Tomatoes are difficult to grow here because of nematodes, high PH water, too much heat and humidity in the summer. I've been wanting to try hydroponics for awhile, I did try growing tomatoes in the filter of a fish pond but they didn't thrive. I've since discovered that I probably would have been successful with lettuce but tomatoes and other fruiting plants need a lot more nutrients than my Mollies and Guppies could provide.
I found this guy on youtube and I've now watched almost all of his videos. He's a hoot, with a strong southern accent and a down home attitude that is wonderful. In fact, I've played his videos for students learning English that were curious about southern accents.
Check out Dutch Bucket Hydroponics by Bobby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
I decided that this was the thing for me to try on my roof. I found a source for the hydroponic solution and rock wool to start the seeds. I also found a guy from Florida who had some tropical hybrid seeds and was willing to share. Collected paint buckets, cleaned them, drilled them and put in the pvc elbows. Bought some block and built a stand for the buckets from blocks and old wood. Oscar is putting together a trellis using the bamboo we cut down last week. It's all starting to come together.
Here are some pictures so far.
the roof set up. there will be a reservoir of solution that fits partly under the block and wood platform.
elbow inside the bucket for the solution to return to the reservoir
The outside opening, there are elbows that go here too and short lengths of pvc to the return pipe. Still to do is to cover the white buckets with something that will block the light. I'm afraid that painting them black will make the inside too hot so I've got some spray on glue and some aluminum foil and I'm going to try and cover them with that. I also need to cover the 2" pvc return pipe for the same reason although the water won't be in there long enough to get hot so I may just use spray paint.
soaking the rock wool for the seeds, I bought some sterilizing formula because I feel like the nematodes are everywhere and I wanted to be sure I started with a clean slate.
I need to get the seeds started. We are under the outer bands of hurricane Ingrid for the last few days so it has been cool and overcast. I was worried the seeds would not get enough light or heat. Today I went out and got a shop light and a couple of T8 florescent bulbs and we are installing it over a counter in the laundry room. I can adjust the height, the room is usually closed up and warm but it has a skylight that opens for ventilation and a ceiling fan.
I'm turning the laundry room into a seed nursery.
