This year i’m growing strawberries in a larger DWC non circulating system. Part 1 for 2015. No Power or Pumps needed. Very easy DIY Hydroponic system.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Lets Grow Hydroponic Strawberries 2015 (1)
26
Apr
Lets grow some hydroponic strawberries !?
Love me some strawberries Larry. Very cool re-purposing the door as well.
Looking forward to your grow brother. ?
Thanks Larry – I’m looking forward to seeing how these strawberries
progress. I did have a little try at some Kratky strawberries on a
windowsill last year before my greenhouse arrived, and although they
started off well, after a month they started to look a bit sad. The
nutrients I use don’t seem to stay in solution for more than a couple of
weeks. My NFT strawberries this year seem to be off to a good start though.
Cheers!!?
Looks awesome bro wow! the roots sure seem funny with strawberries eh 🙂
Thumbs up bro!?
Without doubt it’s s great way to start off strawberries. Good re-use of
the door. Best wishes.?
Gotta love the recycled door Kratky method ; )?
I’m a big fan of having that 2 inch air gap between the water and the raft.
When I did floating rafts (no air gap), water/moisture would always bubble
up on top of my raft, making my berries get wet and rot before ripe enough
to eat. I had to use little upside down net pots to hold my berries up
above the raft so that they’d stay dry.
Strawberry plants make a different type of root in water vs the air gap
zone. Water roots are thin and don’t transplant to soil very well. The
roots that grow in the air gap area get thick and I presume retain water
better than those thin water roots. Plants that I had in an air gap pond
transplanted to soil more successfully than the plants with water roots.
In hot Arizona, the air gap zone allows water to evaporate off the surface,
which helps remove heat and keeps the reservoir temperatures down. Too high
reservoir temperature causes problems, as you well know.
Nice to hear that you are going back to Seascape variety. I too have
decided that Seascape’s seem like the best day neutral variety. Their
berries are red all the way through the berry. I tried some “Sweet Anne”
day neutrals, and they are okay, but the plant is not very heat tolerant,
berries rot easily if wet, and the berries often leave a white shoulder
that doesn’t ripen (very frustrating). Albion is okay, but berries are
smaller/less productive than Seascape and usually not as tasty either.
Seascape is the day neutral king for taste, productivity, and berry size.
I tried “Mara Des Bois” and “Evie” (not “Evie 2”) everbearing varieties.
Mara Des Bois likes to send out tons of runners, unlike day neutrals.
Haven’t been able to produce a good quality Mara Des Bois berry to taste
yet, since the plants are so busy runnering all the time. Evie seems like a
good variety to me: deep red berries (all the way through) and the plants
are more heat tolerant.?
Awesome Larry, you got it going on my friend. Cant wait to see your berries
grow.?
With the Great success you had growing strawberries with NTF, why switch to
Kratky. The reason I ask is because I built a NTF modeled after the ones
you built. ?
This ought to be a very cool experiment Larry! You’re the hydroponic
strawberry king! Always looking forward to see what’s next! I give this
video a green everbearing thumbs up!?
Oh man, I can’t wait to see how this works out. I figure I’m biding my
time, gathering research and one day BAM! I’ll have the most bad-ass hydro
strawberry patch ever. If these to well, you should have a nice crop with
little work. (And to be honest, I’m just too chicken and lazy to try it,
the process just seems so odd… Not starting from a seed and all) Best of
luck Larry! I’ll be watching the progress.?
This looks like a really fun method to grow strawberries. Thanks for
sharing.?