rainwalker
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:29 am
Location: sherman oaks, CA

HID lamps and hydroponic tomatoes?

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum. I've been reading it for a while and have gotten lots of useful tips. My question concerns my balcony tomatoes; I have seven plants and am using a hydroponic setup.

But my problem relates to a pine tree that is shading my balcony for most of the day. The tomatoes get about 1.5 hours of direct sunlight per day which I have augmented with high pressure sodium (mostly delivers the reds in the light spectrum and promotes flowering and fruit bloom) HID light for about 4.5 hours a day (eight on the weekends).

Do you think these tomatoes will do well? They are already about 5.5 feet tall, but are a bit spindly in the stem. They get the indirect sun all day and southern california temperatures are very warm. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

opabinia51
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

Well, your tomatoe plants may grow and produce tomatoes but your whole system is detached from nature. And hydroponically grown tomatoes tend to have next to no flavour so, that is something to consider.

Grow lights will provide your plants with the proper wavelenght of light so, that is good but, to have nice juicy and tastey tomatoes I would use a soil mix with compost rather than growing the tomatoes hydroponically.

I once also was fascinated with hydroponics but, discovered that I have much better yields and not to mention flavour when growing things organically.

Also, if you have an imbalance in your solution with hydroponics, you will lose your entire crop.

More later, I have to run....

rainwalker
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:29 am
Location: sherman oaks, CA

Thanks for the info, actually the system is more like a drip irrigation. A valve at the bottom of the pot holder fills when dry and senses when wet. There is a gravity based reservoir that fills the pot bases.

The growing medium is ground coconut shells and some perlite. The coconut stuff is a bit like peat. Do you still suspect the tomatoes will be flavorless? I didn't go to all this trouble to grow flavorless red orbs; I can go to the supermarket to get that! There is a lot of nutrients I mix into the reservoir, do you suspect plain water would make for better tasting tomatoes?

rainwalker
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:29 am
Location: sherman oaks, CA

Also, I have grown patio tomatoes before that produced only a handful of tomatoes. For many years I grew them in the ground in a south facing exposure with great luck. Unfortunately, I find myself in an apartment situation now and want a good crop. I hate store bought tomatoes!



Return to “TOMATO FORUM”