Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Dwarf varieties in 5 gal SWCs, South Florida

pecker88 · November 2, 2015

@kunosure: I wish I could help with the Iditarod Red, but since my last posting I can't even help my own plants LOL.

All of my New Big Dwarf 5 gal SWC's look like crap. Tall, minimal foliage, spindly and all the leaves dry (crispy) from the outside-in, from the bottom of the plant-up. The initial onset of it looks just like your Iditarod Red lower leaves.

My 5 gal. SWC's were all connected with tubing and I had a float and reservoir that kept the water level maintained in each bucket via gravity. Every other time I filled the source reservoir with 1/2 strength masterblend, cal. nitrate, mag. sulfate. My water was RO and always had a pH of 5.5.

To try and revive my sick plants I've:
-replaced soil in 3 of the SWC's with Raybo's 3:2:1 mix of pine bark fines, peat moss, perlite
- eliminated the fancy float/reservoir system, essentially turning the SWC's into regular (water from the top) containers
-flushed each plant with the outside hose for 20-30 mins, trying to eliminate salts or build-up of nutes
-only used plain water for the last month

Result:
Still crappy looking plants, esp. the New Big Dwarf. 4 plants that are 3-4 months old, tall, spindly, dried up looking leaves with maybe 2 tomatoes that are baseball sized, each of which has horrible BER.

Comparison:
Under the same 800w lights, I have 2 gal. nursery pots and fabric shopping bags, filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil and chicken manure that I only water once per week (maybe). What's funny is that these plants look 10x better. The habanero is loaded with peppers, and the Better Bush VFN Hybrid and Bush Beefsteak look awesome. All the foliage is dark green, all the buds on the hab. always turn to peppers. Their SWC counterparts drop 80% of the buds and the foliage is crispy. Wish I had NBD in regular soil (for comparison) so this was a true apples-to-apples comparison, but I think there is still something to be gained here.

Maybe NWB and Iditarod Red prefer soil, not soil-less medium?
Maybe I nuked my plants with too high nutrients?
Maybe my soil pH is totally out of whack?

Dont' know, but mine are getting dumped and replaced with high quality soil (FFOF) and new plants for round #2.

November 2, 2015	#42
pecker88 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Lincoln, NE Posts: 192	@kunosure: I wish I could help with the Iditarod Red, but since my last posting I can't even help my own plants LOL. All of my New Big Dwarf 5 gal SWC's look like crap. Tall, minimal foliage, spindly and all the leaves dry (crispy) from the outside-in, from the bottom of the plant-up. The initial onset of it looks just like your Iditarod Red lower leaves. My 5 gal. SWC's were all connected with tubing and I had a float and reservoir that kept the water level maintained in each bucket via gravity. Every other time I filled the source reservoir with 1/2 strength masterblend, cal. nitrate, mag. sulfate. My water was RO and always had a pH of 5.5. To try and revive my sick plants I've: -replaced soil in 3 of the SWC's with Raybo's 3:2:1 mix of pine bark fines, peat moss, perlite - eliminated the fancy float/reservoir system, essentially turning the SWC's into regular (water from the top) containers -flushed each plant with the outside hose for 20-30 mins, trying to eliminate salts or build-up of nutes -only used plain water for the last month Result: Still crappy looking plants, esp. the New Big Dwarf. 4 plants that are 3-4 months old, tall, spindly, dried up looking leaves with maybe 2 tomatoes that are baseball sized, each of which has horrible BER. Comparison: Under the same 800w lights, I have 2 gal. nursery pots and fabric shopping bags, filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil and chicken manure that I only water once per week (maybe). What's funny is that these plants look 10x better. The habanero is loaded with peppers, and the Better Bush VFN Hybrid and Bush Beefsteak look awesome. All the foliage is dark green, all the buds on the hab. always turn to peppers. Their SWC counterparts drop 80% of the buds and the foliage is crispy. Wish I had NBD in regular soil (for comparison) so this was a true apples-to-apples comparison, but I think there is still something to be gained here. Maybe NWB and Iditarod Red prefer soil, not soil-less medium? Maybe I nuked my plants with too high nutrients? Maybe my soil pH is totally out of whack? Dont' know, but mine are getting dumped and replaced with high quality soil (FFOF) and new plants for round #2. Last edited by pecker88; November 2, 2015 at 10:03 AM.