Indoor Gardens: Part 1

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Recently, we started a hydroponic garden. "Hydroponic" means to grow in water. I didn't get it until I visited an indoor gardening store -- I thought the plants just grew directly in the water. Tomatoes are often grown hydroponically (which is what we are growing) and I couldn't understand how the tomato stalk could possibly stand up in just water. But what did I know?

Not much, as it turns out. This post is going to detail our first attempts at starting the garden and all the stuff we learned NOT to do.

First, in hydroponic gardening, there is a "water table" set up with water that circulates and has a nutrient solution in it. There is also a grow light positioned above this table. Within the table are the plants. Each plant is started in a tiny "starter cube," pictured below. Once the roots show on the outside, they are placed inside a big black, open pot filled with little rocks. This is how the plants grow their roots and remain stable -- being planted in these individual pots. Water tables are set up to handle different numbers of plants depending on their size. Ours handles a total of 6 plants at a time.

We purchased organic seeds and organic growing solution, in addition to the water table and light. We are determined to get BETTER tomatoes from this than we could purchase at the store, and cheaper! We determined it would be only about 1/6 the price to grow them than buy them. Maybe less. Hydroponic tomato plants, depending on the source you consult, can bear up to 300 lbs. of fruit per year. It's important to note that tomato plants are perennials, and given ideal growing conditions, can continue to produce much longer than those of us in temperate climates are familiar with.

The first night, we set up our water table with filtered water and checked the PH. It was very wrong. We left it for a couple of days and checked again -- it was much closer after it had sat for a few days and run through the system. We dipped our starter cubes in the solution, put the seeds inside, and left them to sit on the top of the tray, under the light, so they could germinate.

Only they didn't.

Two weeks later we still had nothing. It looked just like it had when we'd planted it. We couldn't figure out why. Then we went back to the indoor gardening store and learned a few things:

*The starter cubes need to remain wet (we'd re-dipped them in the water to keep them wet)

*The starter cubes need to remain in a moist environment

*The starter cubes can't get too much nutrient solution

We had dipped them in the water filled with nutrient solution several times to keep them wet, but they kept drying out. In this process they got WAY too much nutrient solution and this killed the seeds. So, we left the store with more starter cubes and a special plastic tray with a dome lid on it. This tray and lid is where we put the plants so that when the moisture evaporates from the cubes, it goes on the tray and "rains" back down on the cubes, keeping them in a humid environment. This, apparently, is the proper way to start the garden.

So we are trying again now. Hopefully the next round germinates nicely and we'll have some good pictures and updates to give you in a month or so!

Are you interested in indoor gardening? Have you ever tried? If so, what was your experience?