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My summer systems
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Posted by grizzman (My Page) on Wed, Jun 10, 09 at 7:13
This years systems.
A duplicate of last year:
with 4 vinson watts tomato plants originally. two died during the first week
my new Enf system:
18 plants total. I believe all but three are peppers. those others are eggplant. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: My summer systems
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| how do you keep the plants stable? Do you later add cages or some type of trellising? |
RE: My summer systems
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for the tomatoes, I will later add cages as needed. I'm trying the supercropping freemangreens mentioned a few months ago to see if I can keep them small enough not to need cages. If that doesn't work, I'll stick 3 10' long pieces of 1/2" aluminum conduit into the ground and run stainless wire as required to hold it all together. That's what I did last year and it worked fine.
I wasn't anticipating anything for the peppers. the ones I grew last year mostly stood on their own. (except for one) If it becomes a problem though I will probably run a horizontal piece between the plant run to tie them to. |
RE: My summer systems
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| I'm trying the super cropping, too, after Freeman got me interested. That is, if you are talking about removing most the leaves and such. In fact, I've been meaning to hunt down that thread and post my results as I'm admittedly very surprised. |
RE: My summer systems
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When I say supercropping I'm referring to where you squeeze and twist the stem just below each set of new leaves to promote a stronger stem and smaller node length.
Though I do intend to crop the leaves below the fruit as well as limit the number of suckers I'll allow to develop. |
RE: My summer systems
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| Oh. I was way wrong, then. I've never done that and I must have missed that post. I'll have to look into that one. |
RE: My summer systems
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You don't have any issues with rez temps?
--chris |
RE: My summer systems
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| not yet. but its only been running for 1.1/2 weeks now. though we have been having temps in the uppers 80's to low 90's. I didn't have any issues last year with the trash can. I may eventually wrap the EnF rez with insulation if I think its getting too hot. And I'll probably put some alum. foil on the runs to lessen algae growth. |
How the plants looked today
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two weeks in the system was Saturday.
Tomatoes
Peppers
Eggplant
Anybody know how an eggplants feeds compared to tomatoes or peppers?
thx. |
RE: My summer systems
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Was just curious as to what you are using for nutes in your set up. I was thinking the warm nute temps would be a problem?
what are your night temps?
For my peppers I am using only pure blend bloom from start to finish. I'm in about week four, plants are big and green but seem a little on the short side? |
RE: My summer systems
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currently our night temps range from about 65°F-75°F, with daytime temps in the mid 80°'s to 90°. the weatherman says we're looking at mid 90°'s by the end of the week though.
The batch I mixed up sunday is 0.6g/L of soluble hydroponic solution (from southAG), 0.4g/L of Calcium Nitrate, 0.2g/L of Epsom salts, and 0.3g/L if potassium carbonate.
The potassium carbonate is way too much however. I added too much when buffering my solution and thus had to add a lot of citric acid back to it to bring the pH to 5.9.
Next batch I will probably cut the potassium carbonate back to more like 0.1g/L or less.
I will let y'all know how the buffering goes. |
RE: My summer systems
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RE: My summer systems
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| This is so cool! Thanks for sharing, Grizzman. I have a question. On the tomotoes, what are the brick for? Are they just to hold down the cover against the wind? |
RE: My summer systems
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Thanks Dave.
The bricks are for weight. To get a waterproof seal between the lid and the can, you have to use weatherstipping. And the only way to make that seal waterproof is to apply some weight to compress the weatherstripping just a bit. |
8 july update
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I know its kinda quick.
I snapped some shots on the cellphone to show a friend at work and thought I'd post a few here too.
Tomatoes:
The big one is about 2 feet tall and almost ready for another support.
The pepper runs are looking good. the yellow is gone from the leaves and everything is growing. tallest peppers and the eggplant are about 18". the small ones (not the runts) are about 10"
This shot is of one of the pepper plants showing the numerous fruit sets.
hope y'all enjoy! |
20 July Update
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RE: My summer systems
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Storms knocked one of my pepper runs off the system last night. my journey to work was waylaid as I improvised this NFT system this morning so the plants wouldn't die.
Interestingly the plants didn't fall over. The entire run was pulled down. I suppose a strong wind grabbed the plants and sent things flying. Luckily, the way the system is designed, I can easily add or remove runs from the main reservoir without causing too much damage. |
7 August update
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Just a brief update:
My first cherry peppers were finally fully ripe today.
my first pepper set was 1 July. initial ripening was 2 Aug (32days) with full ripeness today(37 days)
A smallish true heart started to turn 4 Aug, but the others (including the larger ones) have not.
Tomatoes are huge, but still green. |
RE: My summer systems
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| I'm very impressed, grizzman. Awesome job. |
Update 21 August pictures
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Here are the second and third harvested this year. they weighed 9 ozs and 1lb 3.3/8oz, respectively.
This shot is to show a scale of the big one
things are beginning to wind down now (for me at least). I've been very negligent of the plants. it's been 3 weeks since I changed solution. the fruits still look good, but the leaves are beginning to suffer. We had another accident on the Enf system so now everything if NFT, which I kind of prefer. And the bugs are starting to come out: stink bugs, caterpillars, and horned caterpillars. Anywho, here's a sneak preview of my next harvest. these were rooted from volunteers in the cuke patch. I'm excited to see what the fruit looks like.
I'll post more as I get to it. |
correction
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| In the picture above of the rooted cuttings, the correct date is 7 August 09, not the 21st. those two plants are now each about 10" tall. |
RE: My summer systems
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| This is so very cool! I have to do at least a tomato like that next year. Thanks for sharing! |
RE: My summer systems
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| grizzman, your DWC looks great. How tall did your plants get in that large res? How much aertion were you using? |
RE: My summer systems
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thanks guyz.
Davemichigan:
If you are only growing a single tomato, you don't need a can that size. you can get by with just a 5 gallon bucket. look Here for build instructions. That can grew six plants last year and three this year.
mrpepper:
My tomatoes are still growing and are now probably 4 feet tall. They're getting to where I can't manage them too well. all that in spite of a deer attack and multiple bug attacks. I was supercropping at first but have gotten negligent and not done so lately. before I lost motivation, the plant were sitting at about 30" with heavy fruit set.
As for aeration, I think the timer runs 30min on and 40 off, though at this point I could leave it on 24/7 without any problems. aeration is done by a rainbird sprayer head and a water pump using the same system as the one I linked to above. |
RE: My summer systems
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| Grizzman, thanks, but is there by any chance a typo in the link that you gave above? When I clicked it, I got a blank screen. |
RE: My summer systems
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RE: My summer systems
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| Here are my outdoor Summer Bell Peppers....yet I think Summer is going to run out. Temperatures are hovering around 70 degrees here in IL and days are getting shorter. I was thinking to bring them in under the grow lights if Summer runs out. I guess maybe when the high temp average is 65 or so? It's been a very cold Summer. Maybe 3 days over 90 all year. 
They've really been growing fast. Here is a 9 day span. |
RE: My summer systems
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| I'm going to start a new thread to offer some unsolicited advice to project gardener. . . |
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