Hydroponics

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A community dedicated to every form of hydroponics, a technique for growing plants without soil.

Everything regarding hydroponics is welcome here - from your houseplant in LECA to big scale commercial farming.

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Noob hydroponics/gardener questions (slrpnk.net)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi! As said in the title I’m complete noob in growing food, but I’m excited to learn about hydroponics. I’ve 3d printed this small tower and trying to grow Basil, Lettuce and parsley.

This is my second attempt at hydroponics and even tho I thought I researched everything I failed the last time. Any tips and recommendations would be appreciated!

If anyone could help me figure it out, I have these questions:

At what stage of growth should I put seedling in the system?

This is their current stage and I put them in system today

2 What should be the pump cycle? Currently I have it running for 10 minutes every 3 hours

3 What would be the ideal temperature for water and room temperature?

4 Should I invest and install grow lights immediately or am I fine for letting them be next to window for a week at least?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

By the window and room temperature should be fine, but the seedling looks a bit too small for transplanting, but lets see.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ty for your response! Sadly, two seedlings are already a bit dead, weirdly one is standing strong lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Basically You need to wait for the seedlings to develop true leaves before transplanting them.

https://plantophiles.com/houseplant-tips/when-transplant-seedlings-in-hydroponics/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Generally speaking, you'll want to transplant seedlings after they have their second set of leaves, or "true leaves".

What really worked well for us is having cubes of rock wool to put seeds in - as the seedlings got their true leaves, we'd place the entire rock wool cube in the hydroponics system.

10 minutes every 3 hours doesn't seem like enough for me, but the answer really depends on a lot of factors. The substrate you're using doesn't hold much water, so you'd need to run the pump more often than if you used something that held water, like rock wool.

Temperatures are plant dependent. I wouldn't worry about it too much. They do sell seedlings warming mats that allegedly help, but aren't necessary.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Thank you for your suggestions, I was definitely not patient enough to wait for the true leaves to appear. Ty for suggesting rook wool, I tried starting seeds in plain LECA, but I guess that was the wrong decision. Ty, I'll invest in some rockwool :)

If possible, could you help me figure out how often should I change the solution? I've heard many versions, but generally it's every two weeks, tho I still have question, should I change the whole solution or just add new one on top? If it is possible to add a new solution to the existing one, is there any rule I should follow to mix it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm not an expert hydroponics, but the nutrients you bought should have dosage info.

You'll typically add on top, but once every now and then it's a good idea to do a full replacement, or "flush"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

You should check out Hoocho on YouTube, he is a wealth of knowledge for hydroponics.

I top up my nutrient, usually every week and since the plants are bigger I rub them at it closer to 2400. Now that also depends on the plant. It is good to change the water periodically but I don't personally. Get a EC or PPM tester and maybe a PH tester (although my water is good and I never test the PH).

Led lights would really help on a timer. And to answer one of your other questions I have the water on for 20 minutes and of for 10.