Hydroponic Gardening

The soil in Florida is nothing to rave about so instead of putting in a regular garden we opted for a hydroponic garden. Here it is all set up.

The Styrofoam containers are all filled with a 50/50 mixture of vermiculite and perlite. The vermiculite absorbs and holds water. The perlite is just a filler and is the little white balls that you see in most store bought soil. 

The nutrients are mixed with water and stored in a 44 gallon garbage can. A submersible pump is placed in the bottom of the garbage can and connected to a timer which turns it on three times a day -  morning, noon and evening. You adjust the time that it is on until you get 1 quart of nutrient filled water per column per feeding. That's 3 gallons per day or about 2 weeks per garbage can.

We started with Home Depot plants - One tower (far left with two containers) has tomatoes, next is lettuce, next is strawberries and the nearest has herbs. The base units have bigger plants like broccoli, cucumber, brussel sprouts, etc.

I looked up what plants I could put in this time of year and found I could put in anything - only restrictions is during the summer when some plants can't take the heat like lettuce.