Back From Vacation

I just returned from vacation and I'm glad to see that my plants are growing and look healthy.  Before I left on vacation to Alaska last week, I moved 6 lettuce plants and 2 fennel plants from the germination tray to DWC (Deep Water Culture) hydro units.  I made sure not to move anything that did not have roots visible on the outside of the rockwool cubes.

Before I left, the tubs were set up in a solution of about 450 ppm with one 400 watt equivalent fluorescent light fixture illuminating each tub.  When I returned, I was happy to see significant growth, especially the lettuce.  Lettuce can grow with fairly weak nutrient concentrations, but it seems that 450 ppm is a bit weak for herbs.  The cilantro plants looked a bit purple on the edges of the leaves, and one leaf was curling.  I think it may have been due to a nutrient deficiency.  I pruned the bad leaves, and changed out the nutrient solution in all the bins to a little stronger solution.  I mixed the lettuce solution to about 600 ppm, and the herb bins to about 700 ppm.  This is a bit on the low side, but within the parameters for each plant.  If it looks like I am having nutrient deficiencies, I can further raise the nutrient strength.  After a day, the cilantro is looking a bit better.  Also there does not appear to be any tip burn, which is a concern any time I increase the nutrient concentration.  I did lose a couple of purple basil seedlings due to lack of water, and a spinach due to premature bolting (too warm and too long in the germination tray), but my thyme and oregano plants appear fine.  Here are the plants as of today.

My carrots and radishes have developed a fairly large population of algae on the growing medium, but the plant health looks ok.  The algae probably began due to covering the bins with plastic for about a week with lots of light and no air circulation.  I'll just see how these do.  When I changed out the solution in these bins. there was a 12" root hanging through a hole in the upper bin.  Also, the roots have grown like crazy on all the other plants.  These roots were not visible on the outside of the net pots before I left on vacation a week ago.

Lettuce: Red Sails

 Kale

 Lettuce: Buttercrunch

 Cilantro

Radish

So, That's it for now.  The next hurdle will be keeping everything alive while I'm gone for turf management classes at Rutgers for 3 weeks, but we'll cross that bridge next week.

Seedling Pics and DIY Lights

Well, I'm still waiting for my seedlings to grow their roots before transplanting.  I moved some of the seedlings into the hydroponic units to see if they were ready, but it quickly became obvious that they were not.  After a week of sluggish growth in the DWC units, I moved them back into the germination tray to mature further.  They are now growing vigorously and do not appear to have suffered much from the early transplant.  

As you may see, I got my LED lights in the mail, and they are sweet!  I paid $30 each for 2 on ebay, and I would say they were worth the money.  I have to be careful when I plug them in or I can blind myself or others (sorry wife), so pretty bright.  I have also been perfecting my CFL light fixtures by adding lights and experimenting with different configurations.  I also found some other inexpensive solutions for building cheap CFL grow light fixtures.  The art of sheet-metal-origami and the risk of electrocution keeps me entertained while I wait for the baby plants to mature.  It also helps to make sure that my plants will have plenty of light when they move to their new homes.

After trying a few methods including lamp fixtures, shop light fixtures, and extension cords, I found 2-packs of power strips at home depot for $5 so I settled on this design for cost, flexibility of light placement, and ease of construction.  So, a unit like this puts has 400 watt output and uses about 100 watts.  Total cost to build is about $20 including bulbs.  Also, zip ties and baling wire are indispensable.  I now have enough light fixtures to cover 4 hydro units, 1 germination tray, and my new little experiment.

Here, I have 2 manually irrigated hydro trays growing radishes and carrots.  I set these up as wick irrigation units.  Each tray is actually 2 nested trays.  The inner tray has holes drilled in the bottom and is lined with wire screen, while the outer tray holds about an inch of 50% nutrient solution.  The trays are filled with perlite, which wicks moisture from the outer reservoir tray.  The theory behind this experiment is based on the fact that the root that we eat is a large taproot that is meant to grow quickly and store nutrients so that the plant has plenty of stores for difficult times.  The taproot needs to dig itself deep seeking out nutrients from the lower area of the soil profile, so if nutrients are too readily available to the plant, the taproot does not have the impetus to grow deep and large.  The wicking system should supply more nutrients to the deeper levels of the soil profile, while still providing the upper levels with sufficient nutrients.  We will see how it goes.  

New Grow Lights and New Unit

     It is black friday, and I got myself some presents.  A few of my seedlings look big enough to transplant, so I figured I could use some better grow lights.  Being on a budget, however, I can't afford to blow hundreds of dollars on HID (High intensity Discharge) bulbs, ballasts, fixtures, and fans.  I have decided to grow my plants using LED and CFL bulbs.  I am still waiting for a couple of LED panels to come in the mail, so I decided to get started on a couple of CFL fixtures.  I want to be able to supply at least 200 watts of light output to each of my (now) four units, so I went out and got my supplies.

     I went to Home Depot and bought the following:

-2 2-packs of 100 watt output daylight CFL bulbs
-2 lamp light socket fixtures
-2 2-bulb lamp socket adapters
-2 lamp power cords

     I also had about 5 feet of metal duct pipe sitting in the garage.

     First, I cut the metal duct pipe into 2- 16" lengths to make 2 light reflectors.  When the duct is unrolled, it can be easily formed into a half-circle, which makes a good parabolic(ish) reflector.  measured to the center and drilled a hole for the lamp fixture.  I connected the lamp power cord to the fixture and attached the fixture to the reflector.  I used the scrap duct material to make a half cover on one end of the reflector.  This keeps me from being blinded when I peek in at my plants.  I cut out the half circles with snips and attached them to the side of the reflectors with duct tape.  I then screwed the adapters into the fixtures and screwed in the bulbs.  I used cord and wire hooks to hang the fixtures above the hydro units.  They turned out pretty decent, and they cost me a lot less than a pre-built fixture would.

     I also washed my tanks and moved some of the larger seedlings out of the germination tray and into the hydro units.  It may be a bit premature, but a couple of them were touching the plastic covering the germination tray.

  Well, I'm still waiting on my LED's but in the meantime, I still have some good stuff happening here!

New Seedlings Every Day

I guess I shouldn't be so excited every time I see a new seedling poking out of the rockwool, but I just can't help it.  I took pictures of the germination tray yesterday afternoon, and by 8:00 pm there were three new spinach seedlings (previously not visible) that had grown at least half an inch in less than eight hours.

Week 1: Diving Headlong into a Reservoir of Nutrient Solution

  
     Hello world, and welcome to my new obsession: hydroponic gardening.  Today marks the one week anniversary of my first serious foray into the world of hydroponic gardening, and due to my unrestrained excitement about the subject (and some pressure from my mother), I have decided to document this journey and share my successes and failures with anyone who is interested.
     My decision to begin a hydrogarden was born from the excitement and satisfaction I got from my first outdoor vegetable garden.  My wife and I recently purchased our first home, and with it came the opportunity to raise a vegetable garden on our property.

      As fall came and the final veggies were harvested, I wanted to continue, albeit to a much smaller degree, the feeling of self sufficiency that comes from growing one's own food.  I cleared out a 7' x 2' area of work bench in my garage and set up some planter boxes so I could grow radishes and herbs indoors.  My original idea was a simple geoponics garden (planting in sand with organic and liquid fertilizers for nutrients, as well as a hydration agent for holding in moisture).  I set this up with some 48" fluorescent shop lights and 2 175 watt incandescent grow lights.  I was getting results, but not the thriving plants I was looking for.

       Given my desire to grow a greater variety of vegetables and higher yields, I turned the focus of my research toward hydroponics.  Now, I already had a cursory education in hydroponics because of a high school science project I did on the subject, so I already knew some of the benefits of hydroponic culture.  Bear in mind, however, that my science project, although pretty cool, was not a success.  I was bent on doing everything myself and not turning to specialty products for my system.  Without proper nutrition, all my plants died and the pvc pipes and buckets were either repurposed or thrown out.  This time I decided to do it correctly.
     Last monday, the urge to get started was so great (I was actually losing sleep over it; not in a bad way, more like the night before Christmas) I decided to go out and buy the components to build my first successful hydroponic system.  From all the internet research I had done on the topic, I decided to go with a deep water culture, floating raft system.

  
     Plants need water, light, nutrients, and air in order to thrive.  The hydroponic system provides the water, nutrients an air to the roots, and grow lights supply the light.  Deep water culture is a system in which plants are suspended above a nutrient reservoir with the roots dangling into the solution.  Concentrated nutrients are added to the water and air is supplied using an air pump and an aquarium air stone (bubbler).  The floating raft, or lettuce raft, allows the plants to float on the nutrient solution with their roots submerged in the aerated solution.  This method is very low maintenance because as the water level decreases due to evaporation, the raft falls with the water level.  No need to worry about whether or not the roots can reach down to the solution.  This method is also the least expensive to build.
  
     To build this unit you need the following items:

-Plastic tote with lid: < $10
          (size depends on how many plants you wish to grow and their size.  I used 24" x 18" x 12")
-Styrofoam:  $5
          (I used 1.5" silver backed foam insulation for added light reflection. 1 sheet can build 3 rafts)
-Net pots:  $.40 each for 3" pots
          (available from a hydroponics store or on ebay)
-Aquarium air pump < $11
          (I bought a dual port air pump to aerate 2 units)
-Air stone:  $5 ea
          (I bought 2- 18" air stones at $5 for 2 units)
-Air tubing: $2
-Rockwool cubes: $10
          (I bought way more than enough to fill all my units)
-Hydroton $10
          (this was probably 5-10 times the amount I needed, but it was the smallest bag they had)
-Hydroponic nutrients:  $16
          (this should last me about a year)
-Grow lights:  $30+
          (I used incandescent fixtures I already had and bought a fluorescent shop light for $11. I also         bought 2- 175 watt grow lights.  I also just ordered 2- 12x12 LED grow lights $30 ea)
-Litmus paper $10
          (enough to last quite a while)

*I bought all my hydro-specific materials from American Agriculture in Portland OR

How to build your DWC lettuce raft

1.  Using a permanent marker, trace the outline of the BOTTOM of the plastic tote.  Do this near the corner of the foam sheet to reduce the amount of wasted styrofoam.  Trace the bottom so the raft can float freely without binding against the sides of the tote.
2.  Use a jigsaw to cut out the raft.
3.  Trace circles for the net pots.  I found an old plastic cup that is the perfect diameter, but you could use a compass to draw a 3" circle.  The circle must be the diameter of the net pot minus the lip at the top rim, otherwise the pots will fall through the holes.
4.  Use a jigsaw or a hole saw to cut out the holes.  Check the diameter of the holes using net pots.
5.  Clean up the edges of styrofoam raft

6.  Cut a length of tubing to go from the air pump to the bottom of the tote and a shorter one to go from the pump to the included check valve.  Attach tubing to the pump, then to the check valve, then to the air stone.  Lay the air stone lengthwise on the bottom of the tote.

7.  Add water to the bottom of the tote and plug the air pump in to make sure it is working.  Bubbles should be vigorously escaping from the air stone.
8.  Dump the water out of the tote and make sure the tote is clean.
9.  Add a measured amount of water to the tote and mix in nutrients according to the product label.  I used 3 gallons of water and .75 tsp each of a 2 part nutrient mix.  Stir thoroughly.

10.  Float the raft on top of the solution and place unit under grow lights.
11.  Fill net pots with hydroton and place them in the holes.

12.  Wait 30 minutes (growing media may change pH of the solution) and check the solution's pH using litmus paper.  If pH is not in the ideal range for the plants you will be growing, raise or lower it using pH up, or pH down (available from hydroponics store).
13.  Add your plants and watch them grow!

Starting Plants From Seed

     All the sources I have found on-line say that starting plants from seed is the best way to go because you, the grower, are in control of all aspects of the plant's nurturing from the very beginning. moving plants from soil to hydroponics creates a situation in which soil-borne pathogens may be transmitted from the soil stuck to the roots into the hydroponic solution, creating a toxic environment.  So, I say just stick to seeds or cuttings from hydroponic plants.

     Seeds need heat and moisture in order to germinate, and eventually light to become healthy seedlings.  In my limited experience with germination, I have found that heat is the factor that is the most important to fast germination.  Specialty germination units are available to those who are not crafty, but I just used an old plastic bin, a heat pad (for sports injuries), and a makeshift cold frame.  The cold frame is not necessary, but makes it easier to peek in at your little plants without too much hassle.
     To create a good germination environment, simply set your tray on top of the heating pad and plug it in.  Use cubes of rockwool, and place a couple of seeds into the pre-made hole.  You may want to use a pen cap to widen the hole, making it easier to drop seeds in there.  Dip the rockwool cubes into a weak nutrient solution or water and place the damp cubes into the germination tray.  You can place a cold frame on top or cover the tray with plastic wrap.  Don't be surprised if you see tiny plants in just a couple of days.  That means it is working.

*The lettuce seeds in the back were planted 3 days before this picture was taken.

My Garden of the Future

     So, as you may be able to tell from the pictures, I don't have many plants to speak of, just a bunch of seedlings and freshly germinated seeds.  I have cilantro, spinach and radishes that were transplanted from my geoponic trays, but these are mainly to satisfy my urge to watch something grow.  In a week or so, I will get rid of the existing plants, clean out the units and replace the nutrient solution so my new seedlings will have a nice pathogen-free environment in which they can grow with less fear of pandemic disease.  In the meantime, I have some scraggly cilantro plants that I will try to nurse into health (these were destined for the compost bin before I decided to transplant them).  I will keep posting and let you know how goes my first Hydrogarden!