This post is a continuation really of the "Hydroponics" thread posted by Ken last year.
I thought you kind people would like to see my attempts at growing plants in the greenhouse with minimal watering effort after the problems last year.

I was given 2 Greenhouse Sensation solar powered units for Christmas by my daughters and decided to try other methods as well as a comparison.

The photo shows the 2 solar units either side of the door with 3 tomatoes in each. The only mistake being I didn't read the packet and San Marzano is growing too short thus making maintenance more difficult than it needs to be.

I bought 3 2-pot Easy2Grow systems with water tank. These use a valve and wick water to the plants as required.
These contain 4 more tomatoes on the left and 2 cucumbers at the far end.

I also built 3 home made "Earth Pots" from spare storage tubs the wife was throwing out and 3 unused melamine trays. You can see one in the photo with a courgette in the GH out of the gales.

I then decided to do another version of this which comprises of 2 large trays - The bottom one holding 25+ ltrs. of water and the other with holes drilled in to pass capillary matting wicks through. This is at the far right and has 5 peppers nearest the glass and 7 small pots of different Basil germinating in the middle row.
There are 4 spare holes at the front and a tube to add water. A small float arrangement tells me when to add water.

So far all but the small cucumber are doing well in spite of the weather and I am looking forward to the first crops. There are already 4 trusses on 1 of the San Marzano and the Sweet Olive is almost at the eaves.

MikA

Evening MikA, a very interesting post, and your plants all look very healthy too.

Thank you OH.
For me the big benefit is no more guesswork on watering. If the tanks are looking low, then refill The only thing extra is to mix the correct nutrient dose as per instructions. so much less stressful.

MikA

End of season report on my first year of hydroponics.

All the systems achieved what I wanted in that watering was a complete doddle - no guesswork at all - just top up and leave them alone. All the plants stayed quite healthy in spite of the gloom and all the condensation with everything being so wet all summer.

The solar grow units have in the main performed well as have the Autopot systems for the tomatoes. Unfortunately the Cucumbers were a bit of a disaster - they seemed to decide the Autumn had come early (middle of July) and stopped producing. Autopot were very helpful and I managed to keep them going a bit longer but when I took them out I found very poor root systems (only a few roots around the edges of the pots. I think this is almost certainly my fault of not getting them growing properly before putting them in the trays and I didn't get the tank nutrient dose correct in time for them. This didn't affect the tomatoes however. In general they grew well in the autopots and it was interesting to see how the roots had developed when I took them out.
San Marzano had lots of very fine roots all through the compost as well as the main rootball and around sides. Herald was mainly around the sides with a small rootball, Sweet Olive had few roots around the edge but several large ones and a thick but shallow rootball and Gardener's Delight had some big roots roots around the side as well as fine roots to half way down. So variety is as important as preparation.


I think for next year I will pay more attention to starting the plants off right and put the Cucumbers in the solar units where food and water won't be an issue.
I will also change the varieties. No Sungold. I didn't enjoy this tomato. I just couldn't judge when they were ripe - under-ripe and tart or over-ripe and splitting.
I will also grow only one San Marzano and treat it properly as semi-determinate - i.e. don't keep taking side shoots off. Maybe try Cristal to augment the Herald and go back to Sweet 100.

My total tomato yield for the year has been much lower than last year 13.5 Kilos compared to over 16. Some of this is down to growing Sungold and Sweet Olive, some to treating San Marzano as a cordon but most is probably down to the weather and getting very few fruit before the start of August. I have picked most fruit over the last 3 or 4 weeks. Such a pity my wife does not want to make green tomato chutney this year (we have loads left from previous years).

The Peppers in my home made tray unit grew slowly but one of the California Wonder suddenly took off and started really growing and producing fruit. It had got its roots down the wick into the tank. Maybe a learning point for next year. The Patio Red didn't really start producing until September (but only green) and the other C.W. was a disappointment with only 2 fruit.

The Basil on the home made tray was very dependent on variety. Sweet Genovese, Lettuce Leaf and Cinnamon grew very well but the others failed.

The Courgettes did not grow well in the home made pots outdoors - probably down to a lack of nutrients. The rain kept filling the tanks and I was unable to get a proper feeding regime in place.

Summary
Good first effort but lots to learn for next year and just hope for better weather


Mik

I have read your post which shared over here, I think it is very interesting and I have to say that Hydroponic garden greenhouses offer the best available technological innovation for increasing food in roof configurations, providing a high generate and quality from a small actual and ecological impact.

William, where exactly is "over here"?

Hi Mik - I've been slow to catch on to this thread, for which i apologise, knowing that we talked about hydroponics before you got going with it. I'm very impressed with the results you achieved. I now have a small greenhouse, so grew my tomatoes in that last year - in growbags because they needed planting out before the ghouse was ready, but they'll be planted in the borders this year. I used one of my hydroponic units for peppers and chillies in the conservatory, with very good results. I was just going to say that if you want to grow a cordon plum tomato, I would recommend either Olivade (F1 hybrid) or the similar Red Debaro (both available from Simpsons Seeds). Can you provide a bit more info about your other self-watering systems? I tried growing courgettes in large plastic buckets last year but not very successfully: it may have been the season or it may have been my watering regime...