Wilt To Live

So long and short I changed the water in the RainForest 36 today. My sweet peas are shooting up, however three of the four spinach seedlings are wilting. The starter leaves (I know there is a word for the di something that sounds like a dinosaur) started to wilt followed by the true leaves. I'm not sure if there was too little light? Or the roots never got a good start. Going to try to start my next seeds in Sure To Grow cubes.

CO2, Tempature, and N

I was looking for some sort of guidance regarding Co2 injection into my growing environment when I found this research paper. It seems, unless I am reading this wrong, that increased CO2 alone doesn't help the plant (wheat in this case) unless the nitrogen levels and temperature are ideal enough to allow the plant to efficiently use the Co2. Furthermore, it seems that after the initial growth period increased nitrogen may not provide any growth or fruit benefit. Perhaps, a good thing to use in the first few weeks from seedling to small plant and then same the few dollars and back off. I have seen a few sites where folks make their own Co2 system, and the CO2 bucket system. Maybe after I get a grower built I will look into that.

Progress

So I checked the grow tonight, and the peas are doing great. It doesn't seem like the spinach or the lettuce is moving forward. Pea roots are out of the cup, but very small. Maybe lettuce roots are out, and no spinach roots. So, I don't have a larger grower yet. I am working on it, but for right now I need these seedlings to keep going. I gave you a list of things I have purchased earlier, and you may have noticed the woefully undersized light. I am betting this 14w LED isn't putting off enough light to get these seeds going. I have a 90w UFO from Amazon (LED Wholesalers) and my tent should be here by mid to end of this week. I added really weak nutrients a few days ago. I have posted a link to my grow data in the links section.

Spinach Sprouts

Lettuce Sprouts


Sweet Pea Sprouts

Things That Didn't Go Right

I have also, in the span of like a week and a half, managed to freak out and buy stuff that I either didn't need or turned out to be completely worthless. The first piece of problem gear I bought was the HydroFarm Thermostat for Heat Mats. Almost immediately I felt like it wasn't powering when the LED was on. I had read this in a review, but I often operate under the assumption that one or two bad reviews are common and the mean should count the most. Well, one week into using the Thermostat and it's official, the unit keeps great temperature, however after one to three days it quits powering the connected device. I have emailed the manufacture and am still waiting on a response after about three days. I imagine there are better units our there, but for the price it was great. In the end not worth it. I am posting a link to my grow data in the links section. I will update the spreadsheet every few days so data is available. My goal for hydro garage farming is to be able to produce steady spinach, lettuce, and herbs. Fruit such as strawberries, and hopefully tomatoes would be great at some point but I don't have the money to drop into the LED lights.

Current Grow

So, as sort of a catch-up post, I purchased a RainForest 36 (General Hydroponics) from Greentrees Hydroponics. My thought at the time was, this was a great device to start seeds and cuttings in. The product description sorta led on that it was great for starting. I wanted to garden a few years ago and thought I could do it behind my townhouse. I built a few raised beds, and bought some seeds from Territorial Seed Company. I had read a book about growing food in hard times and the author recommended the company. They were prompt with fair prices. Furthermore the seeds I bought and planted from them (total failure in the raised beds, not enough light), sat for two years in my garage before I decided to try hydro growing. The seeds all sprouted, so I'll be purchasing from them again. I wasn't sure about starting the seeds, so after reading a random forum posts to the effect that transplanting multiple times is so hard on a seedling that one would be just a well served putting seeds directly into the Hydroton, I did. For three or four days I was sure this was not going to work, until it did. Part of this blog was to help a person just starting out, so in that spirit this is what I needed to get seeds started.

• RainForest 36
• Seeds
• GlowPanel 14w
• Seed mat

Did I need these things? No, but I didn't know that. I could have started the seeds in flats, placed on the mat, and moved them to a larger grower. Today, I don't have a bigger grower. So in the end, the RainForest will not only allow me to start seeds and clippings but I can, if I choose, grow some smaller plants to full size in it. I don't know if I needed the LED light to sprout seeds, but I know I'll need it to grow. I've read some posts stating you can sprout in the dark, and some people that think you should have normal daytime light cycle (photo cycle) to simulate normal daytimes. In the end, I placed the light on a 12 hour cycle and all, ALL, my seeds sprouted. Good seeds, good grower, blind luck. Probably a little of all three.

The Truth of The Matter

So, this website contains Google AdSense ads, and Amazon product links. I'm not ashamed of this. Please read each post before clicking an Ad or Amazon product link. I will link products I think are crap. I read reviews and still tried items out, you may wish to try something that I think is crap, and it would be great if I had a money generating link there to help you. Thanks for understanding.

First Post

So, I have searched far and wide for information regarding home hydroponics and wanted to share my experience getting started with this home hobby. Having said that, I am simple stating my personal experience with various hydroponics methods, and equipment. My interest in the hobby is solely for food production. I am limited in usable space and don't want to deal with heat and moisture evacuation issues, so I will only be growing with LED technology. I will also link to Google Docs for the details of my grow including lighting statistics, temperatures, pH, and nutrient levels. My hope is that someone else getting started could learn from my mistakes, and find enough information to reasonably replicate a crop. Having said that gardening in general is about experience and no amount of data can replace the feedback your plants are giving you. I am a data kinda guy, and aside from telling people new to the hobby that their only option is to feel what their plants are telling them, at least with enough information someone could get a conversation started with a crop of their choice.