1st Hydro Grow. Tomatoes. LED Grow Light

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by doups3, Nov 9, 2011.

  1. #1 doups3, Nov 9, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 10, 2011
    Day 1
    Hey Everyone,

    This is a tomato grow so feel free to look down upon me and insult me. haha I've tried finding another gardening forum to post on but none of them are active. Honestly this one gets like a bazillion more visitors than the normal gardening forums.

    Anyways I decided to post here because I really like the community and I feel like you guys are the absolute best when it comes to Hydroponics (which is what I need to learn).

    Here's my setup:

    I'm growing burpee big boy tomatoes from seed. I've currently got the seeds in a peat moss/perlite mix. I've just got them in plastic cups with plastic wrap around the top. Here's a picture of my setup:

    [​IMG]

    Anyways I just ordered a hydroponic kit online. I decided to get a kit because I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to hydroponics. I tried reading some guides, but my best learning comes from doing.

    Any advice for someone new to hydroponics? I'm really hoping these maters turn out. I'm still kind of confused as to when I transplant them from the peat moss/perlite to the hydroponic setup. I just figured I would transplant them when they start growing their real leaves.

    Best!
     

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  2. I dont think people on the city will look down upon you growing tomatoes...just dont know for sure how much help you will get...hopefully you will find a few hydro stoners on here that will help you out. I dont know diddley about hydro growing, I use soil....but I LOVE tomatoes! Good luck to you and I hope you find the help you are looking for.
     
  3. There is a gardening forum here as well, not as much input as the med grows tho.
    I've done some hydro tomatoes. Still learning as I was not pruning the suckers out and they got out of control.
    Good luck with your grow and I'll be following along to glean info too.
     
  4. I hope they're heirlooms?

    I'd grow hot peppers. Much more rewarding for indoors.
     
  5. #6 Grows&Smokes, Nov 21, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2011
    doups3 you there? Calling doups3...how's them Maters lookin?
     
  6. Day 11

    Hey Guys,

    Things are rolling along as my seeds have sprouted and are looking pretty good.

    @Forbins, I didn't mention this, but one of the cups is actually a jalapeno plant! Here's hoping for some fresh salsa this winter.

    @varrick Haha your comment made me laugh. Tomatoes definitely have a tendency to get out of control. My outside garden always looks like a mad house by the end of the year due to my tomatoes.

    @Grows thanks for the call out! I needed some incentive to post.

    Here's a picture of where they are at:

    [​IMG]


    My main question now is when am I supposed to transplant the suckers to my hydroponic system? Anyone have any ideas?

    Right now I'm just thinking I'll wait until they get bigger. Although I did read on my hydro starter kit that you can actually grow them from seed in the leca stones. That seems like crazy talk to me.
     

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  7. Hopefully the grow is going well. I just tried to take some suckers from one of the heirlooms I was given and clone them. Talk about quick, 4 days and I have roots starting in my homemade Homer bucket cloner.
     
  8. Update: Day 41 (started from seed).

    I don't really know the normal growing schedule for tomatoes, but I'm happy with the results so far!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Same Tomato Plant Without LED Grow Light On

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I'm finding it fascinating that I can grow these tomato plants without any help from the sun. So far I'm really enjoying the Penetrator 126X- Pro LED grow light.

    We'll see how it handles when we get to the flowering/fruiting part of the mater. I think it should do great, but some people do struggle with LEDs during the flowering phase.

    I'm also a bit worried about how I'm going to pollinate these babies since I'm growing them in the middle of winter in my closet.
     


  9. Any updates? Tomatoes have both male and female flowers on one plant...they can be self pollinated.

    There are lots of methods. One that works well is using a electric toothbrush. Pollen is trapped in the flower like in a straw and it comes out the end and the wind catches it. Bees polite it since there buzzing of their wings helps release the pollen. You can do that with a electric tooth brush. Simply place it on the flower not inside it and then apply it to the other flowers. You should pollinate everyday as well to increase your chances of success.

    Hope that helps!
     
  10. Hey Rhap,

    Thanks for the advice. I'm a bit confused as to where to place the toothbrush, but I'm just going to move forward and try it. I've been gently shaking the plant because I heard that works too. haha

    I've added some pictures. The plant looks a bit stretched right now because I just chopped off a lot of the undergrowth. A friend who grows tomatoes like this suggested getting rid of a lot of the lower stuff, but now I'm not so sure haha.

    I've attached some pictures. The second picture over appears to be some white mold growing on the plant. I've never seen this before when growing with dirt so I'm a bit baffled. Any ideas?
     

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  11. I would try a qtip or trying shaking it some...the shaking should release some pollen. Thats why my 93 year old Grandma used to do..lol. Nice looking LED.
     
  12. I am thrilled you are here =)

    I'm a longtime member here, but I've never grown. I'm getting into it now for the indoor veggies - my brother's aerogarden makes me jealous. I'd love to have you let us know how things are going
     
  13. where are you? how'd the grow go?
     
  14. Update on My Mater Grow!


    From Humble Beginnings

    I decided to grow my tomatoes from seed because I couldn't find any starters in the middle of winter. If I remember right it was snowing the day I bought these seeds from my local gardening shop. I purchased Burpee Big Boys. Anyways, the people at the garden shop thought I was crazy to start growing during winter.


    11-9-2011

    [​IMG]


    I started the seeds in some sort of perlite mix. I decided to start a lot of them just in case. In retrospect I didn't need to put the seeds under a light, but I did and it seemed to work fine.

    Transplanting to Hydro Kit

    This was my first hydroponic grow so I was very nervous about the transfer from the perlite mix to the clay pellets and mini rock wool cubes (you can see my set up a little farther below).

    The key is to wait until the first true leaves develop. Remember that the cotyledon leaves or seed leaves sprout first, but they will eventually fall off. You can see a great shot of these seed leaves below. When transplanting grab the plant by the cotyledon leaves because that way if they accidentally pop off no harm is done (they will eventually fall off anyway).

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Here's my hydroponic setup (a top feed recirculating system). I planted two tomatoes because I wasn't sure if my hydro system was going to work (I've grown tons of tomatoes in soil so I was initially skeptical of this hydroponic setup).

    [​IMG]


    Growing:

    As time passed, my plants started growing just fine. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The bad news is that I had to remove the smaller plant because I knew there wouldn't be room for two once the plants reached full size.

    12-22-2011
    [​IMG]

    Pollinating with a Toothbrush

    This was perhaps the most frightening part of the whole process. I wasn't sure how to pollinate the tomatoes without bees or other insects. I'd heard you could just shake the stems, but I also heard you could use an electric toothbrush. I went with the tooth brush approach.

    When the flowers get to the point shown below simply hold your electric toothbrush close to the stigma and anthers. When I had my LED light on and I was at the right angle I could see the pollen releasing and floating in the air. It was pretty cool (I should have taken a shot of it).

    I was pretty rough and occasionally touched my toothbrush to the stigma and anthers. I wanted to make sure I was getting the job done.

    [​IMG]

    Fungus Issue

    I initially was very happy with my hydroponic setup that I purchased at Home Depot. It's so beautiful, who wouldn't like this setup?

    The problem is that the water from the top feeder continuously hits the bottom of the plant when you're growing. This made my plant stem squishy and eventually was the cause of a fungus problem within my plant (see picture below).

    [​IMG]

    Finished Tomatoes

    Fortunately for me tomatoes are very hardy plants and my Burpee Big Boy pulled through to the end and gave me some delicious tomatoes. The plant didn't end up producing the quantity I normally get from growing with soil but I attribute that to the fungus problem.

    Still, I got quite a few large tasty tomatoes from this grow! The maters were the same size as your average grocery store tomato (hard to see this in the pics).

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The plant ended up being about 4 and ½ feet tall. The aluminum foil on the bottom is to stop the top feeder from hitting the plant's stem.

    [​IMG]

    Anyways, thanks for those who showed some interest in my tomato grow! Like I mentioned when I started this thread, cannabis growers are the best gardeners in the world. I've tried participating in normal gardening forums, but it just isn't the same.

    Feel free to ask questions or whatever. I have about 1000 other pictures I took but I thought these ones told the story best.
     

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  15. Hey doups3, that was a nice "start to finish" update you posted...glad to see you at least got some input from people, I knew someone on the City would...happy growing, and please do another Tomato grow journal with more frequent updates...I love growing and a Tomato Journal would be a nice change of pace....hope to hear from you soon.
     
  16. thanks so much for finishing that up! I hope you come back here next time you give hydro a try, I'm very interested in growing many vegetables inside and your posts are super helpful =)
     

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