Hydroponics

This hydroponic stuff is really fun,in fact I just ordered (2) 330 gallon totes delivered from an ole boy here in Austin. He sells these once used food grade totes for $125.00 a piece. I think that's a heck of a deal. I need to catch me some rain water. I found out that all the crap they put in our drinking water does not work well with hydroponics.
 Here is the tote that I first started with and used tap water in it thinking that the ole guy at the hydroponic place was just pulling my leg on our tap water. This picture was taken March 15th.

As you can see after a week they still look just like the day I planted them. Well really they look a little worse than when I started them. We had a little rain come through and I put a few buckets out to catch me some rain water. I caught about 50 gallons in about an hour of a steady drizzle then I drained the tap water out of that tote and refilled it with rain water. Here is a picture I just took of them this morning.

Now that is a big difference in 11 days don't you think? These plants look great. So good I'm gonna have to move the strawberry's out into another container, you can't even see them anymore.

 The other plants are doing well also. You can dang near see them growing. I'm starting to like this hydroponic stuff. Here are the plants in the 5 gallon buckets from 11 days ago and now.

                                  11 days ago                                                             Today

                                 11 days ago                                                                     Today



Now for the plant I'm growing in a pot with dirt. It don't look to good,it kind of looks like a chicken without feathers.

 The potting soil I'm using with this Tomato is the same stuff I used last year trying to grow those hot ass peppers that never turned out. So I would not recommend the Miracle Grow potting soil that claims it fertilizes for 3 months. It might fertilize the dirt but it does not do crap for the plants. I'm glad I only used this one plant in it this year.


My next little project is to hook up around (6) 5 gallon buckets that all drain into a bigger tote and hook up a pump that will pump water to all the buckets and keep recirculating back into the tote I'll let you know on how that works out.

Dizzy, here is the plant food I use.

I CAN BREATH

A week ago Wed. I tried to cough and thought I was gonna die, I couldn't get any air I was gasping for air, choking to death, so it was off to my regular Doc to see way I couldn't breath anymore. I went in and the first thing he wanted to do was get a chest X-Ray. That's why I hadn't gone to him sooner because I knew that was what he was going to do. You see I smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day for years and I quit when I had that first heart attack last July so I figured that my lack of air had something to do with my smoking and figured I didn't have long to live. My lungs probably looked like a fire had burned in there for 60 years. So I get the X-Ray done and he says "I'm going to compare this X-ray with the one we did a couple of years ago." I'm thinking,shit he found something so it's time to hit the liquor store when I leave here. I haven't had a drink in 20 years but I was fixing to tie one on after this. He starts to compare this one to that one and pointing out things and with each thing he points out I'm thinking this is the one, he gets to the dark round thing up at the top of my lungs and its the last damn thing he has to point out, I'm starting to get a little uneasy feeling going on and he says to me every thing looks normal here so its not your lungs they look good nothing has changed. I wanted to slap the ever loving crap out of that man. Why couldn't he had just told me that to start with instead of pointing out all this crap out on the x-ray and me waiting for him to drop the bomb on me with every thing he points to. 

 After my head quits swimming we talk and he thinks that when I got sick back in Nov. of last year I still have some congestion that never went away down there so he puts me on a steroid inhaler to get rid of it. I now have about 3/4 of my breathing back so its working and I feel great again, thank God.




Well my hydroponic systems are doing pretty good.I've come to the conclusion that the 5 gallon bucket system is the way to go for me. The 18 gallon tote with 11 pots is doing OK but the growth is slow the tomato's are just now starting to grow in it. Its taking longer for the root system to get started than the 5 gallon buckets did by a long shot. The buckets have a drip system on them that drips around the plant as well as the plant being submerged in water with an aerator hooked up to give the water oxygen. The tote only has an aerator hooked up to give the water oxygen so there is a difference.

These plants are about 20 inches tall, when planted a couple weeks ago they were about 3 inches tall.

These plants already are trying to bloom but I keep pinching the blooms off so the plants will get bigger.

This is the roots in the 5 gallon bucket plant This hydro phonic stuff just amazes me.I don't see how a plant can grow without dirt and being in water all the time. The little brown balls are made of clay, they hold the plant up and absorb water.

 These plants in the tote are about the same size as when I planted them a couple weeks ago.

They have finally gotten some roots showing in the water and starting to grow so maybe they will take off now. I have a lot to learn about this stuff.

 

 The wife tried planting some squash seeds out in the garden and the damn squirrels were out there the next day digging the seeds up. Anybody want some squirrel stew?

 

From A Garden To Hydroponic's In One Day

I went to the Doc the other day and told him that I didn't have the air like I used to, seems like it started around the first of Dec. He tells me to exercise, so with this warm weather we have had I decided to put me a garden in this year and feed the squirrel's some tomato's this year and get some exercise like the Doc said, so I get my spade and start digging and after about 4 spades of dirt I was breathing like I had run a hundred miles I just ran smooth out of air, I took a little break and went back to digging again and same thing about 4 spades worth and I had to take a break, now this is starting to make me mad I ain't used to not being able to get out and work my butt off, so I tell myself if this is the way I am gonna have to live then it ain't really worth living, so I grab my spade and in about an hour and half and a lot of heavy breathing I have me a 11x16 garden dug up. I'm wore smooth out, I go in the house and set for a spell to see if I killed myself. I woke the next morning so I'm still kicking and decided I'm going out and till that garden up. I think it would had been a lot less work if I took each clod of dirt and chewed on it and spit it out instead of using the tiller I have. I have one of them tillers that fits on the shaft of your weed eater and that damn thing will work you to death, my back hurt, my legs hurt and I couldn't move after tilling that garden up. I knew I had better not go to sleep that night cause I ain't waking up after that little stunt but I woke up, sore as hell but still kicking maybe not kicking but moving a little.

Now this is where it gets crazy, I have A.D.D and my mind goes a hundred miles an hour and I get side tracked at times I come up with a hundred different ways to do something simple. The wife gave me one of them upside down planters that you put peppers in and the daughter gave my wife a tomato upside down planter. I get the wild hair to sink me a 4x4 in the corner of the garden and run a couple of 2x4's across it and hang them upside down planters on it like this.

After hanging them up I go on the Internet and see how well these upside down planters really work. I get on u-tube and sees a feller that has these things all over his back yard full of Maters and Peppers, so I think this might be the way to go instead of that dang garden. Well when I was on U-tube I also saw a video on a small Hydroponic system and I order me up some hydroponic stuff cause I'm going hydroponic now, to hell with that dang garden and them upside down planters, I'm going high tech. After ordering that stuff I see we have a hydroponic place here in Austin that sells all kinds of hydroponic supplies I hop in the truck and head over there because I can't wait for the orders I made on the Internet to get here if I can buy them right now. So I have a small system set up now and will probably have a bigger one before long or who knows what my ole mind has in store for me, it changes every day you know.

That bottom one will have a tomato in it tomorrow, its a little different set up, after its all said and done I will probably have some tomato's that cost around a hundred dollars a piece.


Now in that first and second picture up there you will see a little blue pool upside down. That's our dogs grave yard we only have one left out of a family of 4 and she is 15 years old and is allergic to grass certain times of the year. Now about a month ago she had a allergic reaction to the grass and was chewing on her butt till it bled. The doc told us to give her a half of a Benadryl, so I'm giving her a half of a Benadryl every so often and around the 4th day she ain't eating or drinking just laying around doing nothing I start to worry about her and the next day she can't hardly move I'm thinking this is not looking good I think she is about to die so I get out there and start digging a grave for her. It takes me awhile to dig that grave but I'm almost done and look up and here comes that dog barely walking but makes it out to me, she looks at that grave and looks over at me and heads back toward the house after about 5 minutes I look over to the house and can see her in the kitchen eating and getting a drink of water I don't guess she wanted die after seeing that hole I had dug, the next day she is like nothing ever happened just happy as hell, I'm thinking that grave must have scared her into living again.
 It turns out that me and the wife damn near killed that poor ole dog by overdosing her on that Benadryl we didn't know the other one was giving her Benadryl, we where double dosing her and damn near killed her. So that is why that pool is upside down back there because I ain't about to fill that hole up after busting my butt digging it, besides I think that hole might have some type of healing power on that ole dog she sure got well after seeing it.