. FIRST I HAVE A QUESTION. How far apart are the Lettuce Holes in the NFT Pipes???? I am Growing Tomatoes in a Dutch Bucket system. Tomatoes are Heavy feeder. I like to change my Reservoir no less than every 2 weeks. It seem to me to be a waste to throw that good Nutrient water away. At present time I water my soil grown Shrubs & Trees with that water. .

Dan Firstly, make sure that you are using Fox Farm Grow Big for Hydroponics. If it doesn't say for hydroponics you will run into calcium problems. Have a look at the ingredients, it needs to list calcium nitrate. If it doesnt have calcium you will need to use a calcium supplement. The store that you purchased the Fox Farm nutrient at will have something that you can use. Secondly, no nutrients = no growth/yield. You will need to use a nutrient to get your plants to grow. You can however begin your seeds with just plain water until about 1" tall after which you will need to start feeding your plants. I suggest using oasis cubes or rapid rooters (google it) to start your seedlings, perlite will work but can get stuck in the irrigation system, especially if you are not using some kind of filter. If you want to use perlite then I suggest that you place your pump into a stocking or a large sock to stop the perlite from entering the irrigation system. You can use a wick system to get the seeds started, I would rather top water them in the perlite until the roots grow into the gully. Use a dilution rate of 5-7.5 ml per gallon of water (for Fox Farm nutrients). If you are using a calcium supplement (in liquid form) use 2-4 ml per gallon. As for light, 12-16 hours per day will be sufficient. Use T8 fluorescent bulbs with a mixed spectrum of 2700k and 6500k type bulbs. If you have the cash then purchase a T5 lighting system (they can be quite expensive). Remember, no or weak light = no growth. Temperature requirements will depend on variety of bibb, however you will get great results if the temperature is kept between 65 and 75°F. Also keep an eye water temperature. Water temperature is as important as air temperature and should be maintained between 65-70°F. Good luck and dont forget to post your results.

iceman_1000000 Sorry for the delayed reply, I have been very distracted with other things lately. So are you saying I shouldn't cut off the first blooms? I should just let them start the fruiting process? I'm saying you can do what you want. I like to eat the fruit, so I let them do just that. Does that mean you think I should actually try to pollinate them at this point? I'll need to check for sure, but I believe strawberry are self pollinating. Although they can benefit from help of air currents and pollinating insects to produce better well shaped fruit. I was just concerned the plant was too small to support the load of the berries. I didn't realize they would flower while the plant was so small. That's what always amazes me. People are often so surprised when the plants start to flower when their still small. Tomato's, strawberry's, peppers, melons, cucumbers, etc. all do the same thing. Their called continuously flowering/fruiting plants. That means that they flower/fruit from the beginning of their life, tell the end of it (thus the term "continuously"). They don't wait to mature before they begin flowering/fruiting. That always seems to thorough people for a loop when they actually discover/see it for themselves. Should I have started them out on bloom nutrient from the beginning that way they could start producing fruit immediately? If their flowering, their producing fruit. Use any nutrient type you want (bloom/veg), they will still want to flower/fruit (their continuously flowering/fruiting plants). Blooming nutrients only help the possess of fruiting. That's why I say it' depends on what you want, leaves or fruit. I prefer eating fruit, but that could just be me. If they want to fruit I'll help and let them, then eat the fruit (I just don't tell the plants the part about eating their fruit). Likewise should I have started them on on 2700k lighting instead of 6500k lighting? Unless you overkill it, get rid of the florescent lighting. Florescent lighting is fine for low light requirement/tolerant plants like lettuce, but wont provide enough light for good fruit production, unless you provide tones of it. Also, any ideas on why some of my older leaves are looking a little brown at the edges? Would that be a nutrient deficiency? Any way I could tell what kind? That's also another paranoia that many new growers seem to have. First the older growth will always tend to turn color and brown. Especially on strawberry plants, and even on ones that small. But even more so the bigger they get. It's best to trim off the older growth as it browns/dies. But there is a couple things that could be a problem (though I cant tell from the pictures). One is the water level, the second is humidity and air circulation. High water levels can lead to stem rot, and is typicality first noticed as discoloration (browning or yellowing) of the bottom leaves. High humidity and low air circulation can lead to fungal disease. Especially on plants like strawberry's and tomato's that don't like wet foliage. Other than the first picture (and that's to early to tell anything from it), your strawberry plants look good to me. How do the roots look? Nice and white I'm guessing?

Hey gizzman - I thought I had posted a response back a few days ago but don't see it here. To answer a few of your questions - DI is deionized water. I don't think the issue is showing up on any of the new leaves but the heads it happened to appear to be permanently damaged. The center of the heads closed up and developed the same soft mushy texture from the leaves breaking down. The center leaves almost appear see through. The fungus in the one plant started to appear on one of the heads of romaine that had the worst tip burn. What is interesting is the white fuzz only appears inside the heads that close up. Maybe this closed off area is preventing air from getting in to dry out the area. Tip burn on the outer leaves just dried up and was easily removed as a dry edge. I cut all of this edge browning out recently and will be waiting to see how the plants perform. I am using a commercial style system that has 1" square holes punched into the top. I simply transplant 1" grodan starter cubes into this cutout. The browning really appears to happen anywhere in the system so it is hard to pinpoint. The one thing I can say with confidence is that the browning is on the older plants only at this point. I have newer growth coming up now so the next 2 weeks will certainly be revealing. I am crossing my fingers. Thanks for all the questions and suggestions. It is helping me look more closely at my system.