Deep Water Culture Update

I took a few recent pictures of my basement hydroponics gardening project.



Collards

 The collards are thriving in my deep water culture bubbling resevoirs, but they took longer to get started than the lettuce and spinach.  I am sure the low intensity light generated by the T8 bulbs is a factor, but we've already had one harvest and judging from the health of the roots, we should get several more.



Kale

  Similar to the collards, the kale was a slow starter. We've had one harvest so far and it looks like we're due for another soon.


Lettuce

  We've had about 15 servings of salad from the hydroponic lettuce since I planted in in early November. One of the plants has slowed down, but the other 5 are still growing well.



Spinach

  The spinach is really doing well in the deep water culture. Some people told me that I would have trouble growing spinach in hydroponics, but so far I've had great success.



Spinach growing in vermicastings deep water culture

 This tub of spinach is being grown in a much diluted hydroponic nutrient resevoir.  Instead of 18 ounces of nutrient per 10 gallons of water this nutrient is being grown in 12 ounces of nutrient and about 2 lbs of worm castings in a paint strainer bag.It's an experiment to see if I can stretch the hydroponic nutrient farther and reduce costs. This the second week since I planted the seedlings and they are picking up speed.