Hydroponics

Kon'nichiwa fellow thinkers...so I started doing hydroponics about 2 years ago and have fallen in love with my AeroGarden that I bought on Amazon. This little contraption is a miracle worker when it comes to growing plants from seeds and propagating from cuttings. AeroGarden sells kits, which I highly recommend using at first to get a feel how the system works, that are simplistic and convenient.

The way it works is one fills the container up with water (I use the water from kitchen sink) up to where it says Fill To Here

then add 2 cap fillls of the Liquid Plant Food

and then insert the seed pods into the openings and you are done. After 2 weeks add 2 more cap fills of Liquid Plant food and add water. For the first few weeks, the system does not use much water, however, once the plants are growing, check often because they can start to consume at a rapid pace. My greens started needing water every 2-3 days after about 2 months. I like to rinse the roots and container out with fresh water once a month and clean the unit to keep it healthy and sanitary.

With my greens, I was able to harvest about once a week, which provided a nice crisp and tasty salad for me to eat. After about 5 months though, the roots had grown so much that the container was completely full that I had to transplant them into pots, which I will write about in a future post. With the second growing season, I grew tomatoes and after 2 months, I had to transplant the pods because the plants had grown to big for the system and moved them into my green house, which I will also write about in a future post. Now in the third season, I am growing flowers and peppers. I transplanted after 6 weeks to begin a new batch of cuttings, which is where I am at in this picture. I took the 4 most mature plants, moving 1 into the green house, 2 into an aquaponic system, which will be a future post, and kept 1 in the kitchen for me to smell, while taking cuttings from each one to clone them.

I have found this hobby to be very therapeutic on several levels...first, it is gratifying to witness the transformation of a seed to a plant...second, being able to produce an edible substance is rewarding...third, having a beautiful and aromatic specimen is good for the senses...lastly, it keeps me active.

That being said, and having completed day 2 of the #monthlyauthorchallenge ...it is time to plug out, soak in the bath tub, relax and say auf wiedersehen
til next time!