Hydroponic Pumpkin Update - Switched from Kratky to DWC

[@subedei1]

Great looking pumpkins! Glad to see you're back regularly, I've missed your videos.

[@daveborchard2019]

It’s great to see another hydroponic video from you! I started learning about hydroponics watching your videos years ago! DWC requires a lot of maintenance when you grow plants that drink a lot of nutrients. You might think about trying something I did growing with DWC. Create a 5 gallon bucket with a hydroponic float valve. Set the level of the 5 gallon bucket reservoir to be close to near full level on each grow tank. Connect all the grow tanks in series to the 5 gallon reservoir bucket. Feed the 5 gallon reservoir bucket with several 32 gallon barrels. The hard part is making sure the lines connecting each grow tank to the 5 gallon reservoir bucket do not leak. Several 32 gallon barrels fed by gravity to the 5 gallon float valve bucket will last for weeks. That system could be automated further by feeding reverse osmosis water into the 32 gallon barrels with float valves on the barrels. The nutrient concentration and pH levels could be automated with systolic pumps and a controller. Someday, I’ll add systolic pumps and a controller to my DWC hydroponic setup to automate the hydroponic nutrient production.

[@ronyhowley7793]

coool

[@ehubbard13]

I keep coming back to your videos before I start another hydro project, doing my first round of pumpkins now! Thanks for the content!

[@PSPSMITH2022]

Thanks for the demonstration of situations where the Kratky system probably isn't the ideal system. The nice thing about DWC is being able to set the system with float valves, large reservoir tanks, airstones/air pumps, and just let the entire thing run basically as long as the reservoir has nutrient solution or the electricity is running.

[@nightwaves3203]

DWC with watermelons I found its best to flush out tanks every 3 or so refills. Water starts getting loaded with what the roots are flushing out or whatever and just residual chemicals and bacteria growth. Works great. Watch the stones air production because mine would need muriatic acid once in awhile from clogging for some reason.

[@phillipgleason9819]

So stink’n happy to have you back friend!!!

[@joelwerner1994]

So glad you are back. Can't wait to see more videos

[@MattGarver]

Nice looking pumpkins Bobby, for my larger Kratky plants I have used both 45 gallon containers as stand alone grow out setups. For monster plants like pumpkins, I prefer to gravity feed nutrient to a constant level from a pair of 32 gallon trash cans into buckets or totes like you use. Nothing wrong with DWC, it simplifies adding or changing nutrient if you have the electricity to run the air pumps. Great looking garden as usual for you, nice job!

[@FensterfarmGreenhouse]

Totally understand how difficult that might be. I'd bet that the temps outside and the added shelter of the GH should produce what you are looking for in another 2 or 3 weeks! Susan will be making pies from some of those pumpkins in no time. Thanks Bobby! Chuck

[@caseywilson812]

can you do a video talking about your experiences with the different types of tomatoes you have grown and how they did in buckets? the good the bad and the ugly. thanks for the content.

[@forageforage3520]

Awesome looking set up! Great to see you back.

[@hughkavanagh]

Happiness is watching a good video.

[@ChillinwithCav]

Glad you are back, keep the videos coming!

[@Elementaldomain]

I had a similar situation. I grew one watermelon per 5 gallon container. In the spring every thing was fine (I live in the desert). As I keep bees, pollination was not a problem and in fact I had way too many fruit set on each plant. However, by June each container was using about 3-5 gallons of water a day. I was filling them up by hand with Kratky fert so for the most part there was never an issue with air roots getting submerged. But what was happening is that this was becoming hugely labor intensive on my part and led to me not taking care of a lot of other plants/trees as well as I normally do. But the real bummer was that I found that the fruit was bland, so bland that I ended up giving all the fruit to the wild rabbits and coyotes. Water is hugely expensive here....my normal bill for my small farm runs about $125 a month. So the loss of all that water (and I had the same exact thing happen with the vining squash as with the melons) with no fruit that tasted worth a darn was quite frankly; irritating and depressing. I have about 95% of all my farm in air prune pots (self made), including 40 fruit trees. They are in a mixture of coir/perlite/vermiculite media, fertilized with brewed vegan earth castings and Ocean Solution. They have all been wildly successful and have saved me a lot of money on water (my bills used to be about $300 a month) so I am not going to use the Kratky method for my outside plants. I did have air stones in all the melon/squash containers and I never had any problems with root rot or die off which was very surprising given that temps here range about 110+ in the summer. I really wanted to like the Kratky fertilizer (this is my third year of using it) but I found that for the most part all plants I have used it on were more prone to disease and consequently pests, as well as not having the rich home-grown taste I am used to.

[@GammaSpeaks]

This is pretty cool MHP! Please tell us what fertilizer mix you used for the pumpkins! I would assume that its the MB + CaNO2+Epson in a 12-12-6 ratio per 5 gallon but... I don't wanna guess. LOL. Nice work as usual and welcome back to regularity!

[@mhpgardener]

Yes sir, I used the standard MB combination. It's a very productive fertilizer. Thanks, Bobby

[@darla3021]

Your pumpkin plants look good - I hope they reward you for all your hard work. 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃👍

[@theresabollman8061]

Here's one half of "The Caring and Sharing Twins" sharing his expertise. God Bless!

[@AaricHale]

Your plants look really healthy . I bet you will get some good sized pumpkins .

[@jeffstreeter3037]

Happy to see ya again!

[@FinehomesofNewHampshire]

Beautiful greenhouse!! Really smart.🙏

[@tiffanymolina1285]

My dad and I love your videos. Super cool stuff you’re doing! I recommend adding in some KNF nutrients, you make them yourself and it yields great results. Your plants look hardy as is though

[@honeybadger6127]

could you do kratky for the pumpkins.. but instead use larger containers (like 1/2 cut IBC totes)?

[@robertalexander2478]

Missed you so much!!! Glad to see a video! Are there any videos about the structure your in? Would love to know the details

[@Javinkay]

I had trouble starting my pumpkins this year I had about 20 plants and ended up with only two surviving (the kept getting eaten to the ground overnight) one was a Big Max and the other was an Atlantic Gaint I grew 4 70 pound pumpkins and 4 10 pound big max pumpkins so I think I had an okay year

[@brucehayes5111]

Still watching new and old videos of yours and still enjoying them. What are your thoughts on possibly using the same recipe of Master Blend on tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers?

[@electricianone3090]

Beautiful plants!

[@Brianshydroheaven]

Tough that you are having soil borne pest problems. I grew a not so giant pumpkin last year in a half 44 gallon blue drum filled with expanded clay , used a pump to recirculate from a 44 gallon reservoir. So essentially it was an oversized dutch bucket. It worked fine, I'll be doing the same this year.

[@phaganators]

Good to see u brother😎

[@stillnessinmovement]

ive got a self-wicking bucket with a pumpkin in it, just experimenting, but it is doing the same, goes through water FAST.

[@janaharris4683]

If the pumpkins root anywhere along the ground, can’t they still get nematodes?

[@Elementaldomain]

yes - LOL. I have trouble with ants. Ants in the desert are epidemic and cause a lot of disease and we have at least 10 different types of ants here, some of the colonies are 40 feet wide and 3 feet deep. So I ended up building tables 12'x6' with aviary netting strung on them. The legs were suspended in water buckets. So now, no more ants. That might be a solution also where there are nematodes. I put the 20 gallon containers next to the table and they grew onto the table. The plus, which I had not figured on was that the melons and squash fell thru the aviary netting when they were small and then grew there, so picking was easy. If I built new tables I would make them so I could walk under them though.....crawling around on my hands and knees to harvest wasn't so much fun.

[@juanlozada9721]

I have a question what kind of fertilizer do you use for tomatoes thank you so much.

[@karenlatham4053]

I can't get my female buds to actually form.. I see tiny 1/2" fruit/flowers with a bud and then it dries up. The male flowers are beautiful and large. Any ideas on why? Please. I really want to grow pumpkins squash and zucchini but each one of these has the same problem in my garden. P.s people keep telling me " it's not getting pollinated" but at 1/2 inch and less than 1/4 inch wide. The flowers never open. They have no chance to get pollinated before they dry up.

[@arianadiego3709]

great video, and nice setup...your garden always looks so well maintained. 😎 I am planning on trying some hydroponic melons. next year... Do you still have heat problems in your reservoirs?

[@mhpgardener]

Thanks. I never checked the water temps, but I'm pretty sure the water was quite warm, even with the totes being partially buried.

[@arianadiego3709]

@@mhpgardener 👍👍👍

[@AResilientLife]

Well done.

[@MikeJones-qo7vt]

Mr krakty used a float valve to maintain water levels from what I seen the level usually was a 3rd of the container...

[@caterchatter4671]

Real nice having you & Susan back around,good ppl willing to share your experience & knowledge with a novice like myself & others. Bobby I took ur recommendation a few yrs bk & started ordering from Morgan Seeds here n Missouri & hv enjoyed their great customer service, thank u. Next yr if I don’t let myself get intimidated again & not even try, plan on ordering a watering set up for my garden & raised beds. This year everything burnt up except for the weeds. How come they flourish & the good stuff dries up! I gotta do Something better next yr, I had nothing to can. My husband doesn’t get into the gardening or canning deal, grocery store is quicker:( I been trying to grow organic but next yr whatever I can put out there to feed stuff & mk it all grow,bad as I hate to use chemicals.

[@mhpgardener]

Thanks, we both enjoy sharing what we do. I've been buying from Morgan County Seeds for many years, just good folks to do business with. In regard to watering, we went 2 months with almost no rain at all. I watered like crazy, trying to keep things going. Biggest mistake was not setting drip lines or some type of irrigation when I first planted things. Next year, everything gets a deep furrow that I can flood from one end, or drip lines. It's the old saying, "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it". Good luck with your garden....and have fun.

[@harrygibus]

I had the same problem with tomatoes in Los Angeles - they just need too much water. I thought about drilling holes in the pots at a certain level, adding fittings, and ganging them all together with tubing and then having an extra pot with a float valve connected to a nutrient reservoir higher than the intended water level. The thing is, I couldn't find anything about what the best air root to water root ratio is - do you have any idea?

[@mhpgardener]

I considered the float valves too, but with the totes being buried, I'd have to disturb the plants too much to get them put in. So I took the least disruptive option, buckets and buckets of water. Not sure about an optimum air root to water ratio either.

[@harrygibus]

@@mhpgardener maybe you could try siphon tubes between all the containers? Maybe root growth into the tubes would be an issue? I think maybe as long as they have constant access to water at the tap root they probably benefit from as much access to oxygen as possible.

[@phil1979]

I had tomatoes and later watermelons in a 40-gallon trash can and let the water go down to 20 gallons and then kept it there. It worked, but next time I'll add nutrients with the fill water.

[@Elementaldomain]

@@mhpgardener Not only what you stated but the root systems got so big on mine that the air stones got hopelessly entangled in them as the summer went on and I ended up having to add new air stones rather than try to untangle the older ones because they were so enmeshed in the root system that they were not putting out any air so I assume because you mentioned your water levels were inconsistent, that might have happened with your float also. I did find though that the air root to water level was not as critical as I previously thought. There were days, maybe two-three days in a row that I could not get to replenishing the water/fert and they ended up almost without water. And sometimes I was just in a hurry and filled them all the way up to the top of the container. This started occurring for about the last month and did not seem to hurt them in any way.

[@chevy1playz790]

might wanna watch out for the pumpkins rooting along the ground

[@gregsullivan8956]

Looking good

[@foxcouleefarms]

Do you think adjusting the nutrients might have helped with the early success? I know you have your standard formula but just curious on your thoughts about this.

[@MrBucidart]

Thanks Bobby .... 2020 vision

[@sandhollowhomestead6972]

Hey Bobby, where do the pumpkins rest at? Off the float?

[@derekgore1268]

Kratky would have worked fine for you - just install a single float valve & connect all your totes together. The float valve should provide a liquid level 25% up from the bottom of your totes to feed the nutrient automatically once the water (nutrient) level fell to 25%. No air pumps or air stones required. Kratky discusses using float valves in some of his videos.

[@mhpgardener]

I considered that, but with the totes buried in the ground and the plants already a decent size, the least disruptive option was to drop an air stone in there and keep going.

[@derekgore1268]

@@HowToHydroponics Yes, you can find them at this link: kzbin.info/door/jwBvl5MXuQMziQL2_pQCPA

[@derekgore1268]

@@mhpgardener Yes, the totes being below ground level does make it hard to add float valves. I know you did this to keep your nutrient temperatures down.

[@bradmelvin7187]

Thanks again

[@reyarregladoanghardinerong4705]

hi sir you are so lucky guys.

[@normawingo5116]

I’ve had such a difficult time getting fruit to set on my indoor kratky grow of veggies for the rescue animals my microgreens are kicking butt, but really a challenge setting fruits on kratky veggies.

[@Elementaldomain]

Are you using parthenocarpic seeds for your veggies? Although tomatoes, peppers and green beans are self-pollinating for the most part, if you are trying to grow squash or cucumbers try some of Johnny's Seeds varieties for greenhouse production.

[@normawingo5116]

Elementaldomain no I’m not, so probably great thing that I watched this video. Nutrition here in rescue is the number 1 issue. I’ll try your recommendation, thanks so much for your reply. I’ll try anything to help these little sweeties, for better nutrition.

[@derekgore1268]

Bobby. Adding silicon in a bio-usable form will help heaps with your heat stress. Even though perlite contains silicate rock, the silicon is locked up & generally not available to the plant. Professional hydroponics growers add liquid silicon - something they do not talk about outside of their own communities. You can read more here: www.sungro.com/time-say-si-silicon-bring-back-missing-element-soilless-growing/

[@toddbz]

FYI Hydro-Gardens has beneficial nematodes

[@howardklam1]

How many plants do you have there? How many buckets?

[@mhpgardener]

3 totes buried in the ground with about 12 plants total.

[@howardklam1]

@@mhpgardener thanks. I have a two plants of similar procedure. So far the pumpkins turns white and rot. I am told that the plants have too much water. Any suggestions?

[@TheInvisibleOne1026]

What an intro

[@jgunnm1]

Kratky uses two methods a garbage can to grow cukes and float value to keep a two inch water level. His channel show how to built a home made float value.

[@towerjokey]

MHP, How could you do that to those poor nematodes. LOL Things look good thanks for the tips.

[@insaneorange8159]

I am looking for a hot house like yours. Where did you get your?

[@mhpgardener]

It's a homemade design using 3/4 conduit. I got it from an old fella who was using it to keep stuff dry. He just put a tarp on top. I saw it and reworked it a bit for a greenhouse.

[@insaneorange8159]

@@mhpgardener looks great. Guess I should grab a pencil and paper to figure out what I will need to make one. Thanks.

[@TheRedneckprepper]

WHERE DID YA GET YOUR GREEN HOUSE ?

[@mhpgardener]

Bought the frame from an old fella for $300. It's 3/4 EMT conduit that was bent on a homemade jig. It was being used with a tarp on top. I saw it and figured I could make a greenhouse out of it. 9 years later, it's still standing....with the original plastic.

[@TheRedneckprepper]

@@mhpgardener TY

[@adventurious1234]

Lookin good...did better than mine..Lol

[@osvaldolorenzon5421]

Sem tradução ❓ fica difícil 🙈

[@nickh1114]

I'm really digging the intro

[@mhpgardener]

Thanks, I think its pretty cool too.

[@turo238]

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