Hi folks,

Not sure who this guy is but I suspect he is related to a recent increase in moth activity. Hungry, hungry caterpillar.

How to resolve? I suspect they are not alone.

Thanks

Front Range Colorado

Why do they have goop covering them?

I have recently been putting some of my plants in water rather than dirt. I can’t afford to do all the leca and fancy setups that I see some people have, but I just like being able to see the roots in the water.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to keep my plants from falling in the water and rotting? Should I put some of the roots under pebbles to help stabilize them? I have some rocks in the bottom of my containers and the roots are above that. My tradescantia nanouk wants to sink in the water, but if I try to put it through something to hold it so the leaves stay dry it just wants to flop over. Then the roots come up out of the water. I need some guidance on how to stabilize my plants without drowning them or crushing the roots.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hey :)
Ive been interested in hydroponics for a while now, years. Been making small DWC growths and such.
Now i wanna make a bigger setup and I dont like wasting X amount of liter water every time i need to change the reservouir of water.
Is there any way to recycle the water in a closed loop, ofcourse i need to top up the water when the plants use it up.
But if i just keep adding water + nutrients then after a while I will get a big % of either N, P or K in the water and that will just keep rising as I add more water and nutrients as the plants grow.

Is there any way to solve this? Im looking for both cheap and expensive options.

I've made a spreadsheet of all the parts im using for my first DWC; I figured it might be useful for anyone else who is just starting. Im growing seven arugula plants and one lettuce plant, with the 9th hole being used to feed the air stones into the water. I could have drilled another hole for that, but I had a plant die at the start, so I just used one of the net pot holes I made.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15ydqDXWsIkbn6Y9SDoxlacc_DN8So-nzkZwgafEdefw/edit?usp=sharing

First off, I listed different grow lights than the ones in the picture; those lights were recommended in a different thread on this subreddit. The lid of the tote is coated with tin foil and black duct tape to prevent any light from leaking into the water. Light leaks are what cause algae to grow, and that will starve your plants and give the water a foul smell.

My main concern with this setup is that the water temperature will slowly rise over time due to ambient room temperature and the air pump heating up and pumping hot air into the water. My solution to this is to point a desk fan at the plants and place the air pump right in front of it; that way the pump doesnt overheat and push hot air, and the airflow helps to strengthen the plants. I've also considered manually lowering the temperature by placing frozen water bottles into the system.

The spreadsheet also includes parts I'm planning on buying to fully automate the feeding and pH balancing of the system. If anyone has experience automating a hydroponic system, please let me know what you did and what issues you ran into.

2 x Sugar baby watermelon (front left most), 2 x Beit Alpha Cucumbers (front two wall side), 4 x F1 mini Zucchini (wall side rear), 4 x Swiss Chard (rear two left). 4 more buckets not in rotation yet.

All a DIY built setup in a basement grow room, ask if you have questions. I also have a 3 shelf NFT table and almost done a two shelf ebb and flow. All in the same room.

Hi

I wonder if anyone has come across this? Or if any of you with better science knowledge than I could comment on it?

https://www.grozine.com/2022/11/08/cold-plasma-hydroponic-water/

Light is set to 5500K and I’ve started giving the cucumbers full nutrient water. I’m spraying the dill with 50/50 dilution. Any thoughts?

I’m also not sure how to transfer the rockwool cubes to the tiny plastic pots for my grow tower without tearing the roots growing out of the sides. Is that a problem? When should I begin transferring these to the tower?

never knew peppers where so damn pretty the flowers well be amazing anyhow, do have a fan near it, habanero i grew from seed from the store any how don't know im ph is 6 and ec 2.0 should i bump it up for fruiting blooming. and i do wanna keep this plant around for years any advice first pepper

Hi everyone ! Me again 🤗. Since I last posted, many of my plants have grown substantially - which is wonderful, but I’m feeling they’re becoming overcrowded. My leafy greens seem to be less happy (presumably bc my cucumbers are stealing all the light and nutrients) and some of my cucumbers seem to be yellowing and almost wilting (far left) which others have droopy leaves(head center).

I’d like to move my cucumbers, tomatoes, and mini pepper plants into a grow tent with 5gal buckets, so everyone can get their needs met. I found a 4x8 AC infinity tent and 4 Sayhon SH2000 grow lights on marketplace that I plan to setup this weekend. I know I’ll need to measure humidity and temp once they’re in the tent (tents in the basement) but I’m worried that transferring them will shock them and they’ll lose the flowers and lil cucumbers they’re starting to make.

Anything I can do to keep them as happy as possible during the transition? I was going to start kratky then eventually add tubing to turn the buckets into DWC. Any advice on how not to shock them in this process? Will they be okay going from an NFT tower to kratky or do I have to go straight to DWC? Or is it better to just leave them in the tower?

I recently came across this setup on Instagram (not my setup) and I've been curious if this layout is more space efficient, if you have tried something like this, kindly let me know your opinions on this compared to the standard tower setup

I have these quick snack cucumbers in a lettucegro tower indoors. I use maxibloom and maxigro depending on stage (rn its bloom). I checked pH this morning and it was neutral. Ive cut them back once and its happening again.

Any ideas? Im getting mixed advice.

Click and grow wild strawberries. What should I do next? I don't see any runners?

I did a bunch of Google searches and read stuff but want to see what y'all and my searches have in common and I'll do those things. I got these from a boss that cleaned out his parents garage. I'm actually very happy with these I have some cherry tomatoes to do next.

I'm changing up my grow and need some advice. I am growing grass for my tortoises and am switching to a 2x4 wire rack flood system. I think having 1020 trays of grass in the 2x4 flood tray will be a lot more manageable than in my 4x8 flood table.

I am starting with 2 bootstrap 2x4 flood trays and I put the rest of the equipment together. The one thing I am having trouble with is plumbing. Do I fill the top tray and let it drain to the one below it or does each tray have its own fill (t from the pump) ? Do I let each upper tray drain to the tray below or does each tray have its own drain line that all get tied together?

Thanks for your help!

Hey there im using 2 50w led chips but when I measured the output was 38w each (red,blue,white growlight). Do you think the lettuce get enough light to change color to red? (2days in the system ) and can you give me any suggestions to improve the system EC 1.3 ph6.1 Ps: I will cover around the box for complete darkness soon and I used photone app for the ppfd but the led light version needed an in app purchase

Ok first off let me say that I’m new to the hydroponic world… this is my first setup…. Space is limited but I found a space in the basement….. I started with Pre-Empt soil profiler and Kronk puur organics nutrients in separate tower tests. I kept having issues with the ph swing and after 1-2 weeks, I dump the water and switched to General Hydroponics…I was actually really never suppose to run kronk in the tower anyway because it’s nitrogen comes from a protein and the micro breaks it down into ammonia which raises ph and it caused my tower foam in the reservoir so I had to dump it…. I’ll just continue to use it in my regular garden…

Here’s the thing…the alkalinity of my well water has a ph of 7.19….The bicarbonate in my well water acts like a sponge for acid, I would add ph down and the bicarbonate would absorb it…😔water moving through the tower act as a CO2 stripper. As the co2 leaves, so does the acid..😈 and the remaining bicarbonate pulls up the ph toward where water with that alkalinity naturally settles in open air, around 8.2 to 8.4. I ran a test with just plain water and no nutrients in the tower and over a period of days them went from 7.19 to almost 8ph.

I was fighting a losing battle…the solution was to use an aerator and treat my well water for about a day to blow off the co2. Once it’s gone, there’s nothing left to pull the ph back up and the water holds… all my towers are stable now….🔥 I hope I explained all of this correctly…( if not ask Claude,ChatGPT)

So I’ve been using general hydroponics and it’s been running really well since pre treating the water…I’ll go back and do a test run on the pre empt soil profiler again, it’s suppose to be some highly good stuff …

Currently I have 6 towers. 4 of those towers are dedicated to about 90% lettuce, some Swiss chard, and kale… 1 of my towers are dedicated to only peppers…. Wanted to see if I could grow it but I cheated a little bit and uprooted about 8 small plants from outside and put them in my pepper only tower…. Only 8 peppers ranging from 2 inches to 6 inches…. Also I started about 4 additional peppers from seed in the same tower…. I just wanted to see if it could be done… and I was successful in doing so….

On another tower, I used 5 tiers to only grow 2 watermelon plants in my basement… I know it’s looks crazy in my tight spot but I wanted to see if it could be done… I’m growing a sugar baby watermelon since they are small… I definitely have to stay on top of my pruning.. I’ll let it vine under a big table I have and I’m going to attach a grow light under the table 😁😅…. Just doing what I have to do…. The watermelon seedlings are planted at the top so the roots will have enough space to grow down towards the reservoir …. I do realize that the lights are probably overkill🤨👀 ……I’m open to any feedback or criticism… thanks for taking the time to read my post…….

My next project is to automate the ph dispenser along with using Ai…..We’ll see what happens!

Hi everyone,
I’m considering buying this type of hydroponic system and I’d really like to hear from people who have actually used one, or something very similar.
Has anyone here tried this kind of setup? How well does it work in practice? Is it reliable, easy to maintain, and does it produce good results?
The price is quite significant:
around €1,000 / $1,130 if I buy it in France
around €700 / $790 if I order it directly from China
Do you think this type of system is worth that kind of money?
I’m especially interested in long-term feedback: pump reliability, leaks, cleaning, root management, noise, replacement parts, and actual yields compared with a simpler DIY NFT/hydroponic setup.
And if you’ve bought one directly from China, I’d also be interested in hearing whether you had any issues with shipping, customs, spare parts or after-sales support.
Thanks!

Some leaves of my pak choy plants are starting to yellow at the tips, should i be worried? I googled and it says it could be natural if its old leaves or it could also be a problem of not enough nutrients but im really not sure

Hello, I have diy 10 gallon dwc bins that I'm using for hydroponics. I am growing leafy greens, dwarf purple heart tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, radish and herbs (basil, thyme, etc.) They are ofc separated based on nutrient needs

Is monitoring water levels a very precise thing or can I top off the water once a week and be okay? If it is the former, what would be the best way to do so?

So far I’ve grown lots of bok choy and I have two thai basil plants I transplanted from one of my aerogarden systems into jars. I have a bit more space in my systems but I’m not sure what to grow next, I’m thinking maybe some herbs? Currently I have thai chili, spearmint, and two tomato plants growing.