Rats Nests and Jungles

Well there are ten tomato plants in this float system and they are getting pretty crowded about now so they need some sort of support and expansion system. So today I bought some of those wire supports that can be used with tomatoes. Generally they are mounted as triangles, but I just stuck-em in the ground and tried to surround the pond but giving me access at the near side in this view. You can also see the electrical hook up to the two pumps. One pump is the fountain which is hopefully supplying the oxygenation of the water, and the other pump is just in there providing circulation in the hope that they will deter any mosquitoes that come by.

Here's the garden, well a portion of it anyway. These tomatoes were planted in rockwool at the same time. They are flourishing well enough, although it is hard to see them clearly with all the weeds that are starting to flourish too. This is why I call it "The Weedless Garden" when I use hydroponics. I am not, repeat not, going to go crawling around in there digging up the weeds. The tomatoes were all planted in a cup with the bottom cut out to head off any cutworms and also gives you a target if you want to fertilize which I have to confess I have not done so Jessica was on my case today because she doesn't think it is fair to the plants in dirt not to fertilize them when the plants in the float system have total access to nutrients. So I'll probably do that.

It will be fun to compare the tomatoes when they come off the vines and see if there is any difference. Anyway I'm going to be trying to get the tomatoes in the float system to come out and so that they are not so crowded, get them to grow into the supports. We'll see how well that works. Overall I'm quite happy with the system. The plants are growing well despite being crowded. CF=22 right now. I've added water only once or twice since June 4th and maybe a total of a cup of nutrient (cup of both white and blue). I have not been logging it. I should but this system has been so easy I just haven't been.