How to Build Your Own Hydroponics Setup
If you love the idea of fresh, tasty vegetables but hate the idea of weeding, a hydroponics setup may be just what you're looking for to grow your own garden. Hydroponics is the science of growing vegetables in water instead of soil. The water is filled with all the nutrients a plant needs to thrive. Because plants have the nutrients present instead of having to search for them through the soil, the plants grow stronger and healthier than soil-grown vegetables. Building a hydroponic setup is simple. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Peat moss
- Planting tray
- Seedling soil warmer
- Plastic
- Seed
- Watering can
- Plant grow light
- Large cooler with pour spout
- Vermiculite
- Two bricks
- Bucket
- Liquid hydroponic nutrients
Instructions
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1
Start plants from seed by filling the cells of a seed tray with peat moss. Water the peat moss until it is damp as a wrung-out sponge.
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2
Plant short-season vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage or broccoli in the seedling tray. Cover with plastic and place on a seedling soil warmer beneath the plant grow light.
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3
Remove the plastic once the seedlings poke their heads above the soil.
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4
Remove the seedlings from the trays once they have outgrown their individual cells. Rinse the peat moss away from the root system.
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5
Fill a cooler with vermiculite. Plant the plants in the vermiculite by hollowing out a planting hole and placing each plant within the planting hole. Cover the roots with vermiculite.
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Place the cooler onto a table with the end opposite the spout propped up with bricks. Leave the spout on the end open so the liquid can drain freely and place a bucket beneath the spout to catch the draining liquid.
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7
Water the plants three times daily with liquid nutrients. The unused nutrients will drain into the bucket below the cooler.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Lettuce leaves with white space image by Sophia Winters from Fotolia.com
