today we're discussing how to grow
hydroponically and I'm going to start
here by discussing what I actually use
to make my hydroponic solution I have
what's called
41836 fertilizer I got a 5B bag of it
from Morgan County Seed Company this is
what's called their Master Blend mix I
know this was discussed I learned about
it on Kang Stars Channel and it also was
discussed by MHP Gardner it's a good mix
and so that is what the base is I just
add basically a plastic
teaspoon worth of the stuff into my uh
container and it's a gallon
container if I'm using a a larger
container that I'm actually mixing
directly for the
grow you keep the ratio is the same as
the ratios that we are establishing here
now one thing that I've noted is that a
lot of emphasis is put on weighing out
your nutrients uh using a gram scale and
getting precise measurements I have
found that I vary and am just using the
spoon sometimes I have more of a heaping
Spoonful sometimes I have less my
results are pretty good when I'm using
the hydroponic solution even with that
variance so I I wouldn't worry yourself
about it unless perhaps you're doing a
commercial grow or something where you
really do need to be precise next I have
calcium nitrate which I also ordered
from Morgan County seed company again it
comes in a 5B bag is what I ordered you
can get different sizes but a 5B bag of
it I just have
some you know Epsom salt that I
purchased from Walmart
and I use generally about a half a
spoonful of this Epsom salt right there
maybe half spoonful of it and I mix it
in as
well and that provides the base of what
your hydroponic solution is going to be
from there just add water in your gallon
jug if that's what you're using and
that's the ratio that we measured out
for so just add water to it let me go
ahead and get some
water so here's what that U solution
looks like when it's actually mixed
together it's uh kind of this yellowish
color but it's uh great for the
plants you can put it directly into
whatever uh growing vessel you're using
another thing I sometimes do is I
actually um want to be able to spray
this so I have just one of these
standard sprayers that you can get you
can either mix the solution directly in
this sprayer or if you want you can pour
your
jug into
it then the way this sprayer works you
just pump air into it so even as it
decreases in volume you can still use
the sprayer and then there there is a
nozzle attached to this hose
here and you just press the uh lever
down and you can
spray now that we've discussed creating
a hydroponic solution let's talk
specifically about growing tomatoes
hydroponically to start the seeds I used
rock wool which you see here behind the
seed packet and I put it into an
aluminum pan that had hydroponic
solution in it I put the pan under grow
lights and the seeds actually started in
the rock wool and now about a month
later it's time to transfer the Tomato
to a growing container so let's make it
I've marked a circle on here that is the
bottom of this net
Cup this is just a baby food
container a drill bit that's actually
only the 1 in and this is a 2in
hole so let's go
ahead and get started
the hole started and um now we got some
shears I proceed to spend a good long
time wrestling with scissors and a drill
and the Box
knife but while you're amused by
watching me do that I point out a much
better way to do this actually would be
to step up your drill bit start with a
very small hole and then just keep
getting a bigger and bigger hole until
you're at the size that you need then it
is less likely to actually crack out the
plastic on the top here and you'll have
a much cleaner smoother more
professional hole also I am using a 2in
net cup here for this size of a
container a smaller net cup would
actually be more appropriate but
regardless of what size of net cup you
ultimately use the theory here is the
same we're going to put the rock wool
that we started the Tomato in into that
net cup with the Tomato that's ready to
grow out
suspended with its roots going into the
hydroponic
solution so it's far from pretty I think
we just kind of go for for it at
that things
here and um put it down in there now
you'll see here that I actually choose
to put the entire tomato stem down into
the hydroponic solution take it out of
this
thing and drop it way down in there
you're going
to go like
this and it's just going to be dangling
there like that
then we can just fill this in with these
Pebbles there you
go now you may remember that you've
actually already seen this tomato after
about a month more growth under the grow
lights in this homemade hydroponic
container we gave it a big haircut with
its top cut off it was ready to move
into a larger growing container so
that's what we
did look at those outstanding roots and
this is nothing compared to what they're
going to get in this bucket now you'll
see that there's a hole cut out of the
top and The Roots will just kind of hang
down in there we're using what's known
as the crap key method where we don't
have an air pump that's going to keep
the water circulating and put air into
to it but instead The Roots just hang
down into the water there and as the
water level goes down the roots actually
develop what are called air roots that
allow the plant to breathe above the
water line we want to make sure that
when we fill this back up if it starts
to go low we don't fill the water all
the way up to the stem but instead leave
some space for those air roots to
breathe I hope you have enjoyed this
video on growing tomato
hydroponically please remember to hit
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