Category: Day blogs

OUR PLANTS ARE HEALTHY AND HAVE GROWN!

When we went to check on our plants today after the weekend, to our surprise, the plants were healthier and bigger than ever! The first and third plants have grown and the third plant had grown a white flower. Once the flowers begin to bud on the strawberry plants that mean that the plants are ready to be pollinated and then the strawberries will the begin growing. If we were to have another month or so left to work on this project, we would have potentially had some strawberries.

For our final pH recording, the pH read at 5.9 and we decided to leave it at that pH.

 

We think that it is safe to say that the second cup is officially dead. After dropping the second plant there was really no bringing it back to life no matter how hard we tried by adjusting the light, the pH and the nutrients; the leaves were too damaged to even try and rejuvenate them.

As for the first and third cup, they were beginning to brown so we decided to turn the light down to 6 hours to hopefully make the plants green and healthy again. However, we did not adjust the pH because it was at 5.9 and that is in the ideal range for hydroponic strawberries.

 

 

Sad to say, but our plants are slowly dying. The second plant is just about completely dead due to being dropped and we have not be able to save it. The first plant is slowly starting to wilt, and the third plant is still the strongest and has not shown signs of dying just yet. We are hoping that the third plant will hold on a little longer until harvest day.

The pH of the plants was at 5.9 and we did not need to adjust it. We had also turned down the amount of light given to the plants to six hours in hopes that the first and second plant might be able to start growing again with this adjustment.

WE REMAIN HOPEFUL!

Today the second plant that had falled on Moday appears to be dying. The leavesa are still crushed and some of them appear to be turning brown. There is not much we can do to fix this, so we are hopeful that the plant does not fully die. The pH was also very low at around 5.5 and the water was extremely dirty with particles floating around. We decided to change the nutrients and water again and clean out the container to rid of all the mess. After everything was cleaned out and fresh water was added, we tested the ph at 6.5 and decided to leave it at that.

 

Our plants today looked healthy as usual. We had to add about a pint of the nutrient solution to the container because we were running low on water. The pH was at a healthy 6.2 and we did not have to adjust it at all. However, we had a little accident with plant number two. We had went to pick up the stryafoam that held the cups to see if the algae had spread to the bottom of the stryafoam and the second cup slipped out and fell crushing the plants. We hope that because of this, the plant does not die. Next class we will have to check to make sure that it is still growing well.

Sorry this on is a little late and out of order. Today was a day that we went on the trip the the hydroponic greenhouse and before we left i ran in a checked on the plants. When i checked the pH is was 7.7 so i added a quarter teaspoon and brought it down to 5.8 i felt comfortable leaving it there because of the weekend. Not just because we were going to be away form it for four days but because the rock wool has a high pH. The temperature was at 69 degrees.

Today we came to the conclusion that we needed to cut the tops off of our cups. We did this because strawberry plants grow outward and we believe because we are restricting the plants to do this that they are not growing as well as they should. We are hoping now that the plants will grow outward instead of straight up with this new change. The pH was also adjusted today with just a pinch of pH down to bring the pH from 6.5 to 6.2.

We also noticed ever since we change the nutrient solution and cleaned out the tank, the pH has stayed at a steady rate. Within the first couple of weeks, the pH would constantly either be way to high or way too low. We are glad that we finally have a happy medium that does not need a lot of fixing.

Also, a lot of algae has been noticed all over the project. At first there was just a light covering on the tops of the rock wool, but now it has spread to on top of our strayfoam. As far as we know, the algae growth has not affected the plants in any way, so we are just leaving it for now. In the future if we notice the algae spreading and becoming a problem, a solution will be needed to fix this.

Today we noticed that the back two pants have been growing very well at this time. We measured the tallest plant and it was around one inch. However, our one cup of plants are not nearly as as big as the other two cups. We think this is due to the lighting and will have to figure out what to adjust to improve growth for this cup. Lastly, we checked the pH as usual, and adjusted it with one teaspoon of pH down to bring the pH from 6.5 to 6.3. The plants also have been remaining at a temperature of 73 degrees and seem to be growing well at this temperature.

Our system has so far shown to be very effective. Our Strawberry plants are now starting to fill out and the leaves are taking on some shape. When we checked on them on April 1st, we noticed that the tops of the rock wool were covered in what appeared to be green moss, and had also noticed that the water was becoming very dirty. Strawberry hydroponic systems need to have the water and nutrients changed twice a month and we changed ours for the first time since planting the seeds.

Before we changed the water, we checked the pH of our system and the temperature. Our pH was 6.9 and the system was kept at 70 degrees. We then changed the nutrients and cleaned out the container that held the water. After adding in the new water and nutrients are pH was a little high at 7.2 and added half a teaspoon of pH Down to bring the pH back down to 5.9.

We hope to see within the next two weeks or so the roots of the plants to branch out more, and for the plant itself to grow larger and hopefully starting budding.

After coming back from break we were surprised to see that our strawberries have began to grow! All three of our pots have began to sprout, but were still very tiny. The pH of the water when we checked it 7.0 after the plants were unattended for over a week. We added a teaspoon of pH down, but that lowered the pH all the way to 3.3. We then had to add a teaspoon of pH to the to bring it up to 5.5.