Week Four and more.

While out and about this week, while coming home after my wife's doctor appointment, I found a hydroponics shop in Mesa.  I had not been to one as of yet but was interested in what I could find there.  So much interesting stuff to look at.  I ended up buying some 3.75 inch net pots.  That was my excuse for wanting to go there in the first place after all.  I also decided to get a timer and some of the Hydroton expanded clay pellets.  I was originally going to just stay with the lava rocks I had gotten at Lowes  but the Hydroton was so much lighter, maybe a third of the weight of the lava rocks, I thought it would be a good trade.

Now I finally have my my system on a Timer too.  I just got a cheap mechanical timer that had 15 minute durations.  I have been finding a lot of different suggestions for how long to run and rest hydroponic systems.  I decided to do a 45 minute cycle.  15 minutes on and 30 minutes off (rinse and repeat for the rest of the day). I think that left me with one cycle though that has a 45 minute rest (odd ball). It has been running like that for several days now and seems to be a good match for this system.  The Hydroton stays moist yet gives the roots a chance to breathe.

The next thing I found this past week, thanks to a suggestion of a friend of mine was a beautiful basil plant at the Fresh & Easy market.  They were actually selling it as a rooted herb that you could grow in the window sill.  Wonderful.   I still have a couple of basils I had started from seed but this gives me a great head start.  And it is fun having more real plants to look at in the window garden.  :-) 

With the acquisition of the net pots I was able to finish the second unit and start to populate it with some plants.

Drilling the holes for the net pots was a fun thought process.  I was originally thinking to get a hole saw but I would needed an armature and the right size hole saw for around $40 at Lowe's.  That ended up being a bit expensive for just the four holes I wanted for now.  After rooting around the garage for a bit I found a metal cylinder that fit the opening for the net pots.  I just heated the metal with a propane torch then pushed it though the plastic lid.  I was able to get nice clean holes and it was actually pretty easy going.  Just be sure to wear your safety glasses and gloves and be careful.  I may even try doing this method with the bowls so I don't crack the bottom of the bowl, if I can find the right size pipe any way.

Of the two cucumbers I transplanted into net pots,
one seems to be doing great and one not so much.

Seed domes on top of storage container in window.

I moved my seed starting domes into the window in the spare bedroom instead of being in a dark corner in my office.  And started some Poblano Peppers and some Early Wonder Beets.  Hopefully I will get better germination rates now, maybe.  But since most of the seed packs I have around are several years old I decided to start the seeds with the paper towel method.  This way I can put out several seeds and carefully move the ones that actually germinate into a starter pellet to let it get a good start.

Paper towel method for starting seeds

Another thing I picked up this weekend is a package of  PH testing strips.  I had wanted to find some drops after talking with the guy in the hydroponics store.  In fact I should have just bought them there but I thought I could find them elsewhere I guess.  I looked at both Home Depot and Lowe's but none of the test kits they had went down far enough for plants.  They were made for testing pools.  I next went to Leslie Pools and even their test kits only went down as far as 6.8 but he did have some test strips that went to 6.2 I figured that would be good enough for now anyway.  And they were cheaper there than either of the box stores.  When I tested the water I had running in my buckets I found it was at 7.8. Hmmm, that is a bit high.  Another cheap suggestion I have heard for adjusting PH levels down is to use white vinegar.  I added a tablespoon to each bucket and that brought the PH down to 6.2.  That seems to be a decent starting point for a mixed system of plants so I will see how that works over the next few weeks and maybe add a bit more vinegar if I think it could help.  But I wish the PH strips went down as far as 5.5.  Hey these Testing Strips look like they might be much better, they go down to 4.5.  and the price is about half of what I paid for the ones I got and they were already cheaper than either of the box hardware stores were.

I guess next I want to start looking at some sort of grow light system.  I was thinking I would find some pendent lights at a yard sale and put some LED grow lights in them.  But I may look into the LED strips too.  They would be easy to work with, I could easily attach them to my trilis and it looks like they are only 12 volts so there would be a little less worry about having them around the water.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

Have any suggestions, comments or questions.  Leave them in the comment section below.

  

Into week three.

So since finding plants this time of the year in Phoenix is not so easy I decided to try restarting a couple of things from the produce area in the store.  The celery stock is finally showing a bit of new life (maybe) the center is starting to push up a bit and it looks like there is a bit of leafy growth in the center.  I think it has been going a couple of weeks now.

New from seed this past week are some Chinese Cabbage and some Pickling Cucumbers.  I went with the Pickling Cucumbers since the fruits are smaller so I am hoping that they will be easier to support.  Even though I have a nice trellis to train them to I am thinking that weight will be a big factor in successfully growing plants with this system. 

 

 It already looks like it is time to thin both of these plants.

I also cut another nice sized sprig off of the Rosemary last night to use with a pork roast I made for pulled pork sandwiches.  Yummy!  

The second of the plant I am trying to re-root is a Romaine Lettuce.  It is not doing as well to start with.  I had just bought the head and put it into the bottom pot on my stand (whole).  I probably should have cut the lettuce leaves back and used just the stock like I did with the celery.  But I was thinking that the lettuce might keep for a bit longer this way.  But it seems like without some roots already started the plant just wilts fairly fast.   So I did trim the leaves way back this morning but not all the way back.  Lets see if it will do better with less leaves to support.  

 The Philodendron cuttings that were the first plants I started with in my hydroponic experiment kept falling out of the top bowl as I worked on the system.  So I moved them down to bottom.  I am now seeing more roots finally starting to show on them now too.

Project wise: I built a shelf up under the systems so I would not need to move them to change the water.  I am using a siphon to empty the buckets so I wanted them up off the floor to make starting a siphon easier.  I also didn't want to move the system once plants start to climb onto the trellis.  

I also built a second system from my third gen ideas.  Still having a bit of problems with the air pump chamber but I think I have it worked out now.  Also I cracked two of the bowls trying to drill through them this time.  I need to be more careful I guess.  I will need to replace at least one of them now.  I also want to get four three inch net pots to put into the lid of this system.  I added a six by five inch rectangular basket on the first one.

Hopefully I will be writing up instructions to build this system here shortly.  I took lots of pictures with this second build.