Hydroponic Growing Methods Part 1 Dutch Buckets

Fellow steemer @kus-knee replied in my post https://steemit.com/gardening/@jed78/hydroponic-produce-a-photo-essay saying I should post about my setup and production methods, so here we go.

I grow tomatoes in a climate controlled greenhouse using mainly the Dutch Bucket system, I do have a small lettuce growing setup using an NFT system(Nutrient Film Technique), but that is for another post. The greenhouse is around 12,000 square feet, it is heated with propane and during warmer months cooled using a wet wall or swamp cooler type setup and large fans. I have a concrete slab but many greenhouses just grow on a dirt floor.

The brains of the system is the fertilizer controller, it is a timed pump system that mixes concentrated nutrients into a dilution with water then pumps the diluted solution out to the plants. The controller I use is capable of controlling four zones where each zone is made up of four rows of bucket that are connected to a main drain line.

The nutrients are pumped thru piping until they get to the proper zone, then it is pumped out to tubes where low pressure emitters are fitted into the mail line and the solution is dripped into the bucket.

The buckets alternate on each side of the drain line and are connected to the drain with a small plastic fitting that creates a siphon effect and keeps enough nutrients in the bucket and allows drain off of excess water. When the plants are growing and the system is set up properly there is very little waste of nutrients since the plants are heavy feeders.

The growing medium we use is perlite, other mediums can be used such as pine bark mulch, coconut choir or expanded clay particles. The perlite doesn't add any nutrient value to the plants, but it does have good water holding and air exchange capabilities. It also allows for much better root growth.
The seedlings are then placed into the buckets , two plants per bucket.

At this point, it's a waiting game. I just planted these seedlings so that have a few weeks before I will need to string them so they will grow up off the ground. The variety in the photo is Geronimo, it is specifically bred for greenhouse use, it will grow approximately one foot per week once the roots get established, and over the lifetime of the plant, it can produce around thirty pounds of tomatoes. Some quick math sixty pounds of tomatoes and we can grow about 2800 plants, that should make around 84000 pounds of tomatoes. Now to be honest, we don't grow all Geronimo, we do about half the greenhouse in Heirloom tomatoes, they don't produce near as much as the hybrids, but that is the craze right now heirlooms like Cherokee Purple, Yellow Brandywine and Green Zebra. Me personally, i think the Geronimo taste better!

Anyway, in around eight or nine more weeks, we should have some tasty, ripe tomatoes to take to our local farmers markets!

Well that's the quick overview of the dutch bucket system, great for you large plants that need to grow for a while, you could also use the dutch buckets for cucumbers, bell peppers heck even marijiuana if that's your thing!

leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions, i'll try to get some more posts going here in a day or two, it is planting time though LOL