Happy happy to share! Thanks for your kind words 🌱🌱🌱

Both the Gardyn and iHarvest gardens are very nice, especially for use indoors. I currently do not have either, but have considered those.

Sounds like you are using a small container. Large containers are more stable with pH and nutrients, and eliminate the issues with frequent dropping and topping off of nutrient. Only use 1/2 strength nutrients since plants drink more than eat.

@@MattGarver Thanks! Will adjust nutrients accordingly. and try move to a larger container.

I add around 6 gallons of nutrients for every pound of fruit I expect in large container and never change nutrients. Fill once and no more maintenance. Thanks for your comment

@@MattGarver thanks for the quick reply. What if the water level decreases? Will you be topping up such that the tip of the root touches the water? I have a 15gallon barrel. Eager to try it out.

@@sabareesanshankaran6897 No top offs, roots keep growing

Check Facebook market place for plastic drums, and pick the ones for food products. Mine has a gray spray paint on the outside and then black spray paint on top and bottom of the lid.

Thanks! I have videos on the Kratky method on my channel based off my relation with Bernie Kratky. Most of the tomato varieties on the AeroGarden website are what you are likely wanting. Also, here is a source for more. renaissancefarms.org/product-category/tomato-categories/micro-dwarf-tomatoes/

@@MattGarver Thanks for link to RenaissanceFarms. Have you had any experience with dwarf tomatoes (as opposed to the micro-dwarfs)? I am a fan of the Dwarf Tomato Project and would like to grow some of their varieties in a 27 gallon tote. Might that be "big enough" for a Kratky grow?

@@davidlangan4902 depends on the variety, I have grown a dwarf tomato in an 18 gallon tote for example. 27 gallons would be a nice place to start, if you would like to experiment.

I miss beefsteak tomatoes, but micro dwarf is a better indoor tomato. 😊

@@MattGarver Oh do you think a larger net cup like 3" would stop the tomatoes from tipping it up? Hubby is telling me no they are going to tip anyway. I'd believe you over him LOL Do you grow outside in the summer to get beefsteaks?

@@dawns.2492 Tell him I said he is correct. You can stake them or zip tie the net cup to the lid.

@@MattGarver Oh wow I love this, zip tie the net cup to the lid. I told him last night to pull out chops sticks and see if I can make a small cage for it with them. Sort of like the old tinker toys lol. Zip tie the net cups would be easier

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rNpxepSZr9TUj6s.html

Personally I use Dyna Gro 9-3-6 at 1.5 teaspoons per gallon. Nice to hear from you

@@MattGarver thankyou. I will look that up. You too :-)

@@gibbonskarl Open to more questions Happy gardening

Thanks! I live in an area where water hardness is around 262 ppm and 8.2 pH coming out of the ground, and have never invested in a RO water unit. I have to keep in mind that where you live, your water is likely unique as well. With 1/2 strength Dyna-Gro, my pH drops to around 7.0 pH, and I do not add any other chemicals I don't even bother to measure EC or PPM. Here is what you should consider when using the Fill Once & Forget method of Kratky hydroponics. The PPM will increase over the course of the grow, since plants are usually drinking more water than using nutrients. If I start with 700 ppm, by the time the tomatoes are fruiting the ppm might be up to around 850. As a generality, most plants terminate around when there is 10% remaining nutrient with the increased salinity at the bottom of the container. That is why "right sizing" containers is important, and also explains the need to periodically dump out small containers when using the nutrient top-off method.

@@MattGarver Very nice description of your setup. My tap water is around 6.9 pH. I have my tomato in 27 gal container set at 1050 ppm with pH around 6.0. It's still in the vegetative state. Once it starts flowering, I will increase to 1250 (I use the BlueLabs meter). May do a dump once the level gets down a bit. My water is about 30 ppm in hardness.

@@golfshoe9321 Just a little jealous of your tap water conditions, your PPM may be a bit high and more in the range of active hydroponic setups. Not sure what variety tomato you are growing. The Tumbler F1 Hybrid dwarf cherry tomato did extremely well in a 27 gallon tote for me. Patio tomato, also did well. With larger tomato varieties, I grew a Sungold Cherry in a 44 gallon container. The others ended up in buckets that were gravity feed from a reservoir to keep up with their heavy feeding.

@@MattGarver I am growing bigdena from Johnnys for the first time. I pinch the suckers and now I await flowers. The main stalk is about 1.5 inches thick so it's quite healthy. It's about 3' tall. After adding in my nutes, pH has to be raised from 5.0 to 6.1 with KOH over 3 days. With that, EC increase as one would expect.

@@golfshoe9321 Had to look that one up! Looks like a great choice. Tag me sometime with how things turned out for you. I am very interested. Thanks again for reaching out.

Always nice to hear from another gardener. Happy to help. First off, I see that you are using passive or non-circulating hydroponics with the buckets. I am acquainted with Professor Kratky. You're set up is actually not one of the methods that he used in Hawaii. Don't let that scare you off though. If you would like to apply his research, then you would want to keep your nutrient level steady and never fill up more than 3/4 of an inch of nutrients when adding new water. All of your water should contain half strength nutrients. Once your water reaches the bottom of the bucket, the salinity concentration typically has negative effects on the plants. So with the way that you are doing things, keep your water level steady and do a water change about every 30 days to the same level as the old nutrient water. provided that you have a nice grow light, you should get tomatoes. Typically, most small varieties Will be around 80 to 140 days to get ripe fruit. And yes, the tomato plants are capable of producing roots along their stem given moist conditions.

@@MattGarver Hi! Thank you SO much for your response! I really appreciate it! So, I should not be adding water as the plants drink it? I was worried that they would drink it up completely as it was going pretty fast so I would add some water to try to keep it about half full, allowing for air between the roots and the water. (I am a total newb here, so forgive my ignorance, as I am still learning about this method and hydroponics!!) I have been using the Masterblend 4-18-38 nutrients for my plants. So when i refill, i should use half the amount of nutrients that i normally would? I have emptied the bucket and given fresh water and nutrients as I got scared they were not getting enough nutrients. But what I should do going forward is to add water with half nutrients to maintain where the water level is currently - am I understanding that correctly? (Again, please excuse the elementary question.) They really seem to like my grow light as they burst in growth very quickly with it. I have 5 gallon buckets, one each for the tomatoes, cucumber plant, and pepper plant. The pepper and cucumber are singular as those were the only seeds which sprouted (all heirloom/organic) but my tomatoes are a different story. Haha. One thing to note is that I am in the Bay and it gets chilly here - and my apartment only has single pane windows so it gets kind of chilly. Do you recommend I make a sort of grow tent to keep the plants warmer? Will that be helpful? Or is that solely for soil growing?

@@ladym4445 if it makes life easier put a permanent marker line on the bucket at the halfway mark. Top off the refills to that mark each day. Temperatures between 65 and 70 are fine. And yes, half of what you use for full strength master blend is fine.