Establishing young plants 10/03/09

These are some of the young plants i will be growing, sweet peppers on the right, tomatoes in the middle and chillies to the right. There are also some plants called Pepino at the far right which are nicknamed melon pears because of their sweet soft fleshed fruits.
The plants have recently been inserted into the larger 4" rockwool blocks and have been kept under a gentle fluorescent light to let them develop their root system before intensifying the light, i'm using a T5 high output 8-way flourescent light because it produces lots of lightat a low temperature with low power comsumption and has a good spectrum of light for vegatative growth and i can choose between 4 and 8 lights. I'm keeping humidity high into the 70%'s to slow the transpiration rate. I use 2 HR50's for the whole greenhouse which is 75m2, they're linked up to a humidistat to control humidity.

As you can see the plants are sat on mesh grid this allows air to the underneath of the blocks. When roots reach the bottom and come into contact with the air the tip dies back.
Using the analogy of 'topping' a plant where you nip the growing tip off a plant to encourage side branch growth by changing the position of growth hormones in the plant. The same principles can be applied to the roots.

This technique is called air pruning and is something i will always do to get my plants established well enough to cope with environmental changes. Changes from the propagation stage to final planting position include greater light intensity, heat, air movement and amount of water recieved by the plant. Moving a plant too early will put too great a demand on it before it has developed and will stress it to the point of stunted growth, poor root development and risk of becoming disease infected. A well established plant will grow quicker and healthier and have potential to yield greater than one that isn't.

Note: All plant species and varieties among species have widely different root systems some thin some thick, some are abundant others are not.

A technique in commercial grows is to use a root-stock plant and to graft a favoured top part of a plant onto it. This means you use a variety of plant that has been bred to produce alot of roots and is disease resistant. That plant hasn't been bred for flavour or yield so to get the best of both worlds, they simply cut the top off and replace it with a plant that has been bred for flavour and yield. It's a technique i've not tried but am very interested in the benefits as you can choose the best phenotypic characteristic from two plants.

Arranging systems

With seeds sown i can concentrate on the layout of the greenhouse. Once i put a plant into a system it will be a nightmare to move it so it's best getting it right from the start. I found it took longer planning the greenhouse layout than it did moving all the systems back in.

To tackle things methodically i looked at things i would use most often. Starting off with the 350l waterbutt that i use to top up my tanks with, storing water in the waterbutt allows the water to reach room temperature and any chlorine to evaporate. The waterbutt also holds the water to both my HR-15 humidification systems. I chose to position the waterbutt in the centre against the backwall of the greenhouse because thats the least distance for me to travel with buckets of water, and both humidifiers point to either end of the greenhouse to distribute the humidity evenly and effectively.
The next choice i made was because the greenhouse is a display greenhouse i wanted it to look good when you walk in. I thought that putting the IWS Systems either side of the waterbutt would present some symmetry when entering the greenhouse. It also display the 3 sizes of waterbutts that we stock.
Last years banana plant grew massive and hopefully this year it will too. Taking this into consideration i had to position it at the far end of the greenhouse under the apex of the roof where the greenhouse is at it's tallest.
Since this picture was taken i've done a bit of shuffling around of systems. I swapped the drip system with the NFT Multi-Duct 601 because i have set the drip system up as a 'run-to-waste' systems and it makes life easier for me when it is near the door and i can run a hose out of the catchment tray.

Using a vertical grow system such as the coliseum must be positioned facing the sun when not using artificial light and again i run it to waste straight out the door.
Another thing i had to consider was planting density, which plants were off in what systems, how many plants will fit in the system and how much space will the plants require at their mature size.
It can be quite hard to visualize all those factors when your plants start off so small. I like to give myself room to manouvre around the plants but i also like the jungle look in the greenhouse.

Propagation for 2009 - 02/02/09

It took longer to clean down all the systems and paint the floor than expected, in a heated greenhouse i would have liked to have started my seeds off earlier to give them a head start to the season.

I'm propagating more seeds than whats needed just incase some of the seeds aren't viable and so i can pick and choose the better plants later on.

I've also used a selection of different propagation media incase i have better success with one and not another. I've used 1.5" rockwool cubes, fleximix, jiffy 7 peat pellets and a new media called sure to grow which is like pillow stuffing.

I pre-soaked everything with VitaLink Plantstart and BioPlus, two great products for getting well rooted little plants. I set the EC to 1.0 and the pH to 5.8.

I am using a T5 LightWave 8-Way flourescent lighting unit above the propagator and i'm really impressed by it. I can choose to have 4 lights on at once (4 middle tubes or 4 outer tubes) for when they are young and all 8 lights for vigorous growth when they are large enough.

Sometimes when the sun came out temperatures would reach above 30°C in the propagator, it was essentialy a greenhouse inside a greenhouse. To prevent cooking my young plants i used black and white reflective sheeting to reflect the suns rays away from the propagator, and lifting the light away helped. Opening the vents helps cool down the propagator but drops the humidity levels in there, I can keep an eye on my temperatures and humidity levels using a hygro-thermometer and it tells me the maximum and minimum levels of both readings.

Now i'm waiting for seeds to germinate i can organise the rest of the greenhouse.

A Fresh Start

Last year's grow was a steep learning curve for me. It ended well with lots of fruit and veg for staff at aquaculture and most of the customers who came to visit.

However there were a few problem issues such as god damn mealy bugs, it was near impossible to control these fluffly sacs of goo. They appear to be imobile but managed to get into all nooks and crannys they could find and laid hundreds of eggs that spread throughout the greenhouse carried by the wind.

As the growing year drew to an end it became a good chance to completely clean down the greenhouse and start a fresh.


I started by dismantling all the systems and cleaning them down with hydrogen peroxide, it's safe to use and doesn't leave a harmful residue like bleach can.

The paint on the floor had been annoying throughout the season and was chipping up. I attempted to bring up any loose flakes but when i realised i would be there for days lifting the whole layer off, so i decided i should just paint over it and hope for the best.

With a new lick of paint and a wipe down the greenhouse was ready to start a new growing season.

Bananarama! 01/07/08

The banana plant has reached maturity and is bearing large well formed fruit. It looks very impressive in our greenhouse standing at around two and half meters with broad fan like leaves.

As you can see the bananas have begun to ripen on the plant, time to cut down. The bunch has quite a few bannanas on it all of a decent size too.

For the bananas to ripen i kept them in a cool dark place. I utilized the mini grow tent for this. Next time i do it i will use use an extraction fan in the tent for air circulation. You could tell there was a high humidity level in the room when you opened the door, this increases the chance of any mould ruining your harvest.

The taste test - These bananas were thick and fleshy, not the best for eating raw as it gets a bit sludgey in the mouth. Perfect for cooking as a desert though because they were really sweet.

All apologies 01/07/08

To all that follow this blog, i am sorry that i haven't been able to update my posts for a hell of a long time. This summer has been a busy time for the company with hollidays and staff change. Lots has happened in the greenhouse but i will try and update you with some of the more important stuff.

I will be allocated more time, more frequently to spend updating the blog too keep you more up to date with what's goin on.

Setting up an NEF Ebb and Flow / Flood and Drain system with Pablo Beetroot 05/05/08

I have chosen to grow a variety of beetroot called Pablo for its uniform shape, smooth skin, great taste and high yield. As you can see i have germinated the seeds in jiffy peat pellets. I like these because they retain moisture well and contain slow releasing nutrients that are vital for early growth. I have brought them on until they are well established and about 10 - 15cm in height. Their leaves are weighty so i have used sandwich bag ties to hold them up by tying a loop around the stem and sticking the other end in the peat pellet.

Sit the 45 litre nutrient reservoir on a level surface and place the flood tray on top so that it sits in the grooves. position the tank so the gap faces the front. This is where you check and fill the nutrient solution. There are two tubes that stick upright from the flood tray. The smaller of the two nearest the front is attatched to a microjet mc 450 pump and allows for the nutrient solution to flood the medium in the tray.


The second larger upright tube is an overflow drain so that the flood tray can never overspill into the grow room. Handy when theres electrics about. There are also small holes in the grooves of the tray which are for drainage too.
I have added a thin layer of large 8-12mm clay pebbles to allow for better drainage.


I have filled the rest of the tank with seramis that are smaller than the clay pebbles i have used and they also hold onto more water to prevent drying out between floods.
I dug a space in the seramis to fit the peat pellet, in a staggered arrangement for maximum growth space and covered it back up with the seramis.


After transplanting the plants look lifeless and limp. This can be normal as there are stress factors such as a sudden drop in humidity and temperature from coming out of the propagator. Also because the seramis was dry when i transplanted i felt that it sucked some of the moisture out of the roots and peat pellet by process of osmosis.


I took a jug and scooped the nutrient solution i pre-mixed from the nutrient reservoir and poured it over the medium. I then made a black and white cover to prevent loss of moisture from the medium, i cut holes in the right place and pulled the plants through.


After a few days when the plants had rooted in and become established i began to flood the table once a day using a grasslin segmental timer set to 15mins on at mid day.
After nearly two weeks the beets are showing rapid signs of growth.

Setting up an Amazon aeroponics system with perpetual spinach 20/05/08

The amazon took two years of development by company Nutriculture to bring to the market a reliable product of top quality that gives high end aeroponic results at an affordable price. Aeroponics offers an optimal ratio of oxygen, water and nutrient to the plants roots which allows for rapid growth, promoting high yields. It is simple to set up and i will show you how.
Lets begin with the base. Everything will be stacked upon the base so make sure it sits on even ground, do this accurately using a spirit level or by seeing whether water builds up at one end or is evenly spread in the bottom. The base is also the nutrient reservoir and has a 50 litre capacity. Make sure the lowered groove/lip is towards the back of the tank as this is where the next tier will sit, allowing you room at the front to mix your nutrient solution.

The next teir is the base of the root chamber. It has two holes at either end, the larger should be facing the back of the system as it is a drain hole. The smaller hole at the front is to allow the delivery tube to connect to the pump.

Next we sit the already assembled delivery tube and sprinklers in the raised grooved beds to hold the in position for an even delivery of solution to each plant site, it is raised to prevent root mass building up around them and blocking them.


Twist the 'tail' end of the delivery tube so that it fits through the small hole in the base of the root chamber and hangs into the nutrient reservoir.
Here we connect the pump to the delivery tube. I have used an extra piece of standard 1/2" hose pipe to lengthen the delivery tube so that the pump sits flat against the bottom of the nutrient reservoir and gets the maximum usage out of the tank.

Now we can place the lid on top. Here you can see this is an eight site Amazon but there are 4, 8, 16, 32 site lids, and now you can double the ammount of sites with the brand new Twin Amazon that shares a nutrient reservoir (keep updated as i will post a blog on this new system soon.
Here is i have covered the amazon in black and white, this helps reflect light and heat to prevent an overly warm nutrient solution as the greenhouse is already warm. However you may want to add a water heater if you need to control your temperature.

There are two sizes of holes in the Amazon lid that hold either 1.5" net pots or 3" net pots. The 1.5" net pot sized holes are ideal when using an aeroponic propagator such as the x-stream aeroponic poragators as you can simply propogate and grow a fully mature plant without transplanting into a larger sized pot. However there is also a 3" net pot sized hole and is ideal for larger sized plants with greater root growth and stem size.
I will be growing a perpetual spinach in the amazon which i have germinated in 1.5" fleximix blocks, but for demonstrative purposes i will show you a simple method of how to transplant either a 1.5" net pot or grow cube such as rockwool, fleximix or jiffy peat pellet.

Simply insert the 1.5" net pot, fleximix, rockwool, jiffy into the 3" net pot and fill the side gaps with seramis (as pictured) or small 4-6mm clay pebbles as these are small enough to fill the gaps without spilling out of the net pot. They also provide excellent drainage preventing any rotting around the stem.
This is a picture of the sprinklers in action, they spin round supplying an even spread of nutrient solution to the roots keeping them moist but allowing maximum aeration for a fresh supply of oxygen to the roots.

Keep updated as i will post new blogs on the spinach's development.