Maer's - 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experience

Maer

New Member
I have been so inspired by my gardening hobby I have decided to start a winter garden in an (partially) unused closet. I have a 4'x2' space, planning on 2x NFT tubes side by side and 1 gallon smart pots around the periphery and under the tomato canopy.

The NFT tubes will be running Blue Planet Nutrients 3 Part. The soil containers will be running the full line of Blue Planet Nutrients organics.

Much thanks to our friends at Blue Planet Nutrients for the sponsorship!

Here is a drawing of what is planned:

veggie1.jpg


I built a better mount for my sunblaze strips:

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So I pH'd some water to 4.5, added 2 capfuls of 3% H2O2 and soaked my rockwool cubes for a couple hours. I took my started tray, put 2 air wands under it and poured the starter solution till it overflowed. Then I placed my 12 cubes in the starter tray and placed one seed in each cube. The whole thing is in a clear shallow sterilite tub to contain humidity and heat. So after a couple day I hope we will be seeing some sprouts!

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You can see the seed packs around the edge of the tub - We have Early Girl, Health Kick, Sun Sugar, Stupice, Bloody Bucher, and Zinfandel tomatoes. Some are determinate and some are indeterminate, the indeterminates will have double the space of the determinates which I plan to grow "single truss" style. What that means is after the first set of flowers form you trim the growth shoot, the plant immediately starts to focus on producing fruit on that one flower set then is discarded and replaced with another.

You can see below the NFT taking shape, with the lessons I learned in my other system I am building in a system that can be fully disassembled, will not drain completely if power is lost and will not flood. To this end I have included lots of threaded adapters and instead of a bottom feed it is side fed through a 4" to 2" to 1.5" adapters, that means 1.5 inches of water should stay in the tubes if power is lost.

I am also considering adding a flushing tube in the center with just a couple of slots so I could move the plants over to get a good flush before taking the fruits. I have to look around and see if this is done with tomatoes.

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Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

So here are some of the other things that will be going in to soil.

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Herbs:
Basil, Spearmint, Mountain Mint, Oregano, Cilantro, and Chives

Lettuce:
Mesclun Mix, Little Gem, Iceburg

Peppers:
Poblano, Bell Pepper Mix

I also have 2 additional varieties of tomato the Brandywine, and the Siberian. Brandywine for the unusual wine flavor and the Siberian for cold tolerance.
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

@fromscratch :welcome:

My tomatoes sucked this year, all split and crappy tasting. The only thing that managed to produce is my sun gold cherrys, they are amazingly productive. I got the sun sweets for the winter garden to compare.
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

Wow! The stuff in your signature is good viewing! I'm a huge fan of DIY growing equipment. In fact, I have a thread here called "DIY Shop". Would you mind if I added your DIY projects to that clearinghouse of DIY projects?

Keep up the great work! (That G13/Haze looks yumma) :goodjob:
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

Wow! The stuff in your signature is good viewing! I'm a huge fan of DIY growing equipment. In fact, I have a thread here called "DIY Shop". Would you mind if I added your DIY projects to that clearinghouse of DIY projects?

Keep up the great work! (That G13/Haze looks yumma) :goodjob:

No problem, just make sure its links to the thread right? I just finished the NFT (its really DWF) for this closet! Pics coming soon.
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

I'm in for another grow, what's one more?
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

So the DWF (StevehmaNFT style) system is complete. It is based on my / steves design with some key upgrades.

This system is able to be dissembled, will not drain completely in the case of a power outage, and will not flood.

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I included the pic of it disassembled so you could see the parts I used. Instead of bulky 4" elbows I opted for 4" couplers (cheap) and 4>2 inch flush bushings. These work out cheaper than the elbows and much much smaller turn radius using 2", they also prevent the tube from draining. The end to the right has 2x couplers, 2x 4>2 flush bushings, then out of the far tube is a male 2" adapter into the combo 90 and female threaded adapter (space and money saver). The right side of the near tube has another 90deg with one side threaded, and the connecting 2" piece has a male adapter to allow that to be removed so everything breaks down to a straight piece of pipe. (with elbows at the ends in some cases)

The left side of the near tube has a 4" coupling with 4>2" flush bushing, 2>1.5 bushing, 1.5>0.5 flush bushing, and a 1/2" combo elbow so the feed tube can be removed. The far left tube has a coupling, 4>2" bushing and 2>1.5" bushing with a female thread adapter so the drain can be removed.

This will make cleaning and storage for the summer months easy! If anything goes wrong I can replace one part and not the whole system.

The spacing is to get 4 plants per sq ft, which is the spec for single truss tomatoes.

One other thing. Purple primer is the absolute BEST for assembling PVC, is goes in so smooth and deep (huh-huh) when you follow the instructions. Prime both surfaces, then put glue on both, the slide it on and hold while wiping excess. Every fitting went 100% of the way in!
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

Maer, looking good. You are going to be the master of PVC, if you're not already. I'm very interested to see the veggies growing. I may do some peppers with my spare lights to see how they do. Maybe we should change the name of the system to S&M-NFT (Steve & Maer).
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

+Subscribed.
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

Maer, looking good. You are going to be the master of PVC, if you're not already. I'm very interested to see the veggies growing. I may do some peppers with my spare lights to see how they do. Maybe we should change the name of the system to S&M-NFT (Steve & Maer).

It is actually a DWF (Deep Water Flow) I found that out while researching the best method to do tomatoes. It is a modified NFT, basically a true NFT would have no method to keep fluid in the pipe, it also employs a mat and DWF does not.

@TorturedSoul

Thanks for subbing man! :welcome:

:peace:&:love:, :peace:&:love:
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

I just moved some of my peppers, lemongrass, and herbs into airpots for the long midwest winter. Like doing veggies and herbs indoors, never tried tomatoes inside yet.
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

subbed!!!
Maer, your 2 packages went out today via UPS. I am going to really enjoy this one. A little change of pace from MJ and this ought to be very interesting. I just hope that I can get a care package containing tomatoes in the future :) Your tomatoes are going to taste fantastic with the organics....
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

subbed!!!
Maer, your 2 packages went out today via UPS. I am going to really enjoy this one. A little change of pace from MJ and this ought to be very interesting. I just hope that I can get a care package containing tomatoes in the future :) Your tomatoes are going to taste fantastic with the organics....

Welcome sir! I saw the ship notification 75lbs! The tomatoes are growing in the hydro so they will not be organic, everything else will though!
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

Welcome sir! I saw the ship notification 75lbs! The tomatoes are growing in the hydro so they will not be organic, everything else will though!

Whats good Maer!!!
Hey you know you can still do organics in Hydro, you just need to have a thicker supply tubes so that the non-solubles don't clog up the line!!!

your going to love BPN's Farmers Pride, mind the smell though!!! it can gag ya!!! LOL

:peacetwo:
 
Re: Maer's - BluePlanetNutrients 3 part + Organic - NFT / Soil - Winter Veggie Experi

Whats good Maer!!!
Hey you know you can still do organics in Hydro, you just need to have a thicker supply tubes so that the non-solubles don't clog up the line!!!

your going to love BPN's Farmers Pride, mind the smell though!!! it can gag ya!!! LOL

:peacetwo:

I wanted to take advantage of BPN's generous offer since I planned on keeping a journal anyway. BPN assured me that the hydro solutions are naturally sourced mineral rock and such so I don't worry much about eating what comes out of the hydro tube.

I hope it doesn't smell too bad.. I am doing this indoor in my closet... Maybe I will need a carbon filter.
 
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