Kratky hydroponic leafy greens

21/01/2020

i have started to germinate lettuce seeds in water rather than rockwool to see if i get a better germination rate. after 2 days, i am seeing germination and i intend to transfer these to rockwool in the next few days. I am also doing the same with spinach but am keeping the seeds in water in the fridge in order to simulate cold weather. it seems that this may be the anser to getting spinach to germinate more successfully!

17/01/2020

lettuce and rocket in kratky (day 11)

16/01/2020

put rocket into kratky (day 10)

16/01/2020

lettuce placed into net pots in kratky resevoirs under grow light (day 10)

15/01/2020

lettuce placed into net pots in kratky resevoirs under grow light (end of day 9)

15/01/2020

lettuce, rocket, basil germinating after 9 days, lettuce roots starting to show more, I will put these in the resevoirs soon, spinach has not germinated yet, under a grow light

14/01/2020

lettuce, rocket, basil germinating after 8 days, lettuce roots starting to show, spinach has not germinated yet, under a grow light

13/01/2020

lettuce, rocket, basil germinating after 7 days, no roots showing yet, under a grow light

12/01/2020

lettuce, rocket, basil germinating after 6 days, no roots showing yet, under a grow light

11/01/2020

lettuce, rocket, basil germinating after 5 days, no roots showing yet, under a grow light

10/01/2020

lettuce, rocket, basil germinating after 4 days, no roots showing yet

09/01/2020

lettuce and rocket germinating after 3 days, the rocket only just started germinating today, still nothing to show from the spinach or basil

08/01/2020

after 2 days the lettuce (the 6 cubes on the top row) has started to germinate, the other seeds will hopefully follow. I will keep the propagator covered and check once per day

08/01/2020

When putting seeds in rockwool, I try and make sure the seed is well in the cube and pressed against the wall of the rockwool cube hole

08/01/2020

08/01/2020

soak the rockwool in water, place 2 or 3 seeds in the hole in each rockwool (so at least 1 seed will germinate). The plastic tub is used as a propagator. It has a lid and this allows humidity and heat to help germination. The top row is lettuce seeds in rockwool. The next row on the left is spinach (3 cubes of rockwool), then 3 cubes with rock / arugula seeds and finally a single cube with a couple of basil seeds

08/01/2020

This is the seeds for the spinach with a plastic for for size comparison

08/01/2020

This is the packet of seeds I used for the lettuce

08/01/2020

This is how I made the holes in the lids of the reservoir buckets

08/01/2020

08/01/2020

Here are the clay balls used to pack the net pots once they are in the reservoir. I washed them and let them dry

08/01/2020

In order to suspend the grow lights, I put some dowel across the back of some chairs. You can see what it looks like when the grow light is on. I have added aluminium foil as reflectors

08/01/2020

I am using 10 litre buckets as the resevoir. I needed to paint them silver (so as to not let the light in which can cause algae). Holes are drilled so that net cups will fit in the holes and be held in place by the lid of the bucket

08/01/2020

Here is some of the stuff needed, a temperature and humidity monitor, some rockwool and some net pots