Hydroponic Strawberries

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.