The Wonders of Hydroponics and Herbs

Updates Introduction on HERBS Introdution on HYDROPONICS Herbs Grown by Hydroponics Pros and Cons of Hydroponics Credits Links

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Super Easy Hydroponics System!

What you need

1· A herb plant
2. An empty spice container, small. The lid must have a flip up top and holes, but the flip-up top can be broken off.
3· Lid from another spice container, same size, but no holes
4· Gravel or pebbles
5· Old T-shirt, sock, or some sort of cotton fabric
6· Distilled or bottled water
7· Fertilizer that will dissolve in water
8· Tape
9· (Optional) black paint

Preparing the jar

Remove the cap on you spice jar, and using hot water, remove the label and glue. Then wash out the lid and jar. Take your cap, and cut off the bit without holes. Set aside.Then take the other cap, and cut a hole in the center big enough so that the holes in the other cap all show. Finally, tape the caps together.

Prepare the medium
Take your gravel/pebbles, and thoroughly wash them in HOT water. Make sure all dirt, moss, and small plants have been removed.

Prepare wicks

Take your T-shirt, and cut 5 thin strips an inch longer than your jar. Wash them thoroughly with water, dry until damp, and feed one through each hole of the jar lid. If done right, it shouldn't need any glue. Then, loosely braid the long ends (The ends that will be in water) together in a way that they don't come apart. Tie a knot at the end.

Prepare plant
Now take your plant, and dig it out of the dirt its in. Remove as much dirt as possible, and then gently wash the rest off with water.

Assembly (Part 1)

Mix your fertilizer and water to the instructions on the package. Pour this mixture into the jar. Then, put the long ends of the wicks into the water, and screw the cap-assembly on.

Assembly (Part 2)

Place your plant into the top, making sure the wicks are touching the roots. You may find you need to unscrew the cap and pull the braid a bit to shorten the wicks. Once the plant fits in, fill the top with gravel until the roots are covered.EDIT: I found that my plant was drying out, so I covered the roots in scraps of tissue. This held them to the sock fabric and also kept the tops wet.

Optional- Algae proofing

Paint or cover the jar with something opaque, to discourage Algae growth

End

Congrats! You have your very own hydroponics wick setup! Grow this for a few months, see if you like it, and if so, expand into other types of hydroponics systems.

Introduction on Herbs

WHAT?
A herb is a plant that is valued for flavor, scent, or other qualities.
Herbs are used in cooking, as medicines, and for spiritual purposes.

USES?
In gardening, herbs are an important part of what is known as “Companion Planting."
The purpose of companion planting is to enhance the yield for desirable plants,
deter unwanted pests, or just make the available space encouraging for biological pest control.

TYPES OF HERBS

- Thyme

Thyme is best cultivated in a hot sunny location with well drained soil.
It is generally planted in the spring and thereafter grows as a perennial.
It can be propagated by seed, cuttings, or by dividing rooted sections of the plant.
It tolerates drought well. The plants can take deep freezes and are found growing wild on mountain highlands.

- Basil

Basil grows to between 30–130 cm tall, with opposite, light green, silky leaves 3–11 cm long and 1–6 cm broad.
The flowers are small, white in color and arranged in a terminal spike.
Basil is very sensitive to cold, with best growth in hot, dry conditions.
Although basil will grow best outdoors, it will do best on an equator-facing windowsill.
It should be kept away from extremely cold drafts, and grows best in strong sunlight.

- Tarragon

Tarragon grows to 120-150 cm tall, with slender branched stems.
The leaves are lanceolate, 2-8 cm long and 2-10 mm broad, glossy green, with an entire margin.
The flowers are produced in small capitulae 2-4 mm diameter, each capitulum containing up to 40 yellow or greenish-yellow florets.
It likes a hot, sunny spot, without excessive watering.
This tarragon actually prefers poor soils and happily tolerates drought and neglect.
It is not as strongly aromatic and flavoursome as its French cousins.

- Mint

The leaves are arranged in opposite pairsa with a serrated margin.
Leaf colors range from dark green and gray-green to purple, blue, and sometimes pale yellow.
The flowers are produced in clusters on an erect spike, white to purple, the corolla two-lipped with four subequal lobes, the upper lobe usually the largest.
The fruit is a small, dry capsule containing one to four seeds.
Mints grow best in wet environments and moist soils.
Mints will grow 10–120 cm tall and can spread over an indeterminate sized area.
Due to the tendency to spread unchecked, mints are considered invasive.

- Dandelion

A dandelion in a parachute ball and a dandelion flower.

A dandelion flower head composed of hundreds of smaller florets.
The leaves are 5–25 cm long or longer, simple and basal, entire or lobed, forming a rosette above the central taproot.
The flower heads are yellow to orange colored, and are open in the daytime but closed at night.

- Rosemary

Forms range from upright to trailing; the upright forms can reach 1.5 m tall.
The leaves are evergreen, 2–4 cm long and 2–5 mm broad, green above, and white below with dense short woolly hair.
Flowering, very common in a mature and healthy specimen, usually appears in winter or spring and is variable in color, being white, pink, purple, or blue.
Rosemary grows on friable loam soil with good drainage in an open sunny position, it will not withstand water logging and some varieties may be susceptible to frost.
It grows best in neutral - alkaline conditions pH (pH 7-7.8) with average fertility.
It is also pest resistant.

Introduction on Hydroponics :D

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, without soil.
Plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution.
Plants absorb essential mineral nutrients as inorganic ions in water.
In natural conditions, soil acts as a mineral nutrient reservoir but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth.
When the mineral nutrients in the soil dissolve in water, plant roots are able to absorb them.
When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into a plant's water supply artificially, soil is no longer required for the plant to thrive.

The two main types of hydroponics are solution culture and medium culture.

Solution Culture

Solution culture does not use a solid medium for the roots, just the nutrient solution.
The three main types of solution culture are static solution culture, continuous flow solution culture and aeroponics.
Static Solution Culture
In static solution culture, plants are grown in containers of nutrient solution.
There can be one to many plants per reservoir. Reservoir size can be increased as plant size increases.
A homemade system can be constructed from plastic food containers or glass canning jars with aeration provided by an aquarium pump,
aquarium airline tubing and aquarium valves. Clear containers are covered with aluminium foil, butcher paper,
black plastic or other material to exclude light, thus helping to eliminate the formation of algae.
The nutrient solution is either changed on a schedule or when the concentration drops below a certain level as determined with an electrical conductivity meter.
Whenever the solution is depleted below a certain level, either water or fresh nutrient solution is added.

Continuous Flow Solution Culture
In continuous flow solution culture the nutrient solution constantly flows past the roots.
It is much easier to automate than the static solution culture because sampling and adjustments to the temperature and nutrient concentrations can be made in a large storage tank that serves potentially thousands of plants.

Aeroponics
Aeroponics is a system where roots are continuously or discontinuously kept in an environment saturated with fine drops (a mist or aerosol) of nutrient solution.
The method requires no substrate and entails growing plants with their roots suspended in a deep air or growth chamber with the roots periodically wetted with a fine mist of atomized nutrients.
Excellent aeration is the main advantage of aeroponics.

Medium Culture
The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g. sand culture, gravel culture or rockwool culture.
There are two main variations for each medium, subirrigation and top irrigation.
For all techniques, most hydroponic reservoirs are now built of plastic but other materials have been used including concrete, glass, metal, vegetable solids and wood.
The containers should exclude light to prevent algae growth in the nutrient solution.

Subirrigation

Passive subirrigation Also known as passive hydroponics or semi-hydroponics, is a method where plants are grown in an inert porous medium that transports water
and fertilizer to the roots by capillary action from a separate reservoir as necessary, reducing labor and providing a constant supply of water to the roots.

Ebb and flow / Flood and drain subirrigation, a tray is placed above a reservoir of nutrient solution.
At regular intervals, a simple timer causes a pump to fill the upper tray with nutrient solution,
after which the solution drains back down into the reservoir. This keeps the plants regularly fed with nutrient solution.

Top Irrigation
In Top irrigation, nutrient solution is periodically applied to the medium surface.
This may be done manually once per day in large containers of some media, such as sand.
Usually, it is automated with a pump, timer and drip irrigation tubing to deliver nutrient solution as frequently as 5 to 10 minutes every hour.

Herbs by Hydroponics

Can herbs be grown by hydroponics…?
The answer is YES!

WHY?

Plants need water, food and oxygen to grow.
With the right system, herbs are able to grow well in hydroponics.
Growing herbs can be easy for any gardener.
As long as you follow the instructions listed on most seed packs accurately,
properly water and feed them with nutrients, and ensure proper lighting you should not have any problems.
Herbs grown by hydroponics..

All types of herbs except dandelion.
Enables herbs to be grown with high quality.
Herbs will taste superior and is of a high nutritional value.

Pros and Cons of Hydroponics

Pros:
1. You can package the plant and keep it alive and fresh for longer periods of time.
2. You have eye contact and full control of the plant’s root system.
3. There’s no need to worry about over watering or under watering the plant.
4. Hydroponics is a soothing, satisfying, stress-dissolving hobby.
5. Hydroponic gardening puts you back in touch with nature in a delightful way.
6. Hydroponic veggies are more delicate and tender... and they taste great!
7. It's been proven that hydroponically grown vegetables can have up to 50% more vitamin content than conventional crops.
8. You'll get a much higher yield from a hydroponics garden, and the growing cycle is shorter.
9. Your new hydroponic garden will likely remain totally pesticide free.
10.You will have many more successes with hydroponics than with soil gardening.

Cons:
1. Hydroponics gardening usually relies in electrical systems like timers or pumps.
These systems control critical aspects of the plant’s nutrition routine. If any of the system fails it could result to the total destruction of the plant.
2. Hydroponics plants require close attention, care and support and will die if not frequently monitored.
3. Hydroponic gardening requires some responsibility, diligence and "stick-to-itiveness" for success.
4. You also cannot neglect the vat of nutrient solution.
5. You must do a couple of basic tests on your juice once a week, and alter or replenish it as needed.
6. The crops will not thrive on weak or unbalanced food.

And many, many more….

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