Happy Hydroponics

A few years back, I bought a little greenhouse for the backyard without much thought as to what I was going to do with it. A year or so ago a new store opened in a nearby city catering to people growing plants hydroponically. This involves growing plants without dirt. I was familiar with this, as I had done some electrical work years ago on some HP farms and even had a little one bucket system 10 years ago or so, but never really did much with it.

So after visiting the new store I got fired up and proceeded to plan and build my system. Well honestly, I started it over a year ago, but time constraints somehow always seem to enter into these kind of projects. I finally got to the point where I had so much invested in it was afraid GM might start getting on me about it. So the last few weeks have been spent making many trips to the HP store and, of course, Home Depot. Things finally got to the point where I was able to plant my first plants - strawberries, which I'm not really fond of, but thought it would be cool to have fresh strawberries and tomatoes throughout the winter.

Here's how it works in a nutshell.

Inside the greenhouse, I built a stand that holds 6" water pipe in which I drilled holes that hold little pots that have slots cut into them.

The pots are filled with a growing medium (no, not a young fortune teller) , in this case these red, round rock-like thingies (Not what they're really called).

Several times a day, liquid nutrient is pumped from a reservoir, through the pipes and back to the reservoir. The nutrient solution is made by adding some of the stuff in these 2 green jugs, along with some stuff to adjust the ph of the solution and 25 gallons of water. This must be replaced every week, but the old stuff goes on the plants around the house, so isn't really wasted.

Mixing the "stuff" the first time.

The pipe system.

This is the tank that holds the nutrients. It sits below ground level outside the greenhouse so that the nutrient can drain back in by gravity.

Heres some of the pots and a newly planted strawberry.

The plants have about doubled in size in the 10 or 12 days since I planted them, and several have small berries and blossoms on them. I waited to post this until I was sure it was working and I guess it is. You can see there is still more to do, but I hope to plant some peppers and a few other things this weekend. There won't be any berries for Thanksgiving, but by Christmas???? Maybe. I sure hope that they are good. I haven't figured it out yet, but I think the first crop is going to cost about $25.00 per berry. Oh well.

I hope there is stuff to taste if you ever visit.