Hello, Darlings,
Below is today's note from my hydroponic journal.
Last night, I woke at 11:43 PM because I could not go back to sleep, so I got up and cooked dinner for today, cleaned the house, mopped the floors, did some laundry, restarted my dvd collection of the Kdrama, Tunnel, at least a dozen times, setup the 50-pod vertical hydroponic system and added a trellis for supporting the green beans. To do this, I repurposed an old trellis that I had used at one point to support some moonflowers. It looks good in the photo.
I did this just in time because the green beans that are germinating will need to be moved to the tower soon. Yesterday, I seeded four tomato seeds, two K1 red cherry tomatoes and two K2 golden cherry tomatoes, like the K2 golden tomato seeds, the K1 red cherry tomato seeds came with an AeroGarden accessory kit. So I am using them in place of the usual Tiny Tim cherry tomato seeds.
Speaking of AeroGarden, I was disappointed when they stopped selling their specially made nutrient, which was a thick tan liquid. My collard greens loved it. Since then, I have tried several other nutrients, however, General Hydroponics MaxiGro Plant Food is the only that is comparable to the AeroGarden nutrient.
Nevertheless, I must add a word of caution about the amount of MaxiGro used in hydroponic systems. It is best to use one half of the recommended amount of the MaxiGro. This means that if you have a 20L or 5 gallon reservoir and the recommended amount is 2 teaspoons per gallon, then use 1 teaspoon per gallon, but strain off the excess solid nutrient that settles at the bottom of the container. This is the excess sodium or calcium residue that burns the plants, clogs the water pump and cakes on to the parts of the tower when it rises with the water. I learned this the hard way after my turnip greens were burnt after the using the 2 teaspoon per gallon method.
I use the MaxiGro in the greens only, and A&B and FoxFarm Grow Big nutrients in all of the countertop hydroponic systems. The greens beans get the Gardener LiquidPower Green Beans fertilizer only. There is a lesson to be learned in this one also but I will not go into it. Just trust me and only use low nitrogen nutrient to grow green beans. In addition, if the seedling leaves are a little yellow, go ahead and add a onetime dose of Bloom City Organic Iron in the hydroponic systems.
Dosage: Mix 1–2 tsp (5–10 mL) per gallon of water, depending on the severity of the iron deficiency.
It works.