One of our readers left a comment, that I decided to answer in the form of a Q&A blog post. I talked to our tech support, and without knowing very much about his grow, we did our best to put together an answer. I think that the information suggested is of value to many different growers, so, here it is!

Q: I am growing brandywine tomatoes in your coco growers and I’m having serious problems. The plants are stunted and fried. All my other systems are working fine. I can’t find ANY info on these new growers? They look really cool, but so far not impressed. What am I doing wrong?

A: Unfortunately, brandywine and other heirloom varieties of tomatoes do not typically do well in hydroponics. Not to say that you won’t find success, but if your other varieties that are doing well are also heirloom varieties then I am stumped.

You should go with a hybrid variety that has been bred for greenhouse production such as F1 Cobra or Mountain Girl. I would guess that you need to cut down the watering intervals to about fifteen minutes on every hour when the lights are on- and fifteen minutes on every two hours when they are off. You should put an extra airline in the reservoir to keep it oxygenated while the circulation is not taking place.

In addition, the tomatoes probably needs some extra calcium as well in order to ward off blossom end rot. That tends to be the number one culprit of tomatoes biting the dust in hydroponics. Also, a 10 mls Gro, 10 mls Micro and 5 mls Bloom per gallon is a good Flora Series mix for tomatoes. Supplement with 10 mls/gallon of our General Organics, CaMg+.

I took this shot on August 11:

They have exploded in the last month. Amazing.

Here is the blossom from a sedum in the GH Farm Lab.

Two honey bees, coated in pollen. 

Look at the trichomes on the bud of this squash blossom. They are the tiny hairs that protect the plant from extremes in temperature. 

Tigerlilly, what would you say the TDS would be in a fully fortified grow & a fully fortified bloom hydro-organic solution…. I saw that you (Tigerlilly) posted that you were using these new products…Do you have a TDS meter & can you test the resevior ?….and post your test results ? that is, if you’re using reverse osmosis water..and can get 0.0 ppm reading as a control for a comparison . I am going to say I hope it’s about 0.0-0.09 …..but it’s not a perfect world …I know.

In my “about me” page I said I was running the new organics, and at the time I was. But now my room is down, in the process of a lengthy remodel…. And when I was running the organics, I love them, but wasn’t the most meticulous record keeper. So I got in touch with Darek, our Greenhouse Operator, and asked him for the numbers. Here is what he sent, and I hope it helps!

When I used Organic nutrients, I followed the high ratios ( let’s call it expert program)
I checked my data and that’s the numbers I have had during my trail:
Grow 20ml/gal (4tsp/gal) + Calcium 5ml/gal (1tsp/gal) = ppm 1000-1100
Grow 10ml/gal(2tsp/gal) + Bloom 10ml/gal (2tsp/gal) + Calcium 5ml/gal (1tsp/gal) = ppm 750 – 900
Bloom 20ml/gal (4tsp/gal) + Calcium 5ml/gal (1tsp/gal) = ppm 1150-1250

Didn’t use RO Water, just tap water and the ppm is about 180-200.

Assuming that nutrients change is every 7 days, the ppm values I gave you are from day 1, later on ( i mean day 3th, 6th from your change the ppm may rise and that depend mostly on the temperature (in the room,  and in the reservoir – based on water evaporation.)

Our biologist and greenhouse operator had one on one time with the students.

The professor and a student hear about stats from Terry.

Larry, on the left, joins the discussion, and analyzes with the group.

Everyone learned something, and the visit was as fun as it was informative!

Each tray of cukes is getting the same base nutrient GH 3 Part, but a different type of biological supplement. The control just gets the base, obviously. I can’t tell you what the supplements are, but I can say that they are mychorrizal in nature.

Here are the most recent shots:

UPDATE: One of my favorite readers wrote in to let me know that the plants seem to be getting different light! I wanted to let everyone know this photo was shot in the greenhouse at about 7pm, so the tray on the right only seems to have more light on it. The tray on the left also gets strong light, but in the morning. There is no artificial light on these, just the sun.