Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 24, 2021 11:25:44 GMT -5
I had been posting my Kratky tomatoes' progress in my grow tent thread. But now that we have a Kratky board, I'll post them here.
The one in the front is a strong, stocky Chibikko. The other two are Veranda Reds (which I am also growing in a Bounty).
The white stuff on the middle tomato is diatomaceous earth that I treated all my plants with and got a little heavy handed on that one.
So far they are doing well. The middle one had used up all the water in its can, so I gave them all new nutrients today.
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Post by clumsythumbs on Jan 25, 2021 13:03:45 GMT -5
These look beautiful, Sher! What size containers do you have them in? How long did it take to "drink" up all its water? |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 25, 2021 16:03:06 GMT -5
These look beautiful, Sher ! What size containers do you have them in? How long did it take to "drink" up all its water?
Right now they are in half gallon cans -- much too small. I am planning to move the biggest one into a gallon jar. I don't have room for larger containers.
They drink at variable rates. I have to change the water in the flowering one every 2 or 3 days.
I leave them until there is just a thin layer of water, then pour that out and refill to the air root level with fresh nutrients. I am using Masterblend on them, so it is much cheaper than AG nutrients.
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Post by clumsythumbs on Jan 25, 2021 17:58:06 GMT -5
These look beautiful, Sher ! What size containers do you have them in? How long did it take to "drink" up all its water?
Right now they are in half gallon cans -- much too small. I am planning to move the biggest one into a gallon jar. I don't have room for larger containers.
They drink at variable rates. I have to change the water in the flowering one every 2 or 3 days.
I leave them until there is just a thin layer of water, then pour that out and refill to the air root level with fresh nutrients. I am using Masterblend on them, so it is much cheaper than AG nutrients.
Ahh ok. I have mine is 5 gal ones. But for space I am almost wondering if the 2 gal buckets would work and refill every so often. Yours look great! I have never heard of chibikko tomatoes. I love that they appear to have fruit to plant ratio based on the photos I see on google. |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 25, 2021 20:20:30 GMT -5
The two gallons would probably work fine. Dr. Kratky said that as long as you leave 2-1/2 - 3 inches for the air roots above the water, that will keep them from drowning. I am pushing it at 2-1/2 inches.
I don't like adding nutrients or water to Kratky. I prefer to let the water level get low, then dump and add fresh nutrients. You would just have to pick the 2 gallon buckets up fairly often to know when they were nearing empty.
I got the Chibikko seeds free from Renaissance Farms with another tomato order. They got too big the first time I tried them, so I moved them outdoors to a large container. They sprawled and produced until frost with regular pruning.
Now I am pruning them before they get too large, but they do aggressively grow!
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Post by clumsythumbs on Jan 27, 2021 11:13:42 GMT -5
The two gallons would probably work fine. Dr. Kratky said that as long as you leave 2-1/2 - 3 inches for the air roots above the water, that will keep them from drowning. I am pushing it at 2-1/2 inches.
I don't like adding nutrients or water to Kratky. I prefer to let the water level get low, then dump and add fresh nutrients. You would just have to pick the 2 gallon buckets up fairly often to know when they were nearing empty.
I got the Chibikko seeds free from Renaissance Farms with another tomato order. They got too big the first time I tried them, so I moved them outdoors to a large container. They sprawled and produced until frost with regular pruning.
Now I am pruning them before they get too large, but they do aggressively grow!
Awesome! Yeah I had heard so long as you have some room on top for the roots to be exposed, it should all work. For now, I think I will stick to the ones in 5-gal. At this point, trying to move them I think would do more harm than good, but going forward, I may try in smaller and let get low (as you said) then refill. I see people do this a lot online. The appeal of Kratky was the "set it and forget it" kind of approach, but smaller containers, but more plants is an appeal. Assuming I have marginal success with my Kratky stuff, next time I may start in smaller containers and go from there. The patio choice hybrids I a growing (and grew over the summer) are supposed to be "compact" with a height of no more than 18". The fruit DOES grow compact (as in in clumps), but the plant itself was not. ...granted I did not prune it at all in its outdoor container. This time around in the bucket, it is (so far) more compact. However, the one in the AG is way less bushy. Go figure  |
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