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Today I attached some of the runners from the hydro strawberries to rapid rooters in cups filled with grow stones. Once the roots reach the liquid we will sever the umbilicals. All of the excess runners (and one flower bud!!!) were trimmed in order to encourage more foliage growth after nutrient burn forced us to remove quite a few leaves with burned tips. The effect of the high nutrient levels can be seen in the under-curling of many of the bigger leaves.
The plant at the top of the image with light green leaves is our spare spaghetti squash that, despite serious nutrient burn, is still out growing the one with its own bucket. We should toss it since we don't have room for any more vining plants, but we can't help wanting to see if it will keep going. It may end up with a bucket of its own as well. |
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| A close up of the clones pinned to rapid rooters using extra bobby pins I had laying around. |
We should also note that we almost lost an air pump today. After nutrient solution leaked back into our air pumps and onto the floor a few times, we purchased back flow stop valves, but added them a few hours too late. One of them stopped working but Chris opened it up, found where the circuit had been broken due to corrosion and fixed it!! For now, this resurrected pump will serve as a back up and the strawberry and tomato totes will be run off the same pump.
