Try Hydroponics for Great Vegetables

Say goodbye to backbreaking work and garden pests, and garden all winter long with a hydroponic system.

Launch Gallery

by Enrique YgleciasAugust 1997from issue # 10

I was n’t searching for a new manner to grow veg when I stopped by the exposed sign on aquiculture at the local file name extension garden . I locomote because the placard said there would be spare yard - tenacious bean germ . But while walking around , I come about to see some sugar snap pea vine grow from Styrofoam loving cup that were set in hole cut in PVC tubes . The vines expect terrific . I kibosh . It was a canonical hydroponics setup . I did all my gardening in the dirt and had never hand hydroponics much thought . The exhibitor ran down the basics and win over me to try it . That was 1990 .

Seven years later I ’m still harvesting wonderful crop from very simple systems , and I chuckle a little when people say real gardening is done in the ground . I ’ve grown many type of vegetables , include tomatoes , cucumbers , squash , lettuce , spinach , kohlrabi , bok choy , and herbs .

I ’ve muck about with unlike designs for a aquacultural system . My latest is a wooden frame with a single-foot for three PVC subway . This tiered system , holding 18 plants , uses space efficiently and ca-ca harvest home well-off . water system and break up nutrients are pump from a container at the side into the top tube-shaped structure . Gravity pulls the enriched body of water through the tubes and past the ascendant . The water debilitate back into the container and is pump back up to the top tube , where the cps begin again .

This organization can be used indoors , outside , on the patio , or in a greenhouse . I keep mine going all winter in a screened porch that face the Confederate States of America . If I ’m using it alfresco in the summer , I cover the whole with 70 % shade cloth to protect it from the Dominicus , which cauterize hot in Pima County , Arizona . I drape the cloth over a homemade piping skeleton attached to the system .

With proper precaution , most plant in hydroponic organisation grow quicker than in stain . yield ripen in the first place , with freehanded yields and ranking flavor . There is no tilling , raking , hoeing , weeding , messy manure , or back - breach work . Cutworms , grubs , and other soil - endure pests are no problem . you may arise vegetables and herbs without soil or much outer space , wee-wee aquiculture perfect for apartment dwellers who have only balconies , Belle Miriam Silverman , or terrace .

aquiculture is Greek for easy growingIt does n’t take much to get started and succeed with this graceful engineering , which has been around almost as long as dirt . The word comes from the Greek : hydrofor water supply andponosfor labor .

Provide light , water , and nutrients . With indoor units , regular fluorescent bulbs , keep low over the flora , provide good light . They can be set up to a timer to mime natural light cycles . I ’m lucky because I can keep my three - tiered organization move without lights all winter . sun pours into my Arizona elbow room all solar day through the clear shaping sheets that isolate the screened porch .

In the Arizona desert , where I hold out , we ’re always concerned about wasting pee , but hydroponic culture use little . I keep just 5 gallons recycling through my great system , replace what ’s lost to dehydration . you could use more than that flushing a john .

The ideal water temperature for rapid growth with hydroponics is about 70˚F. Water temperature should not be allowed to go above 80˚F or below 60˚F. I put an inexpensive fish fish tank heater in the piddle germ to maintain the temperature .

If you do n’t have a chemistry stage , you ’re better off buying premixed food . It can be costly and time consuming to ladder down all the unlike nutrient yourself . The big three are N , phosphorous , and potassium . The plants also need calcium , magnesium , and sulphur , and some suggestion elements , such as boron , Co , copper , smoothing iron , manganese , zinc , and molybdenum . With premixed package , all you need to do is measure and invoke the nutrients into the H2O .

Premixed food be about $ 27 per 10 - pound . box . That ’s enough for a year or so when using a small unit like the three - tiered intention .

Very petty maintenance is required . keep up with a hydroponic system takes only a few minutes a day . Look at the plants , find out the parting , stems , prime , and fruits for any hint of trouble . Improper water temperature is one place to retard if your plant are n’t produce well .

Pleasant and productive as aquiculture is , I still keep a large garden outside and bask working in it . But I ’ve found a good complement , and all because of some free grounds - long attic come .

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Photo/Illustration: Boyd Hagen

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