First Time, E+F System :)

[csvd87]

First time, Flood and Drain system, so far It's all set up with only a couple seedlings in it, a Short Yellow Tabasco, and a Piri Piri pepper, soon to join them are Orange Manzano, Peter Pepper (Red), Sweet Chocolate, and Chile de Onza.

I will also be growing in another tub, some basil and lettuce. Here is a couple of photos of pre-growing and setup.

Since I'm cheap, I built this to deflect the water from spraying up through the side handle of the tote.


and here is a look at the overall setup, I do have longer chains now, and both systems are ready to go now (more photos to come)

[hydroguy]

Nice set-up you've got '87, so the top (flood) tray sits down inside the reservoir? The deflector is a cool idea, a lot of guys use some sort of screen there aswell to keep those pesky little rocks from going down the tubing to the pump on the drain cycle. Just a thought.

Best of luck to ya buddy,

hydroguy

[csvd87]

I have a seperate overflow hose sitting up at about the level I want the water to sit at (which is actually about an inch over the overflow) and I have several 1/8 inch holes drilled in the flood tray to drain it back into the reservoir. I'll get a few more pics up when I clear off one of my many SD cards It works so far, but I'm waiting to actually see some growth out of my peppers.

[Halfway]

87, I broke down and bought a pair of those locking pulleys for the lights. Very convenient!

On the "other tub" you mention....consider the growth of the basil...it will grow tall as the lettuce branches out. This way cause some issues with keeping the flourecents close enough to the lettuce while accomodating the basil.

[csvd87]

i will force the basil to be quite bushy. probably regular harvests to keep it short. i want some of those pulleys but i can't afford it for rest of month. so far the lettuce is out growing the basil. 2 days for germination. basil was around the same but it slowed down once the cotyledons came up. only have 2 lettuces so far.(waiting for delivery on others)

[hydroguy]

You'll be amazed at the growth of your plants once they get rooted 87. My dad is an old grain farmer and has been around my gardens some but not often. He was over last week and then again today. He couldn't believe how fast things grow in water.

Looking forward to seeing some more detailed pics of your system when you get the chance, sounds interesting. I hear you about spending cash on new gadgets. Started some pepper plants and had intended on getting my latest system running before they were ready to be transplanted. Didn't happen LOL but they will get their new home soon enough.

Keep us updated.

hydroguy

[csvd87]

Haven't noticed much growth on the Piri Piri, the lettuce and basil are still quite small, expecting some good growth in the next week. I bare rooted a very small Himalayan Blue Poppy I had that wasn't doing to well, washed it off really well and buried it in the hydroton, it has perked right up in just a day.

My problem is that I have my system ready, but not all my peppers are cooperating, Chile de Onza is almost poking up, same with Sweet Chocolate. Peter Pepper is taking its time, and the Orange Manzano I understand takes about 2 weeks to germinate, so what I did was carefully tear one of the seeds open and pulled out the seed inside and put it back in the rockwool(see if that speeds it up ). Here is a few photos, camera died before I could take on of the whole system.

Italian Large Leaf Basil

Green Oak Leaf Lettuce

Skyphos Lettuce

[Halfway]

Looking good!

[Hydrogardener]

I agree that growth is rapid. I put these plants in my systems on October 18th, and now on the 16th of November they are really taking off. It looks like we will have a very large salad on Thanksgiving.

[csvd87]

I'm hoping for a Salad come Christmas, but we'll see, i've got yhe Oak Leaf (Leaf Lettuce) and Skyphos (a red butterhead) some purple basil and large leaf basil. That's all I had for seed, I have some seed in transit, and I have some I just ordered from Thompson and Morgan, I really wanted Chartwell Romaine which i keep reading is the best tasting, and found it there, also got some Asian greens.

I thought I saw the beginnings of a leaf of lettuce on the Oak Leaf, and now all the Amethyst Basil is up

[Halfway]

That amethyst basil is very cool.

What is the flavor described as?

[csvd87]

I can`t find anything on the flavour, except one person saying it is full of flavour. Guess I will find out

[csvd87]

So that Rocoto that I had peeled the seed coat off of, is showing a radicle, so mark that down. It did speed it up, so 9 days until germination instead of 14+. Also, It's snowing outside right now, and I'm glad I got everything inside, and have my hydro systems running.

Also, what are other people using for EC or TDS meters?

[hydroguy]

I use a Milwaukee Sharp tester to keep an eye on the PPM. This is the only place that it gets tricky with hydro. All testers are not the same, meaning that they use different conversion rates. Mine uses the 0 - 1999 scale and sells for around $50. A good PPM/TDS/EC and PH tester are the most important tools in a hydroponic gardenrs tool box.



hydroguy

[csvd87]

Thanks hydroguy, cheapest one I found was at a place in town, a Milwaukee CD-600, 75 bucks, but I didn't get out today, so i'll have to get it Monday, I need it, my peppers are looking like they are overfed, but it could be a wonky pH (trying to keep it around 6ish), getting some brown tips and curl, which to me is a sign of overfeeding, tomorrow I'll change out the reservoir, needs a cleaning anyways, lots of sludge from the hydroton.

[csvd87]

I decided I can't afford the TDS meter yet with a trip to Vancouver coming up in a couple weeks (Yay Canucks Game!) and Christmas coming up. Gonna play it out by feel for now, Lettuce is looking great, basil the same. The peppers seem to have responded well from the cleaning of the reservoir and reconditioning of the solution.

[csvd87]

I bought a cheap air pump at wal-mart to help aerate the water, it was kinda starting to smell, hopefully this will help along with adding a bit of oxygen. I did notice when installing that the water was really effing cold, which makes me think I need a submersible aquarium heater, heat the water up to a good 74ish.
Anyways, Lettuce is looking fantastic, as is the basil (Italian Large Leaf) Amethyst is a little bit slower than the other. Peppers are probably suffereing from the cold water.

[hydroguy]

That water heater is great idea '87, especially in your part of the world. I've been giving some thought about getting some for my resvs. aswell. One thing I did on my latest system was to side some wood strips under the resv. to get it off the floor a bit.

Post some updated pics when you get the chance.

hydroguy

[csvd87]

The Rocoto's were a no go, 2 seeds rotted and the one I tore open sprouted but yellowed and died... I also let the sweet chocolates dry up.. oh well. I got 5 of 6 planted, maybe I'll stuff an eggplant in there. I know the peppers will be fighting for space, but oh well. The lettuce is booming, and I finally have some true leaves on the Amethyst Basil. The Short Yellow Tobasco I had in the hydro system for 2 weeks finally has some growth, It has spent this time trying to grow water roots, all the soil roots died off.

So in the tubs I have 2 kinds of Basil, 3 Kinds of Lettuce, 5 Peppers, and a Poppy.

[applestar]

Heh. I'm just lurking here, but surfaced (:>) to comment that the lettuce probably really likes the cold water, but it's likely too cold for the basil and the pepper. Once the water is heated, the lettuce may not do as well. Eggplants, however, would be happy.

Remember, though, that out of the 4, eggplants like it the hottest, then basil -- both more heat than peppers (or are we talking HOT peppers? I forgot). Anyway, at temp and light exposure suited for these 3, lettuce would give up the ghost. on the other hand, if you can supply the lettuce with unheated water, they'll probably hang on longer. Swiss Chard is the usual mate for the summer crops though.

I have a single yellow-ribbed Swiss Chard that volunteered in the Stevia container and has been brought inside for the winter. I wanted DD8 to have a leafy green veg, so I snuck a tender young SC leaf in her ham sandwich. A few days later, she was telling DH that she likes her sandwich with the "special lettuce" that tastes better than lettuce.

In addition to Swiss chard, I'm going to try growing the lettuce leaved basil next summer.

[csvd87]

I placed a heater in the pepper tub, it should be somewhere around 75 degrees, I might use thet last spot on my powerbar to put in another heater, but I'll have to look into it to see if it will work like that, i might just try and raise the tub off the floor, or maybe slide a heat mat under it. they will grow at 75, but they would like it warmer. The lettuce loves the cold, water seems like it is near freezing at times, it also doesn't mind when the pH slips to around 8.5.

[Halfway]

pop some pics up 87.

[csvd87]

I'll get some pics up after work Halfway, when I have a bit of time.

Also the Italian Large Leaf basil doesn't seem to mind the cold roots either, it is still growing about the same rate it grew for me in the summer. must be conditioned to cooler temps of Italy. Not too sure.

[csvd87]

I was sure I read your whole post last night applestar... I musta been tired. I have a red or ruby chard growing in my mudroom i grew from a pack of bright lights. growing well, but I had to bury it when i potted up, it was falling over. I first tried chard this summer when i bought some from the farm market, big leaves, was able to cook them perfect first attempt, delicious, not bitter at all, which can happen, which i did later in the summer

I found on Trade Winds Fruit website a type of non-heading leaf cabbage I am going to try next year. But for now I'll hope for some slow growing peppers

I have Short Yellow Tabasco, Piri Piri, Chile de Onza, Peter, and Fidalga Vermelha, so 4 Hot, 1 Mild. and since all I have left growing in rockwool is a Gretel Eggplant i was testing germination on, I might as well see what it does in the hydro.

[csvd87]

Ok I failed to get pics up, I got home late from work and I was heading out to a bar to watch the Canucks game (YES! 7-2 for Vancouver over Calgary! Take that Flames!) I am also having trouble locating my camera... hoping to have pics up by tomorrow evening.

[applestar]

I don't think it was you csvd. I almost always end up "editing" my posts after submitting because I keep tweaking the wording or think of some detail to add. If you note the time stamp of the edit, we were typing at the same time, so I must have added more to my post after you read it.

Looking forward to seeing your photos.

[csvd87]

here are some pics i took yesterday :

Piri Piri pepper

Amethyst Basil

Large Leaf Basil

Green Oak Leaf Lettuce

Red Iceberg Lettuce

Red Skyphos Lettuce


Thats all I got for now, when the other peppers actually put on some growth (after adjusting) I will post pics of them.

[csvd87]

Well, I have been away from home now about 3 days, hope my stuff is still alive Mostly woried about my just sprouted seedlings I had to leave, but I made sure they were watered and I moved them into a cooler area with less intense light hoping they would survive. But it is always fun leaving for a few days and then coming back to see the growth progress. However a few days for me will be more like 6 days or so. Also hoping for some peppers to mature on my "Chocolate Beauty" plants, I did see 1 turning brown. Want them to mature so I can scrap them, not happy with them as they didn't grow true, and I only got 3 pods on 1 and 2 on the other, all undersized.

I'm also worried about my young Rosemary and Wormwood seedlings, the Rosemary is in a very fast draining/drying sandy soil, should have moved it out of my grow box thingy. Which will irritate me if it dies, took forever for me to get rosemary to germinate the first time, but they all died, and second time around i only had about 20% germination. Oh well, thats my update for now, guess I'll find out how everything is when I get home.

[csvd87]

an update with Pics!

Things are going very well, I thinned out a couple of weakling basils so there is just 2 per pot, lettuce is doing fantastic, and the poppy is growing clean green leaves, instead of the black splotchy leaves i was getting in soil...
The peppers are doing fantastic, the short yellow tabasco looks like it hasn't changed, but it has mostly grown roots, like I said it was trying to re-root itself into the hydro system from being started in soil. the rest of the peppers look good, but I need to clean the res out and replenish the nutes, add a little more this time around, bump it up to about 66% from 50% anyways.. ON WITH THE PHOTOS!

Oak Leaf

Oak Leaf Roots

Skyphos

Skyphos Roots

Red Iceberg

Piri Piri

Chile de Onza

Fidalg Vermelha

Peter

Short Yellow Tabasco

Gretel Eggplant


No photos of the Basil, I forgot.. my bad.


I also want to say, if you are looking for seeds, check out Midwest Chileheads at http://www.midwestchileheads.com/5101.html
Excellent service and very prompt responses to questions I had, overall very pleasant experience with John

... Also check this out for a list of chile seed dealers
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/11131-ordering-pepper-seeds/

[Halfway]

Looking Good!

[wordwiz]

I bought a relatively cheap PPM tester (HM Digital TDS-3 for less than $25) and three years later it is still working fine. I also have bought the Hanna pH meters (~$35) and both of them lasted less than a year. I bought a Milwaukee for about $65 and it is much better. One thing about the pH meters - their probe needs to stay moist or they go belly up and give bad readings!

Mike

[csvd87]

Thanks Mike! I just placed my order.$30 shipped. Merry Christmas to me!

[wordwiz]

csvd87,

Yes, Merry Christmas to you!

If there are three meters every indoor hydro gardener should have they are light, pH and ppm/ec.

Mike

[csvd87]

something is going weird with my short yellow tabasco, which will from now on be known as SYT, anyways, i noticed today, at only an inch or so in height, due to it being over-watered early in its life in soil, it was very stunted, ok, well at about an inch in height i see buds forming.. worlds shortest flowering pepper? haha, pinched those off right away. I guess that plant is about 2 months old, it did have a rough life early on, oh well, i'll let it go.

[csvd87]

Ok so its been awhile, but Now i have a question if anyone can answer it... My nute solution is like soapy or bubbly, I don't know what i did or what is going on, also my peppers are quite shrimpy, but I think that was because my solution was really weak, as I found out yesterday when I finally got my TDS meter

[csvd87]

I'm not that happy with the growth rate of my peppers, roots should be far more vigorous than they are. They are just now poking through the bottom of the net pots. Anyways, I transformed the one E&F into a DWC, I'll see how that goes, it looks like it works quite well. Water temp in that tub is around 21.5C

[Halfway]

I have yet to see any foam or bubbly nutrient solution. Have you discovered the cause?

As someone suggested, I add a capful of hydrogen peroxide to the reservoir (9 gallons) about once a week as a preventative. Seems to work well.

I have had the same nutrient solution now since 21 November and see no signs of deficiency in 5 lettuce and 1 basil plant. Not sure if this is normal or the nutrient mix is better than expected, but I am watching for changes.

Curious to the "foaming" issue you are having. Please update when you can.

[wordwiz]

Ok so its been awhile, but Now i have a question if anyone can answer it... My nute solution is like soapy or bubbly, I don't know what i did or what is going on, also my peppers are quite shrimpy, but I think that was because my solution was really weak, as I found out yesterday when I finally got my TDS meter

Did you add any fish emulsion to it? That causes foam.

Mike

[csvd87]

I was going change nutes next week. Read up on Iguana Juice. That is what I was using, but this is the first time I have had the foaming. I am going to use botanicare, its half the price. Also no pic updates for a bit. We had a power outrage last night that seems to have killed my computer. Good thing I have a not-so-smartphone.

[Halfway]

I was going change nutes next week. Read up on Iguana Juice. That is what I was using, but this is the first time I have had the foaming. I am going to use botanicare, its half the price. Also no pic updates for a bit. We had a power outrage last night that seems to have killed my computer. Good thing I have a not-so-smartphone.

I am using CNS17. I will look for a cheaper "powder" when I run out, but this stuff has been amazing and very cheap. I have only used "grow", and not "bloom" or "ripe".