hey guys today is March 4th and as you
can see I got another really nice crop
er tomatoes coming on in these Dutch
buckets these things absolutely kick
butt
this particular crop was put in place on
Super Bowl Sunday so about 30 days ago
and you can see what kind of a growth of
God already most of them already had the
first in the second cluster tomatoes
over here doing extremely well I covered
this quite a bit last year in the how-to
video how to get this thing set up and
just how simple it was to be able to
grow tomatoes in a setup like this where
you you don't do a whole lot of work
there's not a lot of work involved in
this once you get it set up and going I
showed how I planted these things that
got them started and then as the weeks
and months passed by they just got
taller and taller and ended up I mean
absolutely loaded down with tomatoes I
don't think I don't think I could have
done a better job than how they turned
out last year so with that in mind when
you have a system that actually is
working functioning extremely well when
you get ready to start another crop you
don't go back and try to reinvent the
wheel the only thing you try to do is
take a step back and look at what
happened and do a little bit of
fine-tuning and try to get just a little
bit better just tweak it son you don't
want to go and change up a whole lot of
things just try to learn from anything
you can the little bitty bits and pieces
here and there so what I'm going to do
is go down the list right here of things
that I learned when I disassemble the
entire setup and fill in a lot of the
blanks the first thing to talk about was
the buckets themselves I used four
gallon buckets these buckets came from
the local feed store they had a water
soluble fertilizer that the guys put on
the peanut crops I just washed the
buckets out first time I ever used these
buckets I didn't wash them out and I
have some problems this time when I set
it up for the Dutch buckets I made sure
we'll wash them out and they work
extremely well but you don't have to
have a four gallon bucket I showed the
little commercial bado bucket the one
that you buy for about seven dollars
it's about three gallons give or take so
a three gallon bucket will be just fine
now where do you get a three gallon
bucket
check the local grocery stores the deli
departments the bakery that's where a
lot of people are getting the little
round
some of them rectangle shape three
gallon buckets and they will work
absolutely fine in a setup like this you
don't need a four or five gallon bucket
to be able to make this work three
gallons is plenty and that will also cut
down on the amount of a media that you
had to put inside that bucket the
grommet that I use to went in the side I
got from Granger the part number is 3m
pl8 it's about nine dollars four pack of
50 now you're going to have to pay the
shipping on it so probably be you know
seven eight dollars more but if you buy
them from our Lowe's or Home Depot today
about a dollar and a quarter piece do
the math
whichever way makes sense for you that's
the way I would go as you can see the
buckets look a little bit different they
got black plastic around them let me
explain how that came about as I was
cleaning up the first thing I noticed
was a little bit of algae down in the
bottom of the buckets
not a whole lot certainly not enough to
really affect the plants because they
seem to produce just fine but as I
started cleaning them out and started
looking up inside like this I could see
just how bright it really was up in
there and we've talked in the past about
sunlight and algae that's a bad
combination there you need to keep keep
your water dark that way you don't have
the algae problems so to resolve that I
had two options I could paint the
buckets and I really didn't have time to
take them outside the weather just
hadn't been cooperating so what I did I
just wrapped them all in black plastic
nice and neat and that should keep it
plenty dark on the inside so I don't
have any algae problems whatsoever as a
way to get the the cost basis down on
the perlite I was asked can you reuse
the perlite yes you can one question
that came up early on was what do you do
with the perlite after you're finished
can you reuse it again we're going to
find out I dumped it in this tub and a
big trash can right behind there and I'm
going to try to reuse it again
I just feel the buckets back up make
sure I water me real good and try to
rinse it all back out and I think
they'll be fine
we're gonna find out so I'm just trying
to rinse this out as best I can
remove any kind of residue that may have
been left on
perlite make sure it drains at the
bottom of the bucket another question
involved the strainer bags that I was
using could you reuse those bags again
and here's some I've got soaking right
now but after you get them cleaned up
washed up this is what they look like I
still got a few little roots but if you
let them dry out they'll be just fine
and you can reuse these things again
that will work I got these at a place
called a painter do calm and for about a
dollar and something apiece
pretty cheap reuse them again and again
and every time you reuse it you just cut
your cost basis even more these tomatoes
were started from suckers but not just
any suckers y'all remember last year
sometime late April I think it was I
planted a big beef tomato in the other
in the greenhouse there and just let it
go in and do its thing and he grew all
the way up to the top went out and they
came all the way back down to the ground
looked like a look like an apple tree
just about well to get my fall crop last
year I took suckers off of that plant
and I had this whole line up right here
with suckers from that one plant before
those crops were finished up I came in
and took suckers off of those and got
them rooted back in January to start
this whole line right here so these are
third-generation suckers right here how
many times can you do this I'm not sure
but I'm going to try to keep it going
and the one thing about rooting suckers
is the fact that you get a much earlier
tomato production because tomato like a
lot of plants has to produce a certain
amount of leaves before you ever get
into the the blossom and phase when you
have a sucker it's a part of a mature
plant it's already in that production
mode once you get it rooted its ready to
produce so a lot of these as I was
already putting them in the bucket they
were already had the first blossoms
coming on there makes a really quick
production these are much easier to
manage this time as I've got one bucket
with two stems opened up got a lot more
spacing in here the plants can get
plenty of sunlight and I don't have to
worry about the leaves and everything
all cluttered up and diseased getting up
in there I can really keep up with these
things now I think going with two stems
is a good way to go I have 16 buckets in
this setup right here I
small setup right over there just got
six buckets in it and just over here to
my right there's a brand new setup with
18 buckets sending all of those going to
be single stem let me show you what's
going on there this is the brand new
setup that I put together and rather
than building a platform to put
everything up on what I did was took
some two by tens put me some cleats on
the bottom lacrosse pieces with a two by
fours and put some four inch blocks up
on it at level it up
well not exactly level I got a little
bit of a grade going here so everything
drains back to me and drains into the
reservoir if I were going to set it up
outside I would do something similar to
this to get these things up off the
ground just a little bit high enough
where I can bury your reservoir and have
everything drained into it all of these
are single stem Tomatoes right here a
lot of them already got the tomatoes
coming on them looking extremely good
like I said when you find something that
works you don't go and mess it up you go
and duplicate it so they tried to help
with the reservoir temperatures as the
days get longer and hotter I decided to
bury the reservoir this time as opposed
to having it up ground and that stuff
sitting up on the platform and it's
working out pretty good I just need to
get everything up high enough where I
could put an elbow on here and drain
into the tote being a brand new setup
this did take me a little bit of time to
put together and with the short days
there's just not enough time during the
day sometimes you get everything done so
once in a while I have to turn the
lights on out here and come out here in
the greenhouse and do a little bit of
work at night
digging the hole to get this tote in the
ground of this hard clay right here that
was a whole lot of fun
right here you notice I've got a
thermostat this is for a titanium
aquarium heater what I've done is I've
got it dropped down in here and I would
turn this on in the morning first thing
to heat the water up I want some warm
water going in to cross those roots once
the days get hotter this will not be a
problem my concern and then will be
keeping it cool that's why I've got it
sitting down in the ground inside the
reservoir as you notice I don't have any
aeration in here this time there was a
lot of comments about that some people
said you needed aeration some people
said you could do fine without it so I
started doing it without it and the
plants are doing good probably what I
would do once the temperatures begin to
get up and these reservoir temperatures
start decline I will probably go ahead
and put the aeration back in here
because as the temperatures go up the
dissolved oxygen goes down and I think
it just make more sense to keep it in
there it doesn't cost me much to run
those air pumps anyway but if you don't
have any air pumps yes this will work
and if you wonder what this extra hole
is right here well sometimes you make
mistakes when I wanted to drill this
hole I drilled it over here so what I do
to keep the Sun out of there just put a
cup in it and good to go well guys I
think I pretty much covered everything
this time this is not a complicated
process if you're somebody who has been
struggling with growing tomatoes or you
don't have any garden soil you don't
have much time to put into this you just
have a little bit of space somewhere
where you could set it up on a patio on
your back porch anywhere where you can
get some sunlight Dutch bucket
hydroponics is a great way to go it is
not complicated get your plants put in
these buckets get your reservoir put
your nutrient mix in there set your pump
put it up on a timer run it you know
three times a day 15 to 30 minutes
depending on the time of year and your
thing or do fine the way these things
are going right now about 30 more days
I'll be ready to start eating tomatoes
about the time might be ready to start
planting outside so I think it's a
pretty good deal hope that was helpful
y'all take care and Lord willing I'll
see you next time if you found this
video to be helpful informative and
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