growing chives

growing chives

Hi scott, may be you can help me grow my chives in a way that I don't have to pick 'dead' stems of each plant. We grow about 10 different herbs in our glasshouse on hydroponic tables.I sow out chives seed in a green plastic little tup[3by 5cm].The growing medium is perlite. In each tup I put about 10 seeds and cover them with vermiculite. Water and let them germinate.[about 2weeks]. When the seedlings reach a hight of about three cm I put the little tup in my hydroponic channels. We use standard nutrients for hydroponic in our system. Very quickly there are little dead green stems visible and some of the tips get browm too. Before I sell the plant[we sell plants in pots] I have to remove all the dead stems to make the Chives pot presentable. Chives is a popular herb, that we still like to offer, but the 'picking through' the chives is to labour intense. Is this a common problem? Should I use a different growing medium,different nutricients? Your comment would be appreciated. Thanks 

 

Hello

 

These dead stems seem a time consuming job for you.

 

In our NFT tables, we would buy the chives as seedlings - they seem to take a long time to get going when you do it yourself - and throw a bunch, say 1-3 seedlings into each hole to make a big enough size, and grow them only 2-4 weeks, and sell as a bunch.

 

We did it this way as it was FAST, and we would get brown dead stems/leaves if we left plants growing too long. Too strong nutrient strength might make them grow with dead tips, or make the leaves turn earlier. Try a 20% to 50% drop in nutrient strength. If you can't do that because of other plants in the system, use a spray of water over the chives pots to rinse the nutrient way from the roots.

 

If they were going yellow then maybe they are too wet, lack of oxygen promotes root death, root rot shows up as yellowing of older leaves. Check roots if yellow is part of the problem. If too wet the shoots might just wilt and fall over also. Perlite is unlikely to be too wet, but we need to check it.

 

Commercial growers using NFT been using a timer for 15 minutes on and then 15 minutes off cycles. This keeps the roots moist, aerated, and reduces the issues with getting just the right flow rate. If too hot, a thermostat turns the pump on continuously above 30 degrees(prevent wilting) and also continuously when below 15 degrees (to apply any heated solution and stop the slight evaporative cooling which occurs while the pump is off.) This system stops too much moisture being applied. It might be an advantage to try something like this.

 

Different mediums are unlikely to help, different nutrition unlikely as well. We were growing using a lettuce solution, then a general purpose, and nothing really happened either way. If all the elements are there and replaced/dumped regularly there shouldn't be a problem. Make sure you are dumping often enough.

 

Failing all that, I'd call in a commercial consultant or the local department of agriculture rep to advise. Its better to see the problem with these situations.

 

Hope that helps you

 

Scott Andrew

www.hydrocentre.com.au

Nerang Hydroponic Centre Shop 17 / 39 Lawrence Drive Nerang QLD 4211 Australia Phone (07) 5527 4155

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