Hydroponic Gardening DIY

Nefertiti said:
this is giving me ideas... how many goldfish should one put in? Say I just want to grow one pot of coriander and one pot of italian parsley. obviously the tank will be big enough for both. Dont know of 8 or 10cm pots will be sufficient. But then how do you know how many goldfish to add? I need to go off and do some research :D
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Hi there

What is the dimensions of your tank?
 
Batista said:
Hi there

What is the dimensions of your tank?
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I dont have the tank yet, but I'll go this coming weekend. So I'll be able to give it then. This is sort of a spur of the moment thing, but I'll see it through. Need the parsley and coriander. :)
 
Starting my next small setup... will use this for lettuce, herbs and such...

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SirFooK'nG said:
Starting my next small setup... will use this for lettuce, herbs and such...

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Cool man. The setup actually works quite nicely.

So far have moved more of my herbs and such outside.
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Lettuce growing nicely.
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And lastly some experimenting with the Kratky method. No aeration at all simply the lettuce in the water. The better way to do this would be that the plant remains stationary allowing the roots to be exposed and develop the ability to absorb O2. I wanted to try with Styrofoam floating on top of the water with a predetermined length of the root exposed.
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SirFooK'nG said:
Nice... Ive seen some big farms on youtube using the floating Styrofoam method.
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Ya that's awesome. They're absolutely Massive! What I love about the Kratky method is its the absolute easiest way to do hydro gardening. Mix the solutions put in the seedling and harvest. MPH gardener on YouTube has a few nice vids and he gets great results.
 
Nefertiti said:
I dont have the tank yet, but I'll go this coming weekend. So I'll be able to give it then. This is sort of a spur of the moment thing, but I'll see it through. Need the parsley and coriander. :)
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Ok well,try start with maybe 15-20 guppies/goldfish depending on what you can get easily and the cheapest.These are hardy fish although im not sure whether guppies require heated water...

Make sure you get a nice long airstone, like 10-15cms, not that small one.The water needs to be agitated but here is where the trial and error comes in because if there is too much agitation then the fish might just die or not reproduce from the stress.Guppies reproduce like mad, so maybe goldfish is a better choice?

Also, try and feed live/dead food, not simply fish flakes.They sell frozen worms and a few frozen fish foods at the petstore which is just dead worms or daphnia(Water flea).I dont think fish flakes contain enough of the right stuff for aquaponics.Dont feed too much because you dont have a filter in there remember...

There is lot of initial tinkering with a system like this, but once you get the factors correct, then the plants will take off like mad.Dont forget to post some pics here!
 
Zenbaas said:
Ya that's awesome. They're absolutely Massive! What I love about the Kratky method is its the absolute easiest way to do hydro gardening. Mix the solutions put in the seedling and harvest. MPH gardener on YouTube has a few nice vids and he gets great results.
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That lettuce look lovely!How many more days till harvest?
 
Zenbaas said:
Cool man. The setup actually works quite nicely.

And lastly some experimenting with the Kratky method. No aeration at all simply the lettuce in the water. The better way to do this would be that the plant remains stationary allowing the roots to be exposed and develop the ability to absorb O2. I wanted to try with Styrofoam floating on top of the water with a predetermined length of the root exposed.
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Cool, how long has it been sitting in the water?
Drive 4 nails through the bucket straight into the styrafoam.It will hold the plant up permanently and your roots can get some o2.But you will have to check and topup every few days, which means lifting the lettuce out the water to see where the roots are :/
 
Batista said:
Cool, how long has it been sitting in the water?
Drive 4 nails through the bucket straight into the styrafoam.It will hold the plant up permanently and your roots can get some o2.But you will have to check and topup every few days, which means lifting the lettuce out the water to see where the roots are :/
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Or I can just use the lid :D The idea with the Styrofoam is that it moves with the water. You can't see it but there are two more layers of Styrofoam under the top one so it is lifted out of the water.

As for the lettuce. Well I will simply be breaking off the outer leaves as we need them. There are a few that are already big enough for some picking:)
 
Just a quick update with regards to the Nutrifeed. I have been in contact with Barend back and forth but no real conclusion yet. He says builders warehouse should have the 5kg buckets at least but I've looked and never seen them there. He also mentioned garden world which I haven't personally checked out yet. Am getting a bit tired of the back and forth with no real result but I'll keep at it.
 
Did some hectic tomato pruning today, and harvested a few ripe ones and one of my cabbages. They are all flippin delicious!

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Ok Guys making some good progress with the Nutrifeed! Will update soon hopefully :D
 
Zenbaas said:
Or I can just use the lid :D The idea with the Styrofoam is that it moves with the water. You can't see it but there are two more layers of Styrofoam under the top one so it is lifted out of the water.

As for the lettuce. Well I will simply be breaking off the outer leaves as we need them. There are a few that are already big enough for some picking:)
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Awesome dude, that extra styrafoam wll do the trick nicely!How does the lettuce compare to store bought lettuce?
 
SirFooK'nG said:
Did some hectic tomato pruning today, and harvested a few ripe ones and one of my cabbages. They are all flippin delicious!
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Loving it Sir!
Are the tomatoes heirloom or nursery seedlings?
Also, how do you get a tomatoe to be blood red, is that called vine ripening, or is it because its hydro that it cant develop that intense red colour that you rarely see nowadays with store bought tomatoes?
 
Batista said:
Awesome dude, that extra styrafoam wll do the trick nicely!How does the lettuce compare to store bought lettuce?
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Haven't had any yet. This weekend I'll give it a go! Vine ripening is where the red colour comes from I reckon.
Most of my heirloom tomatoes are almost ready to be moved outside finally...! Can't wait for that.
 
Batista said:
Loving it Sir!
Are the tomatoes heirloom or nursery seedlings?
Also, how do you get a tomatoe to be blood red, is that called vine ripening, or is it because its hydro that it cant develop that intense red colour that you rarely see nowadays with store bought tomatoes?
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Nursery seedlings. They just grew that way. I dont even know what exact type of tomato it is... lol. But yummy!
 
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