I can’t believe the time has past so fast. The peppers are growing faster!
Don’t feel like reading? Well I’ve recorded a video of this weeks update:
This week I was able to top all the peppers. By cutting the very top of the branch, a technique known as topping, you encourage the pepper to back-bud and for the stem to thicken. In most times those back-buds will turn into new branches.
Here you can see some back budding on the Numex Twilight variety, that I topped several days ago. The new buds are still quite small and look almost like the first leaves the seedling grew.
Last week I was able to top the fastest growing plant, the Marbles variety. It’s easy to see how fast the peppers are growing; its got plenty of new leaves. Looking underneath the leaves you can see how new branches are forming and growing from the main stem.
Marbles Variety Pepper, 1 Week After Topping
Many of the varieties are starting to show their individual characteristics now. Some varieties have darker colored leaves than others, for example. Some leaves are also more rounded, whilst others are longer and more triangle shaped. This is most evident when viewed side by side:
Marbles and Starlight Pepper Leaf Comparison
Some of the peppers are much slower growing than others. The Bolivian Rainbow variety with its purple leaves is easily half the size of his siblings, if not smaller. You can see him in both the photo above and below:
I topped him about two days ago, and you can see very small back budding starting to form (the lighter green leaves).
Birds Eye Baby and Bonzi Seedlings That Just Germinated
Finally, I started some new seedlings of the varieties that didn’t seem to germinate last month. So far Birds Eye Baby, Bonzi and Chinese 5 Color pepper varieties have germinated. That makes 13 total varieties of peppers growing, including the larger jalapeños.
I think my San Marzano tomatoes are one of our most highly anticipated crops, and also probably the most difficult to grow so far. Last time I posted I mentioned how they had just started flowering, and fruit was beginning to develop, as well as how we were fighting an edema issue.
The tomato bushes are now massive – actual bushes. I cant even get a proper photo of the entire plant in my grow room; the camera doesn’t have a wide enough lens.
San Marzano Tomato 9 Weeks Old, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
San Marzano Tomato 9 Weeks Old, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
Can you believe that I cut off a whole armload of branches off this plant every couple days?! Its insane just how fast they grow new leaves.
Fighting Blossom Drop
San Marzano Tomato 9 Weeks Old, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
The tomato is still flowering, a lot. The biggest issue is I have blossom drop. There are a couple reasons for blossom drop such as incorrect temperature and humidity, or that they are not pollinating correctly.
I have checked my temperature, and the grow room is sitting in the ideal range. So I suspect that perhaps the flowers aren’t pollinating as well. I did get sick and stop using the electric toothbrush method as often, so in the future I am going to be a bit more precise in application – vibrate those leaves until you can see the pollen dust emerging from the flower heads.
Fruiting
San Marzano Tomato 9 Weeks Old, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
In the last post we had the subtle-hints of fruit emerging. Well it’s safe to say that they have emerged!
We have about 14 tomatoes growing so far. Not as many as I had hoped for, but as mentioned above we had an issue with blossom drop. There are plenty of flowers on the plant with many more emerging regularly, so hopefully we will be getting more fruit over the coming weeks.
I just realised that I forgot to write a post for last week, oops. Sorry about that. Guess the jump of growth between the last post and this one is going to be significant. This post is going to be big (not just plant growth), but because I discuss edema, flowers and fruiting too.
Lets look back at week 4 growth:
San Marzano Tomato 1 Month, In Kratky Hydroponics
I was so proud of how big they were growing… and how fast – each day seemed to produce another branch, another leaf, or another inch or two of height… little did I know that the plants would keep growing at such a speed, even two weeks later. I have created a monster; a gorgeous, hopefully soon to eat yummy, monster:
San Marzano Tomato 6 Weeks Old, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
Its getting huge! We have two of the trellis supports already installed, and tonight I will be putting in the third. Thats a trellis each week…
The Curious Case of Edema
Would you believe that I have actually been cutting branches off? We’ve actually been having a problem with how fast this plant is growing. So fast that it’s actually becoming a serious problem and risk, for the plant itself.
Edema on San Marzano Tomato Plant Leaves
See those little green spots on the tomato leaves? That’s edema. Its what happens when the plant is absorbing too much liquid… Is that even possible in a hydroponic system? Yeah it is. Edema causes the cellular structure on the leaves to swell up as they absorb moere and more liquid, to the point that they will rupture, often killing that leaf. Often you will also see crusty spots on the leaves from dried sap and water.
In mild cases its not usually an issue, but more and more of our tomato branches were becoming effected. It tends to effect the lower branches or leaves first, slowly effecting more of the plant if the environment remains unchanged.
There are a couple reasons why it can happen:
There isn’t enough airflow around the plant and the plant isn’t transpiring enough (sort of like you getting hot and sweaty without a cool wind). This can also happen if the plant leaves is too dense and thick, restricting airflow around inner branches. This is the most common reason.
The nutrients are unbalanced; the plant is sucking up too much liquid to try and get enough of one or more nutrients.
The water is too warm whilst the leaves are cooler, causing the plant to activate drinking mode. Sort of like when a plant is growing in a hot region – when it rains the upper plant becomes cool and signals to the roots that fresh water is being supplied.
I will write a blog post covering edema bit more and ways to resolve this. It affects all plants, not just tomatoes.
In our situation, the foliage was becoming too dense. The constant but small airflow that we had in the room wasn’t reaching the inner branches and leaves, so the plant wasn’t able to lose the excess liquids through sweating.
Over Dense Foliage on San Marzano Tomato, Week 6 Growth in Kratky Hydroponics
For now our solution was to maintain a slightly more average temperature in the grow room rather than cooler at night and warmer during the day. We are still researching the ideal fan for our grow room as some people have had issues with the common oscillating fans causing leaf burn due to overexposure of wind.
Fruitful Endeavours
Flowers on San Marzano Tomatoes at 6 Weeks, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
It’s not all bad news; our “hard work” is paying off. The tomato plant is only 6 weeks old, and yet we have been getting flowers now for nearly two weeks!
Flowers on San Marzano Tomatoes at 6 Weeks, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
San Marzano are an indeterminate tomato plant variety, meaning they will continuous flower, fruit and grow indefinitely as long as the environment is ideal. So it makes sense that not all the flowers are opening at once. I did a count of the flower buds that I could see – both opened and unopened. There was over 35 flower buds!
Flowers on San Marzano Tomatoes at 6 Weeks, Grown In Kratky Hydroponics
The average San Marzano tomato weighs around 120-140grams (4.2-5oz). Assuming all 35 flowers produce tomatoes, thats a minimum of 4.2kg (9.2lbs) of tomatoes! I’m so glad that I have bought some canning equipment so I can bottle up these delicious tomatoes.
Have you preserved your home-grown or store bought tomatoes? Whats your favourite way to use tomatoes? Mine is definitely pizza sauce. Let me know in the comments below.
Its been a month now since I planted my San Marzano Tomato seeds, and I am still in awe! I honestly can’t wrap my head around how fast these tomatoes are growing. I expected like one or two leaves a week, not one or two leaves growing every single day! Maybe all tomatoes grow this fast… I’m a first time grower and I am honestly hooked.
First, lets see how they have grown over the last few weeks:
Tomato Seedling Week 1
San Marzano Tomato Seedling Week 2, In Kratky Hydroponics
San Marzano Tomato Week 3, In Kratky Hydroponics
And now, be amazed:
San Marzano Tomato 1 Month, In Kratky Hydroponics
They have doubled their size in one week! I said they were growing fast, right? One of the seedlings (one on the left in photo above) was a little slow in recovery after transplanting, so his growth is a little slower than his brother. Perhaps he experienced a bit more shock when transplanting.
San Marzano Tomato 1 Month, In Kratky Hydroponics
I’m not going to even bother counting how many leaves the bigger of the two has now. Last week he had nine branches, and I as already impressed. He grows new branches so fast that I wouldn’t be surprised that by the time I finish counting there would be another emerging.
San Marzano Tomato 1 Month, In Kratky Hydroponics
Once a brach seems to get old enough, new smaller leaves and branches start to emerge from those.
Here is a close up of some of the newer growth. I think this growth has emerged since last night.
San Marzano Tomato 1 Month, In Kratky Hydroponics
The growth is just impressive. We’d be in trouble if tomatoes became sentient and tried to take over the world.
San Marzano Tomato 1 Month, In Kratky Hydroponics
I can safely say that he has doubled his size in just one week! He is now 12 inches, or 30cm, tall. Last week he was only 5 inches, or 12cm, high! It seems that the more leaves he grows, the faster he grows. With 6 inches of growth in one week, I am super excited to see how much he grows in the coming week.
Have you grown tomatoes before? Do they honestly grow this fast, or is he growing faster in the hydroponics? Have you any tomato growing tips to share with a first-time grower?
I wouldn’t have believed it a month ago when you said I could grow tomatoes so easily in Kuwait’s hot desert weather; but here I am, just growing tomatoes. Of course I cheated a little by growing them inside the house, in a climate controlled area… and then I removed the soil and decided to grow them hydroponically.
And they are still growing!
My little plant babies are now three weeks old, and wow have they grown. This was them only one week ago:
San Marzano Tomato Seedling Week 2, In Kratky Hydroponics
San Marzano Tomato Seedling Week 2, In Kratky Hydroponics
Their stems had just started to turn brownish tinged close to the cloning collars. They both also had two new branches.
And this is them now, at three weeks old:
San Marzano Tomato Week 3, In Kratky Hydroponics
San Marzano Tomato Week 3, In Kratky Hydroponics
I just can’t believe how fast they are growing. I can turn my grow lights off at night, then when I re-enter in the morning they have grown an entire branch! No joking, I have seen an entire baby branch just pop up in the space of a few hours.
I have preemptively placed their first trellis support bars. Since we are using custom painted Ikea Ivar cabinets to hold our plants, we bought the bottle rack as a DIY trellis. This provides some basic support for the plants, and lets me tie them in place. We can also easily raise or lower the bottle rack as needed, and even add more as the tomatoes grow in height.
San Marzano Tomato Week 3, In Kratky Hydroponics
This is the weaker of the two tomatoes; he isn’t growing as fast. He now has four branches, two of which are fairly large. I noticed that once the dominate grower had put out one or two smaller branches, he had substantial increase in growth speed. I expect this one would probably grow much faster in the coming week.
The dominate grower is outpacing him pretty fast; he has a total of nine little branches all emerging. He’s also about 2″ (5cm) taller than his sibling. His centre branch is just touching the trellis bars, so hopefully in the next few days he will be resting against it and can be supported with the tie.
San Marzano Tomato Week 3, In Kratky Hydroponics
Both tomato plants seem to be developing some good root structures. I couldn’t lift the buckets out too high as the trellis bars are now in the way, but you can see the roots extend much further down into the bucket and nutrient water. The roots are nice and white, which is a sign of plant health when it comes to hydroponics.
San Marzano Tomato Week 3, In Kratky Hydroponics
Have you grown tomatoes hydroponically, or maybe traditionally in soil? Do you have any tips to share with a first-time grower?
A bit over a week ago I planted some spinach seeds, and sadly they didn’t germinate. I began a bit of research as to why. Despite my spinach varieties being hardy to warm weather, they still need cooler soil to germinate! The adult growth stage can handle warmer temperatures but the seedlings are too vulnerable still.
I began to wonder what I could grow with my current temperatures. It’ll also be handy to know the minimum temperatures for when the seasons change.
Whilst my plants aren’t being planted in soil, instead hydroponic is usually planted in rock wool or peat moss, the germination temperature should theoretically remain the same.
Optimal °F
Optimal °C
Amaranth, Red Leaf
68-75
20-24
Basil, Purple Petra
65–85
18-30
Basil, Genovese
70 – 90
21 – 32
Broccoli
45 -85
7-29
Cilantro
55-70
13-21
Cucumber, Lemon
70–90
21-32
Kale, Nero Toscana
65–85
18-30
Lettuce, Little Gem (Romaine)
40-75
5 – 24
Lettuce, New Red Fire
60–70
16-21
Lettuce, Red Sails
60–70
16-21
Lettuce, Red Salad Bowl
50-72
10-22
Pepper, Cayenne
65-95
18-35
Pepper, Jalapeño
65-95
18-35
Spinach, Matador
50–75
10-24
Spinach, Lavewa
50–75
10-24
Spring Onion
68-77
20-25
Swiss Chard, Bright Lights
75–90
24-32
Swiss Chard, Lyon
50 – 75
10 – 24
Taisai, Pak Choy
50- 80
10 – 27
Tomato, Marmande VR
60 – 70
15 – 20
Tomato (Cherry), Supersweet 100 FT
75 -90
21-32
Tomato, Sam Marzano
70–90
21-32
I measured my Aerogarden water and it’s hitting a maximum of 85°F (30°C)! No wonder my spinach never sprouted, its ideal temperature is 50-75°F (10-24°C). Its just way too hot for them.
I’ll have to wait a while for the weather to get a bit cooler before I can sprout spinach; in the meantime I can try growing some Bright Lights Swiss Chard and Nero Toscana Kale.
Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Image Courtesy of Botanical Interests
Nero Toscana Kale, Image Courtesy of Botanical Interets
