hydroponics review

 

Seeds , High Mowing Organic, Te You Flowering Brassica, Tat Soi Asian Greens, Red Russian Kale.

Lettuce, Heat wave; Burpee’s

 

                                                              Harvested greens for salad

I guess that’s why they call it flowering Brassica !

The goal is to provide a year round system for growing edible greens for salad, properly planned to provide periodic  harvesting.

This would include seed starting to either full grown or baby greens. (lettuce, kale and other brassicas).

Later to expand to tall growth plants, tomatoes, peas, etc.

Indoor growth during winter months, out door during seasonable warm weather.

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A Deep Water Culture Hydroponic System

Pros:

Decreased foot print vs. soil containers, generally plants can be spaced closer vs. soil based.

Rapid growth

Little maintenance between nutrient changes ~2weeks

Healthy, disease resistance plants

Cons:

equipment initial cost  (one time purchase) maybe more costly than container soil based.

electricity requirement (air pump) ; negligible cost.

electrical mechanical device (air pump), Failure might slow the growing process till replacement.

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Hydroponic growing system remarks:

Initial equipment purchase  for a system kit: Deep Water Culture tub, top cover , net pots, growing aggregate (lava rocks), air pump, air tubing, air stone, nutrients for the first few weeks. Out of the box setup, Do It Yourself, less cost.

Refills required: nutrients, PH test paper.  pH meter (optional) , TDS meter (optional) , expansion  additional lava rocks for expansion (optional) additional net pots (optional) additional containers (optional)

A soil based system equivalent would  need : containers, soil, nutrients as required by size of plantings

If the a nutrient schedule is used for both hydroponic and soil, the nutrient cost probably would not be that different.

(An NFT Nutrient Film System might require less stored water per plant vs. Deep Water Culture but requires a water pump for circulation of nutrients in addition to the air pump.)

Weekly check of PPM nutrients and Bi weekly change of nutrients, outdoor spring and summer months require topping off of nutrients. Discarded nutrients can be used on other outdoor plantings.

So far the progress was better that previous soil based gardening, the big plus was the nutrient use and schedule which worked well with both the hydroponic and container grown plants, tomato, green and hot pepper. Some separate hydroponic containers were used (less the air pump).

 Most of the greens grown are cold tolerant so an unheated indoor space that doesn’t go below freezing can be used, when outdoors they tolerated a light frost.

Lighting for indoor growth.

Lighting with new technology L.E.D. requires much less power and space than florescent, HPS or metal halide and doesn’t require cooling in small fixtures. Red and blue L.E.D.s provide the necessary wave length for growth.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S2DPYQM/ref=pe_861660_150334770_fxm_3_0_n_id.

These fixtures are at reasonable cost compared to the commercial versions and so far have provided adequate light for about a 12 hour on/off cycle.

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a good hydroponic online free magazine:

(geared more towards the commercial grower)

http://www.hydroponics.com.au/issues/issue161/html5/

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http://greensensefarms.com/about/,

  Green Sense Farms is the country’s largest commercial indoor vertical farm.

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http://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/getting-started-with-hydroponics/

thanksgiving wrap up

Now that the long Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close, a few pictures to recollect the dinner day.

The table awaits the guests

App (appetizers) table

A well arranged platter

The turkey resting while others plates finish cooking.

Family and guests at the table, some preferred not to be photographed.

Typical place setting

Some of the offered desserts

Apple roses

games of Boulderdash and Pictionary followed dinner.

Foraging

Interesting website and app, for instance, if I knew fruit and berries were close to a walking path for foraging, I might be more inclined to go there. I’m still looking for an app that will  “facial recognize” a leaf, berry etc for identification as there are different types available outdoors  even around our yard.

Each location even contains a link to the USDA , the ability to upload a photo would be great to update the status so one would not arrive and find the location bare of fruit..

Simple pizza

a few basic ingredients for a quick snack….Onion, garlic, basil, thyme, goat cheese, Parmesan. A light sprinkle of dried hot red peppers, salt and pepper and  a drizzle of olive oil. Basic but good.

before the oven

Friday Night food Fare

From a recent Friday night

maybe what you would get in a pub

Home brew beer, fresh salsa, cheese and hand rolled corn chips.

TGIF

 

Fall colors

a break from the food scene…… with one night that hovered just below freezing, the weather has remained mild for fall .

A celebratory Dinner

Thanks to Justine and Kaila…… and Diane and Renee

Kitchen command center (with home brew)

Mushroom and onion pastries , other apps not shown.

fresh salad

orecchietta with bolognese. (Ina Garten recipe)

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BEHIND THE SCENES PREP

onion and mushroom pastries

we all took turns making the mini turnovers

be careful with the egg wash application or they will stick to pan.