2023 our new gardening adventure

[jjannie]

This thread will be for us to share our new adventure - hydroponic gardening. We're not replacing our other gardening but just adding this new one.

The history - our inspiration:

Jeff's sister took up doing this a couple years ago as a way to garden throughout the winter months. Researching this and watching YouTube reviews of many models out there and chatting with her, she's been using for 2 years now with no issues at all, and she even gets an abundance to share with her neighbors.  

It is a pricey initial startup cost, but you can start smaller and expand it for more growing down the road, but we've been eating so many veggies this winter (a new diet plan for us) we figure it'll give us some gardening pleasures and something we can do once outside gardening has ending for the season. His sister even uses her's to start some of her outside garden seeds for things her greenhouse doesn't carry. 

So, stay tuned for progress photos (ours is now on order) and our Walmart was already stocked with seed packets for the upcoming season, so we picked up several to give them all a try.

So is the plan to hydroponic in your Green House?

No, Mike, we are going to do it inside nearest our kitchen where we'll be more able to use it often since we see it all the time and the system we are using will have grow lights to account for the needed lighting. Some use it outside year-round, so the grow lights aren't required during the summer months, but winter days are too short here and lack enough light to really thrive. Also, since mostly a its closed system water evaporation is reduced. There is weekly maintenance that is needed to trim the roots, and add more ph balanced with nutrients water, which only takes about 10 min to do.  

Here's a sample photo I grabbed off the internet. The lower part holds the water that is pumped up a center tube and rained down the insides where the roots are via a pump. The out rings you see have the grow lights embedded in them. They can be removed if you are going to grow outside in the summertime when there is way more light available. 


 We're hoping ours will look this good - but it at least shows what 'may' be possible.  We'll see.