Growing medium

[Bugger]

I´m making sort of an passive hydro flower pots. There is a ten litres waterspace in the bottom of the pot, separated from the media by a plastic wall. The growing media side holds 20 litres of soil. The reason for this is, that I hope I can leave the plants alone for a little longer periods without the water running out.

My intention is to make a hole in the middle of the separating plastic, and put a sock filled with the media hanging in the water thru the hole, so that the capillarity raises the water to the growing media.

I just cant decide what kind of media should I use for this. Should it be just something peat based, or pure expanded clay perhaps? There will be atleast 40 of these pots, so the price of the media has it´s importance also..

If somebody has some structural changes or suggestions regarding the pots, those would also be appreciated. This is my first time growing anything, so I´m quite lost here...

[Fatalii]

I would recommend expanded clay, vulcaponic etc.

Has worked perfectly with passive hydros.

[Bugger]

Using the expanded clay, would it be wiser to just put lid over the pot, and make a hole for 6 litres netpot? That would use much less clay and allow for even more water. I´m making these from old glue containers, they have watertight lids, so this would be very easy to make.

Without anykind of airpumps or watercirculation, how often should the water be changed, and should there be somekind of additives like peroxide etc, or should it be treated just like a normal hydro system? I´m using BioBizz fertilizers, if that has any effect on this.

Thanks for the fast advise, much appreciated! 

[CyberDog]

My ques is that the roots wont get enough air on that way...

[Bugger]

What way would that be, using that kind of pots, using them with the clay or using them with netpots and less clay? Making over 40 bubblers seems a bit too much at the moment.. 

[CyberDog]

The last way you were thinking. But it's just a ques. I'm not at very good with hydros. My last attempt with passive hydros was total failure.

[Fatalii]

Passive hydros can give amazing results with proper fertilizer is used for that, meaning passive hydro, slow-release ferts, heres what I use:
http://www.viherpeukku.fi/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=94_134&products_id=536

The results I got with it:




Use Biobizz fertilizers with soil (preferably peat-type).
Biobizz is based on enriching the micro-organisms in soil.
With passive hyro or any other hydro the solution will just rot and stink a LOT!
Except for topmax which can be used with hydros too.

Hope it helps!

[Bugger]

Wow! That looks amazing! I hope I won´t get quite so much yield, with close to a hundred chiles that would be a bit too much...   

Seriously, it´s good You warned me about the fertilisers. Plants are growing in peat for now, but about half of them will be repottet in these glue containers, and moved outside, the rest will go into a greenhouse, to grow in peat. I would´ve killed half of my plants right away with the BioBizz! Huh..close call.

So what is Your opinion on how many litres of expanded clay the plants need on this kind of setup, or is it even significant if the roots can grow into the waterspace? I´d sure like to get your opinion also, before I start cutting the containers..

[lee]

Wow! That looks amazing! I hope I won´t get quite so much yield, with close to a hundred chiles that would be a bit too much...   

What , I think the goal is to get as much chilli's as possible, I only wished to get that much yield as Fatalii does, again and again 

[Bugger]

That would be a nice problem to have, I admit that much. My main goal is to produce one pod this summer, everything above that is yield beyond expectations! Seriously, this is my first year growing chiles, and it´s suppossed to be just learning and building the needed gear, next summer the main goal should be good yield. But sure, I wouldn´t mind getting something to harvest right away!

[Bugger]

I decided to go with the 20 litres of expanded clay in the pots, and 10 litres of waterspace. Since it will take approximately 900 litres of the expanded clay, I ordered 1000 litres of Leca brand, 8-20mm grain size. That costs a little over 100 euros, much less that the better quality brands, with prices up to 1.5 euros per litre!

I expect there to be more washing, and some difficulties with the Ph values, but with these quantities the price was what mattered the most. If somebody has any advise for these, it would be more than welcome.

Can´t wait to see how this goes, the whole thing of growing without soil seems so strange! At the moment I have 144 chiles under fluorecent tubes, and about 20 tomatoes on the window shell, all are doing fine. Several chiles are beginning to produce flowers already, but I will probably cut them of, they need to put up more size still. I feel quite confident, that one of these plants is capable of producing the pod I need to achieve my goals for the year! 

[Fatalii]

With all that effort, you can really expect to get a nice yield, even if the summer would be totally shitty and you would get only few pods per each plant... even then the harvest would be great!

[Bugger]

Well, there should be something to taste at the end of the season, if nothing serious happens. But still, this is mainly just about learning, next year should be more of an serious attempt to get a good yield.

There are lots of things I´d do differently already, from the choise of the species. Now I have lot´s of annuums growing, and there might be somesort of bugwar waiting for me in the summer...

The whole schedule also got setback for six weeks, due to a too acidic germinating soil(peat). Most of the germinated seed just died quite soon, and the one that didn´t, didn´t start growing any leaves or size. It took me a while to realize there was something wrong, but the Ph was somewhere below 5... Once I changed the media to a mix specially made for seedlings, plants started growing fine. This also made me interested in hydroponics...

Anyway, thanks for helping, without that, there would have been some stinking pots on my backyard, and very unhappy neighbours!    Though I´m sure this is not the only thing I need help with, the next disaster might be lurking somewhere allready....

[talas]

Bugger i think you will have a great yield,i also tried a Red savina last year just with Perlite and it worked really well,but as Fatalii says its best to use a fert based for hydros,Biobizz is great for soil and coir but not for your needs..Just add your fert at minimal level to start and see how it progresses overtime 

[Bugger]

I´ll try the Blusana fertiliser Fatalii used, the pictures were very assuring! Apparently one can´t even overdose with that, it uses somesort of an ionexchange thing...don´t know how it works, but sure sounds good!  And one dose will last 3-4 months! 

2-3 weeks, and I´ll get the plants out for good, I hope. Atleast the ones going to greenhouses will be planted in the middle of the month, so the rest get a little more space on the shells. It´s getting quite growded, a regular sea of green! 

I´ve made almost all of the pots now, but there is one thing I need help with.. Would it be better to give the roots access to the watercontainer, or is that a bad thing? Or does it even matter? I might drill small holes to the partition, so the roots may grow to the water, if it helps growing, or will it cause root rot? And if I drill the holes, should I use something like peroxide to prevent the roots from rotting?

I also made a couple of upside down pots, where the plant grows thru a hole in the bottom of the pot. They are supposed to give better yields that way. True or not, but it looks funny enough, so I have to try it! My pots are made for 3 and 4 plants, 20l. pots. 2 tomatoes and 2 chiles in one, and 3 tomatoes in the other. At least I won´t have to support them, if no other benefits will be gained?

[Fatalii]

My passive hydros have a holes on the bottom so the roots can grow to water container below, doesn't seem to do any harm.

The water level meter shows the optimum level of the water which is the most important thing here.
If you keep it nicely leveled, the plant will grow very nicely!

[CyberDog]

I think that I had an overdose with Blusana Levavit. So be careful at beginning whit it.

[Bugger]

I got the expanded clay a couple of days ago. Mixed with water, it raised the water Ph from around 7.5 to app. 8.5, and it was also extremely dusty. To clean it up atleast a bit, and to lower the Ph, I filled two 90 litres containers halfway with water, and lowered the Ph to 5 with fosforic acid. I filled the containers with the clay, leaving room for stirring, and let the mix soak for a while, then stirred it to get the dust of.

I put 50ml of blusana fertiliser and 2ml of dolomitic limestone to the waterspace of the flowerpots I made, and then lifted the Leca clay to the pots with a net, and test planted three chiles. (I washed soil of the roots in a waterbucket). With the plants in place, I poured water (with Ph set to 5 with the acid) thru the clay and filled the waterspace.

I expected somesort of negative reaction from the plants, given the brutal treatment, but to my suprice the plants never folded a single leaf!?! After to days in the new pots, they are perfectly healty and good looking.

When I planted them to the clay, it felt stupid, I was sure that this won`t work, growing plants in a harsh grawel... Looks like it works anyway, and works well!!! And as an added bonus, the pots are so light compared to ones filled with soil, I can easily carry one in both hands, full of water!

The Ph is still a bit up in the pots, 7 now, but I keep adding water with Ph around 5, untill I get it set to 6. I suppose it´s the limestone that keeps it up now for the most part. The plants look so good, that there is no immidiate need to get it lowered. Next project is to make waterlevel meters to the pots, they make my life even more easier.

If I get a camera somewhere, I might put some pictures of the pots here... Anyway, thank you all for helping, it has truly been invaluable!

[CyberDog]

Yeah. The limestone buffers it quite a lot. Did you wash the gravel well enough to get all the dust away?

[Bugger]

Most of it anyway. Since I´m not using any pumps, it didn´t seem that important.