Quick Post

Not too much to say. I rototilled a patch about 15'x15' in the back yard and planted all the rest of the stuff a few days ago. The float system is working well. I checked the nutrient level a while ago and it was CF=17 so I added a quarter cup which should bring it up to about CF=19, but was too lazy to check. The tulip tree keeps dropping blooms and these little strips onto the system where they either get into the nutrient and mess up the pumps by getting stuck on the intakes or they settle on the top of the floats. I take them off but I need to come up with a better strategy for this.

I'm still thinking about the support structure for when the plants start to get large. Right now I'm thinking about tapping thin wall conduit into the ground as a post and then using T-fixtures in PVC make a little PVC fence that the plants can grow out to and hang over. I'll show it in a photo when I get a round to actually building it.

Rototilling and Floating

We have a little baby rototiller we got to do some conventional gardening. I assembled it yesterday and fired it up and tore up some of the back yard to plant some corn and squash and such, mostly the "such" will be the rest of the tomato plants that are currently still in rockwool cubes since I planted ten tomato plants in the float system.

It rained some today, not too much. I checked the system this afternoon and except for the darn tulip tree flowers dropping off and onto the system everything seems to be flourishing. The CF was 17 without adding any nutrient, so all is well. I'll probably take it up to about 20 soon. And take it up higher later. I've usually run at a CF of about 24 when the plants are mature.

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.