Water, water everywhere

I mentioned earlier that we were going to try some hydroponic gardening. So we started off small and within the weeks have an industrial-size project going.

It’s all my fault of course. As soon as I started building my first growing box I was hooked and wanted more. Rosalie, not wanting to encourage me too much, kept asking every two minutes if your first seeds were up yet. It’s almost as annoying as “Are we there yet.”

We started by investing in an inexpensive pack of starter plugs. All you have to do is soak them and insert the seed in a hole in the top, and then wait. The problem is that they were kept inside and the heat isn’t turned on at night so they took some time sprouting. I ordered a heat mat from Amazon and they seem to love it. When I put them out in the full sun they almost grew before our eyes. When they get a bit bigger they will be put into the system and that’s where they will really take off (I hope.)

I had various ideas as to which method I wanted to use but the first we tried (notice we) was called Water Culture which involves suspending the plants above a water solution infused with nutrients and oxygenated by an air pump.

Rosalie got so excited that we had to take a few plants from the dirt garden to get things going. Our first try didn’t kill any plants but we had to change the water after three days. Being nubies, we didn’t realize that we had to get the PH level of the water just so, before adding nutrients. So the water was emptied out and we started again. This method is so simple that we bought another container to double our growing area.

The other method we chose to use is the Nutrient Film Technique. This involves running shallow water through tubes with the plant roots just in the water. The water then returns to a reservoir to be pumped through again. So I built one of those too. I have to make sure that we don’t hear the water running as it likely would have Rosalie and me fighting for the bathroom.

The NFT system is almost set up

We now have places for forty-five plants. Green plants such as lettuce, spinach and kale grow best but I had to bring Rosalie back to earth as she wanted to grow trees and bushes and particularly blueberry bushes. And of course, she wants a couple of marijuana plants. I said no but I noticed that we did include some poppy seeds.

The water culture containers are located under a beam on the deck so we can attach strings and grow things like peas, beans and cucumbers. There are also some tomatoes and peppers.

Hopefully, we won’t starve this summer. I think I’ll turn the old garden patch into a mini soccer field.