Hi, I’m in my final year of technical high school, specializing in chemistry. My project for the "Professional Internship" course initially focused on treating contaminated or highly saline water using river water hyacinths (Camalotes) to reduce salt content; however, I abandoned that idea because cultivating them proved impractical. I couldn't get past the initial growth stage, so the plants died and I had to discard them.

I looked for other plants effective at absorbing salts (specifically terrestrial plants) and found several options; I ultimately chose mustard greens (Brassica juncea).

This is my first time growing a plant indoors, so I don't have much gardening experience. I water it a couple of times a day if the soil dries out. It’s been 12 days since I planted it, and nothing.

Do you have any recommendations or recipes for hydroponic solutions to help the seedling grow?

I have an IBC based aquaponics system in my 8th grade science classroom in Castro Valley, CA. Unfortunately time has taken its toll and my main light died. I'm looking for suggestions for lighting to rejuvenate my system. Currently I have a monster habanero plant that is stretching for light. Bonus points if you know a brand or retailer that might be interested in sponsoring/discounting my classroom plant lights.

I have a homemade rail system with a 25 gallon reservoir. Throughout the growth cycle(lettuce only), the PH starts to creep up, which I think is normal. I try to microdose PH Down to return to the normal range, but never get it to the level I want. If I dose enough to lower, it fries the roots and I get a slimy mess to clean up.
How do you manage/lower PH without killing your plants?

Here's the progress I've made since my post yesterday. The air pump arrived this afternoon, which is workijg well already. I added a little view hole for the reservoir, and a couple of handles to remove the platform with during maintenance.

It ended up being too tall for my homemade reflector box, so I cut the bottom out of it so it could slide over the plants. I will more than likely build a new box in the mid-to-near future, but for now, I'm going to leave them to adjust to their new home for a couple of weeks before I build anything new. I'll make another update in about two weeks time and share how they're settling in.

I bought a countertop hydroponic garden because I wanted to grow some lettuce at home. It worked fairly well at first, but one weekend away made me notice a problem. When I came back, the water level had dropped much more than expected, and several plants were wilted.

As the plants got bigger, they used more water. Checking the tank and adjusting the grow light by hand also became part of the routine. I followed the nutrient instructions, but still couldn’t tell whether the concentration was right whenever the plants started looking different.

So I decided to modify the garden instead of leaving it as it was.

I added:

- An external reservoir and pump for automatic refilling

- A motorized grow-light panel

- An EC probe to monitor the nutrient solution

- A camera for photos and time-lapse videos

I grew loose-leaf lettuce in a modified 12-pod system from Day 0 to Day 37.

All 12 plants survived through the harvest stage. The refill system worked, and the light panel was able to move up and down based on the settings. The EC readings displayed normally, although the accuracy still needs more calibration. The camera also captured the growth process and produced a full-cycle time-lapse.

There are still several things I’m not happy with. The camera is fine for wide shots but not detailed enough for close-up plant growth. The pump tube is too short, which limits where I can put the reservoir. Most importantly, I still haven’t figured out the best rule for deciding how far the light should move or when it should move.

So this is still an experiment, not a finished system. It can grow lettuce and automate some of the tedious parts, but it isn’t something I’d fully trust without checking for several days.

For anyone growing hydroponically at home, what part of the process has been the biggest hassle for you?

As you can see, I went a little overboard with my basil. First time doing this and I've had my satisfied share of pesto but now this fun little project has gotten too unwieldy. I'm afraid what I see may be root rot ( second pic ) and fear I may have to start from scratch. The underlying root system has gotten too complicated to simply remove any one singular plant.

What would you suggest?

Just bought recently. Set it up last night but I don't hear the pump. Are you supposed to hear it?

so i recently got a hydroponic system and everything is growing fine and dandy but however theres a massive amount of what looks like moss? growing on the pods??? like i touch it and my finger is green and idk what to do ive never EVER experienced indoor growth like that before and im SCARED its going to destroy the growth of my plants

Hello! I’m starting now to build my own hydroponic tower for the first time.
I’ve been thinking to keep it inside, near a window door that’s gets a lot of light, but I saw that even that is not enough for pollinators, so that I should just grow leafy greens instead if I want to keep it inside. Also due to rain I thought it could be a problem, but I’m not sure.
I have outside space to put the tower on the exterior, my initial plan was to be able to grow tomatoes and cucumbers so I was a bit disappointed.
So I want to know if heavy rain is a concern on the tower, since it rains a lot where I’m from. Also what concerns should I have with the cords outside. Or should I just keep it inside and just grow greens?
Any advice is appreciated :)

This basil is 45 days old. First time I'm growing.

I trimmed each plant after the third set of true leaves showed up. How and when should I keep trimming it? On every set that grows? Is the length between each set of leaves normal? I keep seeing pictures of very bushy basil plants. Will mine get that bushy? The light is always 1-2 inches above the plant.

Hey everyone! Complete hydroponics beginner here and hoping for some advice. 🌱

Two days ago I transplanted romaine and Buttercrunch lettuce that I purchased from a nursery from soil into my hydroponic system.

I removed the soil from the roots as carefully as I could and moved them into the system. They seem okay overall, but I've noticed a few leaves starting to brown since the transition.

Is some browning normal while lettuce adjusts from soil roots to hydroponics, or should I be looking at something else like nutrient strength, pH, light, root damage, or water level?

If you've successfully moved established lettuce from soil to hydro, I'd love to know what the first few days looked like for you and anything I should be watching for.

Thanks! I'm learning as I grow. 🌱

Hey reddit r/hydroponics community. Im looking for some help with a hydro project that I began a little over a year ago. I built a small NFT setup myself inside an insulated 40ft shipping container. I harvest 210 lettuces a week, a mix of oak and frill varieties. The system is aprox 7 meters long, 5 layers high and 5 channels wide. The lettuces are cut, mixed and sold locally to restaurants and retail outlets alongside a microgreens operation that runs out of the same space.

The NFT system I have is a smaller sort of "test rig" to learn about how to grow this way, with the idea to scale up the operation if it makes commercial sense, as the market for a lettuce mix is much larger compared to the microgreens. The climate where I live doesn't allow outdoor growing over the winter. We have a large solar system that covers a lot of the energy cost.

I have never really quite got the yields out of the lettuce operation from the beginning, I have had a few issues with what I think was pythium. The lower leaves on the lettuces go pretty bad and the roots brown off. I have also started to get some silvery colour on the lower leaves as well.

I am hoping some commercial growers that grow similarly to me would be able to contribute with some guidance. Obviously there are a heap more details of the equipment, nutrients, systems, processes etc to provide.

At the moment the system pays its way and is profitable but I cant help but think there is much more to get out of it if I wasn't throwing a third of the leaves away.

Cheers! Scott.

Hi everyone,

I am new to hydroponic gardening and want to know what system is best for a beginner? From my research the Gardyn system might be best however it is pricey. Any guidance is very appreciated!

I have a bunch of pothos, philodendron, and lucky bamboo in water. I had bought a fertilizer, Alaska Fish Plant Food 5-1-1, to use on them since I learned they need fertilizer to thrive. But I noticed that the fertilizer might be too heavy for them, some of their leaves look burnt afterwards, I have diluted the fertilizer more than what the bottle recommends which help a bit so I am looking for a new fertilizer that is specifically for hydroponics plants. I have heard a lot about Purived All-Purpose Liquid Plant Fertilizer and Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro Nutrient. Which one would be better for my plants. They all have good water root systems and seem to be doing well but I can tell that they need more nutrients to truly thrive since I plan on keeping them as hydroponic permanently.

I’ve been experimenting with strawberries in towers. The right tower is the initial trial. Phase two of staggering lettuce and strawberries is taking off really well! Some of my lettuce is ready to harvest but I like looking at it almost more than I like eating it lol!

Show my strawberries some love fam ❤️ 🍓🍓

I have two ginger plants growing, and they are quickly outgrowing their current container. Admittedly, I never intended for it to hold two plants. The second addition was a bit more spontaneous, after finding a sprouted ginger root on our kitchen vegetable rack. I have an air pump coming tomorrow, which will keep the reservoir aerated. Once I have that installed, I'll be transferring the plants into their new home and filling the upper level up with LECA pebbles. Hopefully, they'll be a bit more comfortable in this guy.

I'm not sure what kind of system this would be considered, but it's a big step up from the Kratky-style systems I've been using so far. I designed this all myself, so it's not professional-grade work, but I'm pretty proud of it so far. Any feedback or advice would be appreciated, though. Since the air pump isn't coming until tomorrow, I still have time for last minute tweaks ans changes.

Photo 2 was a maintenance day shot, meant to capture how the roots are developing, get a progress shot on the new shoot, and catch what I think might be a new root branching off the main rhizome. Photo 1 is how they normally look. I think the brown leaves are due to low humidity. That's something I'm going to be addressing in the mid-to-near future.

(Repost, because I had to crop the third photo.)

I want to show you something crazy. Do you think these plants do transmutation? I am replicating Luis C. Kervrans experiments of plant transmutation with tomatoes in DWC. They got Na instead of K and are still fine after 4 month! They should be dead! Check it!

The Kervran experiment |

Hello, I have a dwc/NFT hybrid.

All lettuce growing, had multiple good harvests.

20 gallon Resevoir with Calmag and Maxigro. I noticed tip burn last week so I added calimag on the most recent water change. My EC from water change to water change ranges from 550-630. (mixed maturity system)

I have a 20 gallon aerator in the Resevoir as well

Fan causing small movements on all the plants.

TX-72 lights

The pH swings I thought were because of my pH meter needing calibrated, bought calibration liquid and while I did find my PH meter was reading incorrectly by an entire 1 pH. The swings from day to day have not changed.

I add pH up, get it to around 5.8-6.0, let it circulate and confirm the 5.8-6.0 reading, check again the next day and it's back to below 5.5. Everytime I get it within the range I want, a day or two later the pH drops again.

My most recent batch of lettuce was bitter, but the roots are fine, good color, no bad smells, no algae.

Not sure how to get this PH under control.