hydroponics

have you ever grown anything indoors? thought about it?

do you automatically think of weed when someone mentions hydroponics?

after doing some reading i have been pretty excited to

create my own DIY hydroponic garden.. just finished buying 90%

of my supplies today and made my own light fixture with 4 sockets for fluorescents and a massive reflector.

then i built a sturdy table out of PVC to hold a tray for potted plants.

my setup is what's called a flood and drain system.

it looks similar the one above.

i must say it's really a fascinating hobby.

NASA maintains one of the world's largest hydroponic lettuce farms,

using a type of hydroponics called aeroponics, where roots are misted and

fogged with nutrient water to grow.

pretty much any living plant can be grown hydroponically or aeroponically without soil.

here's what aeroponic plants look like:

they dangle in the open air and breathe freely,

which gives them a noticable advantage over soil grown plants both indoors and outdoors.

finely misted or fogged nutrient water is rapidly absorbed by air bound roots,

and aeroponic plants grow faster than any other.

i'm starting with strawberries and hot peppers.

yum.

I couldn't even imagine investing in hydro gear and then growing fucking strawberries, but that's just me.

lol. but they would be the dank strawberries bra.

edit: but yea the concept of hydro is kind of idm.

an old friend grew a shit ton of strawberries in a closet with a single hydroponic light.

i grew some mold in the toilet bowl once

someone gave me a piece of a plant once. it was basically just one leaf on a stem. i put it in a bottle of water and left it on my window. it filled the bottle with roots, but never grew any additional leaves.

it sat there for about 3 years, just that one leaf.

finally, i decided to get a pot and some soil for it. the plant turned out to be some kind of vine, and is now 12 feet long.

  On 3/14/2011 at 5:39 AM, hahathhat said:

i grew some mold in the toilet bowl once

did you smoke eat that shit?

  On 3/14/2011 at 5:42 AM, chaosmachine said:

someone gave me a piece of a plant once. it was basically just one leaf on a stem. i put it in a bottle of water and left it on my window. it filled the bottle with roots, but never grew any additional leaves.

 

it sat there for about 3 years, just that one leaf.

 

finally, i decided to get a pot and some soil for it. the plant turned out to be some kind of vine, and is now 12 feet long.

lol. good story

  On 3/14/2011 at 4:05 AM, sneaksta303 said:

I couldn't even imagine investing in hydro gear and then growing fucking strawberries, but that's just me.

  On 3/14/2011 at 5:42 AM, chaosmachine said:

someone gave me a piece of a plant once. it was basically just one leaf on a stem. i put it in a bottle of water and left it on my window. it filled the bottle with roots, but never grew any additional leaves.

 

it sat there for about 3 years, just that one leaf.

 

finally, i decided to get a pot and some soil for it. the plant turned out to be some kind of vine, and is now 12 feet long.

lols from me

FOGPONICS.COM

I grew two 7 foot weed plants indoors a few years ago. did not use hydroponics though, just soil, fertiliser, natural light, good ventillation and an unusually hot summer. would love to grow again but am waiting till i move somewhere with more space and privacy...

I'm currently growing basil in the kitchen and I've proudly kept it alive and well for a month now, so I'm going to get more, this is the proudest moment of my life.

My fucking venus flytrap still hasn't grown.

Cunt.

fucking cunt. kick it in.

  Quote

The Venus Flytrap is one of the easiest carnivorous plants to grow. If you wish to grow one or more, they have only a few requirements such as, wet roots, high humidity, full sunlight, and poor, acidic soil. It comes shipped to you as a bulb or rhizome. Plant it root side down so that the top of the bulb is even with the soil. A recommended soil mixture is one that contains sphagnum moss and sand. Do not add fertilizer or lime. Your plants will do better if you transplant them into new soil every few years.

 

In order to provide high humidity for your Venus Flytrap, plant it in a terrarium or in a glass container with a small opening. An old aquarium or fish bowl make good containers for this purpose. You need to watch your terrarium in the summer because the temperature inside the glass may get too hot. Two hours in the sun may be sufficient. If your plants wilt, then they need to come out of the sun sooner. Just the opposite is true for winter. If it gets very cold in your area you may need to move your plants away from the window or cover them at night in order to keep them warm and moist. However, your Venus' Flytrap will experience a dormant period in the winter, from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day so it needs fewer hours of daylight and cooler temperatures.

 

Another way is to plant it in a pot and place the pot in a larger container such as a bucket. Partially cover the top of the bucket with a piece of glass or Plexiglas. Don't cover the entire top because air needs to circulate.

 

If you grow your plant outside, it will get enough insects to eat. If it rains the container may fill up with water but this will not hurt the plants, they can live underwater for months. If you grow your plant inside you will need to feed it insects. A couple of houseflies or small slugs per month is enough during the growing season. Do your plant a favor and do NOT feed it hamburger! Indigestion, rot may occur and usually your plant will die. Find a "just right" sized bug instead!

 

are you feeding it insects?

after reading http://www.botany.org/bsa/misc/carn.html

i might attempt attempt to grow a few in a bubbleponic bucket full of acidic water

and spoon feed them insects.. maybe later.

i'm installing four 65 watt spiral CFL bulbs on my lighting fixture, constructed of metal furnace pipe for a reflector.

sum total the equivalent of 1200 incandescent watts or 16,000 lumens.

i fear i might go blind if i look at it too much..

or burn my house down.

i know, i guess its kindof an uninteresting topic for wattm,

but here's an update on my progress...

here it is, some 90% complete. just needs a tube to run the drain water back into the resevoir without splashing about.

underneath the flow tray which fills with water for 30 minutes multiple times per day then drains out

currently with no tube the drain is dropping water into the resevoir without a lid,

while this is good for oxygenating the water, it promotes terrible algae growth

this is what my lamp hangs on, it's strong and threaded

and can be height adjusted somewhat..

and here's the light reflector and CFL lamps..

currently only have two 65 watt CFL spirals, and two 26 watt spirals.

approximately 10,000 lumens, which is still fucking bright... it causes serious retinal burn

and makes me feel temporarily blind if i accidentally look at it too much.

i'm crafting up a quick propogation tray utilizing perlite for seed germination tonight,

then in a week transplanting the young plants into their larger hydroton clay pellet pots.