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  • Hydroponic gardening advice

    Created by Kathy Schwietz on July 2, 2016 at 4:12 pm

    Hi,

    I live in Florida and want to move from outdoor gardening to indoors. I want to grow all my salad plants inside. I have some grow lights but have not developed a system yet. Can you help me with starting a hydroponic garden? This is not a large scale operation, it is for two people.

    Thank you,

    Kathy

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  • July 2, 2016 at 4:26 pm #203460

    Eric Vinje
    Keymaster

    Hi Kathy –

    We have some great articles that will provide you with the information needed to get started growing your own indoor garden vegetables. I suggest that you take a look at them and then let us know if you have any further questions.

    https://www.planetnatural.com/grow-herbs-indoors/
    https://www.planetnatural.com/plant-light/
    https://www.planetnatural.com/grow-light-coverage/
    https://www.planetnatural.com/growing-indoors/

    I hope they help!

    July 16, 2016 at 12:39 pm #204790

    AlexW
    Member

    Hi Kathy, the system that you’ll want to set up really depends on how much work you want to put into your indoor garden.
    My go to method for indoor farming is the Kratky Method because it’s very passive which means there isn’t much to go wrong.
    There are no pumps, filters or moving parts. With a lot of hydroponic gardens you need to constantly balance nutrients and pH, but with Kratky you can just add your fertilizer and then balance pH one time and it should be fine.

    You’ll want to germinate your plants in fresh water. Most tap water is fine, unless it’s softened, but if you want to use filtered water that will work too. A really great way to germinate seeds for hydro is in oasis cubes because they’re relatively cheap and they are pH balanced (unlike rock wool). You can find these in most hydroponic stores.
    When the seeds have sprouted, you can move them to a reservoir with water and fertilizer. I usually start my fertilizer between 800-1500 uS/cm depending on the variety. For most salad greens, I aim for 1000 uS/cm. I also start my pH at around 6.2.
    After you’ve got the seedling in the reservoir you’re pretty much good to go. The way Kratky works is as the plants absorb the water and the water level drops, the roots grow specialized roots that are able to absorb oxygen from the air so you don’t need to keep the resrevoir aerated.
    One thing I would recommend is to keep the reservoir sealed to prevent evaporation and also to prevent light from getting, which can cause algae growth.

    To grow a 0.5-1.0lb of greens I usually use a one gallon reservoir. This usually takes about 4 weeks.

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