Growing food at home. Or trying to.

February 6, 2012 8:32 AM

Any indoor gardeners or hydroponic fans out there today who could help me out?

I'm getting back into hydro after ~10 years out of it. Now there's 10 bazillion websites out there, most that haven't been updated in 2 or 3 years, and I'm starting anew.

I'm starting out with a small aero/aqua lettuce bin, but hoping to put up a small greenhouse in the back yard (I'm zone 6, northern WV) for "other" stuff. The idea is to generate the most food for the least cost.

So...suggestions on greenhouse design, hydro systems, what I should grow, and---really probably most importantly---online communities for discussions/suggestions/tutorials, etc?

(In the past I did moderately successful NFT and deep-nutrient bath.)

posted by TomMelee to home & garden (2 answers total)

Not sure how set you are on hydro, but for my money it pales in comparison to the possibilities of aquaponics. AP seems to be ever-increasing in global popularity, and there's an amazing wealth of info being discussed and tested by all kinds of hobbyists and professionals...

Backyard Aquaponics
Practical Aquaponics
[yt trailer for Murray's DVD]

My own 2000l backyard AP system be up and running in a month or two, and I learned everything about how to build and (hopefully) maintain it from those two communities. Admittedly the startup cost for AP is higher than hydro, you'll have to keep a few fish, and you'll need to be handy if you want to build a big system, but the beauty of AP is that can be scaled to any size you wish. If you click around the members' system logs on those forums you're sure to see a number of setups that match your situation.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 10:59 PM on February 6, 2012

Thanks for the reply. I would absolutely LOVE to do aqua, time and space are my biggest issues right now. I actually once had a chance to view an aqua system that grew shrimp and one that grew crawfish, which are both significantly higher on my list of "wants" than Tilapia (barf.) Catfish were also considered. I will check our your links.
posted by TomMelee at 6:43 AM on February 7, 2012