5Gallon DWC with circulation and resivoure bucket

[airscapes]

First one turning color, will pick it tonight and hopefully Mr Butternuts the squirrel won't get it first.. He got on off of the other plants yesterday. 


 

[Shawn]

What type of tomato is that?

[airscapes]

Burpee 4th Of July Hybrid

This is my wife's favorite tomato and the only thing I have grown in the past 4 or 5 years.  The Campari tomato you can buy at the grocery store is very close to the Burpee and are not a Hybrid, so you can dry and use the seeds from the tomatoes and grow them. I have done that multiple years but the Burpee plants seem to produce a lager crop and faster and still taste good at the end of the year..  My wife eats the Campari all winter and we save the 2lb plastic containers to put the Burpee tomatoes in when I pick them.

[Shawn]

Very Nice

[airscapes]

So my wife did her 3 way Blind taste test to determine how much the growing medium alters the flavor of a tomato all other things equal. This is also a single data point and I assume as the season goes she will give me more feed back.

Plant variety identical (Burpee 4th or July Hybrid)
All were picked with the same amount of color (orange) and allowed to continue to ripen in the house as I always do.

She eats these all season every year and then switches to Campari's for the off season, so very picky about her tomato flavor.



#1 Plants in soil

#2 Plant in Bucket system outside right next to dirt plant

#3 Plant in tub system in the house with artificial light



Rating 0-10

#1 = 10

#2 = 8.5-9

#3 =3-4 (watery no flavor)



So from her findings with this single first sample (not really what one would call a study) the main thing that makes hot house grown tomatoes taste watery and tasteless is most likely lack of sun and probably also the variety..  not the fact they are hydroponically nourished!!


This also means I can't grow these inside during the winter and have the taste better than Campari.. Thank god! Way too much work!!

Doug

[airscapes]

Had an issue with the color of the plant leaves starting to become yellow with no sign of pathogen.  Called Hydor-Garden  and talked to one of the guys and he suggested up the magnesium by 25% and potassium nitrate by 15-20%.  I did the and also keep the PH closer to 6.20 as I had been letting it climb to 6.5 before downing it.  The leave that were yellowing are not going back to green, I believe it was the PH more so than the nutrient but I don't know for sure.  One other thing he pointed out after I emailed him my readings is when the root stay above 75F the plant has a hard time setting  fruit.  I started watering with refrigerated water and ice to try and keep the temp down in the mid 70s .. guess what.. fruit started setting faster than the in ground plants where the soil is 78 degrees.. this would hold true for areogarden grown tomatoes.. 

[Sher]

Cool about the water temperature. That is good to know. I had wondered about trying hydroponics outdoors.

All my hydroponics are in an air conditioned house, so I haven't run into the hot water problem.

My in ground tomato has fruit on it, but is not putting on new fruit because our temperatures are in the 90's.

[airscapes]

They don't like the 90s, the bucket plant has been sucking 3 gallons of water in the  past week between 8am and 8pm but 1qt over night.  I have to go out all day tomorrow so ordered the parts and added a float with gravity feed water from another bucket.  Looking into building an insulated box for the water bucket it on Sunday.. will post some picture when it is done or  what I end up with.  I have a different 5 gallon bucket with about 4 gallons of water in it, stuck in the basement fridge.  I downed it to  a ph of 6.2 which seems to be what the plant likes best and it always climbs as the plant deposits waste throughout the week.  Will dump that in the bucket to auto water first thing in the morning and see were things end up by dinner!  Probably a waste chilling it without a cooler it will be 100  degrees buy noon in the sun.. But better than running dry while I am out.

[Sher]

That is an incredible amount of water!

I have read of people burying the containers to keep them cooler, but that sounds like an awful amount of labor.

[airscapes]

Jul 30, 2021 19:35:57 GMT -5 Sher said:

That is an incredible amount of water!

I have read of people burying the containers to keep them cooler, but that sounds like an awful amount of labor.

Yup this is a stupid amount of work and money.. the plant in the dirt next to it is needing none of this.. just  turn the drip irrigation timer to #7 and let it run for 15 minutes every other day or so.  It is an interesting project and I have learned a lot so no regrets at all and I want the plant to live as long as the others. I also need something non work and fun to do on Sunday.. so making a bucket cooler out of some 2" ridged foam insulation I have in storage from another DIY cooler project a few years ago.. 

[Sher]

Yes, I agree. Sometimes projects just for the sake of doing them are fun.

[airscapes]

So this past weekend I had to leave the house for the balance of the day and did not want this plant to run 3 gallons low on water by the time I returned.  So I had purchased a small float valve with connector and tubing as well as a bulkhead connector for the bottom of a 3rd bucket.  The install was quick and easy and it worked like a charm.  The one thing that would no longer work watering this way was the cooling of the water and roots.  I had been added water chilled in the refrigerator and blocks of ice as well.  I had some foam left from a project where I had made coolers that actually worked an cost very little.  I figured what the heck it only take a few minutes to cut the foam on the table saw and glue and screw it together and maybe it will help.  Today is not very hot so not sure it will be a good test, but I filled the bucket in the cooler with 3 gallons of 38F water will see what the grow bucket temp is by the end of the day... This will also let me feed the plant contiguously as it drinks water keeping the EC and PH at a more constant level rather than dumping in a gallon of tap water every couple of hours and then when ec get really low adding gallons of feed water.. will see how it goes!






Water running into bucket.. had to see                                         right here VVVVV

[Sher]

Looking forward to your results.

But, man! I hope those tomatoes taste out of this world after all of that work! 

[campingcorgis]

Good luck!  And, I get the feeling that this is a labor of love.  Or, for love.  Do hope she appreciates it!  

[airscapes]

This is how I roll when I do a project.. it's all or nothing.. obsessive I am.. 
Building/designing  things, especially if science and or  engineering is involved, is something I consider Fun 
As a child I broke almost every toy I ever got, taking it apart to see how it worked.. 

BTW , it is not hot today but this is looking good.  Water put into the  cooler bucket at 7:45am  was 38F and at 1pm it was 46F and the grow bucket has taken in about 1.5 gallons and was 73F which is very good! 

[campingcorgis]

Good job & I do appreciate your enthusiasm and your quest for knowledge too!  

[Sher]

I am so happy you got the temperature down, airscapes. Great job and incredible persistence.

[airscapes]

Bucket tomato is doing as well as the ones in soil, over 8' tall if you hold up the ends of the top vines.  I was afraid the Ida would dump so much water on it that it might flood even though my bucket mount is designed  to reduce that chance.. Added a 7oz plastic cup .. Not sure if it helped, we were missed by most of the bad weather.  I attribute this to the on-going protection afforded by the purchase and contiguous maintenance of a portable generator.  Since buying in some 15 years ago, power has never gone out long enough to get it out.. But I do change all the fuel yearly which must be why it keeps the bad weather at bay.   



 

[campingcorgis]

My experience is similar!  If I'm prepared, there's far less chance of needing that preparation!  

They look great!  Good job!  

[airscapes]

This plant is nearing the end of life. This week the roots stopped the flow of water between the buckets and was exiting though the vent holes.  I knew this was happening but had hopped it would not get this bad before the forst.  The plant is suffering from a leaf fungus as well as nutrient deficiency due to how slow I have the water flowing.  One of the new shoot I missed when pinching them off was purple meaning lack of potassium if I remember correctly.  I only have a 2.5" access hole to the grow bucket and did use a rod to poke some  holes in the root mass.  Flow is slightly better.  Did my weekly change of fluid and picked all tomatoes from all 5 plants (bucket and 4 soil grown) for a total  of 28lbs+. This has been a really good year, not many bugs, no white fly, no aphids since the peas in early spring and only a very small amount of worm damage.  Unfortunately even if the weather does not turn cold, I will need to rip out all of my Garden before shoulder surgery in Nov.     There is still a LOT of tomatoes that will ripen if the weather hold.. Also tons of peppers still on the plants.. maybe I will leave the peppers but I have to disassemble the entire tomato assembly  in the next couple weeks.