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Hey Everyone!
I am a recent university graduate from the Dallas area, and have an interest in gardening, both in soil and using hydroponic methods. However, the soil in my area is loaded with clay, which can make gardening in the ground quite difficult at times. My girlfriend and I recently purchased a home, and have put up a few raised beds earlier in the summer, as well as an 8x20 ft. greenhouse in the past few weeks.
I am not originally from Texas, and working with the Texas climate can also prove difficult. For instance, even though I was able to grow tomatoes in the early part of the summer, by mid-summer I could hardly get my tomatoes to pollinate, and even worse, the tomatoes that did pollinate and ripen ended up tasting pretty sour, and ended up with a hard texture. The past few weeks the weather has been perfect for tomatoes, and I have been much happier with my produce, as well as having exponentially more. Working with the climate in Texas seems to be the route to having the most successful harvest possible.
On to my hydroponics experience...
The first while I worked with hydroponics, I had little to no success at all. I started off with various varieties of lettuce in Rockwool growing material. Understanding when to flood and drain that material was one of the hardest things for me to learn, and unfortunately I was incredibly impatient which led to over-watering, root rot, extremely slowed growth, etc. However, after a few years of experience, I have gained enough knowledge to work with several mediums including rockwool, hydroton, and coco. However, I must state that my favorite, and most successful medium has been Hydroton, and for more than one reason. I have a couple of Hot Jalapeno (Ferry Morse Organic) plants that have been growing in Rockwool slabs for over a year now, and have provided me with hundreds of Jalapenos for the entire duration once the plants reached maturity. One difference noted between hydroponic and dirt peppers are that my hydroponic peppers are always much more crisp and thick-walled, despite being the same variety. I currently am going tomatoes in the same fashion, however the plants were started from clones of my original Super Sweet 100 vine. I have grown a number of other plants hydroponically as well, but have found that plants need to have extremely similar nutrient needs in order to be produced in the same bed. One example being that hot peppers seem to need a higher ppm of nutrient solution when compared to the hydroponic production of Bells. Learning the nutritional needs of different types of plants was one of my most difficult accomplishments.
I currently have 3 hydroponic systems, two of which are 44” long by 6” wide by 4” deep, and one of which is 2ft long by 2ft wide by 6.5” deep. Each system has its own re-circulating, constantly pumped water source in a 5 gallon bucket. Overflow plugs are used to control the depth to about 1/4 to 3/8” above the bottom of the rockwool, which supplies constant moisture to the roots. Each water supply is also aerated by an air pump. I have done Flood cycles as well with rockwool, approximately 3 times daily, however in my experience it does not seem to make much of a difference once the plants have established fully aquatic roots outside of the rockwool.
Dirt Gardening…
I have been doing container growing for quite a while, mainly due to not staying in the same place for more than a year at a time. My plants needed to be mobile, but I could never get the same results planting my vegetables in a pot versus planting them in a raised bed or in a hydroponic system. Sure, things grew well, but never became nearly as prolific as plants that were grown using other methods. I guess there is just something magical about actually sticking plants in the ground or in a hydroponic system. I put together two 4ft by 4ft raised beds, with a height of 16 inches on both of them. Over the summer, my eggplant produced quite a few fruits and turned in to a huge, beautiful plant. I also grew several tomato varieties (Yellow Pair, Sweet 100, Super Sioux), a few pepper varieties (Red carribean Habaneros, Ring-of-Fire Cayenne, Hatch, several types of bells, Cherry Peppers), cucumbers, as well as Chinese basil, and a small rosemary plant which was produced from a clone.
Aquaponics…
Aquaponics has really struck my interest over the past year or so, but as stated previously, I could never get to the point where I could have a setup because it would have to be moved periodically. Ultimately, I would like to change my hydroponic systems over to aquaponic systems for several reasons, such as a natural source of food for the plant, which ultimately the fruit of the plant will be consumed by myself or my girlfriend. Even though the (expensive) nutrients I use are supposed to be organic, it still does not feel as natural as plants cleaning up after the fish. Sustainability is another major reason why I am considering aquaponics.
Anyways, that is a basic intro to myself, and my garden experience.
Onward and Upward!
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Backyard Aquaponics
