A BIG-PRODUCING MINI FARM

    You can grow food crops and flowers, indoors or out, with a hydroponic mini farm.

    If you're just learning to garden hydroponically, it's a good idea to start with simple, inexpensive equipment. As your interest grows, you can expand into a more extensive and complex system.

    For hydroponic growing, choose containers that are at least four inches deep and have bottom drainage holes. You'll need a pan or tray for each to catch the excess nutrient/water solution.

    The least expensive container is an ordinary flowerpot. Simply fill it with perlite, add the plant, then pour a cup of nutrient solution through the perlite daily. Catch the drainage in a bowl. You can reuse the solution for a week.

The wick system

    If you want to escape from daily watering, try the wick watering system. Stack two trays; or, if they don't stack, use slats of wood to separate. Drill five or six holes in the bottom of the top tray and insert 1x6-inch lengths of synthetic fabric (polyester, rayon, or nylon work well) into the holes. The fabric wicks should reach the bottom of the lower tray as well as extending several inches into the top tray. Fill the top tray with perlite, then slowly add nutrient solution through the growing medium until the bottom tray is filled with solution. The wicks will filled with solution. The wicks will carry the solution up to keep the growing medium moist.

    When the water level drops below one inch in the bottom tray, add more solution from the top.

The bucket and tray method

    Another popular hydroponic setup makes use of a bucket and tray. In this system, a length of plastic tubing connects the bottom edge of the bucket with the bottom edge of the bucket with the bottom edge of the tray. Use ½-inch plumbing tubing and seal the connections with silicone rubber cement.

    Cover the drain hole in the tray with a piece of window screen, then fill the tray with perlite and the bucket with nutrient solution. Once a day, raise the bucket above the unit, letting the solution flow into the tray. Then, lower the bucket so the solution drains back.

The pump and timer method

    If you want an entirely automatic system, start with an aquarium pump and a household timer. The timer triggers the release of the nutrient solution from a sealed reservoir into the growing tray.

    Use a plastic dishpan for a growing tray and a five-gallon plastic gas can for a reservoir. Connect the two with ½-inch plastic tubing; seal with silicon rubber cement. The tubing should be run to the bottom of the sealed reservoir.

    Attach the aquarium pump to the top of the reservoir, using aquarium tubing; seal the connections. Plug the pump into the timer and set it for a two-hour "on" cycle every 24 hours.

    Cover the drilled drainage hole in the tray with window screen, then fill the pan with perlite. Add the solution through the tray, filling the reservoir. When the timer turns the aquarium pump on, air blows into the reservoir and forces solution into the growing tray. And when the timer turns the pump off, the solution will slowly drain back into the reservoir. Drain the reservoir every two weeks and add new solution. You can feed the used solution to outdoor plants.

The recycling drip system

    An aquarium pump is also used for another automatic setup, the recycling drip system. However, this method doesn't require the timer or the sealed reservoir. The water is pumped up from a bottom reservoir by an aquarium pump; and a bubbler valve is submerged in the solution. The bubbler valve sends solution plus air bubbles up to the top of the growing medium where it continuously drips through, returning to the reservoir through drainage holes.

    You can build this low-cost system with two stacked trays, or use a low-cost plastic-foam ice chest.

    To use and ice chest, cut a piece of 1/8-inch -thick plastic sheeting to work as a second bottom right where the ice chest narrows down. Run a piece of two-inch plastic pipe from the bottom of the chest to the top (drill a hole in the plastic false bottom for the pipe). Drill drainage holes in the false bottom and cover with window screen. Fill the top growing "tray" with perlite. Add solution until reservoir below is full.

    Insert the bubbler valve in the top of the two-inch tube. Connect one end to the aquarium pump the other to a piece of perforated ½-inch tubing. stretch tubing along the top surface of the growing medium (perlite). Holes in the tubing permit even spreading of nutrient solution.

    Plug in the aquarium pump and the solution will rise and drip out across the growing medium. Add new solution each week to replace that which evaporates. Every two or three months, pump the old solution into a bucket to use outdoors. Replace the fluid in the reservoir.

Hydroponic gardening tips

In small hydroponic setups, sow seeds of leaf lettuce, spinach, or some of the miniature vegetables. Cherry tomatoes work well, as do chives, thyme, oregano, and parsley. To speed germination, "tent in" the growing medium with plastic food wrap until the seeds sprout.

Start houseplant cuttings in regular growing medium, such as moist vermiculite. When roots have formed, transplant to the hydroponic system.

In late winter, user your hydroponic garden to start seeds of flowers to be transplanted outdoors when the weather turns nice.

The secret of getting the biggest crops from your hydroponic garden is to keep planting. Have seedling plants started and ready for transplanting well in advance of the previous crop's demise. If there are no signs of disease, pull out old plants and set out the new ones.

You can use nursery-started transplants in your hydroponic setup. Simply remove all soil from the roots before you replant.

(Produced in cooperation with Alexandra and John Dickerman, authors of DISCOVERING HYDROPONIC GARDENING, Woodbridge Press, Santa Barbara, California.)

Better Homes and Gardens November 1977

This story is derived from an article that originally appeard in Better Homes and Gardens, November 1977