Mother's Mini-Manual HYDROPONICS
(Page 7 of 7)
This method is utterly convenient, simple, and easy to operate (all you have to do is refill the tanks with nutrient solution from time to time).
RELATED CONTENT
Barley has twice as much of the cholesterol-lowering fiber as highly touted oats, and it’s tasty an...
Barley has twice as much of the cholesterol-lowering fiber as highly touted oats, and it’s tasty an...
Barley has twice as much of the cholesterol-lowering fiber as highly touted oats, and it’s tasty an...
Barley has twice as much of the cholesterol-lowering fiber as highly touted oats, and it’s tasty an...
Barley has twice as much of the cholesterol-lowering fiber as highly touted oats, and it’s tasty an...
(Check MOTHER NO. 32, page 49, for a longer discussion of this "Sow and Forget Indoor Planting —Method".MOTHER.)
DRIP METHOD. This method is used quite a lot by commercial growers. There are many variations to the idea, but basically it involves a tank of nutrient solution which is elevated above the bed and allowed to flow out through tubes which may be either over the surface of the bed or buried in the medium. A home-scale version of the drip method looks something like intravenous feeding in a hospital, with a tube running from a bottle of nutrient solution into each pot and container. At each pot there will be a little petcock, squeeze-clip, or valve which lets out a constant slow drip. Excess fluid is collected in saucers or trays under each pot and recycled.
PUMP AND TIMER. This is the All American Hobby Greenhouse Favorite. A reservoir (sump) of nutrient solution is placed below the level of the bed, and a submerged pump, activated by a timer, automatically floods the beds two to four times each day. The pump is timed to stay on however long is necessary to flood the beds, then the fluids are allowed to slowly drip out and drain back into the reservoir. Pumps are rated by the number of gallons they will pump per hour. Get one big enough to fill all your beds in one-half hour.
There must be an overflow tube in each bed, at a level one inch below the surface of the medium, to prevent flooding of the surface of the bed. There must also be some sort of screen or filter to keep grit out of the pump. The nutrient tank must contain at least 50% more than the volume of all the beds, to accommodate losses due to evaporation and transpiration.
(Alexandra and John Dickerman, authors ofDiscovering Hydroponic Gardening, mention yet another way to operate your hydroponic garden: the standing solution method. In this system, plant roots are always submerged in the nutrient mixture, and aeration is provided when air is bubbled into the liquid.?MOTHER.)
GROWING TECHNIQUES
Once your hydroponic setup is complete, you may find the following growing tips (suggested in the many books listed at the end of this special article) helpful in maintaining a healthy and productive garden.
• Locate your indoor hydroponic plot in a sunny place, or supplement the natural light your plants receive with fluorescent tubes.
• Change your system's nutrient solution as often as necessary (generally every 7 to 14 days) to keep your plants healthy. Experience will teach you when to drain the old and put in a fresh mixture.
• During heavy rains, protect outside hydroponic gardens with a canopy to prevent excess flooding. If the fertilizer solution in the beds becomes too diluted, apply extra nutrients until the plants perk up.
City folks may find it helpful to let treated tap water sit in an open drum for a few days until the chlorine can dissipate.
• If your hydroponic garden grows poorly in spite of your watchful care, you may have especially alkaline or hard water (both of which keep plants from using all the nutrients available). Consult an authoritative book to correct the problem.
Most larger seeds?and a few smaller ones (such as lettuce and spinach)?can be sown directly in a hydroponic bed or sprinkled right on top of the growing medium. Other plants may be started in a pan of damp sand and then transplanted?with a ball of sand still around their roots?to the larger container (be sure to water these seedlings carefully for the first few days until their roots become established). Or begin the seeds in a pocket of sand or a starter peat pellet embedded directly in the hydroponic bed. (A discussion of peat pellets and directions for making your own appear in MOTHER NO. 8, page 12, and MOTHER NO. 9, page 84. See also Derek Fell's remarks about the pellets in his article in this issue.)
Never transplant seedlings grown in soil to your hydroponic garden unless you first wash their roots bare with a gentle spray of water.
• Since roots of hydroponically grown plants do not have to spread out far in search of food, make your limited growing area more intensively productive. First off, space plants about 50% closer than the seed packages recommend. Also choose varieties of flowers and vegetables that can be trained vertically (or grow climbing plants in the midst of bushy ones). And finally, prune foliage carefully to admit the maximum amount of light and air to all lower leaves.
• Test the pH (the acid/alkaline balance) of your nutrient solution regularly. Nitrazine paper, which is available at most drug stores, seems to be the easiest indicator to use: simply dip a strip into the fluid and compare its color to the chart on the side of the container. Maintain the pH measure between 6 and 7 on the 14-point scale by adding white vinegar (an acid) or baking soda (an alkali) to the liquid as Jim DeKorne suggests in The Survival Greenhouse.
• Keep your soilless garden free of dirt and rubbish which might encourage insects and diseases.
• When plants have finished flowering and fruiting, pull them gently from the growing medium (wait until the bed is dry so you'll disturb other plants less) and shake any particles from their roots. Flush the growing medium with clean water and plant the bed again.
• Consider sterilizing your beds if you've had any disease or insect pests the preceding season. Sherman and Brenizer (Hydro-Story, formerly Hydroponic Gardening at Home) suggest flooding your container with swimming pool chlorine (13 ounces per 100 gallons) and letting the solution stand for 24 hours. Then unplug the drains and flush the bed with plain water several times over the next two days.
• Be creative! Place several plants in holes running up a gravel-filled pipe, put a few of the tubes in a nice frame . . . and you've got an attractive, space-saving"vertical garden". Or try raising cantaloupes and other vine crops on your roof. (Raymond Bridwell's directions for these schemes—and brochures on nutrients, light and planting arrangements, and other aspects of hydroponics?can be obtained for 90¢ each from King Industries, P.O. Box 21, Loma Linda, Calif. 92354.)
• Consult MOTHER'S Mini-Manual on Greenhouse Gardening in Issue No. 42, page 71. It contains additional suggestions on pollination, intensive planting, regulating temperature and humidity, controlling insect and disease pests, building and maintaining a greenhouse, and many other aspects of indoor gardening that can also be used in a hydroponic system.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 | 7 |
