Outdoor Hydro Herbs and Leafy Greens

starke · Mar 26, 2019

So a friend gets divorced and somehow the misses and I end up with some odd lumber and about 40 feet of four inch pvc left at our house. I could not stand the thought of putting the stuff in the landfill so I got to thinkin'...

...and came up with this out of the junk I had available:

Forty five plant sites. The "netcups" are solos that have had a close encounter with a soldering iron. Multiple times. For each cup. What a pain in the ass.

Using my old sump pump from feeding the ladies to push the nutes which will be Jacks and Calnit unless I find something better.

Planning on running some annual herbs and spinach to start. Maybe some leaf lettuce but it's a little warm here for that now. Probably in the fall.

The unit is located on the front porch and receives a mixture of full morning sun and partial afternoon shade.

Next step is to germ some seeds and veg until they are big enough to put in the cups. I'm already documenting a Grow Diary and a Tester Grow but I'm hoping to keep a running narrative going here as well, mostly for my own records so I can keep track of what is or is not working.

Next update when I have some plants in the cups. (This will take a minute.)

Peace,
starke

ps: I call the color scheme "Caribbean Soul meets Gay Pride...with a touch of 'Go Gators'". The grand-kids think it's cool anyway.

DARKSIDER · Mar 30, 2019

Now I know this is going to be interesting . :peek:

Gry · Mar 30, 2019

Nifty as can be.

Rico Swazi · Mar 30, 2019

I'm with the grand kids,,,,,very cool colors !

reused recycled and repurposed kicks ass bro as I'm into that sort of thing

Wishing all the best at getting things dialed in

hush · Apr 2, 2019

Very cool! Subbed. I like the use of pool noodles for your water return!

AgentPothead · Apr 3, 2019

This thread rocks almost as much as that color scheme. I'm in.

Palindrome · Apr 3, 2019

Starke' Psychedelic Space Spinach!

Love the color scheme mate, im in as well!

starke · Apr 3, 2019

DARKSIDER said:
Now I know this is going to be interesting .

Gry said:
Nifty as can be.

Rico Swazi said:
I'm with the grand kids,,,,,very cool colors !

reused recycled and repurposed kicks ass bro as I'm into that sort of thing

Wishing all the best at getting things dialed in

hush said:
Very cool! Subbed. I like the use of pool noodles for your water return!

AgentPothead said:
This thread rocks almost as much as that color scheme. I'm in.

Palindrome said:
Starke' Psychedelic Space Spinach!

Love the color scheme mate, im in as well!

Thanks for the comments everyone and welcome aboard. Should be entertaining if nothing else.

Peace,
starke

exploziv · Apr 7, 2019

Interesting! Can I get a seat? :lurk:

dank.frank · Apr 7, 2019

For everyone that might want to attempt a similar project, here are the geatest cheat sheets in the world for simple hydro lettuce and greens.

These are.pdf links that will want to download the files just so you are aware. Tell it to open in a new tab if you don't want to download the .pdf.

https://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/crops/factsheets/hydroponic-recipes.pdf
https://cea.cals.cornell.edu/attachments/Cornell%20CEA%20Lettuce%20Handbook%20.pdf
https://cea.cals.cornell.edu/resourcesPublications/otherResources/GPNOctober2016_LeafyGreens.pdf

dank.Frank

starke · Apr 9, 2019

exploziv said:
Interesting! Can I get a seat?

Welcome.

dank.frank said:
For everyone that might want to attempt a similar project, here are the geatest cheat sheets in the world for simple hydro lettuce and greens.

These are.pdf links that will want to download the files just so you are aware. Tell it to open in a new tab if you don't want to download the .pdf.

https://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/crops/factsheets/hydroponic-recipes.pdf
https://cea.cals.cornell.edu/attachments/Cornell%20CEA%20Lettuce%20Handbook%20.pdf
https://cea.cals.cornell.edu/resourcesPublications/otherResources/GPNOctober2016_LeafyGreens.pdf

dank.Frank

Thank you so much. I've been reading everything I can find.

starke · Apr 9, 2019

And So It Begins

And So It Begins

I started some lettuce, basil, parsley and spinach seeds about a week ago, but they are still weeks away from being big enough to put in the system:

The misses has been feeling sorry for me because she knows how anxious I am to get something, anything, going to try this thing out. She went to our local farm center this morning for some pole bean seeds and brought me back some dirt potted stuff to play with.

Bottom row is garlic chives, next row is onion chives, and the third row has a swiss chard plant on the end and four rosemary cuttings that I'm going to try and root.

All of this stuff was rooted in dirt which I washed off with a hose. Don't imagine they will be too happy for a couple of days, but I have done the same thing with weed without permanent damage.

Nutes are Jacks Pro Hydro/Calnit and epsom. I'm running it at the 321 ratios by weight at .6ec to start. Ph is 5.7 and I am running straight well water with a .2ec to start. If I need to I can switch to RO like I use for the ladies. It will just mean carrying it in five gallon buckets to do a rez change.

Starting out with a cheap Century Repeat Cycle Timer set to flood the cups for two minutes, once every hour during daylight hours.

Planning on weekly updates unless everything dies before then.

Peace,
starke

Rico Swazi · Apr 10, 2019

great post starke as you answered many of my questions like dirt or hydroton, nutes and watering schedule, sounds like a very good plan to start

I'm curious on the variety of spinach and lettuce you chose to grow and if you have grown them conventionally in the past?

bet the lettuce has doubled in size in just a couple days and ready for transplant

gonna be interesting to see how much root comes out of the cups, into the main tube and the effects 'downstream'

off to a great start!

starke · Apr 10, 2019

Rico Swazi said:
great post starke as you answered many of my questions like dirt or hydroton, nutes and watering schedule, sounds like a very good plan to start

I'm curious on the variety of spinach and lettuce you chose to grow and if you have grown them conventionally in the past?

bet the lettuce has doubled in size in just a couple days and ready for transplant

gonna be interesting to see how much root comes out of the cups, into the main tube and the effects 'downstream'

off to a great start!

Have not grown the spinach or lettuce either one. Lettuce is Black Seeded Simpson variety and the spinach a Florida cultivar of some type. Even though both are touted as heat tolerant, they are still meant to be fall crops here in FL so I'm not expecting much.

Key to these type systems is to use plants with shallow root systems. Most leafy greens and annual herbs fall in this category. This would not be the place to grow something like tomatoes or our more beloved plant.

big315smooth · Apr 10, 2019

that micro green growing rack is awesome i gotta build something like that for my mom. she still rocks the window sill out

starke · Apr 16, 2019

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Today marks a week since I transplanted some stock and fired up the system. Everything has remained alive and actually grown a little.

Mixed up new nutes this morning, still running .6ec and about 5.8ph. The ph tended to rise fairly rapidly during the past week and I ended up adding ph down twice. This is no doubt due to my hard water and the hourly aeration the solution receives. May still switch to RO but am going to wait and see a while longer.

The Chard made the most progress and has sent out a lot of new growth. I think I'm going to condense the chives down into one row since I just don't use that many chives, even dried. My lettuce, parsley, basil and spinach are still a couple of weeks away from being big enough, although I did transplant them from the seedling tray into Hempy solo cups.

Couple of pics:

Peace,
starke

DARKSIDER · Apr 16, 2019

Nice one starke looks :good:

starke · Apr 23, 2019

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Just a few pics to document the progress. Nutes are now at 1.0ec and ph of 5.8. Everything seems to be happy so far and everything has grown some during the past week. Again, the chard has made the most progress.

Increased the feed to every 45 minutes instead of once an hour just to see if it makes any difference.

The parsley, lettuce, spinach and basil have all grown like crazy under the LEDs with the ladies and should be ready for transplant next week.

Next update in a week.

Peace,
starke

AgentPothead · Apr 23, 2019

What's up with only having a few hydroton balls in those bottom ones?

DARKSIDER · Apr 23, 2019

starke said:
Just a few pics to document the progress. Nutes are now at 1.0ec and ph of 5.8. Everything seems to be happy so far and everything has grown some during the past week. Again, the chard has made the most progress.

Increased the feed to every 45 minutes instead of once an hour just to see if it makes any difference.

View Image

View Image

The parsley, lettuce, spinach and basil have all grown like crazy under the LEDs with the ladies and should be ready for transplant next week.

View Image

Next update in a week.

Peace,
starke

Nice one starke coming on good.. makes me happy just looking at the pretty colours and I think they will love the upped feeding :tiphat:

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