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cannabalbambi

new to hydroponics need help

cannabalbambi
20 years ago

Hi, I am just starting out and have a few questions I hope someone here can help me with. The main reason I am interested in hydroponics is for growing green fodder for my farm animals. The thinking is, it has to be less work than pushing round bales around!

I have just tried to grow my first test batch of seedlings and found that they got mouldy. Is the problem too much water? Not enough fertilizer? Should I be growing the seeds on a screen instead of right on the plastic tray? Should I be covering the seeds with plastic? I left them open to the air last time.

My system is quite small currently as I did not want to spend oodles of money until I get some experience at this. It consists of a 70 litre rubbermaid tote, a very small pump, and an airstone. I have been using the top of the tote for the growing tray.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Lori

Comments (9)

  • mkirkwag
    20 years ago

    I shouldn't even answer you, as I'm not all that successful myself, but I will anyway!

    When I have a mold problem, I cut back on the number of cycles I'm running, and it clears right up, but I start mine in rockwool.

  • chuck
    20 years ago

    Hi, considering that your ultimate goal is to provide fodder for your animals as opposed to using the large rolls of hay tells me that you are probably wasting your time on anything less than a full sized test bed. My point is that everything you learn in a small system will be wasted time as everything will be totaly different when going for it in real-time. I would recommend that you consider going to a system that incorporates long plastic wrapped rows with a timed drip to feed the plants. I guess it could be called water to waste which means to me that you eliminate the problem of recycling the netruient. Your nutrient is injected into the main water source as it flows out to the rows. I have seen some simple home made devices that when calibrated will inject the correct ratio of nutrient when the water pressure remains fairly constant. I recently saw some commercial growers that produce a lot of plants using this method. Essintially, you enclose your growing medium into the plastic by laying down the plastic on the ground in a long row pouring your gravel or sawdust etc. along the row and then folding the plastic up over the medium and back underneath to form a closed tube. You use a blade to score a hole for the seedling and of course holes for the drip tubes every foot or so. I would like to try this myself, so if you have the time, maybe we could both try it out and compare notes. Anyway, I felt that I would share my thoughts with you on this. good luck, chuck

  • cannabalbambi
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Thanks for the ideas. Went for round 2 and changed a few things. Added 20 litres of water to tank after a cleaning. Mixed fertilizer for 20 litres. Added 450 ml of peroxide to the water. Seems so far so good. Also put seeds on trays in the water flow and they seem to be growing faster, no mould as of day 3 and looks like all the seeds have germinated.
    I read somewhere that sponge can be used as a growing medium. I would like to do some cuttings for the flowerbeds this spring. Any thoughts on using sponge?
    Lori

  • baci
    19 years ago

    The following site has some information on hydroponic fodder growing:

    http://www.hydrocentre.com.au/fodder/questions.htm

    It looks like some growers prevented mold with seed treatment. Some also lost cattle due to certain kinds mold.

  • Aprilmid
    19 years ago

    hi is there someone who knows how to formulate an organic hydroponic solution. thanks

  • cannabalbambi
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    thanks for the site, loads on info are helping

  • markapp
    19 years ago

    Aprilmid the problem with homemade organic solution is that it is just a guessing game. you can soak a burlap bag of compost and go for a tds and ph but it is just a guess at what is in it. I think a few humanitarian groups are working on it but it is still experimental. Animal waste, Urine, fish water, worm castings, wood ash, compost are all things that are being tried. If you are limited to organics it may be best to stick with soil.
    As for growing fodder it will probably cost way more than the hay. I struggle with trying to find cheap enough nutrients to grow food at a dollar a pound value(rough estimate) I can buy hay for about 3 cents a pound. Just so you know it will probably cost way more than buying hay most places. since the hay is dry plan on growing about 6-9 times as much weight in wet forage to equal the dry hay in food value.

  • baci
    19 years ago

    I found some online pdf articles on hydro fodder I thought I would pass along. The site is:
    http://www.sproutnet.com/nutrition_research.htm

    Some of the articles on fodder are:

    "Commercial Hydroponic Fodder Growing in South Africa", D. A. Harris, Republic of South Africa, from the Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Soilless Culture, Sassari, Italy, 7-12 May 1973.

    "Effect of Hydroponically Produced Oat Grass on Ration Digestibility of Cattle", R. J. Hillier and T. W. Perry, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana.

    "Nutrient Content of Hydroponically Sprouted Barley", D. J. Peer and S. Leeson, Animal Feed Science and Technology, 13 (1985) 191-202.

    "Feeding Value of Hydroponically Sprouted Barley for Poultry and Pigs", D.J. Peer and S. Leeson, Department of Animal Science and Poultry Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Onterio.

    "Nutritive Value of Hydroponic Feed and its use for Feeding High Yielding Cows." Grigor' ev, Fitsev, and Lesnitskaya. Article in Russian. Abstract in English.

    "Production of a Green Feed by the Hydroponic Method Using Fermented Pig Manure", Nikmane, Klintsare. 1990

    "Feeding Livestock form the Hydroponic Garden", Arizona State University, May 1974.

    "Hydroponic Shed Produces enough feed for 55 cows", New Zealand Journal of Agriculture 1986, 151 : 11, 18-19.

    Mixed Nitrogen Nutrition and Productivity of Wheat Grown in Hydroponics", J. A. HEBERER and F. E. BELOW., Annals of Botany 63, 643-649, 1989.

    "Nutrient and Trypsin Inhibitor Content of Hydroponically Sprouted Soya Beans", Animal Feed Science and Technology, 13 (1985) 203-214.

    "Nutrient Content of Hydroponically Sprouted Barley", D. J. Peer and S. Leeson, Animal Feed Science and Technology, 13 (1985) 191-202.

  • fintuckyfarms
    12 years ago

    So I know this link is really old, but how did it work out? I have 1 sheep and want to try this without buying a huge system since she is 17 years old.

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