Well my romaine sprouts have survived their first week in SWC. One more week and their roots should be long enough for NFT. It seems that bugs do like green things to eat and the sacrificial basil has done that job marvelously with back up from my friendly neighborhood praying mantis.
Big things I have to do now if give them a real hydroponic nutrient formula, set up the resevoir, buy a 30-40 liter a minute pump and reset up the net house to keep out the bugs. A good spraying of neem oil and soapy water will do wonders too.
The sad thing is that this is just a trial since I'm giving up the house where it is going on at. I'll get a loan and start again properly. I know what works now and what doesn't. So right now I'm in a race againts Pythium. The roots need to get long enough to go to NFT so that Pythium becomes something I read about rather than have to deal with.
Okami
SWC-Shallow water culture(roots are submerged in water)
NFT-Nutrient film technique(constant stream of water flows down the pipes during daylight hours)
Pythium-A type of bacteria that likes to eat roots, thrives in hot oxygen-poor water Water holds more oxygen the colder it is at a geometric rate.
I used to think hydroponic must be the way to go – a more scientific, technologically advanced form of agriculture. Ten million years of planting things in dirt and at last man had invented something better.
But then I got to know a guy in California with an indoor marijuana garden that was astounding. In a room maybe 6 ft by 10, under about a dozen high-powered halogen bulbs, he had the most thick, bountiful, vibrant, incredible pot plants I’ve ever seen. The plants were bursting with energy: strong trunks and branches, lush, beatiful leaves and gigantic, aromatic buds covered with purple hairs, dripping with resin. They were also growing in planting soil (mixed with bat guano and the like), and I refuse to believe they would have done any better hydroponically. In fact, this guy was obviously so knowledgeable about the subject taht if he felt soil was better than hydroponic, I believe him.
I’m still curious about hydroponic, but I’m a lot more sceptical than I used to be.
Well of course I’m not advocating such a foolish agricultural crop. . . but it sure was beautiful. And it was growing in dirt, not high-tech hydro. I’ll be curious to hear why Okami chose hydro.
I can understand the initial attraction, the feeling that maybe it’s better, and I can see how people would enjoy playing around with it like a chemistry project – an interesting new hobby. But as I said, I’m doubtful that it’s really better than dirt.
I don’t get it either, I mean why hydroponic lettuce? Costs almost nothing at the store, and you can grow it for next to nothing on your balcony.
Most of the dope in Australia seems to be grown hydroponically these days. What a world. Now people buy top quality seeds from Amsterdam and from those fiends the Cannucks, set up indoors and clone future offspring. Turnaround in two months off relatively smaller and bushier plants. It’s all quite pleasing.
Sadly, what this has meant is that the kids that used to jump fences looking to grab weed out of the backyard now front the door with cricket bats demanding a cut. Or if you’re not there, break in and trash the place if they can;t find it. Apparently the space in the roof is highly prized.
I don’t get it either, I mean why hydroponic lettuce? Costs almost nothing at the store, and you can grow it for next to nothing on your balcony.
Most of the dope in Australia seems to be grown hydroponically these days. What a world. Now people buy top quality seeds from Amsterdam and from those fiends the Cannucks, set up indoors and clone future offspring. Turnaround in two months off relatively smaller and bushier plants. It’s all quite pleasing.
Sadly, what this has meant is that the kids that used to jump fences looking to grab weed out of the backyard now front the door with cricket bats demanding a cut. Or if you’re not there, break in and trash the place if they can;t find it. Apparently the space in the roof is highly prized.
I don’t get it either, I mean why hydroponic lettuce? Costs almost nothing at the store, and you can grow it for next to nothing on your balcony.
Most of the dope in Australia seems to be grown hydroponically these days. What a world. Now people buy top quality seeds from Amsterdam and from those fiends the Cannucks, set up indoors and clone future offspring. Turnaround in two months off relatively smaller and bushier plants. It’s all quite pleasing.
Sadly, what this has meant is that the kids that used to jump fences looking to grab weed out of the backyard now front the door with cricket bats demanding a cut. Or if you’re not there, break in and trash the place if they can;t find it. Apparently the space in the roof is highly prized.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I don’t get it either, I mean why hydroponic lettuce? Costs almost nothing at the store, and you can grow it for next to nothing on your balcony.
Most of the dope in Australia seems to be grown hydroponically these days. What a world. Now people buy top quality seeds from Amsterdam and from those fiends the Cannucks…[/quote]
How big was your resevoir and and what method were you using? Each tomato plant alone can go through 2-3 liters of water a day. Also 8’ is small for hydroponics, some can stretch their plants out to 20’.
Mother Teresa,
I spent a lot of time researching and their are a lot of different ways to do it and they all have their benefits. For max output hydro is the way to go, for most flavor in fruits and vegetables, then organic is suppose to be better(a matter of debate, since genetics plays a large part in it). If you wnat to do Hydroponics, you almost must use the info that marijuana growers provide online. Nothing is stranger then seeing a $10,000US set up with cantalopes growing in the middle of all that reefer. I chose hydro for the quick turn around on expensive crops. Once I master a romaine/lettuce set up I’ll start with strawberries and should be able to buy my benz with cash in 2 years. Also with hydro you can go year around, but will slow down in winter and speed up in summer, playing havoc with your inventory and customer needs. In the US, Canada, Autralia and Netherlands they went to hydro due to lack of space and serious danger of thieves and police.
I started the 2nd phase going from SWC to NFT. I put the nft on a timer 15 mins on and 15 mins off from 6am-10pm, so it doesn’t overflow. The Romiane is looking nicer and the proper nutes should help them grow faster without having to worry about pythium anymore. Now I have 4 weeks till harvest and will need to sell it to someone.
I also put the netting over them to keep out the bugs. They seem to like to munch on the leaves, they’ve destroyed one and ate on 3 others. Hopefully the many spiders that populate the pipes will take care of that.
It took me a week to actually be able to talk about it but my greenhouse was destroyed by the wind blowing it over last week. It was going great too, This set me back about 2 months from a real start date. Right now I need to focus on moving, getting some paperwork done and getting used to being married .
When I redo it, I plan on selling to anybody who will buy actually, I’ll have a lot fo romaine and it needs to be sold to recoup the huge initial investment in it. Thanks for the support.
:discodance: 
Also with hydro you can go year around, but will slow down in winter and speed up in summer, playing havoc with your inventory and customer needs. In the US, Canada, Autralia and Netherlands they went to hydro due to lack of space and serious danger of thieves and police.
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