Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 2.3 Tomato seedlings 18 days old ready to transplant to rockwool
blocks. Note the tomatoes are laid on their sides to permit the plants to grow back
upward allowing roots to grow along the base of stems. (Courtesy of CuisinArt
Golf Resort & Spa, Anguilla.)
HYDROPONIC CULTURE IN CHOICE OF MEDIUM
The nature of the hydroponic culture system will also determine what
medium is the best to use. For example, when growing lettuce in a floating
or raft culture system, you need to use a growing cube that will not fall
apart upon placing it into the Styrofoam boards.
Although Oasis cubes may be used, I find that they crush easily when
pushed into the holes of the boards. This causes material to get into the
piping of the system and plug tubes. Rockwool cubes are far superior, as
they will not break apart as they are pushed into the holes of the boards.
They also stay together well when harvesting the plants. A similar problem
may arise when using Oasis cubes in an NFT gutter system, however, less
so than with the raft system.
TRANSPLANTING
Transplanting is the next stage in the growing of plants. In some cases you
may seed directly into the hydroponic system, but generally it is better to
transplant seedlings into the hydroponic system. This allows you to select
the best, healthiest plants. Also, if the seed does not have a high germina-
tion percentage, you can sow excess seed to obtain sufficient seedling to
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