2023 our new gardening adventure

[jjannie]

This thread will be for us to share our new adventure - hydroponic gardening. We're not replacing our other gardening but just adding this new one.

The history - our inspiration:

Jeff's sister took up doing this a couple years ago as a way to garden throughout the winter months. Researching this and watching YouTube reviews of many models out there and chatting with her, she's been using for 2 years now with no issues at all, and she even gets an abundance to share with her neighbors.  

It is a pricey initial startup cost, but you can start smaller and expand it for more growing down the road, but we've been eating so many veggies this winter (a new diet plan for us) we figure it'll give us some gardening pleasures and something we can do once outside gardening has ending for the season. His sister even uses her's to start some of her outside garden seeds for things her greenhouse doesn't carry. 

So, stay tuned for progress photos (ours is now on order) and our Walmart was already stocked with seed packets for the upcoming season, so we picked up several to give them all a try.

[Fowl-Hook]

This thread will be for us to share our new adventure - hydroponic gardening. We're not replacing our other gardening but just adding this new one.

The history - our inspiration:

Jeff's sister took up doing this a couple years ago as a way to garden throughout the winter months. Researching this and watching YouTube reviews of many models out there and chatting with her, she's been using for 2 years now with no issues at all, and she even gets an abundance to share with her neighbors.  

It is a pricey initial startup cost, but you can start smaller and expand it for more growing down the road, but we've been eating so many veggies this winter (a new diet plan for us) we figure it'll give us some gardening pleasures and something we can do once outside gardening has ending for the season. His sister even uses her's to start some of her outside garden seeds for things her greenhouse doesn't carry. 

So, stay tuned for progress photos (ours is now on order) and our Walmart was already stocked with seed packets for the upcoming season, so we picked up several to give them all a try.

So is the plan to hydroponic in your Green House?

[jjannie]

This thread will be for us to share our new adventure - hydroponic gardening. We're not replacing our other gardening but just adding this new one.

The history - our inspiration:

Jeff's sister took up doing this a couple years ago as a way to garden throughout the winter months. Researching this and watching YouTube reviews of many models out there and chatting with her, she's been using for 2 years now with no issues at all, and she even gets an abundance to share with her neighbors.  

It is a pricey initial startup cost, but you can start smaller and expand it for more growing down the road, but we've been eating so many veggies this winter (a new diet plan for us) we figure it'll give us some gardening pleasures and something we can do once outside gardening has ending for the season. His sister even uses her's to start some of her outside garden seeds for things her greenhouse doesn't carry. 

So, stay tuned for progress photos (ours is now on order) and our Walmart was already stocked with seed packets for the upcoming season, so we picked up several to give them all a try.

So is the plan to hydroponic in your Green House?

No, Mike, we are going to do it inside nearest our kitchen where we'll be more able to use it often since we see it all the time and the system we are using will have grow lights to account for the needed lighting. Some use it outside year-round, so the grow lights aren't required during the summer months, but winter days are too short here and lack enough light to really thrive. Also, since mostly a its closed system water evaporation is reduced. There is weekly maintenance that is needed to trim the roots, and add more ph balanced with nutrients water, which only takes about 10 min to do.  

Here's a sample photo I grabbed off the internet. The lower part holds the water that is pumped up a center tube and rained down the insides where the roots are via a pump. The out rings you see have the grow lights embedded in them. They can be removed if you are going to grow outside in the summertime when there is way more light available. 


 We're hoping ours will look this good - but it at least shows what 'may' be possible.  We'll see.

[Kent]

That looks like a fun way to have fresh vegetables. I wish that I had more room to do something like that.

[jjannie]

That looks like a fun way to have fresh vegetables.  I wish that I had more room to do something like that.

That photo is largest amount of layers (6) it can have and keep them all sufficiently watered. (It uses a 295/gal per hour aquarium pump to circulate the water). Each layer has holes for 6 plants, so, the footprint size won't change only the height changes. We'll do a bit of rearranging to fit it where we want to have it. You can put it on a mat if placing it on carpet (just in case). Since some people that use them are in apartments, they often grow out on a balcony but they still use glow rings due to the shade they'd probably have. Of course they're not outside in the wintertime if it gets too cold. However, they do sell a submersible heater (our guess is another aquarium style) that would heat your water it may not do enough here to protect from our winters, especially if there are greens growingntg and you frost or freeze.

[wiperhunter2]

Sounds like a great project, as long as it doesn't leak. My guess is this would not work well for vine type plants, like squash, what do you think Jil?

[jjannie]

Sounds like a great project, as long as it doesn't leak. My guess is this would not work well for vine type plants, like squash, what do you think Jil?

 People have grown squash and even cantaloupe mostly when using it outdoors. I've seen where zucchini have been grown inside, as have some cherry type tomatoes. There are trellises that can be inserted into the growing cups to help with supporting some vining as well. 

Leaking - of course there's always a chance, however we not seen a negative review that has ever mentioned it happening. All of the HDPE plastic it's made from are made from recycled ocean plastics, and reviews say it is pretty thick.

[wiperhunter2]

They must thin out the vines to make that work or you would have them growing all over and then there is the lack of light for the vines growing away from the main structure, unless you add even more lights.

That's cool they are made from recycled plastic from the oceans.

[Kent]

How wide are the shelves?

[jjannie]

They must thin out the vines to make that work or you would have them growing all over and then there is the lack of light for the vines growing away from the main structure, unless you add even more lights.

That's cool they are made from recycled plastic from the oceans.

they do thin the non-producing vines out and any of those sort of sucker types that start in a fork of good vines. But if growing outside they can just let them vine out more to where the sun is. One thing to note - each week you trim the roots off as they have to be kept out of the way of pump that is in the bottom of that reservoir.

Yeah at least someone's using those plastics from the ocean!

---

How wide are the shelves?

If you're asking about the Glow ring dimensions, they're listed at 1"H x 1'10" in diameter. The reservoir holds 20gals of water.

---

This is an independent review of what we are getting. 

Lettuce Grow Review: Expensive Hydroponic Indoor Garden (insider.com)

I didn't look at when it was written, but it's about the same as Jeff's sister's review. 

So we'll all just have to wait and see. We didn't order their seedlings they also sell so we won't get produce quite as quickly as we are starting from seeds instead. But, we'll keep everyone informed about how things grow, I mean go, LOL

Stay tuned!

[jjannie]

Well it took 2 days to get all the parts, and they all arrived in great shape. We got it all assembled on Saturday evening (dark outside the windows photo), then got all our seeds planted (some we put little trellises into grow cups) and the pump and light timers are all set up today (light outside photo). Now we just need to wait for things to sprout and start growing. We didn't order any of their seedings that they also sell as many say they end up getting some pests in them.

Due to our nice alkaline water we have yet to get as low as the plants will prefer. Tomorrow we'll test the ph once again and dose it with more ph down to see if we can get it much lower than it is after it has some time acclimate for a day. 

[wiperhunter2]

Looks great but what are those little leaf looking things sticking out of the tower in the second pic?

[jjannie]

Looks great but what are those little leaf looking things sticking out of the tower in the second pic?

Those are trellises. They are modular in design. We put them into the grow pot for things that may want or need a little extra support - either for weight or for vining especially once the start producing. We got ours off Amazon. You can either use them singular like ours are, or you can connect them side by side and even connect them end to end for a longer trellis. This close up photo better shows how we placed ours. 

 PeerBasics, Indoor Plant Trellis, 12 Pack, Climbing Garden Leaf Shape Supports, for DYI Climbing Stems Stalks & Vine Vegetable Potted Garden (12) https://a.co/d/aGcLWRZ

[wiperhunter2]

So the plants go in the hole and the trellises are to hold the body and leaves of the plant, is that correct? What stops the plant from falling into the hole when it is small?

[jjannie]

So the plants go in the hole and the trellises are to hold the body and leaves of the plant, is that correct? What stops the plant from falling into the hole when it is small?

yes, the holes have plant baskets in them that come with the unit. Each layer holds 6 plants. We put the trellises in now so once there are roots, we won't have to try to get them in later. some of the plants just get pretty tall so we would support them, and some have vines such as cucumbers so having a little extra support, we thought they might just be helpful. We'll see how it goes.  The reservoir at bottom has a pump that pumps up thru the center then it rains down out onto each of the plant baskets watering everything. Its set to run for 15 of each hour during the daytime, and less often at night. a timer for the lights runs them 17hr day off for 7 overnight. The pump is also on timer.

[wiperhunter2]

That's interesting, I would have thought the roots would need to be in the water all the time or they would dry out, guess that's not how it works.

[jjannie]

That's interesting, I would have thought the roots would need to be in the water all the time or they would dry out, guess that's not how it works.

The medium we used for our seeds was called Root Riot plugs, checking on them they are staying moist all thru the day. Each week you do a little maintenance to keep the roots trimmed and adding nutrients and checking the water ph. At peak growing they often cut them back pretty far leaving only about 3 inches it left. Right now, we have not yet been able to get our ph down to peak zone target of 5.5-6. Yesterday we got it down to 6.5-7. When we checked it today it was back up 8.5-9 so we treated it once again. We've seen online where some people really have to use a LOT of ph down to keep theirs balanced. We may end up doing the same. We'll see. It's all learning curve but hopefully we just keep getting better and better at making this successful endeavor.

[jjannie]

Update:

After 10 scoops of ph down treatment to our water today we rechecked and we are right at the targeted goal of 5.5-6, We made it. Tomorrow, we recheck to see if it will still be good. But for today we'll rejoice that we now know we can get it into that zone. It just took a lot of ph down doses. 

 Happy Valentine's Day

[wiperhunter2]

Update:

After 10 scoops of ph down treatment to our water today we rechecked and we are right at the targeted goal of 5.5-6, We made it. Tomorrow, we recheck to see if it will still be good. But for today we'll rejoice that we now know we can get it into that zone. It just took a lot of ph down doses. 

 Happy Valentine's Day

What do you use to bring the PH down, what is the chemical called?
Hope you and Jeff had a good V day, Roxy and I just got back from seeing the new Avatar movie.

[jjannie]

Update:

After 10 scoops of ph down treatment to our water today we rechecked and we are right at the targeted goal of 5.5-6, We made it. Tomorrow, we recheck to see if it will still be good. But for today we'll rejoice that we now know we can get it into that zone. It just took a lot of ph down doses. 

 Happy Valentine's Day

What do you use to bring the PH down, what is the chemical called?
Hope you and Jeff had a good V day, Roxy and I just got back from seeing the new Avatar movie.

Right now, we are using what comes with the unit. But with how much we are needing to use of it we are researching other sources. Amazon has one (others sell it as well) and it's called phDown, but what most use is a food grade phosphoric acid. There are many resources of this out there. 
 
We also have learned we have REALLY hard water out here compared to many other municipalities in Utah. This site gives you many of the places in Utah.
 
https://www.hydroflow-usa.com/utah-water-hardness


Did you like that movie?  Our kids have seen it and liked it.