Greetings to the community, from an absolute novice!
Up until just a few weeks ago, I could honestly say that horticulturally, I'd only ever managed to narrowly avoid killing a handful of houseplants, and to grow a pair of small grapefruit saplings from the remains of breakfast. Now, through a rather convoluted path of changing plans, I find myself in the middle of winter with a spare bathroom full of plants, lights, and a tray full of tomato sproutlings that are threatening to take over the world. Having never actually grown anything before, I planted to anticipate a high failure rate - and was shocked to see that pretty much everything that I stuck into the ground has come up with unbelievable (for me, anyway) speed and vigor.
My current plans include growing something like a privacy fence on the side of my balcony, to shield me from my neighbors, and setting up some sort of growing rack in the spare bathroom/greenhouse so that I can grow and enjoy a small tomato crop in my apartment.
Everyone keeps telling me that I should build a hydroponic rack for the tomatoes, but knowing virtually nothing about growing things, let alone anything with as many variables as hydroponics, I think it would be best to start small and dirty, using a more conventional setup to start with, and moving on from there. Googling around, I found lots of information on basic aeroponic beds, and I might try one of those for a handful of plants to see how it works out.
A friend of mine told me that I should really check out the Dave's Garden website, and that I could find all sorts of good advice here.
Believe me -- I'm going to need it!
