Hydroponics info please

[Guest]

Basically I am looking at hydroponics for strawbs because if I grow them in the ground - mice eat them, if I grow them in baskets - vine weevil get them and if I grow in the greenhouse - I only get a taster.

I know BM started a thread a year or so ago but don't know what peoples experiences were in the end.

At the moment I am thinking a length of soil pipe with aquatic baskets and coir/ vermiculate/ clay pellets to support the plants in the basket, then comfrey/ tomato feed. I was not intending to pump it but it seems to be felt (when gurgling) that you should have at least an airstone (conflicting reasons why - some about oxygen supply, some about bacteria/algae issues) so I would have to have something solar . I am also wondering if water top ups are sufficient or would you need to do water changes

Any thoughts, tips, advice greatly appreciated as always

[AkionTotocha]

The airstone is for the roots to get air, algae grows in any water as long as it has light (even a fishtank that has an airstone will still grow algae).

I had a lot of success growing strawberries in guttering and soil last year. Out of 30 plants I was getting a medium cerial bowl of strawberries every 3-4 days on 1 year old plants. The problem was my electronic water timer ran out of batteries when I was on holiday for two weeks and they all died. I came back to brown little crispies.

You can have varying degrees of success with the different kinds of Hydroponic setup, from low-tech Kratky method (essentially a bucket where you fill the water so it's touching the baskets, and then after it drops keeping the water level at 1/2 the bucket. Not super successful with Strawberries but you can still get an acceptable crop) to vertical towers of PVC pipe with sprayers at the top. (I think this is the best method but the sprayers can get blocked) and the zig-zag closed pipe systems that need pumps.

I think the best method would be to have horizontal pipes with the baskets in the top that drain into a central bucket where the airstone and pump are kept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgT0GPxBvkI (This dude has some good ideas when it comes to hydroponics but he also posts his political views on his channel about US politics and GM crops, so just watch out if you're not looking for that)

That video is for lettuce but the same principles exist for a strawberry setup. FWIW you can mount these one over the other if horizontal space is limited, with one rail draining into the one underneath. The downside is the strawberries underneath won't have access to as many nutrients as the ones above. You can counter that by using "fussy" strawberries above and poor-soil tolerant strawberries underneath.

You also need to use hydroponic solutions for nutrients. Epsom salts help to a certain extent but true hydroponic solutions have trace nutrients that are essential for plant growth. (Magnesium, iron, calcium etc.) You start with a leaf growth formula and move to a fruit and flower mix later in the season.

You might want to consider Kratky, as technically you don't need an airstone for this method, though strawberry yields would improve with one.

Finally: with the exception of the kratky method, all hydroponic systems are life-support systems. On a hot day a sprayer system that fails can cause total plant death in an hour or less. The lettuce rails is less than a day, kratky method is a few hours to a few months (if the bucket gets a hole vs you go awol and don't look at them again) but all hydroponics systems will result in plant death if they fail. Faster than hanging baskets or pots. If a pump fails, if the system develops a leak, if a tube gets knocked over etc. they will die. They can be set up for as little as £10-£20, or as much as £100+. My non-hydroponic system was £60 to set up with plants and failed because of two AAA batteries. I need to replace the strawberry plants and ensure that I change batteries before I go on holiday. It was my mistake, and those plants died because of it. They were highly productive before that though, but I didn't get £60 of strawberries from them. A cheaper system would give a higher ROI than mine over a shorter time.

[the big lebowski]

not sure i understand what sort of setup your talking about ,you can have netpots above the water level and have the roots going down into it without a pump / airstone and it will work just not aswell as with an airstone ,i guessing that your going to be doing this up your plot ? will the same animals not just eat the strawberrys like they have before ? not sure about the feed in theory i would say it would work but im not sure ,i have to change the water in my res every 2 weeks as the plants take out what they need and the ph goes all over the place so you`ll have to find a way of keeping an eye on that (i use a ph meter and ph up and down ) i have pics of my set up in the chilli grow thread if you want to see (page 42 ) ,any other questions just ask ,cheers

[Guest]

I wasn't sure it would really help with vine weevils it was just a thought. By the sounds of it it is a project for next year and my research project for over winter.

Thanks for your help.

[the big lebowski]

its worth looking into ,the growth rate is bonkers my chilli plant is now two foot tall and is looking really healthy the othe one is looking really stocky im hoping to get a good yield of chillis from them (i`ll put some more pics up this week ) im sure strawberrys would do well in a hydro set up as the are pretty tough ,cheers

[flynch]

https://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=...?v=aJorITEWCWk

https://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=...?v=3zPKvKGPBPM

[veggiechicken]

^^^ Not sure what your links are going to, flynch?

[Kirk]

What is the expected advantage of hydroponics over growing in the greenhouse?
Simply that hydroponics is intended for under cover growing anyway - is the idea to have a hydroponic setup in the house?

[Guest]

^^^Hydroponics is meant to give vastly improved quantities. As far as I am aware it should be relevant regardless of whether they are inside or out.

I was just hoping it would help on the pest side but I think that is more a growing medium experiment

[the big lebowski]

the main benifits are the plant grows quicker,larger and stronger ,if you get a mo pop on to you tube and type in "khang star hydroponics vs soil experiment- 6 weeks comparison" cheers

[WalterWhite]

Hydroponics and artificial lighting enables the plant to grow to its genetic peak potential.