This Video is from the Youtube channel: “Keep on Growin’ with Mike VanDuzee”.
I show you how to make a simple Kratky container to grow a tomato plant. We also try it in a traditional garden and an NFT system. I usually grow just leafy greens but people have been asking me about other veggies. Going to give this a try.
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Just found you. This would be so good for seniors and inner city folks. Love the recycle and experimenting too. Thanks
Molly Leonard Thank you! We are going to try to introduce this to more people like that this year.
I am new to hydroponics but I am learning so much! Just wanted to say thank you for all you do
Thank you so much Dianna. Much more to come. Nice to meet you!
I am so thrilled and excited to get started in hydroponic gardening and I couldn’t have chosen a better teacher than you to learn from!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge; a very selfless contribution to our needy planet. I will keep you apprised of my success, positive thinking due to your help.
Thank you so much! I am so excited that we live in a time that we can share information with people all over the world in a matter of moments. Thank you for the kind words and good luck with the gardening!
I know Im randomly asking but does anybody know of a tool to get back into an instagram account??
I was dumb lost the login password. I appreciate any help you can give me
@Elisha Shawn instablaster 😉
@Camdyn Luke thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and im in the hacking process now.
Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Camdyn Luke it did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I am so happy:D
Thank you so much, you really help me out !
For larger plants like tomatoes and peppers do you really need larger net cups or could you just do 2″ cups for pretty much everything? I understand why bigger net cups help in other hydroponic systems but it seems like for Kratky you could use whatever size you have?
Yes, you could use the smaller. I have about 50 of the 3″ net cups from years ago and am still trying to make use of them.
Make the holder tighter and you don’t need the cup
your video’s are wonderful, so down to earth, easy to understand, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I love to garden, can’t wait to get started on the hydroponic garden system.
Thank you very much. I get excited when I hear someone is going to give hydroponics a try.
I didn’t see this mentioned in the comments, my apologies if it was. I noticed that you mixed the MB, Epsom, and Calcium Nitrate all together and then added water. The way this nutrient should be mixed is first dissolve the Masterblend in Part ‘A’, then in another container mix the Calcium Nitrate as Part ‘B’. Then go back and add your Epsom Salts to part ‘A’. When everything has had a chance to dissolve, then you mix Parts A and B. (It’s my simplified understanding that if you mix the dry powder together before dissolving, the calcium nitrate does not play nice and they do not allow each other to dissolve properly. I need to spend some time researching this further, I was told to do this by our fertilizer manufacturer.) I’m going to use your idea of the tote for one tomato plant and see how it goes, thanks for that.
No problem. I het this question often. I am trying to show beginners the easiest way. Always better to go by the manufacturer’s instructions. I have been doing it this way for 6 yrs. All of the plants in my videos have been grown this way. If you mix the dry together and leave it sit for a while, or days, the calcium nitrate will absorb moisture and turn hard as a rock that can’t dissolve. I only mix right before I toss it in the water.
@Keep on Growin’ with Mike VanDuzee Thanks for that.
Indeed, I’m only basing that on advice the rep from the fertilizer company told me. And as you point out, they say not to store the fertilizer mixed with calcium nitrate as well.
After starting with the MaxiGro product that does not require a second part, I just assumed I could mix it all together. However I’m thinking that perhaps the reason the MaxiGro is just one part is it does not have enough calcium nitrate to worry about forming insoluble precipitates when mixed with magnesium and phosphate salts when you mix it with water. So the formation of insoluble precipitates seems to be the consequence of trying to dissolve calcium nitrate in the presence of phosphate and magnesium.
So I decided to do a simple test using a nutrient blend similar to what the MB w/ calcium nitrate mix is. I filled three measuring cups with RO water. In the first I put 1l, and in the next 2 I put 500ml each. Then to the first I added a dry nutrient mix of 1G of 7-11-27 fertilizer, .7g calcium nitrate, and .4g epsom salts and mixed it. In the next I added the 1G of 7-11-27, then into the third I mixed .7g of calcium nitrate, and stirred them. I then went back and added the epson salt to the 7-11-27. I then combined jars #2 and #3 into one. My resulting TDS were too high to read on both, so then I cut each with 50% RO water and measured again. In the first I had an EC of 4, and on the second I got an EC of 4.4. This would seem to indicate I got slightly higher dissolved solids in the second batch, and this was also indicated visually with the presence of some undissolved particles on the bottom of the first jar. My guess is then that either method of mixing will give you a working nutrient solution. However if you have the time, and want maximum efficiency (EG, maximum amount of dissolved solids), then you are probably best off to mix the NPK fertilizer in one vessel, and your Calcium Nitrate in another before blending them together. Anecdotally, in retrospect I think I noticed that the MaxiGro did not seem to dissolve as readily in water as does the 2 part mix I prepare now.
Thanks, really appreciate the work. That is too much for some of my viewers to do. I will point them to this comment if they have questions. I like the respectful way you answered. Most just told me I could not do it and hen got upset when I told them there were 2 1/2 years of videos saying otherwise. To be honest, off grid non circulating is not the best way to go, but it is the easiest for some. I will make another video explaining this. Have an awesome day my friend!
@Keep on Growin’ with Mike VanDuzee Thanks again Mike,
That little experiment was far from accurate in that it’s pretty hard to get precise weights from a kitchen scale when you are dealing with fractions of a gram. Also, I just remembered that the meter was measuring a range between 4 and 4.4 on the EC, so in reality your advantage in dissolving solids in 2 parts could theoretically be as low as 1 or 2%. I also wondered if I had mixed with a wand blender the nutrient in first 1l jar would have dissolved better, or used water at a higher temperature. I was a good earning experience however, and I’m tempted to do it again with 5 gal of room temperature RO water where I could probably see more accurate results. Whatever they may be though, it would seem you would get less than a 10% advantage in terms of all your nutrient dissolving by using one method over the other.
If it wasn’t for you, I would have Never started in Hydroponics! Thank you so very much!!
Awesome! Thank you donna, you rock! Happy gardening!
Hi Mike do you have any videos to show how you make your drain containers?
I’m interested to start with a non circulating system (tube) to see how I get on. I notice you say you barely need to top up the water. I live in the Caribbean and I’m pretty sure the water will evaporate quickly. Do I just top up with fresh water as and when? Do you think algae will be an issue?
Hey there! I’m new to Hydroponic gardening and only now doing research on this style. I love it but dont know where do being so I’m really thankful for your channel. Could I please ask what nutrients you use exactly? I’m confused with it
Cool, I try to keep it easy here. I use Masterblend mixed with calcium nitrate and epsom salt.
I just started some but I bought the aero gardens I bought four of them and I was shocked within a few days I already have plans I’m gonna catch your videos and see what I can learn I’m excited to be able to grow I have a whole room in my house that I could use my doctor wants me to eat a plant-based diet I might as well grow my own
Awesome, sounds great!! Hope you do well with the diet. We will be posting some recipes soon.😎🌱🌱
Thank you for your awesome videos! The pool noodle isn’t toxic or the dye in the noodle, I hope not for your sake you’ve been eating that gorgeous food. I will give it a try! And really appreciate the explanation of the drill bit, didn’t know, I always use a utility knife.
This is one of the best step by step videos out there. Great job!
Another issue solved, top heavy plants need an inverted tomato cage. Excellent thanks
I know this is an old video but I just found your channel and this video and I’m loving your experiments and how approachable you make hydroponics (about to start experimenting with this myself) and growing food! Is there a follow up showing the results for this video? I searched on tomato and did some looking but didn’t see one I thought was a direct follow up, so wanted to ask I’d love to see how it turned out!
I had a copyright problem with the music on that video and had to remove it. They all did fairly well but since they were already almost mature plants, it was hard to tell. I may try again with new transplants. Thank you for watching my videos. Happy gardening.
once you drill your hole for checking the water level you should hot glue that plastic ring on the pool noodle to keep out any rain water so it doesn’t get contaminates in your nutrient water and keeps it from over flowing in case it rains really hard or for a long stretch of time 🙂
Dont know if you tried this or not but it seems like you could install downward facing tees with a capped pipe going downwards for the long roots to grow into. This could reduce or eliminate blocking the flow pipes
You are very inspiring . I am surely going to try this season in Canada .
I’m just getting into this gardening. I’m excited. I’m in Texas but I also spend 5 months of the year in Michigan. June through October. So I’m excited to have growing time in Texas and Michigan
I like that your approach is often experimental. That’s how I do it also. But with the healthy food scarcity I see looming ahead I want to make fewer and fewer mistakes. I want enough for my family to have plus to help out neighbors a little.
I have new videos with tomatoes coming soon. I had good results with the new experiments.