Hydroponics Tuesday

The Ever-Expanding Cantaloupe
8/12/2008 7:11:28 AM

Since most of our growing systems are currently down for maintenance, this week's post will be a bit shorter than usual...

As I'm the first to admit; cantaloupe is a new experience for me.  Thus far, it appears to be very low maintenance, and is growing at a very rapid rate.  As of this week, it's crossed the light stand completely, and is working it's way back again.  I'm pretty impressed with the progress.  Here's a photo to put it all in perspective:

Hydro-2008-08-12a.jpg

Additionally, the cantaloupe has a ton of flowers.  We're fertilized a good bit of them, but haven't gotten them all yet.  At this point, it looks like we'll be having lots of fruit in the coming weeks and months.  Also, although I don't have the science to back it up, the cantaloupe's reservoir has been very pH stable.  Admittedly, I used House and Garden Nutrients (in my opinion, they are the most pH stable).  However, I literally haven't made an adjustment in weeks.  I'm impressed.

Hydro-2008-08-12b.jpg

Also, I'd like to revisit the topic of outdoor aeroponics.  We ended up moving all of our strawberry crop outside.  I've got mixed feelings on the experiment.  The plants are doing much better than I expected.  It looks like root-zone temperature isn't as critical as I once believed.  However, some of them do have problems; and the insects are always a trouble.  I'm not sure if I recommend it, but here's how it looks today:

Hydro-2008-08-12c.jpg

Please note... I don't know how long we'll "get away" with outdoor aeroponics in the fall.  At some point, we'll be forced to bring the plants back inside.  Hydroponics Tuesday originates in Delaware.  Our winters are fairly long and cold. 

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Comments (2)
Posted By Max Parker, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:01:56 PM
Great cantaloupe, Ben. It's really flourishing. So is that tomato! I'm glad the cantaloupe is blooming, it looks like you might just get some nice fruit. I'm quite surprised that the pH hasn't drifted in weeks. Do you have any idea why that is?
The strawberries are looking great. I can't believe all the runners they have.
Posted By E.H., Thursday, August 14, 2008 4:43:23 PM
pH stability is influenced by how well a nutrient formula is buffered, but it also has a lot to do with how the plant eats. If your EC is a bit too high you'll notice it go up as your pH tends to drop, which indicates you need to scale back on the feeding. (Your plants are drinking more water than they're eating, which increases the nutrient concentration of the solution.)

If the opposite is true you'll see the opposite happen - EC goes down and pH goes up. The plants are eating more than they're drinking, leaving more and more water behind to dilute the solution.

Ideally you want to feed them such that the EC stays pretty stable. Often this will present with a small pH drift over time despite buffers, but not always. That depends mostly on plant species. I'm guessing that cantaloupes don't eat too much of the positive or negative ions in that particular formulation of nutrient, leaving no residual build-up over time.

There's only so much a buffer can do. If you haven't had to adjust things in weeks it's more the plant's doing than the nutrient's. Well that and you've got the feeding schedule nailed.

That's my 2 cents worth, anyway.