TALES FROM THE GARDEN - Starting seeds for my Kratky system

Alright, so last week in Tales From the Garden I explained what the Kratky Method is. It pretty much is a passive hydroponic way of growing leafy greens. Though I hear people have grown veggies with bigger root system, I think it's something each one of has to figure out on our own. You will develop your own special formula of growing as time goes on.

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Last week I put my seeds in rockwool marked it all on a piece of paper so that I could know which plant is which as it grows, but that paper got lost in the shuffle! Surprise surprise...

1. I soaked the rockwool
2. Inserted a couple seeds in each one. They have little holes made for just that purpose.
3. Covered the growing tray I used (a glass baking dish) so that the rockwool would be entirely in the dark and in a warm place on top of our fridge.

After a couple days, some seeds started to sprout and show their first leaves.

Ok so now it was time to get the system set up. I had bought some grow lights, they were super easy to put together and came with hooks to hang them from. This is crucial because you will need to find the right distance for your lights depending on what your plants (and you) like. This is where some fine tuning of your own formula for growing this way comes into play.

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The next step is to fabricate a container for the roots of these seedlings to be hanging out and taking in the nutrient solution that will be mixed in water.

For the plant food container I decided to use these square buckets that I painted black, and drilled four 2" holes for the net cups to fit into snugly.

The black paint is to keep the light out of the bucket... the roots are typically growing in a dark environment.

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Well that's all I have for you this week... winter is a bit slow for us in the growing food department. But we come up with something for you, we're learning this stuff too!