adventures in hydroponics

 When I moved, I had to get rid of nearly all my orchids. It was very sad, but I really didn't have much time to think about it. It had to be done. The Phragmepediums were sacrificed.  To be honest, the phrags were nice but not award quality, and lately they had not been performing as they did. It might have been the growing medium had too much calcium build-up, or poor exposure, or whatever. We parted, tears were shed. Enough said.

So now I have the hydroponics unit in which they were growing. I had more choices: throw out, give away, or use. Of course I decided to use. And grow what? I debated whether or not to purchase more Phragmepedium orchids, but at $30 a pop, I hesitated. What else would I want to use the hydroponics unit for? I could use it as an experiment. Perhaps for other kinds of orchids. I could try some cattleya orchids in them, since the unit could is a lot more mobile than the orchidarium and the orchidarium really didn't have enough light to make them happy anyway.

I decided to try strawberries. To be honest, part of the reason for this was because Lowe's had their spring display up, and there they were, screaming to get out of the plastic packages. Plus, there were ten in the package and the unit had ten pots. Perfect.

Actually, I thought about strawberries before the trip to Lowe's. Strawberries have failed miserably for me when planted outside -was it the heat of summer? Indoors would be more temperature controlled. Also, since strawberries are small plants, I could even put them in the empty orchidarium with the new fancy LED lighting system (more about that another time) if I wanted. Strawberries are also said to be okay with part sun (something I seriously doubt). I thought about tomatoes, or peppers, or basil, or lettuce. But then I realized I never really used those things. The unit was also too small, really, for those plants, except for miniatures.

Isn't it painful to see the roots exposed like this?

My first thought was for alpine strawberries, and honestly, they are probably a better choice for this location, but there I was at Lowe's and there the plants were, so voila! I'll probably find some alpine strawberry seeds somewhere and try them too, but in pots, on the windowsill if there is any room.

This may turn out to be a complete failure, but what the heck. It will be fun. So I bought new $24 Hydroton (planting medium) and the $4 strawberries and $12 worth of vegan hydroponic fertilizer. These will be the most expensive strawberries ever, if I get any.

My first impressions of hydroponic gardening?

After doing research, the process seems simple enough, although a similar labor as having a fish tank, with talk of biweekly water changes, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), and the large assortment of hardware.

The growing medium (many choices, but I'm using Hydroton, a ceramic pellet) is a lot cleaner to work with than potting soil with no dirt under my nails. It's easier to pot with since it just pours around the roots and doesn't need firming or settling. If you drop a pot, the medium scatters to the four corners of the world, bouncing all the way.

This is, in no way, shape or form,  a natural way of gardening. Vegan fertilizer or not, this is clearly an artificially contrived production system much on the same lines as veal or egg production. When I asked the guy at the hydroponics store (who I swear had an expression that said something like "Freak! I bet you are growing something really stupid! Like something legal!") if they had a completely natural, stand-alone fertilizer for hydroponics, he said no, that in some way a synthetic fertilizer would be necessary (fortunately I had some from the original purchase of the unit). So this is not something that I would consider sustainable.

I kept wondering what the plants would think, if we could determine their thoughts regarding growing in a hydroponics situation. They probably act like kids on Twinkies.

I'll keep you posted.