Easy to Build Hydroponic System

One of the easiest hydroponic systems to build is commonly called a DWC (deep water culture) system. Although typically called a DWC system, it’s usually really a combination of hydroponic systems. A true DWC system is nothing more than a water culture system, with a deeper reservoir instead of a shallow one. Depending on how it’s built, most DWC systems combine a water culture system with one or more of these, drip, aeroponics and/or flood and drain systems. The easiest way to construct one is using a five gallon bucket with a lid, and a regular plastic pot. Cutting a hole in the bucket lid for the plastic pot to sit in without falling through.

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Growing Hydroponic Raspberries, part 2

Why a Greenhouse to grow Raspberries?
There are some specific advantages to growing raspberries in a greenhouse over field grown berry’s. First, raspberries have a relatively low chilling requirement for over-wintering, about 45 days below 45°F. Then the plants can be brought into the greenhouse from the cold to bring them out of dormancy early. They also prefer cool growing temperatures (55°F to 70°F), so the cost of heating the greenhouse is less than it would be for other crops. Growers in areas that winter begins early, have the added advantage of satisfying the chilling requirements (over-wintering) earlier. Those in warmer claimants may find it beneficial to use a separate chilling room to speed up the process.

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Growing Hydroponic Raspberries, part 1

Typically raspberries are not considered good plants to grow hydroponically by growers because they are long term plants that depending on type of raspberry plant, may not produce any fruit in the first year. Because there are no real large producers of out of season raspberry’s in the USA, most of them are imported from Mexico and Chile during the off season. That results in pour quality as well as higher prices because of the long distance they have to travel get to market. Even with the high prices and low quality of off season raspberry’s, people are still apparently willing to spend their money on them. And for those people who like fresh raspberries, growing their own can be very rewarding.

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Millions of dollars lost in hydroponic tomato plant sabotage

The search continues for the person or persons responsible for poisoning 7 million tomato seedlings, and nearly 16,000 tomato plants near Queensland, Australia. The 16,000 tomato plants were fruiting and about to be harvested when the poisoner struck, destroying 40 tonnes of produce. A numbers of capsicums, watermelons and eggplants were also killed as well. The saboteur poured an herbicide into the farms water supply. Two neighboring hydroponic farms were directly affected by the poisoning, Donnelly Farming (growers of hydroponic tomatoes), and Supa Seedlings (a large seedling grower). The poisoning of the water supply caused both farms to loose their entire crops. Even though only two farms were directly poisoned, the effects reach much farther, hurting about 30 of the areas 40 district’s farmers who had pre-ordered plants for planting and had them all wiped out. Many of the local growers rely on these seedlings for their plants. 

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Tips for getting the most out of your nutrients

With all the different brands of nutrients on the market today, the question always comes up, witch ones to get for the best performance? But growing good, productive, healthy plants is more complicated than just simply picking a good quality brand of nutrients for the type of plants you want to grow. There are a lot of good quality nutrients on the market. But the first thing growers typically blame is the nutrients if they wind up with poor plant performance. Then they usually just decide to try another brand, and go on another quest looking for the best one. But before changing brands, there are some things to consider before blaming the nutrients for causing the poor plant performance. 

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