Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hydroponic

Hydroponic/Soil combo growing

boby — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:12:33 -0800

Is there any method to combine hydroponic gardening with conventional soil gardening? I've been a soil gardener all my life but wanted to try hydroponics. I want to use a DWC system.
It seems pretty easy compared with other methods.
I'm thinking that having one half the plants roots in soil and the other half receiving nutrients from the hydroponic solution might be better.

The Aerogarden. How noisy? How hackable? Alternatives?

allterrainbrain — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:27:06 -0800

The Aerogarden. How noisy? How hackable? Any alternatives that are also "easy" enough for my non-specialist friends? I've found a lot of opinions, pro and con. For me, the biggest con is all the proprietary parts you're supposed to keep buying -- from the overpriced seed "pods" to the fact that they've reportedly designed their product so it uses standard fluorescent bulbs but non-standard sockets (so you have to buy expensive bulbs from them, rather than cheap ones from your local hardware store).

One partial solution would be trying to reuse their "pods" with one's own seeds, but the product is new enough that I'm not finding any firsthand accounts of doing this beyond a few vague reports in the "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't" vein. There are different settings and cycles (for feeding/drip lengths) to match each of the company's seed pods, but I'm not finding info on whether these settings are totally user-configurable or just limited to the factory-programmed settings that fit the company's offerings.

I'm also seeing plenty of reports that it's "noisy" and "very bright," but no specifics. I'd be ultra-grateful for any firsthand descriptions especially of the noise (how frequent, and what type of noise -- pump noise, drip noise, buzz from the fluorescent bulbs...?) And it's marketed as "energy-efficient," but without any info on its power consumption.

I'm good with both plants & gadgets myself, but I need hydroponics systems that can be cared for by non-experts (the various people who'll be subletting my apartment short-term). Other self-contained systems are easy to find by googling hydroponics (the best-looking I've found is the EcoGrower), but none are so foolproof that they include "water me" & "feed me" indicator lights like the Aerogarden, and none include a hood / light source.

My apt. gets full sun from the south (through windows; no way to put pots outdoors) and I'm in the northeast (NYC). I mostly want to grow fruiting plants, esp. cherry tomatoes.

Hydroponic and/or solar-powered container gardening?

allterrainbrain — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:26:04 -0800

Solar-powered and/or hydroponic apartment gardening: have you done it or something like it? Do you like or dislike any commercial solar kits or hydroponics kits, or suppliers of seeds & equipment for container gardening? I'm good with plants, but I haven't gardened with a focus on producing food since I was a kid. I've started doing research on container gardening, minimal solar systems, and hydroponics -- both on mefi & elsewhere. I'm looking to set up a system that will pay for itself within a couple of years (cost of all the gear vs. what I'd pay for the amount of organic produce it produces), so we're probably talking under $1000.

So this question is about putting those three elements together with budget as a big factor, and about specific crops to try. I'm thinking cherry tomatoes, strawberries, basil, mint -- generally, any stuff I like that's both expensive to buy organic and decently efficient to grow in a container.

Have you done this or anything like it?? What were your successes & failures? Do you recommend any particular suppliers of hydroponic kits, solar kits, or seeds?

For reference: I'm in NYC, facing south-by-southwest with sun all day; I pay for my own electricity; and I have only a fire escape (no balcony), so I can only put very minimal amounts of stuff outside -- we're talking shallow windowboxes plus hydroponic containers just inside the windows with additional (artificial) lighting. Thanks for all thoughts!

How do I grow orchids hydroponically?

zzztimbo — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 20:18:43 -0800

I would like to find a beginner's guide to growing orchids hydroponically. Is there some sort of guide or book that tells you step by step how to put together a hydroponic setup for growing orchids. I don't know much about growing orchids much less how to grow them hydroponically.

I would like to find out about the cost, is it worth it, where do I buy the supplies, etc.