Part IV – If At First You Don’t Succeed…?

           During their first week, my seedlings were growing like crazy! But in their second week, they seemed to have really slowed. In fact, some are even showing signs of distress. However, roots are starting to come through the rockwool cubes, which typically mean that they are ready to be placed in the hydroponic system.

            I’ve seen a few things online, which indicate what the issue might be. I might be keeping the rockwool too wet, or not we enough. They might be getting too much or too little nutrients in the solution I’m giving them. I might have even contaminated them taking them out of the starter tray to check their roots (my worst fear). It’s really hard to say at this point.

            Since this is all a learning process, I’ve decided to do a bit of experimentation. I probably should have let the seedlings grow a few more roots before moving them, but it’s my hope that taking them out of the cramped grow tray and into the fresh air, that they might perk up a bit.

I located a few of the best looking leafy seedlings and placed them in the growing system. All of my lettuce seedlings were showing signs of some kind of distress. Some of the leaves appeared to be dying. I really hope they pull through. That is one of the plants I’m really hoping that I can get to grow.

Here’s one of the basil plants.

I’ll still be watering these directly until the roots grow long enough to reach the water in the tank. And yes, that is black duct tape I used instead of paint.

So at this point, only time will tell if I hit upon a good idea, or ruined some good seeds. We’ll see.

A Cucumbertorial Side Note (not hydro).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the cucumber seeds I planted sprouted very quickly. Last Sunday, I decided to take two of them out and place them in their own container outside on the patio. I simply placed the seedlings directly into the potting mix, rockwool cubes and all. I placed the container under the patio, but in such a place where they get a few hours of morning sun.  These things have just taken off! After about two days, they about doubled in size!

Until next time!

Happy Sprouts!

I thought I would share a few pictures of the seedlings. Almost everything has sprouted!

Though not part of the my hydroponics test, one of the tomato seeds (l) is doing wonderfully, but the cucumbers (r) are taking off like crazy!

The basil seeds have all sprouted.

Finally, the lettuce. I really hope I can get these going.

Though not as tall as the other plants, the oregano seeds have sprouted as well. I still have not seen anything from the garlic chives as of yet. But even if they don't, I'm extremely pleased with the ones that have sprouted so far.

Part III – They’re ALIVE

Part III – Holy Shit! They’re ALIVE! Well, some of them, anyways.

Over the last day or two, I began to realize that I need a different light set up for a number of reasons. So I visited the Intertubes, got a few ideas and located a cheap wire rack that not only holds the grow tray nicely, but also affords me a number of ways to attach my clamp lights. 

Upon taking apart my rig, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a couple of my seeds have started sprouting! It’s only been about 36 hours since we planted them! The seeds which have sprouted so far are: one of the basil plants; lettuce; and the old cucumber seeds which were technically past their “use by” date. In fact, the sprouting cucumber seed appears to be pushing out the other seeds we put in with it. Believe me, I was telling myself to be prepared for failure. I would have been happy to see just one of these plants sprout!

As these grow, there will be more updates and pictures to come, so stay tuned. 

PART II – SEEDS! (and lights)

PART II – SEEDS! (and lights)

On Monday or Tuesday this week, my seeds arrived!

It’s now Friday the 13^th, and with help from the kids, I was able to get the seeds in their starter trays and under the lights. But before I continue, I’d like to give a big thanks to the kids, Z & M, for helping me out today!

I ordered the following seeds: Lemon & Genovese basil; Butter Crunch & Arianna lettuce; garlic chive; and oregano. Since I will only have room for five of these in the window garden I’m making, I’m holding off on the Arianna lettuce for now.  I’m also starting three of each vegetable in case some of the seeds do not take, and I’ve also read that one seed might produce better seedlings than another. I was amazed at just how tiny some of these seeds are!

I soaked enough rockwool cubes to hold the seeds and placed them in the tray. I’m actually trying to start them in a solution different than what the cube packaging suggests. The instructions for the rockwool cubes suggest that they be soaked in a solution of water and lemon juice, with a PH of 5.5. Much of what I read about hydroponic growing has all sorts of references to maintaining proper PH levels. But earlier today, I spoke with someone who recommended a diluted solution made with RO water and plant food containing nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and iron. Evidently doing it this way, I won’t have to be worrying about PH levels all of the time. This test is all about experimentation, so I decided to try it this way.

LIGHTS

            Lighting is a very important part of hydroponic & indoor growing. There are all sorts of growing lights available on the market. These run from just a few dollars to several hundred on up! My test is about having fun and spending as little as possible.

            The more I researched lighting, the more I read that your regular household CFL bulb should work just fine for leafy plants. For fruiting plants, that’s a completely different story.  But for this, I’m sticking with two 26-watt CFL bulbs, putting off 1625 lumens each. Now, I could sit here and try to explain all about lumens and other aspects of CFL lighting, but I am in no way an expert on this subject, and the more I tried wrapping my head around this, just made it hurt. However, I really do plan to learn more about lighting and familiarize myself with it. When I’m confident with my knowledge about it, and can confidently put it into words in a way that anyone can understand, I’ll share that with you. But from what I’ve been able to deduce from information readily available online, more lumens will typically mean better results. I chose CFL bulbs mainly because I usually have them on hand in the house. 

            The lights have been placed approximately 8-12 inches over the plants. That seems to be the standard recommended distance. I’ll be leaving them on for about 18 hours per day. I have no idea how long it will take for these to sprout, if they even do.

If you thinking to yourself that it looks like there are more cubes in the tray than there should be, you are correct. In addition to the seeds I ordered, I’m also going to try growing tomato and cucumber seeds that my wife came across, mainly to see if they are still viable (they had a “use by” date of 2009 printed on the package). I’ve spoken with a couple of folks more adept at gardening than I am, who informed me that you can get fruiting plants to thrive throughout the summer in AZ. You just have to take the correct precautions, mainly sunscreens. I’ve been told that they allow enough light in for the plant to live but block out enough of the harsh light during the summer. So if these take, I’ll be moving them outside and protecting them. But that will be for another blog. 

Oh, here's a couple of pictures of my hacked together growing area.

Up next, Part III – They’re ALIVE!! (or not)

An Unofficial Update

D’oh! I messed up.

I’m still awaiting the arrival of my seeds. So I thought I’d get a head start on my container. The original plans for this build used eight 2-inch net pots. I decided to use 3-inch ones and grow six plants instead.

Utilizing my day off and cooler weather on the July, 4^th holiday, I took the time to paint the lid black, with the intention of using this weekend to drill the holes and determine a number of other things. There is a saying that goes, “measure twice, cut once.” I really should have paid attention to this. In my haste and excitement of getting this project started, I carefully laid out six 3-inch paper circles on the lid and marked where I should drill. That’s were things went wrong.

With small cross hairs notched into the plastic, I drilled away. What I failed to account for were a couple of things: the raised edge along the sides of the top; and the lip along the top of the net pots, which keep them from falling through the holes. I foolishly used the ridge as a guide, and drilled right up against it. Because of this bump, the net pots would not sit flat, and would allow excess light in. I also ran into a similar issue where the rims of the net pots would rest on one another, again not sitting as flat as they should.

So it was back to the store for another container. Only this time, I did all of my marking and drilling before I painted it. In addition to that, I’m only going to try growing five plants.

A couple of other things I learned from this is when drilling plastic, it can make a helluva mess. Like sawdust, cut/drilled plastic leaves behind a lot of stringy or tiny bits of plastic, and the Dremel tool I used to cut away a couple of bits of plastic away actually melted the plastic! That was something I didn’t realize until I grabbed a glob of hot, near-molten plastic. Fortunately I was not burned.

Hopefully the next update really will be the arrival of my seeds so I can get them going. Cheers! 

Part I: Getting Started

I recently discovered that I’m reasonably good at keeping plants alive. I won’t go so far as to say that I have a green thumb; rather I’ve found that with some good common sense and a bit of TLC, it is relatively easy to keep a plant alive. Oh, and the Internet doesn’t hurt either.

I’ve been very pleased using “self watering” plant containers with plants purchased from local hardware / home center stores. These containers suspend the soil, or potting mix, over a reservoir of water.  Some of this potting mix sits in the reservoir, that wicks the water from the bottom up into the roots and rest of the mix. This is a wonderful way of sustaining a plant, as it stays watered for several days.

I initially made my own self-watering planter using instructions I found online. It utilized two storage containers of the same size, an old plastic cup and PVC pipe. The problem I had with it was that I used clear containers. This allowed for the growth of algae and other things in the reservoir and soil, which ultimately might have killed the oregano I had growing in it. But I have since discovered that most of these garden centers sell these types of containers pre-made and for a lot cheaper than the one I hacked together.

The drawback for these is that they utilize potting soil or potting mix, and must remain outside, or you run the risk of inviting unwanted insects into the house. Since I have a tomato plant that I’m trying to keep alive over the hot central-Arizona summer, I began to look at ways to bring it inside. Hydroponics came to mind.

When I began researching this, I discovered that there are several different methods of growing things hydroponically. Rather than list all of them here, I’m going to focus on the method I’ll be trying. It may have other names, but I most often saw it referred to as Deep Water Culture. I have chosen this method mainly because of its simplicity. Deep water culture hydroponics typically consists of the following:

·      A large container

·      Growing medium

·      Nutrient mix (water and plant food)

·      Net pots (used to hold plants over the nutrient mix)

·      Air pump

·      Air stone

·      Tubing

Let me first state how surprised I was to find out just how reasonably inexpensive getting started in something like this is. At a local hydroponics store, they sell a kit with everything you need to grow a large plant for about $27. Rest assured, I’m going to go back for it if my experiment here works out.  However, the project that I’ll be documenting here is basically a small, window herb garden.

Before I continue, I’d like to give credit where credit is due. My inspiration for this came from the following YouTube link: http://youtu.be/FxVHS9o5yDA. I’d also like to thank Bill from Happy Harvesters Hydroponics, a local retailer, who answered a lot of my questions and addressed some concerns.

            Unlike the other plants I’ve raised, I’ll be growing these from seed, which I ordered yesterday from an online seed vendor. Transferring some basil that you bought from the lawn and garden department of the local hardware store into a container is easy. Starting one from seed - now that has me a bit frightened. But until those arrive, there’s not much more to say.

Up next, Part II: Seeds.