NEW Hydroponic Strawberry System - Why Growers' School

[@Lisa-pu8eu]

I went to Crop King last year. Great Experience. Awesome people. Worth the time and money. Thank you Katie for the videos and was nice meeting you also last year. Wish I lived a bit closer

[@HomegrownPassion]

oh that's great. nice to hear from you. wish you did too. please stay in touch!!

[@charleskiplinger9904]

Good video. Always enjoy seeing what you have going on in the greenhouses.

[@edwincruz2211]

your garden is amazing of course you are also

[@Tenslea]

Great video, it is so neat to see what they are working on! Thank you for getting us a sneak peek :)

[@HomegrownPassion]

Our pleasure!

[@FensterfarmGreenhouse]

They took my idea! That is how I did it. Lol Wish I would’ve patented it.

[@HomegrownPassion]

Chuck if you get an idea again.... call me ill patented it! Your right those ideas we get when we are working in our greenhouses to improve situations that are making it difficult are the best. Hope you guys are ok with the storms last night. Hope you are recovering! Talk soon..

[@sailme2day]

great update on how your and dougs journey began , "at a school " !!! Love it . Wonderful to hear from the cropking team on the many parts of the training . Wonderful idea to give a "peak" into the logical and suggested process of growing great food and how to get there. THe white tape for the straw berries. I did a quick search on 2 inch wide webbing . Reminded me of hvac duct webbing. However after more reading , you will likely consider the added UV inhibators in the webbing , if it does not effect the plant health. Pretty smart growing idea. :) When is your last market of the year ? In the winter does it turn to just CSA sales ? I always enjoy what you both share. thanks in advance.

[@HomegrownPassion]

it was a pretty cool system but hopefully it gives you some ideas on what you could do to improve your system. Like you are researching the tape. Just my thought on UV. After time you end up getting rid of something like the tape after a growing season or two because it just gets dirty etc. Some of the stuff in growing is just throw away.... I'm thinking the tape Is a good example of that. I'm going to try and fins a cheap replacement that does the same thing. We have used string which works fine but something a little wider would work better. Last market of the year is second week of October. we extend the strawberry season hopefully this year to December and sell all our berries to our CSA program.

[@ravilmustakimov1327]

Hi. A very good system, but experience has shown that the flower stalks will break on the sharp edges of the pot. It is advisable to make a ribbon for the flower stalks and pull the thread for the leaves above.

[@HomegrownPassion]

Thanks for the tips!

[@bigpa7890]

Good morning Katy. Hope you and Doug are well. Long time viewer here from Texas. I was wondering what the buckets/planters are called that run on your 2 railing system? Hope Devon and kids are doing great.

[@HomegrownPassion]

Hello! Those are strawberry Bato Buckets and were purchased from CropKing. They are not listed on the website... you have to call them but let them know we sent you and they will take great care of you. tel:[phone] They work great...we really love them

[@susanschleicher2849]

Hi, I'm just starting to research hydroponic products to set up strawberries under a tunnel in British Columbia Canada. Temperatures dip to -27C for a couple of days each winter. So just lookingvat extending summer growing seasonI. love your more cost effective set up. Can you please provide me with the specs for your saw horses, height you have your pots set at, distance between your saw horses and distance between your rows? Are your pots draining to the groind beneath? Do those pots have a groove underneath to run a collector drain pipe? What automated system do you use for your pH and EC. Filter? Appreciate any info. you can share. Susan

[@HomegrownPassion]

Send me a email and will send you a link to the saw horse build

[@jonl.garton4616]

Your strawberries go in the green house around April. When do you pull them out? What are the signs you might look for to make that call?

[@HomegrownPassion]

so, we are going to grow until the end of December. installing heaters to extend the season.

[@rodneynicholson2018]

What is the fee for school? I live in Georgia and have a small piece of land with a stream. I am planning to grow soon.

[@HomegrownPassion]

I put it in the description, but the dates are April 13-14 May 11-12 Jume 8-9 and class costs $399.00 They give that back to you if you buy a greenhouse.

[@One29Homestead]

Great video. Do you have a recommendation for an hobby level EC/PH meter?

[@Warren15G]

BlueLab. Whatever you choose, don’t go cheap. That’s one of the most important devices in your grow.

[@HomegrownPassion]

I agree with Warren, Blue Lab is the best on the market and its what we use for all of our monitoring systems including the hand held.

[@lightpawshird]

Do you start your strawberries from seed or do you buy the plants already sprouted? I have attempted to start strawberry seeds with no luck.

[@HomegrownPassion]

we buy bare root plants. they are fairly inexpensive and if you can find some other people who need plants.... the more you buy the cheaper the per plant cost is.

[@KeithRanly]

What EC and PH do you recommend for strawberries?

[@HomegrownPassion]

1.2 for EC and Ph we run 6.0

[@timgehman4029]

Do the strawberries need a cold or dormant spell to flower and produce fruit?

[@HomegrownPassion]

Yes, on my two-year-old plants I had to have them go dormant in order to produce the 2nd year.

[@timgehman4029]

@@HomegrownPassion How did you do that? Let them in an unheated greenhouse? Or put them in a cooler?

[@HomegrownPassion]

this last year time got away from me and i just left them in the buckets and at least 80% survived. I did put some in the walk-in cooler and those did well also

[@modestobacktoneck]

How often and how long do you water your strawberries ie: I do 3-4 minutes 4 times a day and think it might be too much. I'm using 75% perlite and 25% vermiculite I seem to get a lot of algae growth that is a bed for nats.

[@rawbsworld6604]

🤷‍♂️ what are your plants telling you? Bump it down to 3x’s a day or 2-3 min then see what they say 👍 algae? You feeding the roots or just watering the top and letting water soak thru? Somewhere there’s light getting thru to the nutrient solution don’t feed the microbes , that’s my amateur opinion 🤔😳 good luck hope you get a good crop! 👍 ✌️

[@HomegrownPassion]

in the high tunnel strawberries, we water 3 times a day for 2 minutes and like Rawb said we watch the plants to see if we need to increase. You're right the nats are a problem if to wet. We are looking a making a top for our bato buckets that will keep the medium covered and not allow sunlight to hit top of growing medium. Will keep you updated.

[@Raspberryland5516]

@@HomegrownPassion Thanks for all the info on strawberries in the high tunnel. I'm struggling with moisture in the Kubota medium. You say you water three times a day, what size emitters are you using? I understand you are discarding the leach water, do you check EC and pH to see what the plants are using? I have been recycling and add nutrients as needed to maintain EC. Maybe not a good idea? Thanks again for your excellent resource for us newbies!

[@kpwaterfield]

What happened to your Daughter that use to be on the channel?

[@gardnep]

I have seen her off and on over the last year. Sometimes the camera is moving and I wonder if she is the cinematographer and editor. A mystery, but online work can be very stressful, particularly when there are multiple anonymous abusers and there is a family to think about and protect.

[@reshardbelilam4269]

What is the PH and EC reading for strawberry

[@HomegrownPassion]

1.2 EC 6.0 for PH

[@reshardbelilam4269]

In the new strawberry system the nutrients recirculate

[@HomegrownPassion]

no everything drains to waste

[@urbanvegsa1928]

Hi. We’ve email a couple of times for a consult but no reply back. Are you getting our emails? Thank you.

[@HomegrownPassion]

Just looked and not there i have to look in the junk and spam folder but i have to do that on the computer

[@reshardbelilam4269]

I am from Trinidad how can i contact cropkinh

[@HomegrownPassion]

tel:[phone]

[@braunzie2]

What is core in the strawberry mix?

[@HomegrownPassion]

Coco coir is a byproduct of coconut fiber. It was first used in gardening in the West in the 19th century, but fell out of favor because the low-quality coco available at the time degraded when used for short-term growing. Toward the end of the 20th century, it was rediscovered as an organic, environmentally sustainable substrate when new production methods made it possible to create hardier product. Coco coir is manufactured using fiber that’s torn from coconut shells. The tiny grains of coir are extracted from the coconut shell and pulverized into a packable growing substrate. First, the coconuts go through the retting process, a curing method that naturally decomposes the husk’s pulp. Traditionally, coconut husks were immersed in water for six months or longer to decompose. Today, the retting process can be completed in a little over a week using modern mechanical techniques. Next, the coconut fiber is removed from the shells by steel combs, in a process known as defibering. Once the fiber, or coir, is gathered from the husk, it’s then dried, pressed into bricks, discs, coir pots. or bagged as a loose mulch. In this dried, processed state, the coir is ready to sell and use.

[@fatkorn]

Bring back the devon girl (yall are all nice too)

[@johnman559]

Hey !....1st!..me! Lil old me!!...ahhhhhhh...sarrrrry😞

[@HomegrownPassion]

John.... was wondering where you went. I'm glad your first. Be first every video!!!

[@CriticoolHit]

Don't get hung up on that strawberry system. That's a tremendous amount of wasted material and infrastructure to solve the problem of wet feet and growth separation. Stick with your wooden horses and if you really feel the need to just run your own vegetation lines across to separate fruit from leaf.

[@HomegrownPassion]

its a cool system but you are right we are going to stik with what we have it works great