What a great idea! Our local hydroponics store here has been so helpful in the past. The owner graduated from horticultural college in South Africa, and knows his plants. I grew some tomatoes hydroponically years ago, with good results.
Keep us updated on how they are doing.

When the next opportunity presents itself, ask the owner if he has experimented with any tropical fruits! I posted on the hydroponics forum and no one was able to help. It's not like there are 1000's of solutions available! Wait a minute...there ARE 1000's of solutions available! I'm not going to buy any type of monitoring equipment and all that stuff. I'll change the water every two weeks on the money. Hopefully that will be in enough time before any bad stuff builds up. Will also be easier on the wallet when adding solutions every two weeks instead of more often. If I wasn't doing something by the seat of my pants, then it just doesn't seem I'm doing anything at all!! Jak of all trades...master of none. Acquiring just enough info to become dangerous. No wonder my wife's eyes are in a constant roll when I talk to her.

looks like a nice set up there Jay,
definitely good oxygen exchange with the roots. Next step will be CO2 dribblers running during daylight, then oxygen at night. Sure you might not be able to breath in the GH during the day, but the plants will be monsters.

I thought flying by the pants was the norm. On another thread someone mentioned completely researching and planning everything before purchasing their tree. Made me very suspicious. :0)

-Ethan

Bite your tongue Ethan! No more spending on this thing! I'm going to go buy gas or lunch some day and find no credit cards are in my wallet!!! Monsters? Wouldn't that be cool? I'll be tickled if I don't kill them!!

Research a tree? Blasphemous! You buy first, then research! You might need to purchase another tree to support the other.

I don't know what I was thinking. It's not like I have enough crap to keep me busy as it is. I guess I'm so desperate to get a mangosteen going, I'll try about anything. Hell, by the time anything gets worked out with these, I'll be retired to Thailand!

And speaking of Thailand by the way, my in-laws purchased us..me that is...a whole bunch of fruit trees for our land over there. They are going to get them planted. I bring this up because they asked my wife how much my new lychee cost me. Everyone is soooo wrapped up in how much our trees cost. She told them the cost of the tree plus shipping. They purchased nearly 100 plants for about the same amount! I asked my wife if she really really believed at the time that I needed to hear that. Let's not forget that they will all fruit sooner than what I have here! Well...without us, what would all the therapists do? Sigh.

I found one little blog on this, he was growing fruit that are less picky and more herbaceous (spelling?) ,but still were tropical fruit.

http://www.artifex.ws/hydroponics

I am interested in hydro as well, although organics is my true interest.. trace elements etc. Anyway, I heard about people utilising seawater as a nutrient solution for hydroponics as it contains all the trace elements on the periodic table except for a couple of the gases. I used mango seeds in pumice-filled bags sitting in a 2cm deep pool of 2% seawater plus a small amount of calcium nitrate (about 150ppm N. They grew very well all winter, and showed no signs of salt damage unless until I did not change the solution for 3 months, which is bad practice anyway. I was very interested in just how well they grew in a totally passive hydo. system. Hydro. is made far too complex, I tend more towards the luddite approach. There are a lot of natural situations where hydroponics occurs all the time, with excellent results (wetlands etc). Next time I intend to sit a fruit tree in a bag or well aerated medium in a pool containing organic-certified cow manure at a rate up to about CF 20-25 and see what happens. I think the combination of exceeltn air, water and nutrient supply combined with root restriction should produce a good result.

For me this was just an interesting experiment to determine the effect of sodium chloride vs. essential trace elements, rather than a serious attempt to grow hydroponic fruit, but I am pretty sure the trees would have continued to grow to fruiitng stage had i moves them into bigger pots and continued the experiment.

Plummy, thanks for the link. I'll have to view from home. The filter at work is blocking it for some reason.

Banyan...complex? Me? Do something complex rather than simple? C'mon! Yeah. It's quite obvious that there is something wrong with me. If I view something simple that works, well then something much more complex must work even better! Interesting experiment you did. So you stopped the experiment?

Jay,

Yes, I stopped the experiment. I'm in process of planting the mangos in the ground under plastic, maybe leavce some in bags and see how much difference the root restriction effect makes.

Is your new Greenhouse full yet? When you posted pictures on cloudforest some months back I remember thinking it would not take long to fill up.

Ben

Full enough. Still a few plants I'd like to have but I need to get rid of some first...like a few citrus.

Jay,

I've actually been to a gigantic greenhouse where they are growing jackfruit, malay apple and a wide variety of other tropical fruit trees hydroponically with an incredible degree of success. As you may have already guessed, that greenhouse is in the Living With the Land exhibit at Disney's Epcot Center in Orlando, and it's pretty incredible. The jackfruit trees they have are the healthiest I've ever seen (and I've seen a LOT of jackfruit trees over the years) and loaded with outstanding fruit. I was astounded by how well everything was growing in there when I took a behind the scenes tour at the facility. They use a flood/drain system with sterile sand to anchor the roots.

Aeroponic systems work beautifully for smaller herbs, but developing a support framework for a full-sized tree is bound to be problematic in the long run with a system like that. I think Disney had the right idea with the flood/drain system they developed, although I would definitely choose a growing medium with a larger particle size than the sand they use (I'm sure they only went with sand to cut costs). Food for thought, I suppose.

We are talking mangosteens here though. They may never develop any more roots than they would originally. If they do, I'm sure it will not be speedy. My confidence in this is quite low at the moment. I've notice the tip of one root has turned to mush. Now...that could have been like that when I pulled it out of the soil. I didn't pay much attention to that detail. My biggest thing so far has been to remember to plug the pump back in after I get inside to adjust the temps!! Duh! I may have to disconnect the heater completely because I have not been able to get the temps below 73 degrees. The water has already started to turn green. Looks like there will be water changes much sooner than I'd planned.

I'm going to look up Disneys web site and see if there is any info or maybe a contact I can reach. I would love to see pics of all this! J

RE: Hydroponics experiment

If interested, here are some recent pictures I took at Epcot. This gardening concept is completely new to me. If you can learn how to do it, it's definitely worth a try.

Nice pics. Thanks for posting. Epcot has a lot of catching up to do to keep up with my technology! Right!

WOW- i just an urgent need to take my kids to disneyland!!!!!!!!!

Progress and lack of progress update.

Muntingia cuttings don't seem to be making it. Not sure why because this technique is supposed to be wonderful for cuttings. Hmmm.

The four mangosteen seedlings all seem to be showing a sign of some new leaves ready to pop. I forgot to look at the ones in soil to see if they are. But they are still alive. Changing out the water and mixing the nutrients is a pain in the butt. Keeping the water temp lower and using peroxide has seemed to eliminate algae problems like I experienced the first week.

I put some jakfruit cuttings in there as well. Wonder if they will do better than the muntingia. I have yet to be able to get them to root from a cutting.

yikes i'm going to Disney World. hehe, not exactly but maybe one day. For some reason I just have an urge to want to pick some tomatoes right now.

Nice setup Jay!!!

Hi Ohiojay,

I couldn't sleep last, twisting and turning trying to machinate a hydro system to grow the elusive mangosteen. She is calling out to me! Ok, I'm not psychotic or delusional, but like anyone trying to grow mangosteen outside of the tropics, I'm infected with a compelling obsession to propagate the queen of fruits.

Anywhooo...I ran across this interesting thread and wonder how you are doing thus far with your hydro setup?

I've had lots of success with ebb and flow in the distant past so my plan is to keep it simple stupid and use the same setup. I've found a new medium, Turface (small expanded clay pieces), that is cheaper than grow rocks and will provide better support for my soon to be "monsters" (wishful thinking like yourself :P )

Now I'm looking to source bulk seeds....very difficult to find nowadays. Might have to buy bulk fruits from Thailand in 250 KG shipments and eat the fruit to get the seeds. Not a bad idea huh? lol Would you like to share? :o)

Ken

Hi Ken,
By all means, experiment! My plants did fine while I had them in the hydro setup. You have to have some means of boosting the humidity. Unfortunately, my setup continuously leaked water and after several times trying to resolve, I just stopped. For me, it became more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. I really didn't need a separate system to care for outside of the greenhouse!

As for getting fruit from Thailand when it is available and using that seed? Enjoy the fruit because no one has been able to germinate a single irradiated seed. There are sources for seeds out there. Oscar from FruitLovers in Hawaii may have some. Good luck.

Thanks Ohiojay...I completely forgot about irradiation. I grew a couple of plants from fruit in canada while visiting not long ago and thought it would be the same for US fruit. You saved me a glutinous stomach without viable seeds to show for it. Also thanks for the website. I'm going to give them a try after I set up the growroom. I'll try to post my "experiments" when it's up and running. Again, my gratitude.

Ken

Kudos for your efforts, OhioJay. I too, am an experimenter. I tried the fruit with no luck, due to irradiation. Research, is the key to success for me. My primary sources of info are from the places that grow mangosteens commercially. My 'personal profile' for mangosteens, is based on my determination that steens, prefer the same environment that people prefer (i.e. temps above 40 degrees F, and below 100). I also concluded that steens prefer to be grown in a controlled environment (i.e. primarily inside, with and around people). Preferred locations: greenhouse, bathroom & kitchen spaces for their increased humidity. My specialty, is hydroponics. So, my preference is to propagate the steens using hydroponic technologies, to achieve absolute control of the output product. I design my own hydroponic growing vehicles. The vehicles should be portable enough to allow the plants to be moved into, and out of the sun, for brief exposures (shading is essential for mangosteens in the direct sun). Notwithstanding air temperature, plant surface temperature, is the controlling factor for steens. While air temps may be only in the upper 80's, plant surface temperatures can climb to over 100 degrees F, very quickly. A laser-guided temperature gun is most-preferred, and will save your plants from death due to sun stroke. My rule of thumb is, if its too uncomfortable for me, its too uncomfortable for mangosteens. The sun is very beneficial, but only when properly shaded. I had my mangosteen seedlings in a shaded area and turned my back for about 10 or 12 minutes, and the sun moved to a position where my plants were no longer in the shade. One the seedlings showed heavy stress. I moved them back inside and misted all of them with pH balanced water. Due to the short duration, recovery was very fast.

After my irradiation nightmare, I discovered a place where they sell seeds from non-irradiated fruit. The germination rate for me was 65 percent and they advise that it has been as high as 100 percent. They recommend using PayPal, which I rejected. I sent U.S. currency via Registered Mail. No problems what so ever. The place, is:

Montoso Gardens, in Puerto Rico:

Att: David Brunner

Montoso Gardens

Hwy 120, Km 18.9

Box 692

Maricao, Puerto Rico 00606

USA

The seeds are $1.50 each, w/ free shipping when you buy at least 10. Bryan and David Brunner are very good people, and I do plan to visit them personally. Keep in mind, that the seeds lose their viability after 5 days. So, regardless when your money arrives, schedule your seed mailing from PR on a Monday, in a week with no holidays. I got my seeds in 3 days. I soaked them over-night in filtered, pH balanced water and planted them the very next day. I got 20 seeds and treated half with a growth hormone, and half without.

TROY S. McNEILL at: cygnusx1547@yahoo.com

Hydroponic Configuration Systems