This Video is from the Youtube channel: “Hoocho”.
Hoochos explores the worlds of Hydroponics, Aquaponics, Permaculture, Homesteading, Fermentation, Technology and DIY Builds to look at the world through a larger lens that can incorporate the best of everything into a rich and rewarding lifestyle.
Through self sufficiency we can reduce consumption and increase our hyperlocal household production.
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Someone below has probably mentioned it already. But an organic gardener I know recommends spraying the plant / fruit with chilli water. Get the fresh chilli, chop roughly, cover in boiling water, and allow to cool. Filter out the lumps and spray the water on the plant that is getting chewed. The rodent that won’t eat chilli on the plant, won’t eat chilli on the other plants. Actually works really well.
Mad respect for all the effort putting this video together keep going please 🙏 next video how to grow a small tree using a hydroponic system
Do you think this would also work with garlic whater?
@Tillman Brückner you could certainly try. There are bugs that don’t like garlic. I use the logic if your bugs aren’t eating something, eg chilli, it will work as a detergent. And to be fair, I don’t get many bugs attacking my garlic.
So isn’t this just replicating store bought vegetables that are grown in greenhouses and have next to nothing nutrition?
Can confirm this works. Garlic oil also works
I’ve been using “infinite” Kratky for tomatoes and cucumbers for a while. Definitely need to pay attention to the nutrient solution over time: (a) during hot times the plants transpire way more water than nutrients, so the nutrients get super concentrated to the point where the plants can no longer pull water (bad!); and (b) over time you can end up with deficiencies as the plants use up one component of the nutrients. Fully changing the water periodically works great for this. I do us a float valve, but I connect several containers together to a separate 2 gallon container with the float valve–it’s too far for the roots to reach. It also requires all connected containers to be at the same level. When starting a new plant, I’ll stopper the connection to the float valve so I can start with a full container, then connect it up once the plant has used enough water to bring it down to the proper level. Works great!
Are you doing any pH adjustments? What EC do you start at?
@superkillr My water source usually has an EC of 0.2, and I’m using ENVY brand dry two-part nutes (form Amazon), usually mixed to a final EC of 2.0–mainly because I’m lazy–I’ve been meaning to research tailoring EC to the veg I’m growing, although I often purposely run my tomatoes closer to 2.5, but I don’t really worry about it. For lettuce, definitely closer to 1.5 EC. As for PH, after adding these, I’m typically running 6.0 to 6.5, so I usually don’t even measure and assume it’ll be fine. When water transpiration concentrates, nutes, the EC goes off the charts–last week (not having paid any attention, I drain most of the nutes, refilled with plain water, and the EC was *still* off the charts–LOL! So I drained again, refilled again with water, and got down to 2.4 EC (still more than my target 2.0, but I’m lazy). My biggest problem (I live in Hawaii) is that pests grow even better than plants, so I’m constantly battling moths, aphids, etc.
What do you use to connect your containers together?
@Alex J. I’m using 1/2″ poly tubing and quick-connect connectors. Definitely not the cheapest way to go. For that I’d suggest hose or the cheap landscaping poly tubing available at big box stores, and non-quick-connect fittings. I’m using 2- and 5-gallon buckets for everything.
I deal with the same exact problem in my rain gutter grow system. I have 8 plants per gutter and in the heat they concentrate the solution in a few hours because of transpiration. To combat this in the summer I switch my reservoir to water and I top off each plant with nutrient solution once a week or so. Seems to be working well.
Your videos are really something special mate. Been following your content for awhile now. Your content has helped me more than any other in my own hydroponics journey. And even more so than that, the videos are just a joy to watch. Very few sources of content exist that fall into my “Comfort” category, and yours is one of them, meaning that I always come back to your channel, skim through your videos, and just relax and watch, learn, appreciate, and feel all the positive vibes that come along with it. Your bit where you are relaxing with your plants between takes says it all. That’s what it’s all about isnt it?
You enjoy what you do, and you are putting in the work so that others can enjoy what you are doing right along with you, and maybe even take some of that enjoyment into their own hands through their own home gardening. Simply amazing.
I was also watching when you went through your break up, and I really empathized with you then, as i’m sure most did. That is so unbelievably hard. But look at you now. You look amazing. You are in shape, healthy, surely from eating the freshest plants on earth ;), you’re smiling. It’s great. Yeah there may still be some pain and hardships in there, but you are doing it. Still doing what makes you happen. Still pumping out videos for others to enjoy.. I’m proud of you, and I don’t even know your name 😅 Hoocho, I appreciate you!.
Woah. Mate.
I love this.
Thank-you.
@Hoocho You’re very welcome! Meant every word. Stay well. A big hello from Maryland, US.
Wow nick ..nicely stated .man’s humanity to man ..
Amazing work Hoochos 🙂 really loving the kratky systems you’re showing us. I’d be really keen to see this method without LECA or Coco coir for growing tomatoes or other fruiting plants. And I absolutely love the idea of using the float valve, would be so cool to see this done on smaller containers (maybe even 20 or 30L buckets with the float valve so that you can grow in Kratky, with no electricity or pumps, just a gravity fed float valve, and not having to use such large containers and no other growing medium. Thanks so much Hoochos!
You know I was just thinking of that, long ago I remember seeing a gravity method that had a continuous recycling flow once primed, until evaporation level reached critical volume levels. I was thinking that method would be optimal?
I’ve had issues with Kratky having smaller yields than DWC. The powerless has its advantage, but should be noted it doesn’t perform as well. Otherwise, it’s a fantastic way to start for new home growers!
Probably this was the most valuable video on the kratky method I’ve seen so far. Thank you for the details. Specially on the topic on how to keep growing after the plant has consumed all the nutrients in the bucket. Would love to see how it goes after refilling the bucket once or twice.
In hydroponics one can expect deficiencies of most of the essential nutrient elements, i.e., nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper. Silicon or sodium deficiencies might occasionally develop in some plant species.
Hearing you mention flow and seeing how happy you are right now makes me so happy given how hard things were around 5 months ago. I know not every day will be like this but it’s good to see you’re experiencing this happiness again. Thank you for doing another kratky! I don’t have access to electricity outside so I can only do kratky so this is super helpful! I hope to do this with cucumbers!
I’m so glad I found your channel. I rewatch your videos until you put out a new one haha. I learn so much from your content and your passion is so inspiring. The fact that you are consistently considering different types of communities and their access is incredible. Keep on keeping on, Hooch! So happy to see you thriving once more!
I was very curious to see you do an EC and pH test on the remaining nutrient in each of the buckets. I was wondering whether the water was being stripped out faster than the nutrient or vice versa. If the water was getting stripped out quicked (Toastey Queensland summer growing conditions) then maybe making up a lower strength solution to put in the buckets would be worth it instead of using the premixed IBC contents. food for thought (Pun intended).
Hey Hoocho,
I’ve been following your channel for a while now and I really love the content. The vibe is great and it’s a good learning experience.
I want to build a similar system, except with some small changes to facilitate a place on the windowsill and I want to put strawberries in there. Thank you very much for the explanation and the concept.
Thank you for all the experiments, they contribute so much to the Hydroponic community. Love your work, thank you.
I would suggest that your blossom end rot is a lack of sulphur and or magnesium, so some extra magnesium sulphate (Epsom Salts) would fix the problem with this individual plant. Also In my experience growing tomatoes in this technique, nutrient strength increases during hot weather as the plant uses more water than nutrients, so a top up with plain Ph 6.0-6.5 water helps to bring back EC levels to 2.4. I grow in a large poly house under Australian conditions where temps exceed 40C some days, even with 30% white shade mesh covering the poly house. Enjoy your series because you include a good range of methods from simple to more complex in terms of equipment used. I started hydroponics back in the 1960’s where I had to make all my nutrients from basic chemicals, nor any plastic tubs, tubing, accessories etc. I have a medical lab science background so had chemicals and test meters readily available. None of what we take for granted these days did not exist back then, no plastic containers/tubs, tubing, no LED grow lights etc. Greetings from Tasmania Australia 👍😁🇦🇺🦘
Hi top of the day to you. I randomly stumbled on your comment and I reckoned you must have a lot of experience in hydroponics especially in tomatoes planting which I’m looking to go into in Africa. We have a lot of food insecurities and lack of standard food preservation method of tomatoes thus we depend on organic growers and that’s seasonal, I looking to bridge the gap through hydroponics farming but I will want to learn from someone who can guide from their wealth of experience. Could you help mentoring sir? Please?
P.S. Another method I use in hot weather is to switch over from nutrients to plain water at the correct pH. for a day or three. This helps to dissolve unused chemicals in the grow media. Also check the nutient tank and top up with pH’d water to maintain approx 2.4 EC, not critical and I have found that overall the tomatoes thrive very well. Too much nitrogen produces way too many leaves (vegetation) so I reduce the nitrogen to half when tomatoes are fruiting
Alguien podria dar la proporcion de nutrientes y explicar lo del ph para quienes nos iniciamos?
Alguien podria dar la proporcion de nutrientes y explicar lo del ph para quienes nos iniciamos?
Alguien podria dar la proporcion de nutrientes y explicar lo del ph para quienes nos iniciamos?
Thank you for your work. Love learning about this. My wife and I have a Kangen water machine and we can dial in how acidic or alkaloid we want our water. Have you ever tried tweaking the pH of your water or do certain plants prefer a certain pH? Thank you again?
Thanks Hoocho! This looks like a great idea. Question: Did you keep the tomato plant suckers trimmed back? Were these indeterminate tomato plants?
Love the time laps you made. Thank you for the time & effort you made in sharing this detailed info with us 😍 Subscribed!
Thank you very much for all the effort that you have put into your video. So well explained, easy to follow and your Timelapse’s are sublime!
Hey Mitch, to hold the pot saucers to the plywood you could maybe grab a couple of bits of flat scrap wood and make ledges to slide the saucer into on three sides, then a removable ledge you could screw on and off when you want to move the saucer, so just one screw instead of a bunch. Maybe there’s some cool quick-release idea for the removable ledge out there…
I’ve learnt so much from this video, thankyou, hope that helps in some small way.
I thought it was really neat how you took the time to just stop and sit in your chair and just appreciate what you have in life. I am glad you shared that with us instead of cutting that short segment out. This may have been the most important part of your entire video. Showing how taking the time to smell the roses is really easy but so many people miss this opportunity So important for our mental health. Just wanted to thank you for that moment. So many people miss out on those moments but maybe because of your video someone might just pick up on it. Thanks. Just found your channel and this is the first one I am watching. I’m very interested in doing some small hydroponic gardening for my wife and I. I like your speed when you are explaining things. No too fast, just right so the info can sink in.
That was one of the best creative uses of timelapse I’ve ever seen, really well done!
Wow! This is one of the all-around Best made, and most informative videos I’ve seen on this subject. The time-lapse was especially amazing. Incredible work buddy! I think I will do something similar indoors with grow lights, dwarf indeterminate varieties, and smaller containers. I’m tired of fighting all the issues outside and there’s no way I can have a proper greenhouse right now.
The editing, explanation, and conceptual design is really out of the box ❤ Thank you