As you will soon see, I spent some time with the camera this week.  We've got some new items and some followups this week.  I'll start with a followup to an existing experiment.

I've been toying with outdoor aeroponics this season.  I'll admit that the first attempt was a dismal failure.  I attempted to start the season too early, and cold-shocked (and killed) most of my strawberry plants in the process.  Not to be deterred, I made a second attempt (with a single plant) to see if it could survive.  My original theory was that the overly warm reservoir would be detrimental to the plant's health.  I still think that's true.  However, the plant is still alive.  It's a life, but not a good one.  Take a look at the following photo:

Initially the plant seemed to suffer a fail amount of damage from the shock of the reservoir temperature (or so I believe).  At this point, it seems to have acclimated to the environment.  However, it's really suffering from pest damage.  Here's a closer look at the leaves:

The insects are literally eating it alive.  Although it looks like a strawberry will be forming shortly, it's having a hard time in the outdoors.  Perhaps my results would be better in a greenhouse... However, that isn't the point. The goal of this experiment was to see how well "tube" systems would work outdoors.  The goal was to make a very inexpensive growing system for the summer.  Although it's subsisting, I'm not overjoyed.

Secondly, we have a followup to the DIY aeroponic system.  I'm working on a slightly modified version now, which will house four small plants (I'm thinking about lettuce and basil).  It's built from the same Sortera container, but with a different drilling pattern.  Here's an overview of the new unit:

If you're wondering why it's "whiter" than the original Sortera containers... There's actually a good reason.  Following the advice of some regular readers, I've decided to try an experiment.  The new reservoirs have been spray painted with white plastic-bonding paint.  They transmit much less light than the stock containers, so algae growth should be much more limited.

Additionally, the sprayer system is similar, but even more simple than before.  The new spray system consists of a single "stalk" with double sprayers on the end.  Interestingly enough, I've found that the 180 sprayers are much more powerful than the 360 sprayers.  I think that the 180's are drilled out more than the 360's, and they allow much more water flow.  As usual, the holes are drilled and tapped at a 10-32 thread size to fit the threads of the sprayers.

Here's a shot of the PVC cap, with the sprayers installed.  Note the arrows on the sprayers.  The arrows indicate spray direction.  I've found that placing two 180's opposite directions will cause much more flow than a single (or even double) 360 sprayer.

Ok... Last we have a followup on our testing of the STG (Sure To Grow media.  We've germinated seeds in the small cubes.  They seem happy enough, so we've placed the small cubes into the larger rooting cubes.  The new STG product is much more dense than the original version.  It really does retain water very well.  Because it is very white, you should expect to see algae growth on it, as it's always retaining nutrient enriched water.  I suspect that stops being much of an issue once the plant in question has grown a canopy.  This is how it usually works with rockwool.  Normally, rockwool will get a small amount of algae on the top of the cube.  This algae tends to get killed off when the canopy cuts off it's light source.  I'd expect the same would be true with the STG.

The plant in question is a cantaloupe (in between two unrelated strawberry plants).  The cantaloupe germinated without any complications.  Although I mentioned it previously, the new "denser" version of STG is much better than the old formulation.  The new version doesn't "float away" anymore in the ebb & flow system.  I've been pretty happy with it.  I'll post new updates as we proceed.  Although I'm not able just yet, I'm planning on performing some STG vs. rockwool side-by-side tests at some point in the future.

On a side note, we hope to be expanding the hydroponics lab in the future.  At the moment, we are constrained by space.  If things work out, we should have more space available in the next six months or so.  Until next week... 

I'll be the first to admit that this week's post is a complete digression from our usual discussion of indoor gardening.  This week, I've decided to mention something that doesn't get a lot of coverage around here... soil gardening.

Admittedly, we don't do a lot of soil gardening anymore.  We've switched to almost exclusively hydroponic growing... With one notable exception.  We have a strawberry patch on the property.  It's fairly old at this point (about five years).  Additionally, the plants are very strong and rooted.  Most people don't think that strawberry plants can survive the winter; but this myth is highly overrated.  Our strawberries winter every year.  For reference, we live in Delaware.  Delaware is a small northern state.  Although our winters aren't Siberian, they certainly aren't Florida either.  Freezing temperatures are the norm, with lows in the single digits.

Valiently, our strawberries return every year.  We really don't make a lot of accomodations for them. They stay in place, uncovered, through the winter months.  The only real attention that the strawberries receive is some hydroponic nutrients and some sugar precursors (Sugar Daddy) to make the fruits sweeter.

Here's a recent photo of some of the fruit, taken by the wife:

Additionally, one more angle:

Do remember though... Soil gardening isn't without troubles.  Thus far, our two biggest problems are slugs and small dogs.  Our dogs have decided that they like strawberries, and sadly, our dachshund lives at exactly strawberry level.

A photo of the usual suspect:

Lastly, I've recently added a new article...   Wheatgrass Yield Calculations.  If you've ever wanted to know how much you need to plant; this one's for you.

The new strawberries have been moved into the new outdoor aeroponic system.  In the process, I've learned some things:

• I was a fool to use regular white caulk to assemble the outdoor aeroponic unit.  It didn't hold up well against the constant water, and made a mess.  I have resealed it entirely with aquarium sealant, and have learned my lesson.
• The smaller PU550 is performing even better than expected.  The larger (1/2" hard PVC) feed line allows to use the smaller PU550 rather than the larger PU850.
• Bending down to service an in-ground reservoir is just as uncomfortable as you'd imagine. 

The strawberries seemed to have something bacterial going (they were purchased as rootstock, so I don't know their origins).  At the moment, the outdoor aeroponic unit is running with clear water and hydrogen peroxide (35%, at a 1/3 tsp / gallon mixture).  I'll probably add the nutrients tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, they should acclimate to the new environment.

Here's a photo of the strawberries in their new home:

Here is a closer view on the plant on the closest end:

Also, the ongoing CO2Boost Experiment is showing interesting results.  The supplemented plant is clearly pulling ahead.  It's larger and fuller.  Take a look for the ongoing results.

I've finally managed to obtain some of the 180 degree aeroponic sprayers as well.  I'll do a formal write-up, just as soon as I have time.  Sadly, my real life inflicts imposition on my hobbies.

The eggplant in the Mark 1 single-site unit is really quite happy.  I'm very pleased with the House & Garden nutrients that we're feeding it.  Normally, I'd show a photo here.  Sadly, I now realize that I didn't take one.  Shame on me.

Sorry that this week's post is so short.  For a bit of insight into our life, we're in the early stages of moving.  We'll be listing our home for sale later this week, which means that we're in a mad packing / painting frenzy.  Hopefully, we will return to some level of normalcy in the next ten days or so. 

First and foremost, we have some unfinished business to attend to this week...

We need to announce the winner of the Fix My Stuff, Win A Prize contest. This contest was inspired by the Do-It-Yourself aeroponics plans that I published a few months back.  I wanted to encourage participation by the group to improve the plans for all of us.  The contest's winner is Red Icculus.  Red made several very practical suggestions for subtle improvements to the desigh:

• Red recommended that the sprayers be replaced with 180° units, rather than the 360° sprayers that I used in the original.
• Red also recommended that the system be sealed with weatherstripping.  After some experimentation, I settled on 1/4" wide self-adhesive rubber weatherstripping.  It works wonderfully.

As the proud winner of the contest, Red will receive a random assortment of Hydroponics Tuesday swag.

Ok.  On to the regularly scheduled blog post.

Firstly, we start with a retraction this week... Last week, I mentioned that we would be receiving some new LED-based lights to test.  After speaking with the manufacturer, they expressed that they need more time for research, development, and refinement.  We will probably get to test them at some point, but for the moment, we are delayed. 

The arrival of the Fort Laramie strawberries has caused me to get my act together regarding outdoor aeroponics.  I've been thinking and planning for a long time, but this last weekend, I made the all-important transition to actually making it happen.

Fair Warning:  This is entirely experimental. I haven't published plans yet, and for good reason.  This is completely untested and unproven.  Here's what we've put together, and the basics of how it all works:

We purchased PVC fence post material from our local Lowes.  Fair warning:  Home Depot doesn't carry the right stuff.  We used the larger size PVC, rather than the smaller stuff (that fits overtop a 4x4).  This stuff is commonly called the 6" PVC, even though the measurement isn't really more than about 5 1/2".  Before I bore you with more details, here's the first photo:

We drilled the PVC section several times for all the plant sites.  Important tip... When you're making your own "small plant" aeroponic units, you should use the Botanicare net pots, not the General Hydroponics ones.  There is a huge difference.  For more details, look here.  We used a drill press, but you could do it with a regular drill just as well.  When using the Botanicare pots, a 2 3/4" hole saw does a really nice job.  Take my word for it on this one... Buy the right tool.  Don't try to muddle your way through without one.  It's totally worth it, as the pots form a very tight seal in the holes.

The photo below gives a better view of the feed and return system.

The first site in the system is used for the feed.  I took a 1/2" "bulkhead" fitting, mounted it inside a Botanicare "filler" plug, and made a really nice modular hookup.  Although I cannot find a good photo of one at the moment, Botanicare makes wonderful plastic "plugs" that fit the 2 3/4" holes perfectly.  The bulkhead fitting is mounted into the plug, and you have a watertight 1/2" passthrough.  I bought the bulkhead fitting through Grainger, but you can easily get them at a decent aquarium shop.  The bulkhead fitting pictured isn't exact, but it's close enough.

Here's why the larger PVC is important... It's just large enough to mount a plastic sink drain (purchased at Home Depot) as your water return.  All that white PVC that you see is just standard plumbing, bought at the local Home Depot.  It leads back to the reservoir.

A closer look at the hookup:

The black vinyl tubing that you see on the left is the pressurized feed line.  The white PVC fitting is just an elbow with a hose-barb on it.  The feed line is connected to a long piece of 1/2" hard PVC pipe which runs underneath all the pots in the large tube.  Sprayers are positioned every 7" (the holes are drilled 7" on-center), so that a sprayer is directly between each pair of pots.  This design makes disassembly fairly easy (as the plug / bulkhead can be popped up and unscrewed).  The feed is positioned directly above the drain, so that all our "water" is run to one end of the unit.

The reservoir is mostly buried in the ground.  We buried it in an attempt to stabilize the water temperature, and hopefully to get some free cooling in the coming summer months.  To save space, the whole unit is supported by ladder-brackets on the side of our smaller shed.  This keeps it off the ground, and at a convenient height for berry-eating.  Although the entire unit looks level, it's actually offset by about 1/2" from end-to-end.  This causes the water to fall towards the return drain naturally.

The whole system is powered by an ActiveAqua PU550 pump.  As I've stated many times before, I love ActiveAqua pumps.  They are strong, reliable, and inexpensive.  At full retail price, this pump is $32.  The pump is immersed in the reservoir.  I use a 1/2" ID hose for the feed.  It's more than enough.

In theory, this should be our last cold week of the year.  If this holds true, I'll migrate the strawberries into the new outdoor aeroponic unit sometime next weekend.  I hope it works, as this design would be pretty easy to duplicate.  Although I haven't done a writeup yet, I estimate the cost to build this unit at about $100.  If I remember correctly, I spend about $25 on the big PVC, $30 for the pump, $10 for the reservoir, and about $30 on plumbing.

That's it for this week's DIY installment.  I'll post updates as I make new discoveries.

If you haven't been watching the CO2Boost Study, it's an interesting read.  The CO2 supplemented plant is really starting to get a lead on the control plant. 

Last item of business for this week, a quick photo of our rapidly-expanding Black Beauty Eggplant (in it's own private aeroponic unit):

This week's update includes a major re-arrangement to our growing room, brought about by the success of our plants.

Our tomato plants have grown well in the aeroponic TurgoGarden. Very well, in fact.  They've grown from tiny seeds to almost 4' tall.  This got to be a problem, however...

The tomato plants had grown so tall that they were within inches of the 400W HPS (High Pressure Sodium) light bulb.  Since they were so close, they were starting to become scorched.  We realized that we needed to expand our PVC lighting frame, in order to give them room to grow.

We added a new section into the middle of the frame, you can see it below.  It starts at the "crossbar" and is approximately 20" tall.  It makes up the "top" third of the vertical sides.  It now sits directly on the floor (rather than on a table) in order to get the extra vertical room.

The newly enlarged frame actually offers quite a few advantages.  Since it's so much larger, it gives us many more attachment points for our supports and guides.  This helps quite a bit, as the tomato plants were starting to form a "canopy" that blocked light from the smaller plants, like the strawberries.  You can see our support lines on the "back" side of the TurboGarden (above).

Additionally, you might notice that the room looks a bit different.  We cleared the room our completely, and we covered the walls with a reflective paper.  The paper serves two purposes:

• Reflects light from the lamps, in the hope of increasing yield from energy expended
• Protecting the wall from water splashes

The paper that we bought is a highly scientific hydroponically inclined product.  It's really special, magical, expensive stuff.

No.  Not really.

It's dollar-store silver wrapping paper.  But guess what?  It's reflective.  We're not asking a lot out of it, so cheapness was a real blessing.  It should keep the walls protected, and hopefully the reflection will be an added bonus.

The aeroponic strawberries are almost ready.  Here's a picture from this morning.  There are only about 10 of them thus far, but the plants are also young, so that makes sense.  Looking good. 

We moved the MegaGarden (our wheatgrass and lettuce bed) to the other side of the room (mostly because I wanted all-sides access to the TurboGarden).  The MegaGarden gets lots of good reflection in its new corner, and things are growing well.  The wheatgrass and lettuce are both pretty happy.

Also, we've started using Organocide. Some aphids found their way into our plants, and were really being quite obnoxious.  We wanted to stay organic, and the Organocide spray seems to be killing them.  We think they arrived on the strawberry plants, as they were transplants from the outside world.

Lastly, a followup on the Milwaukee pH meter...

Although this one doesn't seem to be "defective", it's still terrible.  It requires frequent calibration, and it's more of a pain-in-the-ass to use than the simple (and much cheaper) color-change kits.  I recommend to everyone to avoid Milwaukee meters.  It's just not worth the time and effort to make it work right.  I have to give credit to their customer service, as they handled the return quickly and courteously.  It's just their products that suck.  I'll give it one final chance this week, but then it's going on eBay.

I cannot say anything about Hanna products, as I haven't tried them.  I'd be willing to give it a shot.  Make sure to leave a comment if you have any experience with either Milwaukee or Hanna.  I'd love to hear that I'm wrong, because I'd be really happy for a decent digital pH meter.

We've got our first harvest of the season...  It's organic too.  We have 15 strawberry plants in the back yard, and they're doing very well this year.  They are three year old plants, and are much larger than their aeroponic brothers.  I expect to be picking aero strawberries in about 10 days.

Not a bad haul, since we're still in May... 

Speaking of strawberries, let me share my latest idea:

We have a new shed scheduled for construction in the coming weeks.  It's 10' x 20', which is pretty huge.  (That's the maximum in New Castle County without a building permit).  This big shed will naturally have big walls.  I'm thinking that we can take advantage of the sun, while getting the benefits of aeroponics.

I'm thinking of buying some AeroDuct channel (aeroponic "rain gutter") to put on the side walls of the shed.  This should get me a lot of extra room, while keeping the plants off the ground (and away from nearly all pests).  In theory, it should give the best of both worlds.  I'm even thinking of keeping the reservoir in the house, and supplying the water via buried lines (so I can easily monitor and adjust the water, from the comfort of my own hydro-room).

I realize that this won't be an "all year" solution, but I expect that it will be workable for at least April - November.  In theory, I could even warm that water, in an attempt to extend growing times.  I have no idea how the plants would react, but I think I could do it.