Here's another, halway: My wife's cat got to my plants and pulled my seedlings out of the pots and just left them laying next to the tray. Didn't try to eat them or anything and didn't just stop on 1 or 2. It's like he did it just to piss me off. It worked. I woke up to that this morning.

I dug up my soil strawberries last year and gave them to the local hydro shop for transplant. Hated to waste them, but was tired of combating birds and other creatures that found healthy strawberries irresistible. She is still growing them in the shop today in an ebb and flow for display. So they can definitely do well in an ebb and flow. Of course, she has an expert taking care of her plants. I'm guessing I'd find a way to screw 'em up. If your rez had bad microbes, then they can still be present on or within the roots. Particularly damaged ones. Also, any clay balls that might have been saturated with the water will hold enough microbes to start another population in fresh solution. Bacteria doesn't exactly always die or go away with a flushing. It can go dormant in the absence of water to be revived again when conditions improve. Be sure to thoroughly sterilize that hydroton before replanting with it. Even if you do get the current plants to come back around. One reason I don't put all my plants in one basket to depend on a single reservoir is because I don't want to lose all my plants over one infected rez or one infected plant's root zone (again). That's why I like the individual 5 gallon bubbler kits hooked up to a single air supply. More maintenance having many single reservoirs, but I've never had a problem controlling things. If I get one infected plant, I lose one plant. Hasn't happened, yet, though.

You might have some fun with a bubbler system. It involves using an aquarium air pump, some aquarium air hose, and some 3/8" pex tubing. Several years ago, I used one of those large yogurt containers for the growing area, and a 5 gallon pail for the lower nutrient tank. There is a cover on the 5 gallon pail with holes drilled into it to allow nutrient to freely return back into the pail as it drains from the holes drilled into the bottom of the yogurt container sitting on the pail lid. The fun part is how the nutrients are pushed up the 3/8 pex tubing by air bubbles. Yhe pex tubing is placed so that it rests on the bottom of the pail and extends up through the lid and up through the yogurt container. It's length is set so that the top of the tube is about 1 1/2 inches higher than the top of the yogurt container. The bottom of the tube is cut at a 45 degree angle so that nutrients are able to freely pass up through the tube. The trick here is to make a hole in the lower area 1/3 of the tube so that the aquarium air tubing is a tight fit when it is inserted into the hole just far enough that the air from the aquarium air pump injects bubbles into the water filled pex tube. The result is like a perculator causing spurts of nutrient/water to bubble out of the top of the tube into the yogurt container continously. You should use a fast draining growing medium like gravel, or baked clay. My cats used to sit and watch the grower for hours. I grew cayanne hot peppers like this one year with good results. one other thing you might want to include is an aquarium air shut off valve. Sometimes, the air pressure can be too high, and adjusting the valve will help optimize the flow rate. The aquarium parts are inexpensive. I was able to power 4 bubblers with one small air pump. chuck

Mike, you're right that not all cherries are determinates. I guess I mean, pick a determinate with small fruits. Yes, you need to check the package to find out if it's determinate and also check the normal height. Keeping in mind, of course, that height is based on soil growth in summer. Point is, small fruits will do better with lower quality light than something like a Brandywine and the plants are more manageable. That's not completely surprising on your sunlight issue, Mike. If I'm right, you live in an area that has a climate affected by lake effect (Reading or thereabouts), though maybe on the outskirts. The original poster, bgaviator, lives in zone 6. That tells me that he/she lives in the southern half of the state. Which means they get nearly identical weather to me. I got a great early start on my crappy little tarp style greenhouse because January and February were exceptionally sunny this year. Clear skies brought exceptional cold, but allowed the greenhouse to heat up during the day. Unfortunately, I had to bring plants in the house at night. However, you are absolutely right in that some years we don't get such great sunlight. Last year we had so much rain in the unseasonably warm winter that it was like sun would never return. Anyway, the fact that we have gotten such great sunlight on average in the winter has made us consider installing a sunroom for growing some plants in the winter and supplementing with lights because of the shorter days. It's also worth noting that cloudy skies don't mean inadequate sunlight. I'm happy to sell you a lux meter to help confirm this if you are interested. I carry a wide range. . . Yep, I just spammed the forum. Bwahahaha!