Very fresh vegetables;

Growing in glass  (Siar Glass, sand grade)

With the use of peat for horticultural purposes becoming a very sensitive subject and the need for a lot of time watering I was inclined to look at growing using Hydroponics. We have  others on the Island who have considerable experience in this field and I am grateful to them for their help and advice. Because of the high cost of transport to the Island many growing mediums were ruled out.

Siar Glass, sand grade, had a lot of the desired qualities as a growing medium. It is coarse enough to give good drainage and aeration yet has sufficient surface area  to hold some feed solution.  As a bonus its roughness deters vine weevil attack and reduces slug damage to zero. Unlike perlite and vermiculite its smooth grain sides attract less algae growth.

    The picture on the left shows the growing layout, June 2006, Years later we still use the same method though somewhat expanded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Tomatoes, Courgettes, Strawberries and Cucumbers   all growing in Siar-glass (sand grade)

Some of the  tomato crop

 

 

Method:-  The bottom of each bucket, filled with Siar-Glass, was coupled up to a central drain system and subsequently into a drainage tank. This tank has a pump installed into it so that when the draining hydroponic solution reached a predetermined level a pump is started to return the solution to the header tank. The solution is fed from the heeder tank via a filter (to prevent the drippers becoming blocked) to all the drippers ( showing orange in the above photos). Thus the solution is constantly re-circulated via a filter and drippers through the Siar glass. The solution used is Chempak Hydroponic Nutrient using a 3 : 5 (part 1 : part 2) ratio keeping the EC (Electrical Conductivity) between 3.5 and 5 mS/cm . The pH is maintained between 6.0 and 6.5 by the addition of garden lime or citric acid as necessary. Chempak Hydroponic Nutrient has been chosen and used because Chempak  products  have been found to be reliable and consistent in their composition.  (Most of the giant leek  growers of the North East of England use little else than Chempak as I found when I managed a large Garden centre near Newcastle upon Tyne). A very large heeder tank  (200 litres) is used to cope with the frequent electricity cuts we have on this island. This saves using back-up battery operated pumps as are sometimes necessary for N. F. T. (Nutrient Film Technique) .

Crop yields have been very similar to using a good quality peat based compost, cucumbers and courgettes have been exceptionally good with excellent flavour.  The Siar-Glass has also reduced the slug damage on all crops to zero.