Sunday, February 19, 2012

My hydroponic units in Summer 2011

Here are pics of my hydroponics units on the west /back side of the house. Loren built me the platform with wood chips as the surface, and he and I set it all up.



Several kinds of basil can be seen on the right front double tray in the photo above. Behind it is a simple lettuce blend that I harvest leaves from. The double tray on the left has salad niche (Thompson & Morgan Seeds) in the front tray, and heirloom lettuce in the rear part. In the EuroBucket system on the far left, I have cutting celery growing in the right 4 buckets, and regular celery, Tango, growing in the left 4 buckets. I can also grow watercress very well in these units, but did not do so in the year this photo was taken. This is a West exposure and gets hot in August. Watercress would be happier on the North side of the house, in the deep shade.

 This is several kinds of basil growing, including some lettuce-leaved kinds for pesto, and blue basil in the right tray.
 You can see a volunteer lettuce plant underneath the tray on the right side, above. And another one on the left side, poking up.
Here is a close-up of the celery. You mostly are seeing the cutting variety here. The celery is growing in a mix of perlite and Hydroton clay balls. Each bucket has a waterline going to it, and drains back into the Panda reservoir via a drain line.