Experimental veggie "water" garden.

[Kassaundra]

I am doing several experiments in the garden this year some simple and some more involved. Thought I would share one of my experiments for this year.

Over the winter I experimented w/ an ebb and flow indoor, shoestring budget garden for growing salad greens through the winter and it worked very well, that was the inspiration for this version.

I wanted to simplify it even more, not have any moving water, and try and grow other veggies, not just greens in water. Here are some pics of what I came up w/.

These are most of the items I used.

Here they are all put together

I put seeds in the cups, the water has oyster shells and chicken poop.

each cup has dryer lint to hold the seeds in place until they sprout, I have since added some small river rocks to secure the young plants and keep them upright.

Each cup has holes cut so the roots can dangle in the water.

Have also added an air stone to keep the system from going anarobic, will add mosquito biscuits if that becomes a problem.

I have planted tomato, pepper, greens, herbs, squash just to see what works (if anything) and what doesn't.

 

[journey11]

Cool experiment, keep us posted on your progress! What did you use for your nutrients in the water?

 

[Kassaundra]

So far Calcium and chicken poop, I know the chicken poop is high in nitrogen, and have read it is also high is potassium, so I'm thinking I will only need to ad phosphate?

 

[jojo54]

Interesting! Keep us posted with pics, please.

 

[vfem]

Oh wow... I can't wait to see how this works out!!!

Keep us posted for sure.

 

[digitS']

Now this beats my watercress pond, K!

The neighbor had a leaky valve on his main line for 4" field sprinklers. I asked first! Would it be okay if I ran a pvc pipe from the puddle that was under one of the pipe joints thru about 6 feet of grass and into my garden?

He said, sure .

I dug out a little pond about 4' by 5' and planted watercress. The leaking valve was just enuf to keep the pond full all the time to a depth of about 4".

The pipe was pulled apart and out of the way when the hay was cut and the pond would dry up for about 3 or 4 days but the watercress didn't seem to mind that and it probably kept the skeeters out of there. The plants were very lush !

I think the whole thing embarrassed him and he has kept a better valve in place in the years since. I have never been able to take advantage of the situation again . . . :/

Steve