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Old June 1, 2013   #10
SIP Gro-Tubs
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: May 2013
Location: Natalia, TX
Posts: 143
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jmichaelp View Post
Terry, thanks for sharing your design! My Dad had suggested coroplast, so it looks like that was good advice.

In single container buckets, have you experienced any problems due to the area available for deep rooted plants such as a tomato? I've started out with the two bucket design to provide the most depth for roots but would love to move to a single bucket design.
First, Tomato's are not deep rooted. Commercial growers grow 3 Indeterminates with vines over 150' 10 months of the year, in a rockwool slab 3" tall, 6" wide, by 36" long. That less than 1 gl of media per plant. And that media is inert, NO Peatmoss, NO Compost, NO Perlite, Its similar to the insulation used in home construction, made by heating balsalt type of rocks, and the molten mass spun like cottoncandy to form a mat.

Deep rooted plants, such as 12" carrots, parsnips, horseradish will have a very hard time if the media is saturated with water.

You need to study the basic principles for growing in a hydroponic wick system.

1. A continous source of fresh clean water.
2. A media with the correct amount of nutrients available as the plant needs them.

Thats it. So now you are scratching your head and thinking I'm crazy, nuts, cuckoo, or what ever.

There is mention of wick hydroponics in the Bible, the Egytians use it even today. It's very prevalent in SE Asia, and the ancient Mayan's, Aztec's used the same principles to grow food.

When I grew vegetables in my Cedar Gro-Box's the resevoirs were 6" deep, but the media mix was only 5" deep.

In a Gro-Box 12" x 18", that's the clear measure of the inside top, inside of the top trim. 1.5 sq/ft. I was able to grow 5 herbs, or 2 tomato's plants.

Terry Layman

Last edited by SIP Gro-Tubs; June 1, 2013 at 03:50 PM.
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