dobro13 wrote:Thanks for those replies. I’m taking as many notes as I can. Is that a styrofoam top? Also, what kind of system is that in the photos and what do you light that with? That looks really healthy.
The small tub has a styrofoam raft, but the large tub has a piece of plastic, sitting on a ridge in the tub, so it doesn't move. I have to watch the water level in that, esp. in the beginning, but eventually, the roots get so large that even if the level goes down 3 or inches, there is no problem. Still, I try to keep them topped off, as well as I can.
These are both deepwater culture systems (DWC). Having kept aquarium fish for more than 50 years, I have a LOT of the equipment needed - a bunch of air pumps and powerheads, many of which friends have given me when they'd move, or get tired of taking care of them! I couldn't imagine using the Kratky system, letting the water stagnate; knowing what it would do to fish, and what it would smell like (!), I decided to use the DWC system. I just put one airstone in each tub, and a powerhead, with a foam filter on it. This becomes a bilogical filter, eventually, digesting any of the dead pieces of roots and the like, and keeps the tub clean. I rarely change any of the water, as is often recommended (something started by sellers of the nutrients, IMO), and when I change some, I just siphon out a gal from the small one, and 2 from the large, and use that to water plants in pots.
That head of leaf lettuce in the lower picture is sort of overgrown - that was because it was about the time I was starting to get it from outside, and I had pulled the bok choy that it would have been covering in the hole to the left! All of these things that I grow are "cut and come again" types, and as long as I keep cutting, they keep growing back! 2 lettuce, 2 bok choy, and one of many of the herbs are all that is needed for me. I often have to trim the basils even if I'm not using it, just to keep them from bolting, as well as to keep it from covering plants next to it. Yet every time I need a large amount of it, as many Asian recipes call for, one plant is more than enough.
I am trying another lettuce variety this time, along with that unknown one I save seeds from (a type that I got in a mix one time, that produced way longer than any other variety I ever grew, before bolting. If I knew what it was, I'd just buy the seeds! lol And the mizuna I haven grown in the hydro before, but it should be good. I might get some of the red next time, if this seems too large, as that is much smaller.
I have a lot more photos on
https://s24.photobucket.com/user/pepperh ... t=3&page=1
I can't post photos any longer from there, but guests can view them...I think. Look at the albums for hydroponics - there's one showing the cloning I do in the hydroponics, as well.
Update - I forgot to mention the lighting. I have two 4 foot T-8 bulbs, 5,000k, in a fixture down the middle, and two T-5 bulbs, 6,500k, one on each side. Seems to be plenty of light for these types of plants.