tomatoes are looking sickly, any tips pointers on getting them tomatoes to grow better, develop more roots before moving them to the NFT system, any help would be appriciated, cheers!

Not much to go on; a picture would be cool. My assumption is you're using DWC to start things and then plan on transferring seedlings to NFT later on.

It sounds to me like your tomato roots are bound up in the rockwool blocks and are suffocating.

I'd try to free the roots from the block and grow them in a net pot full of perlite using DWC or put them on a ramp by sticking the roots right down into the water.

I've successfully grown tomatoes on a "ramp" (float) aerating the solution vigorously 24/7. You can leave them on the ramp, but if you do, you'll have to find a way to support the weight of the plant independent of the ramp (floating Styrofoam sheet).

If you're trying to grow the tomatoes and cucumbers together, be sure to check the EC requirements for each. I'll throw in a link to some EC charts; check each one and compare levels before you make up your mind.

Hope this helps. If not, tell us more specifics about your setup.

Here is a link that might be useful: EC & pH Growing Tables

cprint's problem isn't being addressed by anyone. I just realized what he's saying.

Pollination is not the issue here, the flowers are aborting before they even fully mature.

I haven't had this problem myself, but this is what I understand. Most often it's a temperature problem. You should be in the 70-85F range with the lights on. Some tomato types can take a bit more or less, but if you're going over 95F that's probably the problem (I doubt it's too cold).

Also, too much or too little Nitrogen can do this. I don't know how much N the Dutch Master has, but the Flower formulation probably doesn't have enough for tomatoes. (It's not formulated with veggies in mind.) You're using A and B formulas of the Flower, right? I'd suggest using a little of the Grow if you have it, or adding something with some Nitrogen to see if that helps.

I big Thank You goes out to "Hooked on Ponics"... for realizing my real problem. Here's what I can tell you. The Dutch Master Flower Nutrient A&B contains about 4% Nitrogen and the Cal-Mag that I add puts in another 2%. That's 6% overall. As far as the temperature, I think this could be my problem. The air temperature is only 68 degrees. It might be 70 at the light level. My Grow and Flower lights are 105 Watt CFL's so they don't give off a lot of heat. But I have heard that tomatoes need a 12 degree temperature from day time to night time or they will not bear fruit. Is this true? That would mean 70 degrees during the day and 58 degrees at night. This is my first attempt at Hydroponics and I'm growing my tomatoes inside my Commercial Print Shop. I fail to understand how people maintain these temperatures. I would have to run the Heat during the day and my Air Conditioning during the night to obtain these temps. Got any suggestions? Do you still think I need to up the Nitrogen? Thanks again for all your advice!

It could be the temperatures but I'm hesitant to point the blame there.

One quick thing about the percentages listed on fertilizers... they're very subjective. If you send the same fertilizer to a dozen labs to get tested, you'll probably get a dozen different numbers back simply because there's a lot of different ways to measure it. It's the ratio between the numbers that's most important.

I'd say to switch out the nutrients you're using for something cheap. Get a small tub of something like Jack's Classic 30-30-30 and run that at slightly lower ppm (just to be safe) and see if that fixes the flower drop problem.

If that doesn't do it, it's not nitrogen that's the problem and I'd say temperature is more likely to be the cause. More/bigger lights is an easy fix for that.

If that does the trick, either finish off the cheap nutrients or get some of the high quality stuff with more Nitrogen. Mixing half strength of both the Grow and Bloom formulas should give a nice balance. I'm very fond of my Advanced Nutrients products, but whatever you like is what will probably work best for you.

Thanks Again Hooked on Ponics! I'm going to take your advice and see if I can isolate the problem. I'll try the increase in Nitrogen first and post if there is any change! Thanks Again!

cprint,

I had the same problem with Green Sausage toms. Dozens and dozens of blooms, none of which set fruit. In my case, the temps were high enough (mid 70s to low 80s during the day), the nuits I was using were Fruit and Bloom type, I had two 105 watt CFL bulbs in the closet it was growing in and I would shake the plant between 10 am and 2 pm to aid in pollination. I also checked the pH and ppm levels and they were in the correct range. No fruit.

I needed one of the bulbs for seedlings I'm trying to grow so I removed it. Voila, two days later, a tom had formed.

A couple of weeks later, I needed the other light so I replaced it with two 23-watt CFL bulbs.

Didn't see anymore fruit setting but the plant was getting toward the end of its life (it was a determinate) and there were practically no new blooms forming. It got to the point that I needed the room for seedlings (I'm growing about 1,000 of them) so decided to remove the plant.

I was shocked to find three more small toms that had formed.

Don't want to read too much into this but I can't help but figure the lights were providing too much of the wrong or non-useful spectrum of light.

Mike

Thanks Wordwiz,
This week I took hooked on ponics advice and changed out the nutrients to believe it or not ... Miracle Grow For Tomatoes- 18-18-21 with some Cal-Mag.
I have two yellow blossoms that have opened up since. Today, I hope to pollinate them. Right now I have two 105 CFL Lights on them. One is the Grow Bulb and the other is the Bloom Bulb. Is this the recommended set-up at this stage of my Tom's life? or Do I need to remove one of the lights? I will keep posting with an update if I ever get a tomato. Thanks!

I realize most of the posts here are for growing indoors. I didn't have an indoor place so I built my tomatoe units outside. I didn't have anyone to help me and that was good because there was no one to tell me I couldn't do this or that. I used a 4 inch diameter PVC pipe 10 feet long and sawed square holes in it to put the plant pots in. I used 3 inch square plastic pots that flowers come in. Since then, I switches to 3 inch diameter round pots 3 inches deep. How large of a pot do you need to grow an tomato plant in?? I don't grow from seed, I buy the cheapest plants I can from wherever as long as the variety is right. Last year I paid 25 cents per plant from the grocery store. I washed the soil off the plants and wrapped them in Spagnum moss and put them in the net pop. I have water running in my 4 inch tubes so I know where the bottom of the plant is. I set it just above the water level. Each unit is 6 tubes set on an A-frame and I have 2 units. Thats 96 plants growing in a space 10 feet by 10 feet.
Things I have found. You can grow in a small container. My water supply never shuts off. You can grow in just about any medium as long as the plant is held in place. I have even used pee-gravel. The cheapest ph downer I've found is at the Auto Supply Store. Sun does make a difference. My plants only get morning sun (about 6 hours) and the plants on the back of the unit do suffer more but any tomatoes are better than no tomatoes. I'm thinking about trying to grow strawberries this way too. By the way, the roots on the tomatoe plants are in moving water at all times. Thanks, Les

I do not know if this will help anyone on this thread, but I though I would put in my past experience on it. As most others on this site know, I am kind of an experimental grower in that I will try all kinds of things to see what works best for different types of plants.

I really hate to burst some folk's bubbles, but I have not found rock wool to be the best medium for Deep Water culture Hyrdoponics.

The second bubble burster is really about lighting in particular related to tomatoes.

I tried growing tomatoes by Florescent lighting several times, and it never really worked out. Tomatoes need tons of everything. They use gallons of water each day, in fact most of my larger DW grown tomato plants use as much as 3 gallons of water every 24 hours. They will chew through 3.25 EC in about 5 days in their fruit setting and growing stages. The more light the better.

I currently started out two sets of Brandywine, and Beefsteak tomato plants with one set in rock wool media, the other in grow rocks. These plants had the same lighting, nutrient solution, air circulation, lighting etc in the exact same environment.

The rock wool media based tomatoes grew up slower with much more foliage, and all of their leaves were curled downward. The Beefsteak tomato plant was so compact that it almost looked mutated. The branches and leaves grew so close to the plant it is basically a gnarled mess. It did however bloom, set fruit and I have right now about 30 beefsteak tomatoes in various sizes growing on it. I use CAL MAG supplement in addition to Flora Nova Grow, and then Bloom. The brandywine did a similar thng, only the leaves were more wrinkled and they did not sag downward like the Beefsteak did. It also bloomed (although it grew much slower than the Beefsteak which was planted at the same time), and has also set fruit just fine.

Now the grow rock based tomato plants are something I could take a picture of and brag about all day long. They appear picture perfect, with each leaf growing flat straight and healthy. I used the exact same environment for both sets of plants.

In my conclusion, even with the extra steps I have gone to to get extra air circulation to the rock wool media based plants, the plants grown in grow rocks grow better.

I believe this is because the media itself becomes a filter in which the water and nutrients are drawn into the plant roots through the rock wool media, and in this process, some of the nutrients are left behind. By left behind, I mean they are literally filtered out of the solution, but remain in the media itself. Over time the plants roots will grow into this overly saturated media and be exposed to stronger nutrients than the other roots hanging into the reservoir.

This is just my opinion, but after last years plants growing and my plants doing better in grow rocks than in rock wool, I did a small test.

At the end of the plants growth, and after I had removed the plant from my grow room I took the rock wool media with the roots on it and I placed it into a 5 gallon bucket of water, and did the same with tomatoes grown in grow rocks. So basically I took the media from one tomato plant grown in rock wool, and one grown in grow rocks and put them into separate 5 gallon buckets and filled them both with water.

I let them set for 12 hours, and then swirled the water around the grow rocks and used a strainer to slowly remove them from the water. With the rock wool I just squeezed the rock wool until it became clear in color.

I then measured the EC of the water in both buckets. The rock wool media had much stronger EC measurement than that of the grow rocks. The grow rocks raised the EC in the 5 gallon bucket to .22, while the rock wool raised the EC to 2.2!

Also I have seen comments about leaving the nutrient solution below the basket as to create an air gap. I have not seen any benefit to this with my plants. I have been able to actually raise the water level so high that the water is bubbling in the net pot without any issue to the plants at all. This is using grow rocks however.

I am not bashing rock wool, this is just my own experience with it. Additionally I do not think you will be very successful unless you use a HID base light. The best for me has been Metal Halide from seedling to about 2 feet tall, then move it under a High Pressure Sodium light for the final growth cycle. I use a 400 watt light when they are seedlings with the light about 2 1/2 feet above the plants. When they get about a foot tall, I move them under a 1000 watt Metal Halide until they are over 2 feet tall. I then move them under a 400 watt HPS light until 3 feet tall and then under the 1000 watt HPS light from them on.

Last year all of my tomato plants had to be pruned at the tops to prevent them from growing more than 8 feet tall.

cprint - Keep all the bulbs you can get on that tomato plant. As long as you're not hard-boiling it you can't have too much light on a tomato plant. I always put my light-grown plants under as many lumens as I can spare every minute of their lives. Without the strength of sunlight they're prone to stretch and if you're growing indoors you have limited vertical space to play with.

To be honest I can't think of a single plant anyone would be likely to grow that would be likely to suffer from "too much artificial light".

Dear GardenWeb Friends,
I'm proud to announce that one of my Early Girl Tomato Plants has given birth to it's first tomato. In addition, the two plants have over a dozen blossoms now. After three months, I'm feeling a little more confident that I may be enjoying my first hydro tomato soon. How Cool? I want to thank all the Garden Web Community that posted helpful advice!

Glad to lend a hand, happy to hear it's working out!

All we need now are some pictures of the proud mom!