I've had some successes and some failures so far. I haven't really been able to get any tomato plants to take off and some have failed completely, but I think most of that has been due to transplant issues and not having my nutrients mixed right. I think I have most of that worked out now, and I've got a few tomato plants that while small are doing OK and should start to take off. My bush beans and zucchini have been doing well. Soon I'll be running a string and training them vertically. I'm getting a late start on my pepper plants as well and I've had a few issues similar to the tomato plants, but I think I have two that are doing well now and I may transplant one or two more as I still have some seedlings. Lettuce in the Kratky buckets have been a total failure. I will work on that more later on my next batch of seedlings. I've had pretty much no issues with stuff I've planted in the flood and drain buckets. I did have some issues with the DWC buckets, I suspect because I put too much water in the buckets and even though the water is getting aerated very well, I think it still drowned the roots. I'm trying again with those and this time setting my water level lower. I bought some strawberry plants from the nursery, washed off all the dirt and planted them in a DWC bucket yesterday. So far today there's no sign of transplant shock which I was fully expecting. I put some B vitamin in the mix, so perhaps that did the trick. One problem I have is my covered porch still exposes everything to rain if I put them too close to the edge. I don't want to introduce rain water into the system, so I've been keeping them back a bit, but I don't think everything is getting enough sun as they are in the shade by about 2pm or so. I think I'll put up a 22% greenhouse tarp on the edge of my porch which should keep out most of the rain and protect the plants from the hot Texas sun. It's already getting up to 90F here.
Bush bean in the flood and drain system:
Pepper plants in the flood and drain system:
Tomato plant in the flood and drain system:
Strawberries in the DWC:
Zucchini and tomato plant in the flood and drain system:
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