My hydroponics thread, 2014 [View all]

[Major Nikon]

I thought I'd start a thread on my hydroponics adventures this year. This year I'm experimenting with a few different methods to find out what works and what doesn't as far as how I plan on implementing it. I'll update this thread as I go along if there's enough interest in it.

First I'll describe what hydroponics is and go into a little detail on how I plan on implementing it. This might give some of you some ideas as hydroponics can be both very simple or very complex depending on how you do it. Hydroponics as I understand it is simply growing without soil. Rather than soil you either grow the plant directly in water, or you use a grow media which can be porous like perlite or non-porous like gravel. All the nutrients the plant needs will be contained in the water you use. Most decent sized cities should have one or more hydroponics stores which you can buy supplies from, or you can order them online.

The first thing I've done, and the stage I am at right now is simply starting my seeds in hydroponic media, namely rockwool grow blocks. It is possible to start either seeds or clones in soil, wash off the soil, and then grow hydroponically, but I think it's best to start them hydroponically if you're going to grow hydroponically. The peppers I tried didn't come up so I'm either going to have to find some more seeds or I'll buy some seedlings locally and try washing the soil off and see what happens. The method for starting is pretty much the same as it is for soil. I planted the seeds at the recommended depth into the rockwool blocks, watered, and placed them inside a terrarium style seedling planter. Once the seedlings started to come up, I put up a simple $6 clamp on heat lamp type fixture fitted with a normal CFL bulb directly over the seedlings as close as I could get. The plants that I'm experimenting with that did come up are zucchini, roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, bush beans, and red lettuce. I think I will also try 2-3 different varieties of peppers, and perhaps 2-3 more varieties of greens.

The first hydroponic system I plan on trying is the Kratky method which is by far the simplest of the bunch. Reportedly this method lends itself best to non-fruit bearing plants like lettuce, which is what I plan on growing with it. You can certainly use this method for fruit bearing plants as well, but it takes a much larger water reservoir so it's not as practical. All you do is suspend the roots of the plant in a closed container filled with nutrient solution leaving an inch or so space at the top for oxygen. As the plant consumes the nutrient solution and the level becomes lower, the plant's roots grow downwards. For lettuce, a 1 gal container seems to be about right. You can use just about anything. I plan on using a 3.5 gal bucket (which is just a short 5 gal bucket) with three holes drilled in the lid for net pots, along with some 1 gallon coffee containers for individual plants.
http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FUT/0KJR/HH2VW4QQ/FUT0KJRHH2VW4QQ.pdf

The next method I plan on implementing is called Deep Water Culture, or DWC. This method is similar to the Kratky method, except the level of the water is maintained to about the same level, and an air pump is used to oxygenate the water. I plan on growing fruit bearing plants with this method, but I'll probably try lettuce as well to see what happens.
http://www.instructables.com/id/My-Indoor-DWC-Hydroponics-System/step2/The-Deep-Water-Culture-Design-Materials-and-Method/

The third method I will use is a flood and drain system which is the most complex I'm going to try. It basically works by flooding the grow media with water, then shortly after draining it. It's easy enough to build your own system to do this, but I decided to go with a 6 bucket commercial package that gives me just about everything I need except for the nutrients and grow media. The thing about the flood and drain system is that I can easily convert it to an acquaponics system or a dutch bucket system later on if I so desire.
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Big-Boy-Hydroponic-System

All of these systems lend themselves to growing indoors either under grow lights or in a greenhouse. I'm not going to do either, but I do have a southern facing decent sized covered back porch which gets morning and early afternoon sun, so hopefully it will be a pretty good location to try this. The grow media I plan on using is Hydroton which are little porous clay pebbles. The nutrient solution I'll be using is made by General Hydroponics and is called their Flora series. It basically consists of 3 different nutrient solutions which you combine with water in different concentrations depending on what you are growing or where in the life cycle you are.