Indoor Hydroponic Winter Garden Update January 8th, 2012

[garygardens]

Looks like you're off to a good start. My unit is just getting going too and looks incredibly like yours... Maybe that's because I learned how to make it from your videos, lol. I didn't start tomatoes but do have a Jalapeno pepper so I'll be racing you for the first harvest. Got a hunch you'll win though.

Regards, Gary

[SleestaksRule]

@garygardens My jalapeno and bell peppers are stunted but they just started to poke out their 2nd leaves.  I probably left them in the germinating container too long.

[TheClownCentral]

this girl i was shagging her parents ran a seed company and she used to give me free seeds of last years crop for free. So basically the moral of the story is i now have no seeds or girlfriend. Any chics out there who have ties to seeds look me up...lol

[JaxRL]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[grandwheatgrass]

I have had success with germinating stevia. Last year I grew 7 plants. I started the seeds in a paper towel that was soaked in a very, very light nutrient solution. I put the paper towel in a bag and put the back in my grow room under a light (not too close). Basically I treated it like when I sprout lettuce. I got about 50% to sprout. Once they sprouted I then transplanted them carefully to the growing media. The growth is incredibly slow from there until you get a few sets of leaves.

[SleestaksRule]

@grandwheatgrass I got some seeds last year from The Cook's Garden and they germinated 100%. The seeds I'm trying to germinate are ones I collected from the flowers. The flowers appeared late in the fall and I'm worried the plant died too early before the seeds were ready. I'll do a nice lot of them in the paper towel and see what happens.

[loislaney23]

Everything looks great, will keep checking to see updates. Love your air pumps!

[SteelToeBlue]

First of all I want to say I love your videos. I was kind of going through withdrawals there for a minute, but recently you started back up again. I have been reading Howard M, Resh, Ph.D.'s book entitled Hydroponic Food Production Sixth Edition and have noticed that the nutrient solution you are using is very light compared to his recommendations. For seedlings he recommends much higher ppm readings from your nutrient solution. tomato 700-1050 cucumber 1750-1960 peppers 1400-1540 lettuce 1050

[MrOrionpax]

That's some air pump. Lol shouldn't need a fan to keep the air moving with that.

[mediamaker2000]

I feel like I should ask you about the air pumps. Doesn't seem like anybody even asked about them ;-) To be different, let me ask you about temperatures, both water and ambient. Do you control that at all? Do you ever worry about humidity or C02 levels? Do you still have the mouse and the spider? AND, I'm also taking a gallop poll...How do you feel about running horses?

[mhpgardener]

@mediamaker2000 Geez bro, one question at a time ! LOL

[mediamaker2000]

@mhpgardener I get 500 characters. Just wanna make em count! One character, two character.... LOL

[SleestaksRule]

@mediamaker2000 Haha. Air temp with the light on is 89, with a fan blowing 75. Water temp is 66 which is a little too cold. Humidity fluxes but is around 30% due to winter. Ideally they say 40-70% for tomatoes. C02 no sir. It's an open space. If it was in a room or in my house it'd be way easier to control stuff. The spider will be back and the mouse took off. That thing startled me more than once while working.

[mediamaker2000]

@SleestaksRule LOL I knew you'd have answers for everything I asked! So where are you growing these? I assumed it was in your house. Silly me.

[FenderGibsonWashburn]

I was wondering if those pumps could take being run 24/7 but it looks like you have plenty of backups.

[SleestaksRule]

@FenderGibsonWashburn I've never had one die and they go through all day use on the press. They might be a little more heavy duty than the kind for air brushes (not sure). All that white powder on them is corn starch. They keep going even after sucking all that powder in. We'll see what happens.

[mediamaker2000]

@FenderGibsonWashburn OMG! I remember you. You had that video called The Percolator. That is so cool. Glad you are still around!

[VIVIsectI]

What schedule are you running your lights on?

[SleestaksRule]

@VIVIsectI 16 hours on / 8 hours off

[mhpgardener]

Very very VERY interesting. What meter are you using for the PPM?

[SleestaksRule]

@mhpgardener I had an expensive one that just died on me a few weeks ago. I bought a cheap one off Amazon for around $17 recently.  Works great for a cheap one. Called "TDS EZ".

[mediamaker2000]

@mhpgardener And you didn't ask about soil moisture meters?! Sheesh!

[mhpgardener]

@mediamaker2000 I thought YOU had that taken care of ! I tell ya, good help is so hard to find.

[mediamaker2000]

@mhpgardener I twied weawwy hard! I did! I wiww wook weawwy hard for better ones!

[MIgardener]

everything is looking great! congrats on the new setup too!

[jaspercats]

Hi , what kind of air pumps are those,where can you find them!!!

[SleestaksRule]

@jaspercats They are the same used in Air brushes. The printing press uses them to spray a poof of spray powder on each sheet. I've had so many presses over the years that I sort of have a collection of pumps now, lol. They do sell commercial air pumps for around $50. On Ebay look for "COMMERCIAL AIR PUMP 6 OUTLET". I never tried one.  The one I'm using is pretty insane, ha. I have to let the air bleed a bit otherwise it's too strong.

[Teddybearcop48]

You are a busy bee ! And its fun.. keep up the good work..

[Otect]

Looks great!

I am excited to see the results from the new air pump configuration. That is an insane amount of water movement and bubbles, so I wonder if the plants will respond better.