Hydroponic strawberry experiment

[MacTech]

I was at wally-world this afternoon, picking up a set of AquaGlobes for my extremely thirsty "Salad Pot" of rescued AG cherry tomatoes, basil, peppers, and bush cukes, those plants are slurping down water at a prodigious rate almost daily watering is required, while I was looking over their seed selection, I noticed they had baggies of rootballs, one of them being a everbearing strawberry plant, and since they were only $3.00 for a bag of 10, I figured it'd be worth a try

I have two plants set up, one in a deli-cup of water with some rooting hormone and Schultz liquid ferts, and the other one I planted in my AG6 in one of the open front holes, they were both untangled from the root ball, and all the dirt rinsed off their roots, should be interesting to see how things progress.....

[Colesy]

Come on MacTech bring on the pics!

[monica435]

I am very interested to see how this experiment turns out.  Please keep us posted. 
Aqua Globes are great btw, I just wish they held more water.

[MacTech]

Here's the requested pics;

there's new growth appearing at around the 2 o-clock position, that stubby yellow-green sprout

New growth appears at around the 8 o-clock position here

if the strawberry plant in the deli-cup takes off, it will be added to the AG6E+

[MacTech]

The strawberry plant in the deli-cup has been moved into the AG6E+, now I have two strawberry plants growing, and they are definitely showing signs of life, each has put out a small but growing leaf cluster, and I see at least two more brand new shoots on the way

I also added another strawberry plant to the 6E+, I'm now up to three strawberry plants, two red heirloom cherry tomato plants, one lemon basil plant (and a par-tridge in a pea-ar tree! )

[MacTech]

I now understand why AG discontinued the strawberry kit, these are some majorly fussy plants!

I decided to break down the AG6 herb garden, the Oregano and Thyme were showing signs of languishing, the Genovese Basil and Mint however, were unkillable, anything short of orbital nuking (the only way to be sure...) that is....

So, I moved the Genovese Basil over into my AG6E+ with my cherry tomato plants, to test the theory that basil makes tomato plants stronger and the tomatoes taste better, basil being a beneficial companion plant, it's sharing the 6E+ with three cherry tom plants, a Golden Harvest that had run it's course and is now coming back for round 2, the leftmost plant is winding down and will soon need to be reset, and the rightmost plant will be entering into a productive phase soon, I moved the mint, oregano and thyme into the homebrew rig, as I'm down to one solitary lettuce pod in that one now, strangely enough, the oregano and thyme have perked right back up, I don't think the mint has even noticed, it's completely unphased

So, the AG6 Silver has become my "experimental" garden for now, at least until it's time to start seedlings for my outdoor garden...

anyway, to get back on track, in the AG6, I have a Lemon Basil plant, my 2.5" tall, flowering Micro Tom plant, a pod of Stevia I've just started, and the three strawberry plants

Plant #1 (rear hole #1) is doing okay, two sets of leaves, one withering stem with two leaves, one stem with three nice, strong green leaves, and a developing stemlet, this one seems to be in stasis, not getting better, but not getting worse
Plant #2 (rear hole #2) is doing *brilliantly* well, the healthiest of the bunch, four stems, each with three healthy leaves reaching eagerly up to the grow lights, and a developing stemlet, this one I have real hope for
Plant #3 (front hole #3) not doing too well, one stem with a halfhearted set of three leaves, and a just-barely-showing stemlet, it would not surprise me if this one fails

these plants were bought from wally-world, in one of there plastic bags, it was a group of 10 root balls in dirt, each plant was rinsed and placed in a AG7 split-apart basket, this actually worked out for the best as I was able to let their already developed rootstock hang out the side of the pod, an AG6 split basket would not have worked without cutting the bottom off it

Things I've discovered through trial-and-error;

1; make sure all dirt is rinsed off the roots, don't want to contaminate the water
2; when planting rootstock strawberries, make sure the crown/rhizome thingy is *ABOVE* the sponges in the growpod, if the crown is in the foam and kept moist, the plant will rot and die, I lost three plants figuring that out
3; expect *some* die-off of the existing leaves/stems when transitioning from dirt to hydro, as long as the crown is dry, the plant *may* recover
4; Strawberries seem to be rather forgiving about light levels, plant #2 was started originally in my 6E+ with the hood on notch #2, the lights were almost 17" from the plant, yet it still developed strongly, just a little slower than if the lights were closer
5; depending on the individual plants, you won't get 100% of them to live, out of ten original root balls, I only have one really healthy plant, one somewhat healthy plant, and one not-so-good plant, but as the bag of rootstock was only $3, it was a worthwhile experiment, I may pick up another bag of rootballs and try again, I really want to have a healthy crop of strawberries from the AG

the most critical point, and the one I can't emphasize enough, is #2, keep the crown above the foam and dry or you *WILL* lose the plant

[MacTech]

I'm not sure what's taking these strawberries so long to produce fruit, right now, they're putting out lots of healthy leaves, and have nice long roots, but there have been no signs of blooms yet

at least they're a nice looking plant, so I don't have to fight the urge to pull them and plant them in dirt.....yet... but if I don't see some strawberry flowers soon, I may start considering transplanting them in dirt

I'm now down to two plants, but these two are incredibly healthy and vigorous, their leaves are huge (pics later)

[Sharon]

Hey MacTech,
Whatever happened to your strawberries?

[MacTech]

They just sort of languished and died shortly after the last post

at some point I'll plant my packet of alpine strawberries and see what happens (the small wild strawberries)