Home school: Hydroponic Gardening

God works in mysterious ways. My tendonitis has forced me to "reinvent myself". I love to garden and grow things, but now I can't dig and weed and do all those things that gardening requires.


I started searching the internet for an alternative that would allow me to grow some vegies without stressing my arms. I found the idea of hydroponics...growing plants without dirt! So I ordered a small beginners system called Hydrofarm Home Garden. Then I found a place on the internet that had lesson plans for teaching hydroponics. "Hey!", I thought, "I can teach my son hydroponics for a unit in science AND grow my own vegies without hurting myself!"


So we have begun. Right now we are germinating the seeds in Rockwool. Rockwool is lava rock that has been crushed down and spun into a wool like substance. We have soaked the Rockwool in a hydroponic nutrient solution that came with the hydrofarm. We are starting lettuce and a tomato plant.

I had quite a time deciding where I was going to put the Hydrofarm. The ideal temperature for the nutrient solution is around 60 to 75 degrees. We've had cool spring and so putting it on the patio isn't really an option. I have a large window sill, but realized I needed a way to drain the solution once a month to put in fresh. It's too big and heavy to cart to the bathroom. They recommend if you use light from a window that your plants be at least two feet from the window. So I thought about buying a light system....alas...the unit is 28 inches long. The small light system is 24 inches long and the next size up is 4 foot and my table is an inch too short for that. I finally decided I will have to use the window sill. I know my plants will all lean toward the window, but too bad. We'll have to make the best of it. I found a short garden hose that attaches to the end of the unit and it can hang down into a 5 gallon bucket....so I have my drainage problem solved. An extension cord will work for the pump. I can hang an aluminum emergency blanket on the inside of the curtain to help even out the light some. We'll see how this works out. If we find that having it too close to the window just doesn't work out well, then I'll think about maybe getting an agragrow or hydrofarm spot light so I can set the unit on a table for the next growing season.


If you would like to explore hydroponics with your kids, the lesson plans I referenced above are free on the web....you can copy them and print them out. They give some easy hydroponic systems you can make with items you might have around the house.


Here is another resource for teaching hydroponics:
http://hydroponics101.com/sw58046.asp

Below is a photo journal of what we have done so far and what the set up looks like. You can double click the photos to enlarge them.


This is the Rockwool that we are starting our seeds in.


Here is the Hydrofarm unit on my window sill.



This is the inside of the unit before we have added the hydroton and plants. In a couple weeks I'll add another post with a photo of the process we go through to do this.



Here is the drainage hose coming out the end of the unit. It goes to a 5 gallon bucket on the floor. The small hose you see coming out of the center of the unit attaches to an air pump that hangs on the back of the unit and there is an air hose that runs the length of the unit on the bottom that bubbles up air bubbles toward the roots of the plants. The pump will plug into the extension outlet you see sitting next to the hose.