RE: Hydroponic greenhouse - some problems
Hi there costopher, what type of fertilizer are you using? I have some experience with hydro tomatoes and have encountered all the problems you are have, and then some! The droppings and damage certainly look like some type of caterpillar, check in the late evening and early morning for the culprit. If it doesn't go against your growing methods BT will take care of most of that. As for the cracking it looks like it is mostly on your cherry type tomatoes, they are notorious for cracking issues. Cherry tomatoes also ripen alot faster than other types so it may just be over ripeness if the other tomatoes aren't cracking. You may look at holding water overnight as well, transpiration slows way down without sunlight. As for blossom end rot @luey is correct calcium deficiency is the cause, but it can have other factors as well, soil ph etc. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions, I have an article on blossom end rot on my blog if you want to check it out. https://steemit.com/gardening/@jed78/blossom-end-rot-what-is-it-and-how-to-fix-it
Hey, thank you for the information, that post is really helpful, as it is @luey's. Going to have a good long scroll around your posts, seems like I'm going to do quite a bit of stealing some tips from there :D
I'm sure the fertiliser I'm using is not the best, it is the Miracle gro water soluble one. Initially I bought it as a stop gap measure until I find a better one around here but my plants seemed really healthy on it so I just kept using it.
My ph is 6.7, a bit high I know, it is basically the equilibrium my system reached; I was balancing it daily at the start trying to keep it lower but the swings were huge and the plants started to show signs of stress. (my tank's volume is about 80 litres)
Do you know how I could measure calcium levels, preferably without sending a sample somewhere. Or could I just add something to supplement it without worrying of an 'overdose' ?
I don't think you will be able to measure your calcium levels without lab testing. We used a custom fertilizer mix that was put together based on our water sample. It involved mixing specific amounts of each component Nitrogen, calcium etc. You want your solution to be slightly acidic so that looks good there, but that can also have an effect on uptake of nutrients. You might research mixing your own formula that way you won't be chasing your tail with the unknown formulation of the miracle grow fertilizer. Hope that helps
Heh, it never clicked in my head up to this moment, but I can easily get the data on my water composition (a friend has a brewery and we share the water supply) and I also have some of my brewing supplies for treating the water to get it to the right composition for beer so I'll just have to have a play with the numbers.
This was the first year I grew hydroponically and the plan was to mix my own, but then I needed something quickly and the miracle gro seemed to work so I just stuck with it. For the next season I will mix it myself.
Thank you!
Oh, I've just seen some of your farmer's market produce posts. Your stuff looks great!
Have a look at growing some lemon cucumbers and cucamelons, they really draw people's attention. I have some and they grow really well in my greenhouse. The cucamelon plants put hundreds of those little cucs.
wow...sounds complex and dounting for me. I aspire to one day have my own greenshouse and probably do hydroponic. But the "science" part of this is rather scary...not sure how I would get that right.