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well have you ever been to a grocery
store and selected a tomato that says
hydroponic locally grown well today we
have a treat for you because we're
actually in a greenhouse in Stratford
Oklahoma and we're going to show you
just what that means hydroponically
grown and the green houses are owned by
Mike and kelly Jeter and joining us is
Kelly hi Kelly welcome to Oklahoma
gardening thank you now this is very
exciting especially to think about an
operation like this in Oklahoma but
inting with you understand that there's
a little bit of change in what we think
about Hydroponics initially tell us what
that word means even Hydroponics well
initially Hydroponics was the science of
growing things in water like just water
or like a gravel water in a gravel bed
culture now the definition has been
changed mostly for marketing purposes to
anything that's not grown in real soil
like a Pete light mixture or Rock wol or
perlite anything not in real soil now
you refer to your system as nft yes what
does that mean nft is nutrient flow
technique okay and uh tell us basically
how it works the the overall system
where it comes from and how it gets to
the tomatoes okay an nft system is a
closed system where all the water comes
from a main tank that is pumped to the
pipes and it's a very small amount of
water that's why it's called nutrient
film you're not filling that pipe
halfway full anything it's just a small
film of water running through the bottom
of the pipe and uh all the nutrients are
mixed in that water even all a lot of
your micronutrients because you've got
to have everything in that water just
like it would have in soil okay and
that's what nfts and then it it
recirculates back into the original tank
now your actual pipe is what what are
you using this is just 6 in sewer drain
pipe okay and you've got it at a slope
and tell us how the water comes in at a
certain point how it's constructed the
greenhouse is broke down into two runs
where the main water from the main pump
where the water lines come in this this
row here has two pipes in the middle you
have a water line and at the very North
in there's a water line and the water
goes into the PVC pipe in a small black
line and that's how the water gets to it
then it all drains back and goes back to
the corner of the greenhouse okay and
then it's picked up again over starts
over now what about timing as far as is
the water left on consistently no we
need to keep get as much oxygen to the
roots as we can so we use a an onoff
cycle like 10 minutes on 5 minutes off
and that is related to each system how
it is okay now but for hours that works
oxygen is important so what you have a
couple of devices to get more oxygen in
the water flow right yes we use a
catfish bubbler and that helps put extra
oxygen in the water and then the lines
that they actually Supply the water into
the PVC pipe also have an opening at the
top and when the water comes on you hear
it g go and it's actually picking up
oxygen there also okay now probably the
most uh critical thing is that you test
the water regularly what are you testing
for and how often do you do something
like that we test the water once to
twice a day for the soluble salts and
the pH okay and the salts are result of
your fertilizer I guess which could burn
the plants and the pH has an impact on
if it will take the nutrients up okay
it's very critical now you also do what
foliage test to see if the nutrients are
really getting in the plant yes about
once a month whether we have a problem
or not we take a tissue analysis and a
few leaves are selected out of every
every house not just one house but every
house and it's sent off and they do a
tissue analysis and it'll tell me
exactly what part for me and I have on
every nutrient so I'll know if
everything's all right okay now let's
talk a little bit about the plants and
the growing this is as I understand a
particular variety grown for green
houses and why does it need to be
different versus when we grow out in the
garden uh it doesn't have to be quite as
tough of a plant it can take uh a
controlled environment better because a
a plant that's in a perfect environment
diseases and things it's also perfect
for those they're more disease resistant
the plant won't be probably as thick as
you'd see one in your garden where you
have to lift up the leaves and look for
the fruit because for labor purposes
when you're growing on a commercial
scale you want to be able to pick
without lifting up every leaf and
looking so the plant's not quite as
vigorous and thick and easier to work
with okay and it's indeterminant so
they're just going to keep growing and
growing and growing right a crop like
this if it was grown a year the plant
could be 30 35 ft long okay now tell us
about your Seasons as far as are you
growing during the hot part of the
summer or we are but we're not growing
in we're not producing fruit this crop
was started in June the seeds were sewn
approximately June 25th and we sew them
in a little rock wool Cube they come in
a sheet and we sew we put one seed in
each Cube okay and as soon as they get 7
to 8 in tall which the only reason for
that is the pipe is 6 in tall okay as
soon as they're that tall then we just
take the cube and we just drop it down
in the pipe and by that time the roots
will be very massive in this and in a
matter of a week these roots will be
grown together and where you can't even
pull the plant out and growing right in
your nutrient solution again all right
now um the other interesting thing is
you do a lot of uh tying and pruning and
that's always a question for gardeners
interested in growing tomatoes tell us
and show us a little bit about what
you're doing there um when we when the
plant starts growing we have to start
tying it immediately because they'll get
heavy quick and they'll start laying
over because you don't have soil or as
much room to support it we we cut a
small slit in our pipe some people will
tie a knot on the plant has a knot in it
and we start tying almost immediately to
this twine we have to keep it trained
it's very important so you can grow more
plants in the greenhouse and so you can
see what you're doing and work with it
we have to go through every week and tie
and sucker that's it's very labor
intensive this right here is a small
sucker it comes out at the node here is
another sucker right here this is a
sucker this is your termin the terminal
of the plant you leave that but every
week we go through and break out these
suckers okay you don't allow any suckers
whatsoever you keep forcing it straight
up right okay and because of the
technology on on improving tomato
varieties uh they're much more vigorous
and uh we'll get you know sometimes
we'll have new growth coming out the
blooms and we have to prune that and we
only want three to five tomatoes on each
cluster depending on the time of the
year when we have a lot of sunlight
we'll leave up to five tomatoes on a
cluster mhm and in the winter time we
have shorter days and not as much
sunlight we want three because we want
big Tomatoes we don't want a whole bunch
of little ones this one is a good
example of a cluster that needs to be
pruned so each week we're tying and
suckering and we're also cluster pruning
I only want four to five tomato is on
here so I'm going to pull off some of
these I'm going to leave five okay now
is that painful for you no no not at all
because I know if I don't do it I'm
picking twice as many I'm clipping twice
as many stickering twice as many it cuts
way down on your handling and then you
have beautiful tomatoes right now the
other thing that I found interesting too
is the way that you have another process
that you call lean and lower tell us
what you're doing there okay in order to
grow the tomatoes for a long long period
of time which this CR will go clear
through the end of December then we'll
start another one which will go through
July we if that once they get to the
wire you you can't reach them you can't
work with them they have nowhere to go
so what we do is we tie extra twine on
so that we can let the plant down but in
order to do that we have to to lean it
also we can't just let it straight down
or the plant would break and uh so
you're just shifting positions and the
way you do that to move it up is you put
a couple of them on this row you hang
them over here and you're just mainly
going around in a circle changing
location the row over here the whole row
leans that way okay and this whole row
leans the opposite way so you just keep
going around very interesting few of
these plants have already been leaned
that way and what we're doing is we are
letting it down but I'm also taking this
plant to the position that the plant
before it was at okay it's a little bit
easier to work with yes now Kelly I'm
sure that growing them in a controlled
environment like this it has to be very
sterile but you still have problems I
would assume with like deficiencies that
type of thing are you having anything
show up now yeah we've had a little bit
of zinc deficiency show up and that's a
very minor element but you'd be
surprised what how much damage just a
tiny bit of just
chosis and it stunted a few of the
plants and slowed them down a little bit
okay what about pests like insects
diseases any problems we don't have that
many pest problems we have had a little
bit of whitefly this year and we've
always had a little bit of pin worms
which is a insect you don't hear much
about explain that to us so that's
interesting the pin worm the pin worm
starts out like a leaf Miner okay and
it'll look like Leaf Miner damage and
the worm is not a 16th of an inch long
and it's purple and the moth is very
small and it's hard to control because
it actually does like a leaf Miner in
its early stages it tunnels between the
layers of the leaf okay and then
obviously white flies okay occasionally
but what about diseases if a disease
gets in the water system are you in
trouble very much so this is a closed
system because all the water goes
through it goes back to the pit and it
recirculates so recirculating system is
closed and you get something on one
plant like for say for example we had
bacterial canker one time or if you had
fcum Crown rock well that water is going
to spread it quicker than like it'd be
out in your garden through the entire
Greenhouse so that's the main
disadvantage to having a closed system
well all of that to get one of these and
you actually are harvesting Vine RP
Tomatoes now you leave the stem on what
what is a purpose that we don't normally
recommend that in the hobby yeah this
partially is marketing this tells the
customer that this is a v a greenhouse
tomato and uh cuz you know they might
want to grab another tomato and the
person checking them out won't know well
which tomato they have but we leave that
on there so so that they'll know it's a
greenhouse tomato and you don't have the
wound of when you pull this off when
you're picking all that moisture the
tomato is going to lose out it the shelf
life is short it's not going to last as
good so that's the two main reasons okay
we do have to snip this stem so that it
doesn't poke the other Tomatoes but the
seil is left on and you are picking them
at that stage but they will continue to
ripen as I understand but there's a
major problem that a lot of times before
it gets to us as a consumer that kills
the ripening process and what would that
be a lot of grocery stores store them
too cool they'll put their tomatoes in
the cooler with their lettuce and other
things like a little above freezing or
maybe 38 40° and tomatoes ideally should
be stored like 50 to 55 degrees and that
would be one that was already red if you
want it to keep ripening and turn red
it'd be like 65 70° is ideal now you're
selling throughout the state but you
also have a little bit of retail where
people can come byy and during the hours
too I guess is that right yeah we we
deliver to a lot of grocery stores in
Oklahoma City and we last year we
started selling retail and have real
good response to that well it's very
exciting and I understand there's as far
as we know just a couple of growers in
the state that are doing this process so
we wish you the best and you've given us
some great ideas and now we'll
appreciate that tag a little bit more
you have an interesting uh little poster
I noticed too that says something about
all the time and energy and everything
that you're putting into it and it
really does show and we appreciate your
time spending with us and if you'll uh
be sure and uh stay tuned with us next
week we're going to show you a little
bit different variation and give you
some pointers on hydroponic gardening
for the hobby Greenhouse thanks again
Kelly thank
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you