Time to set up my grow bins. I'm using the Kratky method. And I've got five gallon bins, so I should be able to grow five heads of lettuce in each bin (we'll see).

#hydroponics #solarpunk #indoorGardening

The seeds have sprouted and there's an inch or two of roots coming out the bottom of the rockwool cubes. Probably about time to move these into the bins!

#hydroponics #solarpunk #indoorGardening

Ok, had to make some emergency travel, so just now finally getting to move the seedlings over into the bin.

Note that there is some chlorosis (yellowing of the leaves) and some necrosis (leaves outright dying) - that's because I haven't given them any nutrients yet. Just been giving them water.

The bin has nutrients in it, so hopefully they can heal up. Moving forward, I (obviously) will need to move them over sooner... or just plant directly into the bins (I think I can do that with my set up...). And/or I can add some nutrients to the water just after the seeds start to sprout.

Rockwool with seedlings are being held in the holes by pool noodles.

#hydroponics #kratkyMethod #solarpunk #indoorGardening #urbanGardening

I took some more pictures of me adding nutrients to the water. I have a total of four bins on this shelf, but it can hold two more. So this shelf can grow 30 plants at any given time.

I'm going to go out and grab some 5 gallon buckets from firehouse subs (they sell their used ones for $3 a piece) and see about growing some tomato and pepper plants.

#solarPunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanGardening

A little less than two weeks of growth.

Note: I left for a week and haven't done anything to them. The wall socket timer does 12 hours a day. The lights turn on and off by themselves. The greens drink the water as they need.

The arugula (over on the left side) has weaker stems. I need to set up a small fan to blow on the plants a bit. I'm told that will strengthen their stems as they grow.

#solarpunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanFarming

One week update. (total grow time since being in the bins is just under three weeks)

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Weekly Update (just under 4 weeks now).

See thread for build and progress.

Build info: https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/111326498680973802

#solarpunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanFarming

Weekly update (just under 5 weeks now).... WHEN DO I HARVEST THESE!?!?!?!

Some notes:

• I've only used about a third of the water in the bin (5 gallons total water in bin, 1 gallon for each head of lettuce... and I've only used a third of that).
• The leafy greens seem to be doing well under this amount of light, but the Arugula (pictured) and Kale (on the second shelf) seem leggy with smaller leafs. That would indicate that I'm not giving them enough light. So I might move them to a lower shelf and put more light there.

Also.... it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep my family from eating from them right now. - I mean... in the future, we can have "grazing" plants where folks just eat off the live plant. BUT RIGHT NOW ITS FOR SCIENCE SO HANDS OFF!!!!

See thread for build and progress.

Build info: https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/111326498680973802

#solarpunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanFarming

Here's a picture of the roots under the butterhead lettuce as an example. Note no algae growth. Water is clear and clean as when I put it in there. The lettuce is growing really well with full healthy leaves.

But I've only used about a third of the water I expected to so far.... guess I'll keep letting it grow!

#solarpunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanFarming

Getting time to harvest my first crop! - Posted to Olio app for food give away / food swap.

Olio isn't as active here in the states, but it works really well for peer-to-peer food swapping!

If no one snags this within the week, I'll donate them to the local food bank.

Note: Coming up on the final updates for this specific thread (I'll add another post or two on lessons learned and take a final picture at six weeks).

#solarpunk #mutualAid #foodSwap #Olio #OlioApp #hydroponics

Ok! Time to harvest!!!

This is about six weeks worth of growth - after the initial seedling sprout.

Next couple of posts will be lessons learned and some shots of the bounty.

(See prior thread for progress)

Build instructions: https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/111326498680973802

#solarPunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanFarming

Here's a shot of the Gold Rush and the Butterhead Lettuce.

#solarPunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #urbanFarming

And interesting thing... I allocated one gallon per head of lettuce... and it really only drank about a third to a half of the water allocated...

Roots are clean. No algae.

I noticed the Kale and the Arugula were leggy. They're still good to eat! I'll just move the next crops into more light (I'm adding a couple strips of LED grow lights to one of the shelves to give more light to those plants.

Troubleshooting light in hydroponics:

• Plants are tall or "leggy" with long stems but narrower leaves than you expected: Means they aren't getting enough light so they put all the nutrients into getting closer to the light source so they can eat more. This means not a lot of nutrients go into the leaves and they dont grow as full as they could.

• Leaves are full but the edges are brown: They have too much light! They are essentially getting sunburnt. Move them away from the light, lower the brightness of the light, or move to less light / turn off some of the light.

• Leaves curl in on themselves: They are too hot. If you light or window is hot, move them away from the heat source.

• Leaves curl but stems are long: They are both hot AND starving from light. Provide more light overall so they don't have to get close to the hot light source.

#solarPunk #hydroponics #troubleshooting

I gave four heads of lettuce away.

• 2x Butterhead
• 2x Gold Rush

I used the Olio App to do so. Right now, not a lot of local folks are using the Olio app for food swaps. So I cheated and got friends to pick them up through the Olio app. Figure we have to get some engagement first before others come along.

As I help more and more folks build out hydroponics, I'll continue to encourage the use of the Olio app to coordinate food swaps.

Here is WHAT IS LEFT OVER!!!! Note: This is just what I'm keeping for myself! This DOES NOT include the four heads of lettuce that I gave away.

Also it's packed in tight. So there's a lot here. I can't really capture it well on the camera, though I tried from different angles (including using the 5 gallon bins for scale).

This is a lot of lettuce. You can see the Kale and Arugula. There's a LOT of butterhead and Gold Rush.

#solarPunk #mutualAid #hydroponics #urbanFarming #indoorGardening

@hhg - You let one of your lettuce plants bolt, go to seed, and then harvest them.

what I'm doing is using these five-gallon bins to grow the heads of lettuce. And then I'm using a separate 1-gallon bin to grow a single head of lettuce purely to let it bolt and go to seed for harvesting.