Success! Or Failure? Time will tell.

[Prybar]

Not only am I new to this site.
I have never done anything with hydroponics in my life.
I am 63 years old, and I have owned a two story sports bar for 18 years.

I am a retired tool engineer, so this is like completly opposite.

This is what I'm trying to achieve.

As you know in the restaurant business, things are a little tough.

Hard to get employees and hard to get good quality produce, if you're able to get it.

I grew all my own vegetables this summer, in the garden, in dirt.
From seeds I started when the clocks got moved up.

So I could supply all of my vegetables for my restaurant. Good deal.

Here is my challenge.

I am taking it indoors now.

I'm setting up three 5x9 tents.
I have three, four unit root box RDWC. One two unit root box RDWC, One root box DWC. And finally a homemade DWC for my onions.

I will be growing trust tomatoes, California Wonder green peppers, sweet Millions cherry tomatoes, Nacho hot jalapeno peppers, giant jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, onions and finally ground cherries for my sweet tooth.

Here are some pics, and I am sponsored by NO ONE.

You will see my failures along with me.
That's how I learn.
I assembled all of with from different articles I have read over the last year.

I have not plated my starts yet, other than onions. Which are now 7 days old.

Sincere questions, welcomed.

[Prybar]

Not use to adding pics.

[imafan26]

I have done tomatoes and cucumbers in dutch buckets before. never tried onions or peppers. I'd like to hear how that turns out. Good luck.

I have indoor cats. I grow nothing indoors. But then again, I don't have to.

PS Peacock feathers aren't safe from them either.

[applestar]

Welcome to the forum!

As I mentioned elsewhere, my experiences with hydro are shallow (pun intended ) … but one of my on-going hobbies is trying to grow “winter indoor” veg. So you may find useful some of my archived, rambling winter project threads for tomatoes and peppers, which will mention passing reference to other crops with varying successes and failures.

Indoors in winter, the challenges I have encountered include growing space, supplemental light (some crops need more “full sun” than others), minimum needed temperature (peppers are surprisingly cooler temp tolerant, while other “summer” crops really want direct sun HOT) — include thermal layers from floor to ceiling, downstairs and upstairs, in your design —…etc. And pests (aphids and mites, mealy bugs, (linked to ants), occasional stinkbugs) and pets (namely cats like @imafan referenced) … and unintended hitchhikers (“Squeaky”! in one of my winter threads )

In my view, choosing appropriate variety from each crop is important.

…happy to discuss.

[applestar]

BTW if you still have your pepper plants from the summer garden, it’s much easier to overwinter them for continued winter harvest than trying to grow from starts in the winter (some gardeners start pepper seeds in December for *next seasons* crop)

Tomatoes needed to be started in July~Aug to get ripe harvest in time for Christmas. (Extra early maturing, dwarf and micro dwarfs are my more recent pet tomato projects). I’m not really doing winter indoor tomatoes this year, but my next planned project will be trying to take sucker cuttings from the summer garden — while the plants are still healthy — to root and grow for the winter indoor garden.

[Prybar]

Thanks for the replies. I will be on here quite a bit. With updates and questions.

I'm using master blend 4-18-38 kit

[Prybar]

Hey applesauce, wondering?
Your indoor experience. Room controlled or tent? Thanks

[Prybar]

Very sorry, will use preview from here on out. Applestar.
Spell check got me.

[applestar]

LOLOL!

anyway… I have winter growing spaces carved out from various living spaces — northwest window side bench, southeast window side counter, interior wall corner, etc. as well as unheated garage.

The northwest bench holds one of those cheap zippered pvc covered “greenhouse” green wire shelving (three shelves) with guppy fish (storage tub) reservoirs and circulating water for my modest aquaponics experiment using diy airlift pumps.

So no grow tent — but I “paper” interior walls and bench surfaces with emergency mylar “blankets” and chill pack mylar bubble pouches, inside of family/party size chip bags, etc. for increased reflective/supplemental lighting.

I whimsically designate my growing spaces as “Winter Wonderland”, “Winter Paradise”, “Cool Gang”, “Green Room”, “Yellow Room”, “Garage V8 Nursery” — referencing (to myself, fwiw) varying levels of warmth and light microclimates to work with and discover suitability.

I keep some kind of thermometer in each space, including older remote temp/hygro, remote oven and bbq grill, older instant read analog probe kitchen, etc. thermometers that have been demoted after digital and/or bluetooth/wifi upgrade

[Prybar]

Nervous, tomorrow I put the tomato sets and cucs in one of the big RDWC systems.
My first.

[Prybar]

I got one cucumber planted in a Rootbox DWC. I'll plant the next cucumber next week.

I planted two trust tomatoes, and one sweet Millions cherry tomato. I will plant another Trust in another week or two.

All were planted in 6.28 PH RO water, temp 68. All were started in rockwool. Now all set in Hydraton. 12 hrs, light.
Using Master blend 4-18-38, magnesium sulfate and calcium nitrate.

Before I got started today. Even though I never used either one of these Rootbox systems. I took 5% Clorox water mixture. And cleaned everything out.

The big four unit Rootbox RDWC, went off without a hitch. Never leaked a drop, did everything as expected.
There is one Improvement I could definitely make to this unit. But no need to go into it.

Like I had mentioned, this is not a hobby. There was no time for homemade equipment. (Not knocking it). Or to experiment.
Hats off to those that do!

I chose Rootbox because it is engineered, tried and proven. Most of all, it's easy to change the water.

I chose Gorilla tents. Well thought out.

I chose Kingled lights. My price range, made in the USA.

I bought the best I could afford. I'm sure I could have spent more. Not the point.

I may think different by the end of this experiment.

RESULTS, RESULTS, RESULTS.

That's what I want.
Stay tuned.

[applestar]

It’s nice to be able to start with a spec’d base system. I’m going to be watching your progress with keen interest so thanks for sharing

Now, I don’t know the light system you’re using, but be sure that the lights are close enough or strong enough that the plants are getting sufficient intensity. (I only need approximate reading so I just use lux meter app on my iPhone to compare against ball-park, eyeball impression and then watch how the plants grow. You might want a more accurate tool.)

Depending on what you are seeing, you may need to rig something to make the light heights adjustable as the plants grow.

I’m assuming you got something with adjustable light spectrum? Be sure to use proper color range for initial growths vs. later blooming and fruiting.

Since you are looking for consistent growth, you don’t want to let them get set back initially.

[Prybar]

I am planting giant hot jalapeno peppers and Nacho jalapeno peppers tomorrow.

I really didn't want to. But I really struggle to keep seedlings alive in rockwool.
I read somewhere to give seedlings half the amount of nutrients that you would a mature plant. ( probably bad advice).
Today when I looked at my peppers they were a real light green. So I kicked the nutrients up normal solution.
I hope they look better in the morning.. I think I will take my chances and just put them in the big system.

[imafan26]

Where I worked before, I used to grow cucumbers and tomatoes in 15 gallon dutch buckets. We actually had an aquaponic system. The plants were given a mix of Sustane and bone meal as a supplement when they were planted. The owner did not like peppers. Hydroponic systems were used for the smaller plants on a rail, or aeroponic system. There were also some cinder bed bio filters. In the dutch buckets we used cinders because it is the most economical product available. The seedlings were grown mainly in oasis cubes. or in peat moss. There were a couple of coir beds for root crops mainly carrots and radish. The cinder beds were an ebb and flow system but the rails, dutch buckets, and aeroponics were just flow by systems. Those systems are more suitable for smaller crops like lettuce, kale, chard, green onions, parsley. The ebb and flow systems were used for Asian greens, lettuce, green onions, beets, radish, parsley, kang kong, carrots, and watercress

[Prybar]

Thanks for sharing that. I appreciate it.
I now have everything planted.
Nacho jalapeno peppers, giant hot jalapeno peppers, Trust tomatoes, sweet Millions cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green bell peppers and ground cherries.
It's going to be interesting.
I'm only going to change my nutrient water, every two weeks since they're very small.
Once they get over a foot, I will change Faithfully every 7 to 10 days. With no water top offs.
Here is a pic of my onions.
The day I planted, 7 days and 14 days.
Harvesting sat morning.

[Prybar]

Didn't give it time to load.

[Prybar]

So far so good. Haven't had much time to text. I'm remodeling my restaurant 2nd floor.

Tomatoes are kicking. Everything is starting to click.

Started my water change scheduling today. I never top off.
I just change every 10 days.

My water comes from a well 150 ft below me. Very hard.
It is unsoftened in my location which is a plus.

I run it through a hydrologic 3 stage RO.
I store it in a 275 gallon water tank I bought from TSC.
I have the tank mounted on a stand. With a 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank to mix my nutrients in.

Tonight I mixed a 100 gallons up. RO water before nutrient was 16 ppm. After adding nutrients it was 630 ppm. Not sure if this is good or not. I mix exactly to instructions.

I use 4-18-36 master blend with MS and CN.

I use a little giant sump pump, with a garden hose attached, for easy filling of my reservoirs.

One thing nice about rdwc, just disconnect and plug into the garden hose, and pump your system empty.
And refill it from my stock tank.

For my 12 gallon dwc systems, I use a 16 gallon stainless steel shop vac. Suck it empty, wheel it over to the floor drain. And dump it.
Then grab that handy garden hose from the stock tank fill it back up. All done.
Just thought I would share that.