Hello everyone and all gardeners. How are you today ? I hope and pray that we all are always given health and happiness in living every step of this life. As usual, every Monday I always share stories about my gardening activities. For your information, I have a hydroponic garden with a capacity of about 1400 holes. In addition, I also work as a hydroponic consultant for several people who want to learn or grow vegetables hydroponically.
Weather on 21 – 28 March 2022
Hot, very hot and too hot. From my smartphone I can see the temperature is around 36 C with very hot sunlight. Indonesia is one of the countries traversed by the equator, and according to the BMKG, this week will experience an equinox. Equinox is a natural event that is often experienced by countries that are on the equator, namely a condition where the sun and the earth have the closest distance to the earth's area around the equator.
The impact of this phenomenon is that the sun will shine very brightly and the weather will be very hot. There is a lot of false and misleading information about this natural phenomenon, but all that information has been denied by the government. However, one thing is certain and has happened, the weather is very hot. This hot weather makes me lazy to do outdoor activities and makes my hydroponic garden a little neglected for a few days.
Last week, I harvested all the vegetables that I planted and this week I should have transferred some of the vegetable seeds that I sowed to the planting medium. However, this hot weather makes me lazy to do anything so I postpone my work for a few days.
Lettuce Development
The lettuce that I planted has shown better development. This lettuce grows optimally and uniformly, even though the weather is very hot. All hydroponic media for growing lettuce are protected from direct sunlight. Direct sunlight can make lettuce leaves become damaged and burnt. In my experience, lettuce grows and thrives when it gets 4-5 hours of sunlight.
I did a ppm check with the TDS Meter and it showed 1050 ppm. I was quite surprised and did tests in several media, to prove my hunch. Lettuce requires 600-800 ppm to grow optimally, if the concentration of the solution is too high it will burn the lettuce leaves and damage the plant.
There are two possibilities, firstly, the ppm concentration in the media solution is high because I made the wrong fertilizer solution. Second, my TDS Meter is broken. In my opinion, it looks like my gauge is broken because all my lettuce is still growing well. It seems, I have to buy a new measuring device, because the TDS Meter is the most important component for growing vegetables in a hydroponic system.
Mint Leaf Development
It's been 2 weeks, I can't fulfill the request from my customer. For the past two years, I have always grown mint leaves to sell to cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants in need. Mint leaves are widely used for beverage menus. Mint leaves have a warm and refreshing taste, besides that there are many health benefits that we can get. In addition, many restaurants use mint leaves as a garnish in their dishes.
This week, I will be doing the cutting of the tips of these mint leaves. I did that, so that the mint leaves could branch and develop better. The root conditions of this plant grow quickly and spread. I also watered plant-based insecticides to reduce the risk of insect attack. I have to control and examine these mint leaves to prevent the pest damage I experienced two weeks ago.
Kangkong Nursery
The hot weather made my kangkong seedlings look curly and unhealthy. Sunlight also makes the water in my nursery dry faster and must be added every day. I had forgotten to add water and almost made my kangkong seeds fail.
Pakchoy Seed Transfer
Even though the weather is hot and I'm lazy to do activities. However, I have to move my body. Last week, I planted the pakchoy seeds and they had to be transferred to hydroponic media before they got too big and couldn't grow optimally. However, I have to re-check with the new TDS tool later, because it seems that the results of measuring the ppm concentration in hydroponic media are not accurate.
Okay. This is the story about my hydroponic garden this time. Hopefully friends get inspiration or increase knowledge for all of us.
Call me Isdarmady, because I have a full name that is very long, namely Isdarmady Syahputra Ritonga. I am a head of the family who work as Farmers Vegetables Hydroponic and Consultant Hydroponics, sometimes I also sell coffee from various regions in Indonesia.
I have expertise dispensing coffee with a variety of techniques and tools brewing, because I have the desire to make a coffee shop with hydroponics as centerpieces. Help me realize that dream.
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