I have 10 eversweet and 10 ozark beauty strawberries in my tower. I ordered them bareroot off amazon. Right now it’s looking like half have lived and are doing well and the other half are dead or about to die. Not sure what to do. I have my growing lights on for 8 hours a day and the water in the tower runs 15 mins and is off for 15 mins. I haven’t tested the water to see how acidic it is yet. I do think it’s closer to 8 instead of 6 which I do think may by harming them. This only first time with a hydroponics tower. I’m more into the 3d printing this tower I made was a project so gardening is a new hobby of mine. Any tips, thoughts, or ideas would be appreciated.
by ChitteringLegion
4 Comments
If both verities are ever-bearing, you could likely provide more light. I run 13-16hrs on with my lights, mostly 16hrs. Plants seem happy.
I recently ordered 80 or so plants from amazon from various suppliers. I got fort Laramie, Albion, and san Andreas varieties. I seem to lose a few plants from each group, but one group of 25 had a 10% survival rate. I think it can be luck of the draw when ordering and how long it takes to ship.
Definitely important to monitor ph. Mine seems to stabilize, then out of nowhere spike or drop. Without a ph monitor i would never know.
I keep my unit running all time for the water flow. Keep that pH in check and you may have too many plants per tier.
The required pH is 5.5-6.5 for nutrients to be available for roots uptake in hydroponics. I have my grow lights on 14hrs using a light meter to provide 15-25DLI using Photone app.
This isn’t ph/light/ec/ vpd. You just use wrong methods (towers are for greens, they are to uncomfortable for strawberries) and don’t prepare bare roots properly (you can’t just put them in system and hope that this will work). So my advice – just make fun of grow and don’t consider to great harvest.