I figured people might be interested to know more about hydroponics or gardening in general.  The start of this is no different than the start for soil, aquaponics, aeroponics, and many other growing styles.

I received some new to me heirloom seeds in a Cola Warrior Christmas exchange and I thought it would be nice to show my Santa Warrior what became of them and hopefully encourage someone else to try to garden on their own.  I hope to give an update every day or so and follow this through to the end of the cycle.  Lettuce will end early and the tomatoes will run through the season.


Here is my unboxed pic of my exchange

From what I was given, I am going to plant the following this week:


Purple Cherokee Beefsteak tomatoes


Bumble Bee Cherry tomatoes


Chocolate Cherry tomatoes


Marvel of Four Seasons Lettuce

Seeds that I already have that I am planting are:


Mesclun Mix


May King Lettuce


and a pepper I got from the USDA for a paper I am writing for college.  I am still trying to figure out what kind of pepper it is so....  it is a surprise I guess.


I grow in a few different types of styles.  For all of them at the start it is the same.  It is the same style that can be used for growing in any type of system, be it soil or something else.  For this cycle, I am finishing off some of my root riot cubes.  I only have a few of these left so the rest will be planted in Grodan rock wool cubes.  I have had great success with both brands.  I have also used the Oasis cubes, the fiber cubes, and a few other brands.


Root Riot


Grodan Rock wool

I placed three seeds in each cube.  I use three to get a good statistic of germination and I also will pull the additional seedlings and place them in another cube by themselves after germination.  The system works well, especially for successive plantings like lettuce.  It is also handy if I have a plant that gets damaged.

The root riot cubes are pretty basic, you just take them out of the package and put seeds in them in the germinator.  They come pre-moistened so it is literally idiot proof.

The grodan rock wool cubes need to be soaked.  I soak them in a lettuce nutrient tote which has a half strength mix that is pH buffered at 5.7.  I did not show the process of setting up the nutrient tote as I will show that in a future update.  I just soak them until they sink as shown below.


sunk cubes

I then place them in my germinator (a basic jiffy greenhouse from your local hardware store will work).  You need to regulate the humidity in the germinator so a dome is essential.  I do not use a heat mat, even though one is below it as the light above the germinator keeps it in a perfect zone for growing.  If your lights do not heat your germinator, you will need a heat mat to keep it warm.  I put the seeds in a cube and cross over the grodan cubes to help increase humidity on the seeds.  I then mist the germinator with the diluted nutrient solution and then put the dome on top.


Set germinator


Germinator with the dome on

While seeding, I mark a paper grid noting what is each cube.  I have a pic of it and will update when I upload it.

Now we wait.....


Here is a link to the Seed Swap thread that I am hoping will take off..  if there is anything that want or want to swap, please let us know.http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_19/683729_Official_2015_2016_Seed_Swap_Thread_.html

12/29/15 update - Nothing new.. eta..  typed too soon..  Just checked the germinator and found I had three cubes up.

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Subscribed...It'll be cool to see how this turns out...

better check out this thread...

 

Not really worried about it...

Subscribed. Hording IBC totes now and attempting to convince the wife I need a HF greenhouse.

I would love to get a greenhouse....  I have looked at the HF units a couple of times and still haven't pulled the trigger.

12/30/15 update

7 of the 8 salad cubes are up.  The lone hold out is a Mesclun mix cube.  It will come up tomorrow so I am not really that worried yet.  

I had to work the morning and then was rushed to get my New Years Eve on so I did not get an update yesterday...

Today though...  BOOM...

Everything is showing growth, which is as expected.

Here is a copy of my germinator lay out.  I use it to reference back to what is growing and to make sure when I split seedings, I can track how things go.  When they are small seedlings, it is often difficult to determine what they are.  When the are adult plants, it is pretty easy but I still use a lay out map to tell me what things are.



If you notice, there is a bit of an expansion in the germinator.  When seedlings come up I thin out my cubes to only one plant per cube.  In stead of just throwing out the seedlings, I gently pull them to retain some of the root system and place them in a new cube.  Using this, I can extend out my seeds to use anything that grows and limit my waste.  In this case, I was able to move 6 seedlings over to new cubes.  It is like getting 6 new plants!!!  I did lose 2 seedlings while trying to transfer but they would have been thrown away anyways so no significant loss.

On to today's update...


Everything looks real good and I am satisfied with the current grow.

If you have never started seeds, you might ask how much can a root system grow and how fast?  Recall I planted this set on the 28th.  So in four days this is the root system on a May King lettuce plant

Some of that is due to the root riot cubes as the Grodan rock wool cubes will retain the root system in the cube longer.


Saturday the 2nd update...  No pics but everything short of the peppers for my college paper are up.  Everything looks good.  I am really curious to the type of one of the Mesclun mix seeds as it is vibrant red with green hues.  One of the fun parts of a mixed packet.  If I am betting right, I think it is a red beet..  I am guessing for the greens.

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Life got a bit busy..  here are the plants, getting ready to come out of the germinator.

I just gently pull, I do not use a tool or anything.  As long as I get some root to come along, I will plant it.  If there is obviously no rooting system, it just eat it.

Sorry, I missed this.

I use T5 lights for vegetative growth and High Pressure Sodium for flowering.

I will get a better update with pics this week but that is the simple answer.

I grew the Cherokee purple tomato last season. One of the best tasting tomatoes Ihave ever grown.

Alrighty...  a big update..  Transplant Day.

To start out, I am using General Hydroponics for my vegetative growth rack.  Here are the bottles that I will be using today.


Shown is a basic three part hydroponic nutrient solution.  If you opt to use GH, Humboldt, Botanical, Advanced Nutrients, etc..  all three parts are pretty much the same.  The Micro is the middle one that is dark red.  It is first mixed in, each is added in a specific order to prevent nutrient lock out, which reduces your solution to trash.  After the Micro, The Gro(green) is added, ending with the Bloom(pink).  I then add in calcium and magnesium to help with nutrient processing and prevent calcium deficiency.  Adding everything together, I end up with 748ppm on my HM Digital meter.  I like to start out my lettuce water around 70F.  It seems to help prevent transplant shock being a bit warmer.


After mixing the solution, I check the pH, and add some acid to lower the pH, my water staring pH is 7 so, I need to bring it down to around 5.7-6.1  On my Hanna pH+, I am showing, 5.8 which is great..


So, now my growth tub is ready to go...


Some neat growth..  Here is a MayKing.  The roots on it look great.


Another neat surprise is that the Beet has red roots..  who would have thought..  Don't mind the muck from the bottom of my tray.  It is cleaning day so that will be cleaned up.



So the tubs are set up..  and here they are:



and the tomatoes are moving too..  They are planted in a basic round planter in coco coir.  It is coconut husks ground up.  It looks like dirt but is inert.  Here is a pic of them moved over to my flood table.  Planting the tomatoes put some loose coir in my table but my filter will pick it up, it is just a bit unsightly.