Can I Use Organic Fertilizers in Hydroponics

 Another extremely common question when it comes to small in-home hydroponic gardening, is "Can I use organic fertilizers?"

Unfortunately, the answer, while not an outright no, is a very stringent 'it's not a good idea'.  This tends to upset people if you leave it at that.  But just because organic fertilizers aren't a good idea, doesn't mean your plants will be any less nutritious and healthy for you!

 

The problem here, and the apparent contradiction, is that "organic" has specific meanings in specific applications.  It has unfortunately, however, become a 'buzz word' used by people to just generally mean 'natural' as opposed to covered in synthetic chemicals, like pesticides.  In this situation, though, "organic" is really no more nutritious, and is not a particularly safer, better, or more sustainable system.

Starting Plants from Seed in 'Kratky' Passive Hydroponic Jars

 

 Many people in the personal hydroponic and AeroGarden community refer to these passive hydroponic jars as "Kratky jars".  They are loosely based on the Kratky method of passive hydroponics, but technically they aren't.  The actual Kratky method is a 'fill and forget it' method – that is, once you set everything up, you shouldn't fill the water reservoir again.  This is a key component in the method, while these jars are much too small to actually do this.  That said, this vaguely Kratky-esque method is very popular and effective.

In the AeroGarden community, they are generally used to move plants grown in the AeroGarden out into the jars, generally the last stragglers of a crop, to enable you to replant the garden with a new crop, while taking advantage of the AeroGarden's "spillover" light. However, sometimes you want to start plants in addition to the ones in your garden, and so you need to start them direct from seed.  Here, I will lay out the process I used to start some herbs I wanted to grow.

Pruning Basil

 This will be a post-in-progress for a little bit.  I am currently sprouting two basil plants for a pruning comparison, just to show what a difference proper pruning can make.  However, in the meantime, I can show the basil trimming basics.

Before we begin, an important Don't.  Don't pick individual leaves from a basil plant! Your plant requires leaves to produce the sugars and energy it needs from photosynthesis, and since you will be taking the tips, it needs the older leaves left in place.  The exception to this, is if the older leaves are sufficiently large that they are overshading the rest of the foliage; you can remove them in that case, but make sure there is other foliage.  You should never take it down to nothing but stem or only stems and immature buds.  If you are wanting periodic small harvests, just let the tips grow larger than buds before removing them; you can take up to ⅓ of the plant at any one time without trouble, but that doesn't mean it has to be for each branch; so, once you have two branches, you can let them get to 5 or 6 nodes long and then cut down to 2 on one branch if you leave the other intact for a while longer, and so on.

Which AeroGarden Model is Right for You

Another question that is asked repeatedly in many forms: "Which model is right for me?"

Ultimately, you are the only one who can answer this question.  And of course, like most things in life, you get what you pay for.  However, whether you need the extra bells and whistles is the real question.

The first question to ask, and arguably most important, is what you want to grow.

AeroGarden Sprouting Issues

 The first step of growing in an AeroGarden is, of course, sprouting seeds into baby plants.  It is, by necessity, the stage when you know the least about how "this all works", as it is your first step.  Therefore, it is all too easy to panic over the slightest variation from what you expect.

Don't panic!

AeroGardens are genuinely as easy as it is possible to be when dealing with living things.  The vast majority of variables and stumbling blocks have been removed or streamlined.  However, that doesn't mean there aren't any things that can go wrong - or appear to go wrong that are actually very normal.

So, what are some of the most common issues - or misleading non-issues?

Cucumber Grow Winter 2020 Taste Test!

 So, one of my current experimental grows, is three different varieties of cucumbers.  In terms of growing them in the AeroGarden, I planted them in one bay of my FarmXL, one plant for every three holes (4 plants total in the bay, the 3 cucumbers and one snow pea), and fed them just as recommended on the bottle of AeroGarden nutrients, save for feeding half strength for the first two feedings.

Left, Ukraine Heirloom; right back Puccini; right front Ronda Cornichon

As you can see in the pic, the Ronda Cornichons are significantly smaller, and I haven't gotten a fully developed fruit from it, so it isn't included in the taste test.  If I get developed fruit from it later, I will update.

However, the Ukraine Heirlooms and Puccinis both came about ripe at the same time, so on to the tasting!

AeroGarden Companion Planting

 Anyone who's grown gardens for any significant time, can tell you that where you plant things - particularly in relation to certain other plants - can make a serious difference in how well your plants grow and produce.  Some things, planted together, will not do well at all; some will simply coexist; and other combinations of plants will result in happier, more productive plants than either would have planted alone. This is known as "companion planting".

While many of the soil garden companion planting concerns are not applicable to growing in AeroGardens and other indoor hydroponics, certain factors of companion planting are still relevant.