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Thanks for the reply, Mozi! I planted seeds about 4 days ago, ranging from vegetables to herbs, and they're all sprouting. I've been checking them religiously and feeding them nutrients specially made for germinating seeds. I'm really excited. My radish and lettuce seeds unsurprisingly sprouted first, and already have their starter leaves up. I got very confused with germination, I didn't know whether to keep them in a dark area to sprout, or if I should stick them under the CFL light I have. I did a bit of both, kept changing from dark, warm areas to light, warm areas. They all seem to be sprouting just fine, but my coriander seeds are still not showing signs of life. - What kind of light is it? It's this one A 65W CFL, 6400K. I don't have a reflector for it, and I'm not sure if I should get one to help focus all the light down towards the plants. - Not really sure, I'm growing 10 plants: coriander, thyme, basil, rosemary, lettuce, radishes and spinach. I've got a couple extra spinach / lettuce plants, bringing the total to 10. I've ordered 10 1000ml wide-mouth mason jars that I'll paint black and transport the seeds into. I've got no idea if my current light will provide enough to keep them all happy. I think they'll all be able to fit inside a m^2. I'm planning on using the Kratky method, and have seen videos of people doing the mason jar technique and it looks great. I'm not sure what nutrients to get for them. I've read conflicting reports about Miracle-Gro, saying it's really not good to give it to plants you plan to eat. Everywhere I look online, it's just about growing weed, and any farming hydroponic sites are basically dead with no new posts and no replies. I've got no idea whether to get powdered nutrients that I mix myself, or if it's easier for me to just buy premade solution. My local hydroponics store is kind of helpful, but they upmark prices quite a bit, so I'd prefer ordering things online (UK storefronts). I've heard about cutting basil to make it grow outwards instead of upwards, how would I do this without hurting the plant? Update: I'm going to my hydroponics store today to buy some vegetative growth nutrients, as well as a black storage tote (might get one or two) for some of my plants to go in. I plan on putting my herbs in my mason jars, and then my leafy greens together in the large storage totes. I'm just worried about my light not being strong enough to give all of my plants enough light. I just can't afford to break the bank on a new light right now. I'm really excited, and checking my plants every morning and seeing them that little bit more grown makes me happy. I can't wait for their first leaves to show up, because that's my indication to transport them to nutrient-rich solution. I'll be buying some clay pebbles as well, to cover the bottom and top of the rockwool in the netted cups. I've planted 2-3 seeds in each rockwool cube. I'm not sure how to tell which plant from the batch of seeds to keep. Two of my radish seeds sprouted, and one has a really dark red and thick stem, whilst the other one has a lighter, slightly pink / white stem and is a tad longer than the dark red stemmed radish. I have a feeling I should cut the taller, lightly coloured radish, as it may be a bit leggy? I figured a darker, thicker stem is a better indication of a healthy plant, as opposed to a longer, thinner and lighter coloured stem. Thoughts? Qubee fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Aug 16, 2017 |
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Aug 15, 2017 17:13
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Well, obviously you're excited about this, so I hope you can sustain that. I would say it's better to do too little than too much initially because when (not if) something goes wrong, the fewer variables involved the easier problems are to diagnose and fix, and things can get out of control if you just go nuts at the start. But live and learn! I personally don't have much experience growing hydroponically, but I would also do the Kratky method if I were you. Seems like an easy and effective way to start out. I'm afraid I can't offer more advice on that front but keep in mind when you're searching for info online, weed is just a plant much like any other, so don't discard that info just because you don't happen to be growing it, though I'm sure radishes need much fewer nutrients in general. Make sure to watch your PH. You really don't need to fertilize seeds at all, they come with the nutrients they need inside; you should be able to wait a week or two before giving nutrients. FWIW, it's better for the plant to have slightly too little nutrients than too much, and it's more conducive to learning to let them express a deficiency and fix it than to just try to follow everybody's instructions and do it all perfectly the first time. Different plants have different requirements for seed germination, I would just do a quick Google. Some of them need light and should just be scattered on the surface, others need darkness and to be buried a bit, some take a really long time, etc. That said after they sprout you definitely want to get them under lights immediately. For your light, I would say you might want to get a couple more; not sure if a reflector is needed or not, it couldn't hurt. The thing about CFLs is that you have to place them very close to the plants, as the light intensity drops off quickly. I doubt you'd be able to grow a tomato plant under a single CFL, you'd probably need a bunch arranged all over the plant. But you are probably OK for starting seeds. You might also look into fluorescent lights, it might be a better fit for your setup. As I said previously the purple LED lights are also effective but very ugly in my opinion. You can also buy a bunch of cheaper lower-wattage CFLs, just make sure they are 5500K spectrum (I believe,) like these or these. Clamps like these might come in handy. For your radish seeds question, I might just give them a bit longer to see if one is obviously more robust than the others. I wouldn't read too much into the stem color at that point. When you do cull, be merciless. Good luck!
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Aug 16, 2017 15:07
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I found the Ebb and Flow setup to be pretty easy to set up and not too expensive. The benefit over the Kratky Method is that the nutrient water always goes up to the same height so it works even if you're adding new plants every so often.
So 52 bucks total for the irrigation system and then some growstone media to grow in. I used 5x fabric pots and filled each individually, thinking I'd be able to just swap them in and out with new plants, but in practice that is pretty difficult to do because they are pretty packed in. Also, just get "by the foot" tubing and don't worry about it being clear. I spent extra bucks to get the opaque black vinyl stuff so I had to buy two rolls of $20 tubing. I tried to find a cheap 32"x32" ebb and flow flood tray to fill up my tent completely, but in practice the plants expand out into the open space so just a 26"x19" tub is plenty under my 2 LED lights. I did the work of reorganizing my little tent and moving the reservoir outside of the tent to leave more room for growing inside. I've removed those giant hot pepper plants from my setup and let the bell pepper plant have most of the space. Due to it having to really stretch out to find light under the canopy of the hot peppers, it was really scraggly so I just decided to whack it down to nothing and start again. May 25th:  The scale is hard to judge here but the tub everything is planted in is 7" tall so the plants are about 20" tall above ground. Currently:   I get about 6oz of red bell peppers per week, and rotate in a new lettuce plant every ~40 days. The buttercrunch lettuce visible is 45 days old and a paris island romaine should be sprouting any day now. I just put 2 seeds in a torn off piece of coffee filter about 1" square and stuff it into the grow media down below the waterline. CapnBry fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Aug 20, 2017 |
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Aug 20, 2017 17:00
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