Home Hydroponics: Easy Tips for Growing Fresh Produce All Year

by Joanne Camas

on 09/04/14 at 09:30 AM

 Salad for lunch in December? Why, sure, let me reach over and pick some. Well, Linda Jones, a Colorado homesteader and author, can help you turn this into reality.

Jones, a longtime gardener, says, "Living in Southern Colorado is very challenging for growing vegetables. We have a relatively short growing season, and beyond the frost we have other obstacles, like hail and drought. I started looking into hydroponics to continue growing food but by using much less water."
Jones's own experiments inspired her ebook on home hydroponics, her Guide to Easy, Cheap, and Fun Home Hydroponics, which includes five DIY projects you can tackle.

Need more help? Well, she's also spearheaded a vibrant growing community online. "We have nearly 5,000 members now," she says. "We share interesting new growing ideas."

She told us the fastest way to grow lettuce and kale, how to recycle containers for hydroponics, and why more and more people are adopting -- and loving -- this inexpensive gardening system.
Linda, why do you think more people are growing produce with hydroponics these days?
As water shortages become more of an issue, the fact that hydroponics uses up to 90% less water is a very big reason. Less insects, a more controlled environment, and a steady harvest are also big factors. People who sell produce use hydroponics because of the ability to control the growth and harvest, and manage a consistent product.

What are other advantages of hydroponics?
There is somewhat of a prejudice still against hydroponic produce. It has a mystery to it that people don't trust. That's part of the reason I wrote my ebook: I wanted to show people that hydroponic plants are not Mad Scientist's freak experiments! To me, genetically modified plants that are in our food supply now and plants that are sprayed with pesticides and other poisons are far more scary and more of a science experiment (with all of us as the guinea pigs). Hydroponics is water, nutrients, and an easier life for the plant that no longer has to push and strain and work to find nutrition. Starting with heirloom seed and not using pesticides will produce a natural product.

Did you build your own system before you wrote your book? What gave you that idea?
Yes, from small single bottles of lettuce and kale (the Kratky Method) to larger grow beds inside during the winter, and then larger Kratky Method containers outside in the summer. I've tried many experiments with what is really necessary to grow vegetables and receive a harvest of food. An inspiration for the Kratky Method is Bobby from MHPGardener. After seeing the method in use on his video, I communicated via email with Bernie Kratky. He is a great help and has done really excellent work in this area throughout his career at the College of Tropical Agriculture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

How effective is a DIY system compared to more expensive models?
My entire point of the ebook is to do it yourself. After learning about hydroponics, I saw the high price tags on standard hydroponic equipment and saw that the cost has been a big part of scaring people away from trying hydroponics. People who are curious and would like to dabble just aren't ready to shell out big bucks.

The big secret is that they don't have to! Very simple household items like plastic buckets and storage tubs can be used successfully, as I show. Even better, it's very easy to recycle containers and grow food for almost nothing. This has been my goal -- grow food for free. It never made sense to me to buy a $200 piece of equipment and get three heads of lettuce per season when I can use a recycled juice bottle and get a head of lettuce every 30 days.

Is there a vegetable that's most suited to hydroponic growing?
Greens will do the best indoors, especially using the Kratky Method of noncirculating water. They grow quickly and do not have the extensive sunlight and nutritional needs that fruiting plants have. Lettuces, Swiss chard, kale, herbs, broccoli, and peas all do well inside.
Since our growing season is short, I use the larger indoor grow beds to start plants early. It's a good boost to the season to have large tomato and pepper plants ready to go out right after the last frost.

How much food can an average home system produce?
The Kratky Method of one gallon juice bottle will grow one bunch of lettuce (I tend to plant loose-leaf varieties rather than heads) approximately every 30 days. I like to grow kale in these Kratky bottles during the winter on the windowsill, and they take six to eight weeks. You can harvest all at once by lopping off the plant, washing the bottle, and starting again, or I find that snipping off outer leaves of kale or loose-leaf lettuce or herbs allows the harvest to last longer.

Larger grow beds can produce a large amount of greens and herbs, and by staggering the planting of the seed, a steady harvest can be maintained. My goal has always been to have a steady source of freshly harvested greens at every meal rather than a huge harvest all at once. Even though there are some ways to preserve herbs, such as drying and freezing, the freshly picked leaves are by far the most nutritious and tasty.

Can you give our readers a few pointers on how to start a home hydroponics system?
The bare-bones, most simple system is the Kratky Method. It uses no electricity, no pumps, no special equipment. And with a sunny windowsill, no grow lights are needed, either. A one-gallon plastic bottle (food-friendly, like a juice bottle or an empty gallon ice cream tub), a seed or two, water, and some nutrients (special hydroponic liquid nutrients or even a scoop of Miracle Gro).

To hold the plant at the top of the bottle you need some support for it -- typically a "net cup" and a "Rapid Rooter" plug. These can be purchased, but every part of this system can also be created out of items found around a home. I have used yogurt cups with holes cut in the sides for the net cup, or a $1 bath scrubby.
The Rapid Rooter plugs are the best investment in this system. They are easy to use, reusable, and very handy. That said, they can be replaced by sponge, a homemade soil plug, or a Jiffy peat pellet.
The bottle you use needs to be shaded from direct sunlight or algae will grow inside and compete with your plant for nutrition, so anything from painting the bottle to covering it with paper or fabric or duct tape will work.

Does it take up a lot of space?
No. I put [the Kratky bottles] on my windowsills and grow 15 to 20 at one time. In my laundry room I have a table that holds several tubs that are hydroponic grow beds. I ran light fixtures overhead, and there in the corner that was previously dingy and cluttered is my winter garden. It is a wonderful place to sit.
I also have a bookcase in a different room --I removed one shelf and set up a grow bed. The top and bottom shelves share that space now with 36 early tomato plants in the spring.

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