Let the Experiment Begin

How does a small time gardener get on the agricultural & technical bandwagon of hydroponic gardening?

We had tinkered with a small hydroponic system in our garage. True indoor hydroponics where we controlled every element of the growth cycle from heating the water to providing the sunlight – artificial sunlight that is. We grew herbs such as basil, cilantro, dill and flat leaf parsley, with the odd leafy green thrown in for good measure. Chard grew beautifully in the liquid environment.

Actually everything grew well. We never expected such virulent growth. We soon had a glut. Managing the glut is still a problem.

Basque Chili

Once we’d moved to our smallholding we were really eager to get the food production up and running as soon as possible, and one big decision was where to dig the veg garden. We needed good sun and good soil. Both of these things seemed mutually incompatible. Everywhere we dug we found either clay or stoney ground. Bad soil can be improved with hard work, patience and time. Someone told me me that their veg patch, mainly clay, had taken almost 5 years before it was fertile. I didn’t want to wait that long. With this in mind we built our first polytunnel. Raised beds filled with premium growing soil allowed us to grow a wide range of crops whilst protected from the fickle Welsh weather.

With the building for our indoor hydro-herb garden not yet ready we were initially at a loss as to how to grow our herbs in the winter months. For a temporary measure we used the undecorated conservatory that was acting as a storeroom for house renovation building materials – but with a compromise. We’d be dependent upon whatever sunlight a random March month in Wales would provide. We did heat the propagator and the water in the grow tank though.

We unpacked the equipment, soaked some grow cubes in seed solution and planted some seeds. Short dull days resulted in slow germination. Under artificial lights germination for basil and most herbs is about 2 weeks.

Everything grew. Yes it took longer, but still we got good growth and…Once again a glut.

So this got us thinking.
The grow room would be bigger than the old garage, but once we had hung the lights from the ceiling, the type of crops we could grow would still be limited. We wanted to grow tomatoes, peppers & chillies. Increased indoor production also equals bigger bills…as we pay for the sun!

Start a slow grow movement? Hydroponics using natural light and the warmth provided by a polytunnel? We’ve started planting this year and it’s looking promising.