Hydroponic Gardening

We visited the U of H Hilo's Agricultural Departments' students who were all doing hydroponic experiments to prove or disprove a 'theory' or question. Some of the questions were =

Can plants use a mixture of straight black cinder in the 'container' instead of store bought material?
YES.

Can a wad of moss from a rock house and grow a seedling hydroponically as well as a commerial plastic basket or forestry tube?
YES

Do different types of lettuce grow differently?
NO - all are the same.

Does water in which fish live nourish better or worse than commercial fertilizer?
NO

Can different vegetables grow togheter with no ill effects?
YES

Following are pictures of some of the beds. Some had circulating water, some didn't.

Another experiment - growing Bok Choi and lettuce in buckets.... A 5 gal bucket, piece of plywood over the top with 3 holes... Easy. Great looking vegies. This is a noncirculating system.

This message was edited Mar 28, 2009 9:05 AM

Root system of lettuce grown in a wad of local moss rubberbanded to a seedling

Strawberries growing in bamboo poles. Ths was a circulating system....clever...

Really cool stuff

So, the moss anchors the plant, the roots grow through to the water below and get their nutrients from the water? I guess the plants in plywood don't have moss but are "anchored" by the plywood? That is a cool idea. I always wondered how it was done.

Neat! I wondered how that was done. Thanks for posting!

it must be nice to have unlimited university funds to grow all those beautiful plants. i wonder how much it would cost one of us to havethatsamesystem in our homes.

Actually, the plants grown in the buckets are in forestry tubest filled with spagnum...the seedling are put into the spagnum. For better root growth...the forestry tubes have more holes drilled in them.

Have you not seen this system before? Shall I give you the details? The 4x8 water filled 'boxes' are easily built at home. I grow lettuce in styrofoam coolers, one gallon milk jugs and old detergent jugs. ....

Really, you want me to draw it out...I would be delighted to...

thats very kind of you but i don't think i can handle growing them in that manner but i would liketo see pictures of your set up if you don't mind.

Lucky you Carol. I would love to have taken that tour. The strawberries in the "pipes" really interest me. I think they'd work with much less slope and therefore more space for more pipes. I have 9 plants in growbags and that's not a very efficient use of the space.

Basically it is REALLY simple:

Take a 4x8 sheet of plywood for the bottom (or any size bottom, really) and make the sides of this 'open' box with 2 x 4s set on the 2" edge. Use heave black plastic for the "pool liner", draping it over all of the sides. Use sheets of foam (they come 4x4) for the 'lid', resting it on top of the sides (not letting it float on the surface).

Drill circular holes in the foam top to put the tubes, plastic mesh baskets etc. in...

Grow.

I am going out of town for a couple of days and when I come back will show you in more detail.... Also the foam coolers I grow lettuce in....

NO weeding.

o.k. thanks

Brilliant lady.


PK

i'd love to see your set up as well...have a great trip! virginia

Will take pics tomorrow....

I'm interested as well, thanks for sharing!!!

OK...here is my set up. The first photo are three kinds of 'containers' available here....the yellow thing is a "forestry tube" with about 8 more holes drilled along the cone that will be in the water. The other two are 'mesh baskets' (actually filters). No reason why you couldn't make your own nets or holders with mesh or wire. The more open the better as more roots will find their way OUT.

Here is a styrofoam cooler...in use, growing lettuce in the small baskets. I have filled the baskets with a local moss, very much like spagnum long fiber. I put in seedlings.

Actually, I start the seedlings in green floral foam and then cut them from the block with foam still around the roots and stuff it into the moss. The roots find their way out.

The inside of the box is lined with heavy duty plastic bag. Water with hydroponic fert is inside....see next picture. I use ChemGro 10-8-22 (as does the University).

I lifted the box top...this is inside. The roots haven't started growing out of the mesh yet.

Here is a new box I will grow in...with the forestry tube in it. It is a shallow box so the tube will stick out a bit.... Holes are cut in the top ... probably DH drilled too many holes....3 would have been better.

You can use 1 gal plastic milk bottles (cut the top off to fit your 'basket') and old detergent bottles. This one is 1.5 gal bottle and the forestry tube sits right in there!!! You can see it peeking out...light yellow.

I really like growing hydroponically like this because there are NO weeds to deal with, no garden beds to prepare and bugs to fight off...

In the summer when it is really hot, I will use NON heading lettuce which won't bolt.

For just two of us...this keep us in fresh lettuce for ourselves, and some to trade from time to time.

I can see how it works except for the bamboo tube. I don't understand it's purpose. Are you planting in the tube or watering through it? If watering through it, where do you plant in the detergent jug?

The bamboo tubes were a project of one of the students.... I don't use bamboo. Actually the nodal walls inside the bamboo have holes drilled in them so the water runs thru and the moss the strawberries are in wick up the moisture.

Herbie...if you can picture that styrofoam box as a 4' x 8' box with a plywood bottom and 4" sides (2"x4" s)...the black plastic to create a 'pool' and the sty. sheets over the top. Can be made easily...cost=wood, plastic and foam. Lots of folks grow lettuce for themselves and then sell the extras(best tasting and you don't have to wash dirt off the leaves!!!) and make $$ to buy fertilizer. I have a friend with 3 in his hoop house.

I'm sorry. I meant the forestry tube rather than the bamboo.

AH. The water in all of the boxes/jugs is non-circulating/static. The moss/planting medium (like promix) is put in the tube and the seeds/seedlings are planted in the top....the roots of the seeds/seedlings coming out thru the holes into the water to sustain themselves. you don't water the tubes at all.

PS Forestry tubes are used to grow young saplings/young trees which are carried into the mountains to reforest areas. The tubes are small and the saplings slip out of them easily to plant into the 'unprepared' ground...

If you look carefully, you can see that the forestry tube 'just' fits in the detergent bottle and you are able to grow a head of lettuce in that one jug (or a tomato plant, pepper plant etc.).

Okay. I understand now. Thanks for the pics and info. It's all very interesting.