Appreciate your video very well done sir. I like the 4" pipe looks like u used schedule 40 I believe which is what you actual want to use, no soft vinyl's like rain gutters and so forth as much mal information from someone years ago that did a water test using the plastic gutters and stated it was all good but water test wasn't done correctly over duration of time unfortunately. So like your setup but would only put maybe 8 to 10 holes across and use 4 inch net cups and this will avoid over use of space. You are using the correct and best method for propagating the berries its what I do as well. Now when strawberries are all flowered and making fruit all the energy of the plant needs to go I to the berries so cut your runners of during g this period, when they stop flowering or you trim that off you can then allow for runners again . Tomatoes, the 4" pipe is great for starting tomatoes plants and. creating a nice root system then transplant the tomatoes plant into a deep water culture system which has no need for a pump but may consider a bubbler for it. Tomatoes roots clog up even 4" pipe. Also it takes trial and etc to get water level correct in your pipe system so it will reach high enough for your netcups. The wick method rarely works and not 100% dependable two better to try different size pumps Tim you get one that brings your water level up where you need it to be. Trimming and pruning your tomatoes will increase your yields at least once or twice per week pruning. Green pepper plants can work in 4" pipe but can cause cloth in system like tomatoes so keep eye on them. Also can trim old leads off strawberries and etc. I really like that you used schedule 40 water pipe to avoid any breakdown that can occur from fertilizers and so forth from a chemical engineering perspective this is correct, again no soft vinyl materials.Lastly always safest bet to use a 55gallon or 30 gallon water water barrel rated for that. Always use food graded glues to connect pipes together as well. Blessings and really really well put together video you really narrate and speak well through out much better then most.
Old Tee shirt, jeans or even a cut up paper towel make a good wicking took to bring the water up. I use paper towel and it does not fall apart. I have also cut up old T-shirts. These are great because they are flat and fit into the net cups.
yes strawberries in hydroponics do tend to have slight more tart acid first flavor because they produce more of concentration of citric acid and malic acid along with ascorbic acid in balance with the sweetness affect perceived flavor what we taste as a strawberry flavor itself and in the tartness of the berry but a balanced berry needs 6 to 9 times by weight of the acid content also bit the end near stem then at tip last and your mouth registers the last sweeter flavor go the other way growing tip then near stem where it tends to have less sugar you register the tarter tone
Great videos, thanks for sharing. Any idea what your PPFD light readings are? I'm reading that the saturation point for strawberries is around 450 umol/m^2. They will grow well in 200, but that's still very bright. I just ordered some higher power LEDs for my own setup.
Use plug trays for propagation, that way you get the roots long enough. When planting to tube system, get deeper net pots, they exist, check aliexpress. Fiber cloth used for row cover work ok as a wicking material, in a pinch I've wrapped the net pot with fiber cloth and stuck it in the hole.
I usto grow pot in airo flow thier is a design that shoots water into the stream via a small one inch tube on top next to pot net they are called laser line but the stream comes out via a drilled hole about 1/8 or 1/16 about 4 inches away from the net pot down into the stream it creates air flow into the water boosting oxygen in water thus the root zone but you will need a chiller with will hold the oxygen way better in the water bellow also splashing a bit of small water particles up towards the rock wool. The chiller also comes in handy because it helps keep the temps down so you won't get pythium as easy but my biggest problem was the pythuim I ran that airo for years multiple systems our clinic won 5 trophies in the first year in Southern California, they sell accessories like the fog ponics I dont know if they still make it or a version but it submerged in the tubes it creates a small mist of vapors that travel though your tube and create alot of small hair like roots I dont remember the name of them but thats another way to get water and nutrients to the top, and if you crazzy enough oxygen tank set on a timer like a CO2 timer with a bubbler into the water and the chiller must be incorporated, but this has to be seconds not to long oxygen is highly explosive if thier is static or sparing machinery so extremely high alerts 🚨but they sell a second of a minute timer with the chiller you'll see crazzy root production after every round those tubes are jammed with roots completely.. Also try a timer with CO2, I usto make my own manifolds and tweeted the areo flow we ran I love that thing thinking of doing it again but with veggies good luck.. ow ya that avi pic I have on the left Conner pic. I have I made that dome and put it in the Shop that was fun swell
This is awesome!! One suggestion I have or that I see different from your NFT system and mine is your ends don’t seem to have “reducers” or perhaps your pipes are just much larger then mine because when I run my system the water fills to the top of the cups and if it’s not seated perfectly with one end slightly higher it can leak when the roots get too large. I’m sure I could do that runner in mine and not have any trouble with the new shoot being in water constantly, I also run my NFT system 18-20hrs a day. So another method I thought you could easily do with the runners instead of putting them into net ups could u put the sponge and runner into a small sandwich bag with a clamp around it to keep it closed and held together and then it can just hang from the mother plant until it establishes roots and then once it has you could separate it from the mother plant?? Also the part you mentioned about runners seem to stop when the flowering begins doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve noticed a similar cycle with my sweet pepper plants. They seem to first go into a cycle of growing loads of green and then that will stop and they will then seem to put on all kinds of flowers and some will turn into peppers and some don’t, I try to tickle them all, but despite that a lot actually don’t turn in to peppers but then it seems to go into a cycle of just growing peppers and during that time they require a lot more water to drink and I think that could be what is negatively effecting the size of your strawberries they may simply not be getting quite enough water. Anyway then after the peppers finish ripening on the vine up until I pick the very last one the plant is almost in a dormant stage and then immediately after cutting off that last one the plant goes into overdrive producing sooo much greenery again it’s crazy....I believe in heavily pruning my pepper plants because they don’t need all of those leaves when growing indoors the same way they would if they were outside and would lose leaves because of wind and rain and predators so I cut them quite extensively especially after they have flowered and are starting to grow the peppers and in this way they can put all their energies into growing peppers. So I don’t know about strawberry plants but perhaps it’s the same especially with the older plants. One thing to also consider doing is cutting the roots on the older plants because plants Can become root bound in hydroponic systems if they don’t have enough room to grow and my philosophy is if I can’t easily pull them out of the place I’m storing them then the roots are too large. So the time I cut roots is at the end of the production cycle because just like they are putting new leaves on the top of the plant they are also putting on additional roots below, I’m also a believer that roots don’t like net cups and in fact I hate the things especially if you’ve ever tried to transplant something out of a net cup into a larger system it can take an awful long time to cut away that net cup and in the process you do end up damaging a lot of the main root structures. I believe in just letting plants stand up on their own whether in an NFT system or a DWC I just stick the plant in without any cubes or anything and then I hold them in with wrapping tin foil collars around them and it will help them to establish themselves in the new system and will keep them from drowning. Then once they are used to the system you will find they don’t rely on the tin foil collar so much. Now I do put my lettuce in sponges and in these open plastic frames that just hold the sponges but nothing else and they don’t restrict the roots from growing at all. I believe roots help the plant to determine how large it’s going to get. Anyway it’s been my experience to do. I’m totally new to gardening and hydroponics but I’ve been having some wonderful results with peppers and lettuce. I’m also growing cucumbers and tomatoes. But not each system is suitable for each type of veggie. I’ve found tomatoes and green peppers and cucumbers all do better in their own DWC, while lettuce and leafy greens do exceptionally well in the NFT system. A “reducer” is just an end on the pipe that restricts water from flowing out of the pipe it forces it to always have a certain level of water in the system whether it’s running or not. So it will continually run to that point but if the system is slower due to roots and if the system isn’t well balanced it can cause water to go up and over the top of the holes in the system. So please be careful with those large strawberry plants because if you haven’t trimmed the roots you could end up with a flood situation where the water won’t go beyond that large plant and will just begin spilling over. A lot of people have never considered that it can happen and then they find out in the worst way. So better to know in advance. If you need me to take a photo of what the reducer part looks like it may have another technical name it’s just what I’ve called it. Happy growing!! Juicy strawberries 🍓 yummy!!🙏🏻🥰🇨🇦
Lots of good insight here! Thanks! I have been planning to put in more reducers at the end of each horizontal run, you have convinced me to just do it. Lettuce is super easy in an NFT, I did so many things wrong, but it still worked fine. I will try trimming my roots, and will play around with net cup alternatives. Good luck with your tomatoes, I will never do them again indoors in my NFT system :) Way too much work. Thanks again for the thoughtful comment!
@@driftlessinwi oh that’s awesome!! Yes reducers will allow you to keep so much more water in the NFT system and you won’t have any issues with the roots reaching the water. Oh I won’t be doing my tomatoes in the NFT I’m doing those in a DWC. This is my second time around for the tomatoes my first experience was doing great until I decided to move them to lower them ti the floor because I had them sitting up on a table and I had a cotton trellis against the window and what I failed to realize was just how much the tomato plant was utilizing the cotton trellis. As we started moving the tomato plant down we ended up having to cut it out of the cotton trellis and then we were holding on to the entire plant and it must’ve weighed ten pounds it was sooo heavy so the cotton trellis didn’t quite reach long enough so we tried putting a metal tomato trellis upside down for the tomato plant to be able to hold on to but the plant we couldn’t fit into it so I started cutting leaves off the tomato plant because we were getting desperate and hubby’s arms were beginning to ache after trying to hold this entire plant well needless to say we had the cage almost on and I went to cut one more branch and it had become somewhat twisted and then I cut it and we realized I had cut the entire tomato plant so that was the end of my plant. We ended up pitching the whole thing. I didn’t know what to do, I never thought of trying to take some cuttings from it. Anyway I’m beginning to start more tomato plants and I have several tomato plants on the go, I have 5 gallon buckets for them so I’ll be setting them up and hopefully with all our efforts we will get some delicious tomatoes!! Lol! My pepper plants are like a forest but I’m getting all kinds of delicious sweet peppers and I’m doing them all in DWC.
Hey friend. I saw a strawberry grower say stick a piece of runner(with baby plant) into the water(kratky) like a flower stem. If it works, might make propagating easier for ya.
Good question, I am by no means an expert, but soil is probably best if you can carry enough down in your basement. For me , I have an old basement with steep narrow stairs, and it would make moving a lot of soil down there difficult. I am really liking strawberries and lettuce in hydroponic. I had similar issues with my lettuce, but I had many harvests in before it took over, and the plants were almost done anyway. I do like the ability to move plants around in a hydroponic system, and they can always be planted in soil later. I haven't had many issues with my strawberries, except a spider mite infestation. When I move to new house I want to make an inground greenhouse and use soil, so hopefully I learn something from that. Will share if I do. Thanks!
@@driftlessinwi Thanks, would love to see an update on your strawberries! I am going to try a water chiller and oxygenator next. People say that helps reduce pythium.
@@QuantumSecureCrypto you need a chiller and you got to go sterile no organic nutrients and clean your setup after every round with bleach or vinegar the chiller and sterile nutrients will keep you good you can cut out the roots most of them and finish the round but its comes down to real science you gota be on your A game.
I still have roughly 40 strawberry plants, and get 1-2 pints of strawberries a week. Berry production has slowed and I lost several plants because the lights were left on (instead of on timer) for a few weeks, and I have also been battling spider mites which seem to come back every week or two if I don't keep treating the plants. I have noticed that the spider mites love fruit plants and make it very difficult to keep fruit plants indoors unless you treat them with Neem oil and an insecticide. We are moving to a different house this year and I plan to transplant my remaining strawberry plants to an outdoor soil location at new homesite. My hydroponic system will be taken down and moved in the process and I still need to figure out what plants are next and whether or not I will set it up in the new house, or build a dedicated green house :) Thanks for the comment!
@@driftlessinwi Awesome update. You love growing so much and are so handy, a greenhouse is the ultimate reward. Will you confirm that you are using 3" PVC with 2" holes for netcups? I have a solution that solves both the expense of netcups/rockwool and the difficulty of rooting daughter plants in situ.
Thanks! 4" pvc is what I use with 2" holes. I do reuse net cups. If you figure out a rockwool alternative please share. I haven't tried anything else yet.
@@driftlessinwi ok perfect. I use 2" holes in 4" wide (3" deep) vinyl downspouts- about the same internal cross sec area. Pool noodles are the way to go. If not avail at Walmart, online is next cheapest. I cut 1.5" wide rings, which fits snugly in the 2" holes. To add plants, I cut a slit to open up the rings. Easy to take plants in and out of the noodle ring as needed. If the plant is a bit too small to fit in the hole of the noodle ring, I cut off a small sector of an empty noodle ring and pad it next to the plant. You really want the plant to sit high on the noodle ring so that new growth emerges fairly easily from the crown. Now for the runners -- I leave them attached to mother plant. I use a 3-4" high strip of quality paper towel. I wrap the runner from its crown down, sufficiently snug so that the runner does not slip down the hole of the noodle ring. The paper towel wicks up moisture and blocks out light, promoting root growth on the runners. You put that in an adjacent grow hole. Seeing that some of your 40 plants have died, you should have vacant holes. Snip runners once roots have grown. Check this out... I even tried this on a runner that came from soil grown plant. It had brown bumps at bottom of the crown where roots would emerge. So I tried the worst case scenario - when runners are detached prematurely from mother plant. I put this also with paper towels in a noodle ring. The runner is near death, but hanging in there barely after 4 days. My prediction is that it will grow sufficient roots in time to come back to life. It's a 50/50 chance for the worst case scenario. I have another detached runner that already has 1" of root, but not long enough to reach the bottom of NFT. It is doing well and has no signs of dying back. Just options for you, buddy, but clearly you want to keep runners attached to mother plant while promoting its root growth in an adjacent grow hole. Happy growing!
Appreciate your video very well done sir. I like the 4" pipe looks like u used schedule 40 I believe which is what you actual want to use, no soft vinyl's like rain gutters and so forth as much mal information from someone years ago that did a water test using the plastic gutters and stated it was all good but water test wasn't done correctly over duration of time unfortunately. So like your setup but would only put maybe 8 to 10 holes across and use 4 inch net cups and this will avoid over use of space. You are using the correct and best method for propagating the berries its what I do as well. Now when strawberries are all flowered and making fruit all the energy of the plant needs to go I to the berries so cut your runners of during g this period, when they stop flowering or you trim that off you can then allow for runners again . Tomatoes, the 4" pipe is great for starting tomatoes plants and. creating a nice root system then transplant the tomatoes plant into a deep water culture system which has no need for a pump but may consider a bubbler for it. Tomatoes roots clog up even 4" pipe. Also it takes trial and etc to get water level correct in your pipe system so it will reach high enough for your netcups. The wick method rarely works and not 100% dependable two better to try different size pumps Tim you get one that brings your water level up where you need it to be. Trimming and pruning your tomatoes will increase your yields at least once or twice per week pruning. Green pepper plants can work in 4" pipe but can cause cloth in system like tomatoes so keep eye on them. Also can trim old leads off strawberries and etc. I really like that you used schedule 40 water pipe to avoid any breakdown that can occur from fertilizers and so forth from a chemical engineering perspective this is correct, again no soft vinyl materials.Lastly always safest bet to use a 55gallon or 30 gallon water water barrel rated for that. Always use food graded glues to connect pipes together as well. Blessings and really really well put together video you really narrate and speak well through out much better then most.
Put a fan on your system to help with pollination
Appreciate you taking the time to document and share this approach. Hoping for more videos like this. It was gula. :)
Old Tee shirt, jeans or even a cut up paper towel make a good wicking took to bring the water up. I use paper towel and it does not fall apart. I have also cut up old T-shirts. These are great because they are flat and fit into the net cups.
Thanks for the tips! I will try them out. Strawberries are doing great, but getting the roots to develop in new plants is the biggest challenge.
yes strawberries in hydroponics do tend to have slight more tart acid first flavor because they produce more of concentration of citric acid and malic acid along with ascorbic acid in balance with the sweetness affect perceived flavor what we taste as a strawberry flavor itself and in the tartness of the berry but a balanced berry needs 6 to 9 times by weight of the acid content also bit the end near stem then at tip last and your mouth registers the last sweeter flavor go the other way growing tip then near stem where it tends to have less sugar you register the tarter tone
Great videos, thanks for sharing. Any idea what your PPFD light readings are? I'm reading that the saturation point for strawberries is around 450 umol/m^2. They will grow well in 200, but that's still very bright. I just ordered some higher power LEDs for my own setup.
Use plug trays for propagation, that way you get the roots long enough.
When planting to tube system, get deeper net pots, they exist, check aliexpress.
Fiber cloth used for row cover work ok as a wicking material, in a pinch I've wrapped the net pot with fiber cloth and stuck it in the hole.
Great advice, thanks!
Great tips!
I usto grow pot in airo flow thier is a design that shoots water into the stream via a small one inch tube on top next to pot net they are called laser line but the stream comes out via a drilled hole about 1/8 or 1/16 about 4 inches away from the net pot down into the stream it creates air flow into the water boosting oxygen in water thus the root zone but you will need a chiller with will hold the oxygen way better in the water bellow also splashing a bit of small water particles up towards the rock wool. The chiller also comes in handy because it helps keep the temps down so you won't get pythium as easy but my biggest problem was the pythuim I ran that airo for years multiple systems our clinic won 5 trophies in the first year in Southern California, they sell accessories like the fog ponics I dont know if they still make it or a version but it submerged in the tubes it creates a small mist of vapors that travel though your tube and create alot of small hair like roots I dont remember the name of them but thats another way to get water and nutrients to the top, and if you crazzy enough oxygen tank set on a timer like a CO2 timer with a bubbler into the water and the chiller must be incorporated, but this has to be seconds not to long oxygen is highly explosive if thier is static or sparing machinery so extremely high alerts 🚨but they sell a second of a minute timer with the chiller you'll see crazzy root production after every round those tubes are jammed with roots completely.. Also try a timer with CO2, I usto make my own manifolds and tweeted the areo flow we ran I love that thing thinking of doing it again but with veggies good luck.. ow ya that avi pic I have on the left Conner pic. I have I made that dome and put it in the Shop that was fun swell
This is awesome!! One suggestion I have or that I see different from your NFT system and mine is your ends don’t seem to have “reducers” or perhaps your pipes are just much larger then mine because when I run my system the water fills to the top of the cups and if it’s not seated perfectly with one end slightly higher it can leak when the roots get too large. I’m sure I could do that runner in mine and not have any trouble with the new shoot being in water constantly, I also run my NFT system 18-20hrs a day. So another method I thought you could easily do with the runners instead of putting them into net ups could u put the sponge and runner into a small sandwich bag with a clamp around it to keep it closed and held together and then it can just hang from the mother plant until it establishes roots and then once it has you could separate it from the mother plant??
Also the part you mentioned about runners seem to stop when the flowering begins doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve noticed a similar cycle with my sweet pepper plants. They seem to first go into a cycle of growing loads of green and then that will stop and they will then seem to put on all kinds of flowers and some will turn into peppers and some don’t, I try to tickle them all, but despite that a lot actually don’t turn in to peppers but then it seems to go into a cycle of just growing peppers and during that time they require a lot more water to drink and I think that could be what is negatively effecting the size of your strawberries they may simply not be getting quite enough water. Anyway then after the peppers finish ripening on the vine up until I pick the very last one the plant is almost in a dormant stage and then immediately after cutting off that last one the plant goes into overdrive producing sooo much greenery again it’s crazy....I believe in heavily pruning my pepper plants because they don’t need all of those leaves when growing indoors the same way they would if they were outside and would lose leaves because of wind and rain and predators so I cut them quite extensively especially after they have flowered and are starting to grow the peppers and in this way they can put all their energies into growing peppers. So I don’t know about strawberry plants but perhaps it’s the same especially with the older plants. One thing to also consider doing is cutting the roots on the older plants because plants
Can become root bound in hydroponic systems if they don’t have enough room to grow and my philosophy is if I can’t easily pull them out of the place I’m storing them then the roots are too large. So the time I cut roots is at the end of the production cycle because just like they are putting new leaves on the top of the plant they are also putting on additional roots below, I’m also a believer that roots don’t like net cups and in fact I hate the things especially if you’ve ever tried to transplant something out of a net cup into a larger system it can take an awful long time to cut away that net cup and in the process you do end up damaging a lot of the main root structures. I believe in just letting plants stand up on their own whether in an NFT system or a DWC I just stick the plant in without any cubes or anything and then I hold them in with wrapping tin foil collars around them and it will help them to establish themselves in the new system and will keep them from drowning. Then once they are used to the system you will find they don’t rely on the tin foil collar so much. Now I do put my lettuce in sponges and in these open plastic frames that just hold the sponges but nothing else and they don’t restrict the roots from growing at all. I believe roots help the plant to determine how large it’s going to get. Anyway it’s been my experience to do. I’m totally new to gardening and hydroponics but I’ve been having some wonderful results with peppers and lettuce. I’m also growing cucumbers and tomatoes. But not each system is suitable for each type of veggie. I’ve found tomatoes and green peppers and cucumbers all do better in their own DWC, while lettuce and leafy greens do exceptionally well in the NFT system.
A “reducer” is just an end on the pipe that restricts water from flowing out of the pipe it forces it to always have a certain level of water in the system whether it’s running or not. So it will continually run to that point but if the system is slower due to roots and if the system isn’t well balanced it can cause water to go up and over the top of the holes in the system. So please be careful with those large strawberry plants because if you haven’t trimmed the roots you could end up with a flood situation where the water won’t go beyond that large plant and will just begin spilling over. A lot of people have never considered that it can happen and then they find out in the worst way. So better to know in advance. If you need me to take a photo of what the reducer part looks like it may have another technical name it’s just what I’ve called it.
Happy growing!! Juicy strawberries 🍓 yummy!!🙏🏻🥰🇨🇦
Lots of good insight here! Thanks! I have been planning to put in more reducers at the end of each horizontal run, you have convinced me to just do it. Lettuce is super easy in an NFT, I did so many things wrong, but it still worked fine. I will try trimming my roots, and will play around with net cup alternatives. Good luck with your tomatoes, I will never do them again indoors in my NFT system :) Way too much work. Thanks again for the thoughtful comment!
@@driftlessinwi oh that’s awesome!! Yes reducers will allow you to keep so much more water in the NFT system and you won’t have any issues with the roots reaching the water.
Oh I won’t be doing my tomatoes in the NFT I’m doing those in a DWC. This is my second time around for the tomatoes my first experience was doing great until I decided to move them to lower them ti the floor because I had them sitting up on a table and I had a cotton trellis against the window and what I failed to realize was just how much the tomato plant was utilizing the cotton trellis. As we started moving the tomato plant down we ended up having to cut it out of the cotton trellis and then we were holding on to the entire plant and it must’ve weighed ten pounds it was sooo heavy so the cotton trellis didn’t quite reach long enough so we tried putting a metal tomato trellis upside down for the tomato plant to be able to hold on to but the plant we couldn’t fit into it so I started cutting leaves off the tomato plant because we were getting desperate and hubby’s arms were beginning to ache after trying to hold this entire plant well needless to say we had the cage almost on and I went to cut one more branch and it had become somewhat twisted and then I cut it and we realized I had cut the entire tomato plant so that was the end of my plant. We ended up pitching the whole thing. I didn’t know what to do, I never thought of trying to take some cuttings from it.
Anyway I’m beginning to start more tomato plants and I have several tomato plants on the go, I have 5 gallon buckets for them so I’ll be setting them up and hopefully with all our efforts we will get some delicious tomatoes!! Lol! My pepper plants are like a forest but I’m getting all kinds of delicious sweet peppers and I’m doing them all in DWC.
Hey friend. I saw a strawberry grower say stick a piece of runner(with baby plant) into the water(kratky) like a flower stem. If it works, might make propagating easier for ya.
Great idea! Will try it out. Thanks!
Hey very good job! What kind of lights do you use for the tomatoes?
MarsHydro, I have some links in the part 1 video. Thanks!
Update?
Hey Driftless. I'm fighting pythium in my indoor hydroponic setup. Thinking of switching to soil. Any thoughts on the benefits of hydroponic vs soil?
Good question, I am by no means an expert, but soil is probably best if you can carry enough down in your basement. For me , I have an old basement with steep narrow stairs, and it would make moving a lot of soil down there difficult. I am really liking strawberries and lettuce in hydroponic. I had similar issues with my lettuce, but I had many harvests in before it took over, and the plants were almost done anyway. I do like the ability to move plants around in a hydroponic system, and they can always be planted in soil later. I haven't had many issues with my strawberries, except a spider mite infestation. When I move to new house I want to make an inground greenhouse and use soil, so hopefully I learn something from that. Will share if I do. Thanks!
@@driftlessinwi Thanks, would love to see an update on your strawberries! I am going to try a water chiller and oxygenator next. People say that helps reduce pythium.
@@QuantumSecureCrypto you need a chiller and you got to go sterile no organic nutrients and clean your setup after every round with bleach or vinegar the chiller and sterile nutrients will keep you good you can cut out the roots most of them and finish the round but its comes down to real science you gota be on your A game.
So it's been about a year later, have you tried to redo hydroponic strawberries over the winter? How did your strawberry plants fare?
I still have roughly 40 strawberry plants, and get 1-2 pints of strawberries a week. Berry production has slowed and I lost several plants because the lights were left on (instead of on timer) for a few weeks, and I have also been battling spider mites which seem to come back every week or two if I don't keep treating the plants. I have noticed that the spider mites love fruit plants and make it very difficult to keep fruit plants indoors unless you treat them with Neem oil and an insecticide. We are moving to a different house this year and I plan to transplant my remaining strawberry plants to an outdoor soil location at new homesite. My hydroponic system will be taken down and moved in the process and I still need to figure out what plants are next and whether or not I will set it up in the new house, or build a dedicated green house :) Thanks for the comment!
@@driftlessinwi Awesome update. You love growing so much and are so handy, a greenhouse is the ultimate reward. Will you confirm that you are using 3" PVC with 2" holes for netcups? I have a solution that solves both the expense of netcups/rockwool and the difficulty of rooting daughter plants in situ.
Thanks! 4" pvc is what I use with 2" holes. I do reuse net cups. If you figure out a rockwool alternative please share. I haven't tried anything else yet.
@@driftlessinwi ok perfect. I use 2" holes in 4" wide (3" deep) vinyl downspouts- about the same internal cross sec area. Pool noodles are the way to go. If not avail at Walmart, online is next cheapest. I cut 1.5" wide rings, which fits snugly in the 2" holes. To add plants, I cut a slit to open up the rings. Easy to take plants in and out of the noodle ring as needed. If the plant is a bit too small to fit in the hole of the noodle ring, I cut off a small sector of an empty noodle ring and pad it next to the plant. You really want the plant to sit high on the noodle ring so that new growth emerges fairly easily from the crown.
Now for the runners -- I leave them attached to mother plant. I use a 3-4" high strip of quality paper towel. I wrap the runner from its crown down, sufficiently snug so that the runner does not slip down the hole of the noodle ring. The paper towel wicks up moisture and blocks out light, promoting root growth on the runners. You put that in an adjacent grow hole. Seeing that some of your 40 plants have died, you should have vacant holes. Snip runners once roots have grown.
Check this out... I even tried this on a runner that came from soil grown plant. It had brown bumps at bottom of the crown where roots would emerge. So I tried the worst case scenario - when runners are detached prematurely from mother plant. I put this also with paper towels in a noodle ring. The runner is near death, but hanging in there barely after 4 days. My prediction is that it will grow sufficient roots in time to come back to life. It's a 50/50 chance for the worst case scenario. I have another detached runner that already has 1" of root, but not long enough to reach the bottom of NFT. It is doing well and has no signs of dying back. Just options for you, buddy, but clearly you want to keep runners attached to mother plant while promoting its root growth in an adjacent grow hole. Happy growing!
@@charlesdang2557 wow, thanks for the info, seems like a cheap and effective solution. I sense a video in your future! :)
Gotta pollinate by hand
What Net pot size do you prefer ?
I used 2", and that always seemed good.
This looks like incomplete pollination. I just learned about this if you don't already take a paint brush and swirl it around the flower.
Thanks! I was going to do this once I got the new plants established.