Building a hydroponic garden from scratch isn’t an easy task, but it’s a great hobby and way to grow your own food throughout the year. Hydroponics is a specialized type of gardening that involves no soil, covered gardening areas and sometimes indoor gardening. You only need basic skills to start your own hydroponic garden, but you don’t want to cut corners on the supplies.
Tools And Materials Needed:
You will need a black-plastic bag that is heavy duty and designed to line. A thin-plastic bag will not do. You need one of those extra-thick bags that are next to indestructible. You will also need a styrofoam cooler of a considerable size. Six styrofoam cups, six gallons of distilled water, a marking pen and a craft knife are also necessary. You will also need to have perlite, sphagnum moss, seedlings and a plant-nutrient mix.
These are the basic tools and material that are needed to get started for one type of plant. You can add as many of these containers as you would like for different types of plants.
Steps:
Step One: Line your styrofoam chest with the black bag and fill it with distilled water. The bag will protect the chest and prevent leakages, and it also shields the nutrients from sunlight that could damage the roots of the plants.
Step Two: Use the styrofoam cup as a guide to trace out six evenly spaced circles around the top of the chest lid. Use the craft knife to cut these out as carefully as possible. The circles should be 1/4 inch smaller than the rim of the cup. You don’t want them to be too large.
Step Three: Cut a small hole into the bottom of the cups. Place just enough moss in each cup, and top them with perlite. You want to fill these to just under the rim of the cup.
Step Four: Carefully place your seedling in the perlite and gently cover with perlite.
Step Five: Take the chest lid and flip it upside down on the chest. You can then place your cups into the holes you cut out.
Step Six: Water your seedlings with the nutrient mixture while making sure your chest doesn’t overflow. You should have about one inch of space between the cups and the water in the chest. The roots will start to develop and reach into the chest. As the plants grow, pick off the necessary leaves to maintain a healthy plant. Be careful not to over harvest your plants.
Step Seven: Repeat the process with as many containers as you have space for. This will allow you to plant a variety of seedlings to give you a harvest you can actually live off of. You can grow just about anything hydroponically, but it takes patience and care to get your plants flourishing. The right nutrient mixture will be of utmost importance.
Hydroponic Gardening For Life
Hydroponic gardening is fantastic if you don’t have space or quality soil to garden in. You will find yourself becoming a lover and enthusiast of hydroponic gardening in no time at all.
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