Home Hydroponics

A Primer on Hydroponics and How YOU Can Get Started!

Introduction🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

◦ Jason Murray◦ Master Gardener [2019]

◦ Growing veggies for about 10 years

◦ Experimenting with Hydroponics for about 7 years

◦ Interested in Sustainable Agriculture and Micro Farms

◦ Motto: “Maximum Value, Minimum Effort!”

◦ Today’s Learning Objective◦ To provide you with enough information to get started in

hydroponics without spending a significant amount of time or money

What is Hydroponics?

◦ Merriam-Webster says… “The growing of plants in nutrient solutions with or without an inert medium to provide mechanical support.”

◦ This is a “nutrient film technique” (NFT) system at Epcot, Walt Disney World.

◦ Photo Credit: Jason Murray

What you need…

◦ Plants / Seeds

◦ Nutrient Solution

◦ Growing “System”

◦ Light

Plants

◦ Nearly every vegetable can be grown using hydroponics.

◦ Root crops, bulbs, or tubers are nearly impossible.

◦ Leafy vegetables are the easiest.

◦ Non-heading lettuces are the best to get started. 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Nutrients

◦ Multi-part◦ Using single or multiple elements to create a custom blend

◦ Single Phase◦ Vegetative 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀◦ Blooming

◦ All Phase

Hydroponic Systems

◦ Drip

◦ Nutrient Film Technique

◦ Flood and Drain

◦ Dutch Bucket

◦ Aeroponics

◦ Aquaponics

◦ Passive / Non-circulating 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Grow Media

◦ Coconut Coir

◦ Expanded Clay Pebbles

◦ Vermiculite

◦ Perlite

◦ Rockwool 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Grow Lights

◦ High Pressure Sodium

◦ Metal Halide

◦ LED

◦ Sun 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

The winner is…

◦ Passive (non-circulating) hydroponics with a vegetative nutrient solution using rockwool in the sun!

◦ Often referred to as the “Kratky” method in recognition for Dr. Bernard Kratky’s work studying non-circulating hydroponic systems.

How YOU Do This…

◦ Food safe container

◦ Rockwool to fit (may need net cups, too)

◦ Non-heading lettuce◦ Red Sails / Black Seeded Simpson 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

◦ Dry vegetative nutrient

◦ One gallon of clean, drinkable water for each plant

◦ Very sunny window

Questions?

◦ Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Icon-round-Question_mark.svg

Additional Resources

◦ Kratky, B.A. 2009. Three non-circulating hydroponic methods for growing lettuce. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Soilless Culture andHydroponics. Acta. Hort. 843:65-72. https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawaii/downloads/Three_Non-circulating_Hydroponic_Methods_for_Growing_lettuce.pdf

◦ Kratky, B.A. 2010. A Suspended Net-Pot, Non-Circulating Hydroponic Method for Commercial Production of Leafy, Romaine, and Semi-Head Lettucehttps://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/vc-1.pdf

◦ Natalie B. Parkell, Robert C. Hochmuth, and Wanda L. Laughlin. 2015. An Overview of Lettuce Production Systems and Cultivars Used in Hydroponics and Protected Culture in Florida https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1258