Guns & Outdoors Forum

This year is the first year that we started a garden out back. It's a 20x30' and is doing really good now that we got past the drought of last month.
I found something online, this small hydroponic setup that sits on a counter or tabletop. It's all self contained and comes with everything to get started, minus the seeds so I thought it could be a small indoor addition to what's growing outside.

Many things can be grown in the unit from start to finish or it can be used just to germinate and start seedlings. It has net cups, planting sponges and little clear covers to add humidity for germination. You add a gallon of water and nutrient solution every week and it pumps it around, has lights for vegetative and flowering growth and a fan for pollination.

I got it because it was like 30 bucks from Amazon and my wife wanted me to plant some herbal and medicinal seeds that she bought in a pack. It seems to be doing pretty good and so far has a 100% germination rate, although you can't see some of the seedlings in the pic because they haven't popped through the paper top. It'll be pretty neat to be able to grow smaller plants year round.

Nice, might have to try that method.
Our garden is not doing well at all.

Everyone that I have heard of or known to do indoor gardening uses it to grow weed. More power to them, but it is not my thing. I want some freaking produce! I am interested in how this ultimately works out for you.

My raised bed garden out back has been kicking butt and taking names though. One of the dogs is pretty fired up about it too. He is so excited about the summer squash, he went and fertilized a plant on his own.

Been curious about it, as well. Half way looked into some videos on the YouTube’s. Just didn’t get it done this year.

Alot of people think that hydroponics is voodoo magic but it's actually pretty simple. You can get a meter that checks individual nutrient solution levels and top off what is low or you can just do like I am and drain all of the solution and replace it every 10 days.

A good example of how well this thing works is how I've been trying to propagate Carolina Reaper ghost peppers. I've sowed a bunch of seeds in soil and did everything to get them to germinate and got lucky with a small percentage. I threw a seed into one of the grow sponges in this tabletop hydro setup and a week later had a nice seedling popping up. It's labeled as basil, but thats where I was starting some basil seeds and decided that it was a waste of grow space so decided to put the ghost pepper there instead.

“Herbs”…. Riiiiiiight

I have considered getting one to grow some spices and herbs to use for cooking. We just already have too much crap in the kitchen already.

That’s a really cool idea. Since we’re headed to AZ and nothing grows outdoors well I think I’ll get one of those to grow some herbs as bullsi suggested. I love having fresh cilantro for quick picking when I’m cooking

Years ago I automated a hydroponic greenhouse. They grew leaf lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes. It was adjacent to a power plant cooling lake. The warm water was used for heating in winter when produce prices were high.

It’s an interesting process and if the nutrient solution is monitored the nutrition in the produce far exceeds traditional farmed produce. If the minerals and other essential elements are not in the dirt they are not in the plant.

Direct intense sun is required for good growth. The tables top units do not supply enough light for optimum growth.

Hydroponics is tedious and requires close attention.
I prefer methods described by Steve Solomon and his book “The Intelligent Gardener”. He shoots down most of the organic gardening voodoo and relies on measured soil analysis and adding measured supplements to get to ideal conditions. I use his methods with good results.

A few days growth/progress.

I thought about it but the last thing i need is for my neighbors to think im growing weed. All the hydroponics places I see around here are geared toward pot and not tomatoes.

mitdr774 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 6:44 pm I thought about it but the last thing i need is for my neighbors to think im growing weed. All the hydroponics places I see around here are geared toward pot and not tomatoes.

You can get a large majority of this stuff from Amazon nowadays. This little grow kit was purchased from there amd came with everything but the seeds.

My new bathroom fan arrived in it's factory box covered in "Japanese maple leafs". I should have known better knowing what it's primarily sold for use as.

Once I have a chance to set up a dedicated grow area I'm going to look into it again.

My daughter and son in law have two of those going. It is automated to the light is on a timer and it tells you when to add water and nutrients. You are not going to sustain yourself, but fresh herbs and starting plants is easy.

Diver43 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 03, 2023 9:50 pm My daughter and son in law have two of those going. It is automated to the light is on a timer and it tells you when to add water and nutrients. You are not going to sustain yourself, but fresh herbs and starting plants is easy.

Not with the tabletop grow system, but this one with my other 3 lights and all 12 hydroponic units can sustain us year round. So far it's peppers for now.

@justsomedude. That looks like a mad scientist's kitchen

It's our disaster, catch-all of a basement.

I'm going to have to transplant these to the larger hydro units.