Day 1: OK So Far!

Day 1: Went out to check the system since it rained last night. The CF was 14. CF stands for Conductivity Factor by the way and it is a measurement of the ion content in the water from the hydroponics plant nutrients which are all chemical salts (a salt is just a chemical compound that disassociates in water like common table salt although that would not be a good plant nutrient).

I added a circulation pump to the pool since I don't want to get mosquitoes. A few years back when I ran a tub float system with just aquarium aeration I got little squiggly mosquito larvae wiggling around in the nutrient and that really turned me off. I figure with a robust pump circulating the water that might not be a problem. It was funny though because the circulation caused the floats to start turning too.

I added a quarter cup of white and blue nutrient concentrate to bring the CF up to 16. The plants looked a little beaten down. We're planning to rototill a plot for a conventional garden in the backyard and grow corn, squash, and the rest of the tomato plants that are currently growing on the screened in deck in rockwool cubes.

Float System Deployment

Well I've been watching my seedlings grow for some time now and we've had some unseasonably chilly days, although none below freezing, and now it is past the normal time where you risk a freeze so today we deployed the Summer 2010 float system. The idea is simple enough build a simple float system in a kiddie pool and put the plants in it. The kiddie pool is only a little over three feet in diameter, I cut the floats (actually Jessica did the cutting) 34" in diameter and the center region is about six inches in diameter. Because the pool is larger at the top than the bottom the float has a lot of lateral movement when the pool is full.

STEP 1 put down a pad with concrete tiles (we did this because we had the tiles from another project, generally I'd just put it on the ground but this was nicer.).

STEP 2 was to cut the floats out of 4'x2' pieces of 2" thick Styrofoam. That was very easy. We cut them to a diameter of 34", each a 17" radius using a marker and a string as a jury-rig compass. The cut a hole in the center for the waterfall.

That was pretty easy. You can see the pump with the water feature in the center. The idea is to splash some water back into the pool to oxygenate the water. We'll see how well that works by how well the plants thrive.

STEP 3 was to drill holes in the Styrofoam which wasn't too hard but you had to come at it from both sides because the Styrofoam was thicker than the hole cutter. A nail to line it up from the other side solved that problem. So "Vala!" then dropped little plants from my stash in little plastic cups with the bottom mostly cut out so the roots could escape into the nutrient. Then I brought the conductivity up to a CF=14 since the plants are still young. I'll adjust that in future, and here's the finished system.

Floats Are Coming

Went out to the hydroponics design system center (Home Depot in this case) and hunted up some nice thick foam to use as floats in the mini-float system. A sheet of 2" maybe 3" thick foam 4'x 8' went for $27 which is about twice what I need but it will be fun cutting it up, popping some holes in it and getting it all ready for the roll out. Meanwhile the little plants started popping out of their seed shells yesterday and are perking up. I mixed up some 1/4 strength nutrient and poured it into the container with the rockwool cubes so the little pants will had some source of nutrition since the rockwool cubes and ordinary tap water don't provide much. The French Dona's are way out ahead of the Abraham Lincolns and Atkinsons in terms of germination. I've always liked the Donas, but had a hard time finding seeds for them last year. I'll try to get around to taking some pictures for the next posting.

Summer 2010 Is Coming ...

Well I finally got off my can and soaked some rockwool cubes and stuck some tomato seeds in them. I've been incredibly lazy. I just pulled a sheet of rockwool cubes out of my stash in the basement and put them in those little plastic starter trays and soaked them with water, no nutrient. Then I put three kinds of seeds in the six-cell rows, four rows each: 1) Abraham Lincolns, 2) Atkinsons, and 3) Donas. All the seeds were leftovers from last year so I hope I don't have a germination problem. Well that was a tough ten minutes work, now to relax.

The other adventure was what should the system design be? I bought a little hard plastic kiddie pool about four feet in diameter for $10 and I'm planning to make it into a baby float system with a central waterfall for oxygenation. This is sort of a follow on from last years largely failed wick systems. The waterfall should address at least one problem. Float systems don't like heavy plants however since the floats tend to sink then so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that since I really only want to grow tomatoes. I think maybe just radiate the plants out to stakes (that might be just the ticket).

Wondering!

I've been wondering what a float system with a fountain sort of thing in the center might do. They have these little plastic baby pools for kids that might do for a float system, not the blow up kind, the hard sided kind. It might be possible to either make a little central waterfall or a fountain that doesn't go too high, you don't want wind to blow the stream so it doesn't land in the pool.

The idea would be to make floats in circular sections so that a hole in the center existed which could house a kind of cone shaped fountain or waterfall. This could be fun and not all that difficult. The trick I've always found is making the floats. Most of my Styrofoam floats have left a lot to be desired. I probably should look for a better float material or at least a better way of cutting the Styrofoam.

Getting Warmer ...

Well it's getting warmer and when March arrives it's hard not to start thinking about hydroponics. This year I'm going to try to go back to NFT since the passive wick system was a big disappointment last year. I'm sure I could make a better wick system, but I don't want to do a really big job and I definitely want tomatoes this year. So some sort of small NFT system seems in the cards.

Another kind of system that would be fun to make is some sort of fairly large dynamic float system. I loved this video I saw some time back ... it was a YouTube and I'm not sure where it was, maybe I can find it. So far no luck. It was a HUGE commercial system with continuous feed onto rafts and a big waterfall to oxygenate the water. If anyone sees it send me the link PLEASE.

Winter Setting In

The Christmas season is upon us. Winter is setting in and it has started to be cold enough to shift from the light jacket and sweater I usually wear in the Fall to the heavy coat and sweater I wear when Winter really sets in. I suppose formally I have another week or so to wait.

Summer was disappointing on the tomato front. Had a fair number of tomatoes but even the best producers didn't produce anything like I'm used to from my NFT systems. So the next question is whether I can come up with a nice little NFT system that doesn't require a lot of busy work?

The systems that use 10' long sections of PVC pipe are big and a bit cumbersome in the space they take. I'd like to come up with something smaller but still productive. Maybe a small system made from shorter runs. I was thinking that a diamond shaped system might be just the ticket. It might even be mounted on the tank or over the tank. Maybe support eight plants.

The system would be strong and fairly self-contained. I could feed from one corner and deliver back to the tank from the opposite diagonal corner. Needs more thought of course, but looks like it might be fun.