'Finally, let's get growing'
It took a lot of effort, money and time to get to this point so by now I had read a lot about lettuce being a good vegetable to start with; spinach I also found to germinate quickly and grow within a week. My spring onions started to grow but oh so very slowly, so much so I would say they would probably have grown faster in the ground. My radishes did not germinate at all.
Currently I'm experimenting growing flowers rather than vegetables. A few thoughts behind this; firstly with vegetables you tend to have a dozen lettuces ready at the same time and end up giving them away whereas with flowers you don't need to 'consume' them all at once, you can transplant them in the garden. With Brexit the cost of imported flowers (90% are imported) is likely to increase.
The nutrients
From what I have read the manufacture General Hydroponics three nutrient solution is considered the best especially for beginners. I started with the litre bottles again bought from Amazon for around £10 each. There is Flora Micro, FloraGro and FloraBloom of which you will need all three. I noticed that the FloraMicro comes in both hard-water and soft-water with the hard-water version being three times as expensive as the software version. My assumption is that purists of hydroponics say to use rainwater which is soft rather than tap water (no chlorine). If you use tap water as I do it's suggested to leave it in direct sunlight for 24 hours to remove the chlorine.
Hydroponic purists also say not to use metal, sealants, and only food grade plastics in your setup.
Click here to continue reading on this subject.
A feedchart is available from the General Hydroponics website which provides all the information you need. I also found this video very useful as an overview.
You need to reduce the PH value of the water you are using to around 5.5 depending upon the plat you are growing. I found that it's cheaper to buy the PH UP and PH DOWN bottles together than just the PH DOWN on its own, which to be honest is the only bottle I have ever used.
I haven't used my TDS meter simply because as soon as water passes through the clay balls the PPM reading goes through the roof makes it meaningless. In a pure hydroponics setup where just water is used then it would be more beneficial.
Finally from a practical perspective using a large volume syringe makes life much easier when measuring the nutrient . A recommendation I have seen is not to mix the nutrients together; instead reduce the waters PH then add each nutrient, one at a time to the water while mixing.
The temperature of the reservoir is important since warmer water absorbs less nutrient and oxygen this is why I buried my reservoir in the ground to keep the temperature constant and also use an aerator. This is a very useful video on reservoir temperate.
It took a lot of effort, money and time to get to this point so by now I had read a lot about lettuce being a good vegetable to start with; spinach I also found to germinate quickly and grow within a week. My spring onions started to grow but oh so very slowly, so much so I would say they would probably have grown faster in the ground. My radishes did not germinate at all.
Currently I'm experimenting growing flowers rather than vegetables. A few thoughts behind this; firstly with vegetables you tend to have a dozen lettuces ready at the same time and end up giving them away whereas with flowers you don't need to 'consume' them all at once, you can transplant them in the garden. With Brexit the cost of imported flowers (90% are imported) is likely to increase.
The nutrients
From what I have read the manufacture General Hydroponics three nutrient solution is considered the best especially for beginners. I started with the litre bottles again bought from Amazon for around £10 each. There is Flora Micro, FloraGro and FloraBloom of which you will need all three. I noticed that the FloraMicro comes in both hard-water and soft-water with the hard-water version being three times as expensive as the software version. My assumption is that purists of hydroponics say to use rainwater which is soft rather than tap water (no chlorine). If you use tap water as I do it's suggested to leave it in direct sunlight for 24 hours to remove the chlorine.
Hydroponic purists also say not to use metal, sealants, and only food grade plastics in your setup.
Click here to continue reading on this subject.
A feedchart is available from the General Hydroponics website which provides all the information you need. I also found this video very useful as an overview.
You need to reduce the PH value of the water you are using to around 5.5 depending upon the plat you are growing. I found that it's cheaper to buy the PH UP and PH DOWN bottles together than just the PH DOWN on its own, which to be honest is the only bottle I have ever used.
The yellow device is called a PH Pen Tester which is around £10 from Amazon and is essential to check the PH of the reservoir water. The hydroponics purists also recommend using a TDS Digital Water Quality Tester (the blue device). This is a very useful video providing an overview into what TDM, PPM, conductivity and EC mean!
I haven't used my TDS meter simply because as soon as water passes through the clay balls the PPM reading goes through the roof makes it meaningless. In a pure hydroponics setup where just water is used then it would be more beneficial.
Finally from a practical perspective using a large volume syringe makes life much easier when measuring the nutrient . A recommendation I have seen is not to mix the nutrients together; instead reduce the waters PH then add each nutrient, one at a time to the water while mixing.
The temperature of the reservoir is important since warmer water absorbs less nutrient and oxygen this is why I buried my reservoir in the ground to keep the temperature constant and also use an aerator. This is a very useful video on reservoir temperate.
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