New pictures the zucchini plants

7-4-2010

6-29-2010

Zucchini plants are growing little faster than I expected.  Last year I put 2 plants to a bucket. This year I put 6 plants, with the intention of pulling out 2 plants from  each bucket.  But now the roots have all grown together.  I'm worry that the root mass will be to dense and the water will not drain from the buckets.  Time will tell.   

Support structure in place for zucchini plants

New 3' x 9' support grid was built and put in place today. This is using the same style 2" x 4" fencing as last year. This will provide each hydro bucket with 27 square feet of support.

New Hydro Bucket system up and running.

New hydro bucket system running and planted.

Getting nutrient tank ready fo new system.

Spend the morning digging a hole to sink nutrient tank into. It will be about 3/4 of the way into the ground. This is a new three buckets system for my zucchini plants.

New support structure for hydo buckets plants

My support structure last season started to fall apart from weight of plants. So this season I wanted a stronger structure. Here I'm starting to put together 1 1/2 inch pvc tubing for the main support poles. Still trying to come up with a roof structure to put plastic on to keep rain out of the buckets.

Little Giant Pump Installed

When my local hydroponic store and ask them about the little giant. They said it was a little on the expensive side, but one of the most reliable pumps they carry. So I purchase one and installed it today.

Low Water Press With New Pump

After putting in the new pump, I now notice all the 1/4 inch feed lines have barely any water coming out. The old pump only had a output of 210 GPH, where as the new pump has an output 300 GPH. The only other different between the pumps was that the new one could pump to a height of 8 feet and the old one only 3 feet. In my setup, I only need to pump to a height of 2 feet. Any way, I going to put another pump in this coming weekend. Did some checking with other folks. They all recommended getting a the little giant pump.

PUMP FAIL

During my late evening check, I found the pump on Hydro buckets unit one wasn't running. Lucky me was that Home Depot was still open. Installed a new pump and was back up and running. All the 1/4 inch lines had to be cleaned to get the water flowing smoothly through them again.

Some Current Picture Of The Hydro Buckets

Rhubarb coming along nicely.

Close up of the zucchini forming.

Over all picture of the Hydro Buckets.

Plants In Hydro Buckets Doing Good

Tomotoes plants now have green fruit approx. 2 inches in diameter on them. Still using grow formula fertilizer, will be switching over to the bloom formula this weekend.

The zucchini plants doing extremly well in the last past heat wave had. I have the same plants at a community garden plot and they are only about 10 inches tall. Here they are close to being 36 inches tall. Pick the first zucchini last Sunday, along with my the first two cucumbers.

Support Structures On Hydro Buckets

Here's a current photo showing some of the the various support structures in place to date.

There is a 3' by 7 ' grid with 2" squares over

the zuccihini and rhubarb, which is in front of me in the photo. Behind me is a a grid of poles making a 2.5' deep by 12' long structure for the tomatoes and cucumber plants.

First Rhubarb Leaves

First leaves on the rhubarb are visible, just three days after placing the plant crowns in the bucket.

Fired Up The Second Set Of Hydro Buckets.

Turn the pump on my second set of Hydro Buckets today. This one has no water filter on it. This way I can compare the operation of both sets of buckets to each other.

Water Flow In Hydro Buckets Slows Down.

Check the water flow in the first set of hydro buckets thus morning and found the flow had almost stopped. This is the set with the filter on it. Found the filter closed to being fully clogged. This tells me the filter will need to be cleaned out twiced weekly, was hoping to only clean weekly. This explains why last season the drip heads I were using always plugged up in couple of days.

Valves Added To Hydro Buckets

Added two valves to regulate the water flow and to help mix up the plant food with the water.

Fired Up The Pump On The Hydro Buckets

I put a larger pump on the hydro buckets this season. Today I turn the pump on, put have way to much water press at each bucket. Will have to install a valve on the output feed line to regulate it.

Plumbing Hydro Buckets

Started working on plumbing the pump to the Hydro Buckets. Still have not found a way to mount the water filter that I like yet. Going to stop at Lowes tomorrow and buy some 3/4 inch plastic pipe hangers and give them a try. Did completed running 1/2 inch PVC between the buckets with two 1/4 inch feeds to each bucket. The forecast calls for thunderstorms tomorrow night. So most likely I have to wait til Thursday night to mount the filter.

New row coming along.

Second row of hydro buckets is coming along just find. Since I am try my hand at growing watermelon, which is going to require a lot of water. I will need to get a larger nutrient tank for this row.