Hydroponic growing experiences with Autopot Systems
Everyone is going fine.. Got some parsley beside the greens.
Chinese broccoli (chinese greens) and some parsley
The corriander is flowering, on the bright side I’ll get some seeds.
The corriander is loving it more than me
Tomatos, check.
Romas looking out the window
The peas are not stuffing about and are ready to break out the window.
The peas want out.
A bunch of stuff growing inside..
Corriander bolted pretty quick..
Bolting corriander, I thought inside it would have a chance but it didnt get far. That’s some chinese broccoli in the corner out of the pic.
Organic Roma's from Brisbane Organic Growers seeds
Organic roma seeds from the herb show still coming along..
Pretty crappy weather outside, although I’m sure you are in disgust at my saying that as it does not even frost here. I have a bit of space free facing north and just happened to have purchased myself some more autopot gear.
Tomato, spring onions, snow peas, corriander, chinese broccolli.
There has been a lot of displaced possums, a neighbour mentioned they had the possum guy in and had heaps so I guess they are the homelsss ones feasting on my garden. It is nice and warm inside, an early start.
Heaps of pups firing off these strawberrys out the front. Not letting them go to waste!
Strawberrys multiplying
I got some old gardening magazines from my parents and I found this advert for the original smart valve in the back cover.
The beans were a great introduction to hydroponics and the autopot system. They met their demise by a swarm of spider mites. Usually a squirt of white oil is the best however the french beans were quite delicate. Moving on it was time to try something new, capsicums.
I bought a proper autopot hydrotray this time, some locally produced nutrient and some mini cap seedlings. Capsicums use 10ml/l of nutrient.
They grew quite well and leaned over in the pots which they didn’t seem to mind. A lot of fruit had begun to grow in only a couple of months.
The front balcony had to come down as it was a bit dangerous, luckily I rent this place and it’s not my problem. The caps were moved out the back and given some support.
Eventually all the fruit ripened, unfortunately they were very, very small. Winter was here and they got trimmed back a little to have another go in spring. They got a touch of fungus out the back as it is a bit damp which I treated with wettable sulphur which is an organic solution and also effective for powdery mildew, and spider mites it turns out.
All in all it was a success, too bad the fruit were so small, I’ll cut it back and see if it goes well again next spring.
I had a stack of beans to eat already so I found this recipe for Garlic-Roasted Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds. I substutited what I had and it came out awesome, I undercooked it just a little so it was a bit more like a warm salad.
Garlic roasted beans
Next time I’ll use a baking tray to get it all cooked faster and more even. I don’t think it will be long before there is another pile of beans to harvest and I’m looking forward to having another crack.
Harvest on day 39
For 5 days I have been picking beans every afternoon, I have been weighing them and it is about 50 grams a day from the 8 hydroponic plants. In comparison I picked the first bean from the plant in the ground today, it only has 2 others growing on it.
Water consumption appears to be about 1 litre a day although I’m not keeping a log. The plant itself has filled out and I might have to lift it higher as it is almost touching the ground seen here below.
Hydro beans day 39
The grasshoppers are getting bigger however they are still tiny compared to adults, the bigger ones are hard to catch and I may need to look into some organic pest control soon.
With this project turning out quite sucessful I need to decide what is next, the hydrotray is probably better value than buying a valve and cover and if I was going to use this configuration again I would just get the tray.
Well it is the end of the month.. Here you can see the shelter I constructed the other day after we’ve had 2 weeks of rain on and off, it has limited the amount of rain water that gets into the tub, I’ll have to lift it higher soon as it’s still growing up quite fast.
1 month old and ready to eat
It has used 20 litres of nutrients in it’s first month, which is 100ml of each nutrient solution. A 10l pair of AutoPot nutrient is around $90, so if you are buying in bulk it would have cost just 90c so far. Not bad at all.
The first bean about to get eaten
This bean tasted pretty good too. I’ll let the rest get bigger before I post a harvest.
The beans started to show themselves yesterday, today the plants are covered in them. It is hard to belive it has not yet been 4 weeks since I set this up.
Hydroponic beans day 27
The beans I put in the ground are small and have only just started to show signs of flower buds. I’m starting to contemplate what my next hydroponic project will be.