Just to give info, my set up is a "deep water culture" set up. I've got some totes, with airstones and aquarium heaters in the bottom. . .using potting trays (you know the kind you get when you buy 6 or so plants? It holds the little pots?)

And the pots are suspended in the water on those trays, with the air stones in the bottom. . .the aquarium heater on the sides. . .

I have 1 shallow tray, but man, like they said, if your water/solution is exposed to the light. . .it goes nasty, fast. So I'm considering a black garbage bag with holes for the pots.

I've been reading up, trying to figure out how to make my own "hydroponic" solution. . .because everything says, don't use miracle gro (doesn't have everything?)

but what about the miracle gro tomato food? Wouldn't that have everything they need?

Good luck. I assume once you get them growing, they will be nice and clean w/o bugs attacking your plants indoors (hopefully).

I've grown cuttings in an aeroponics chamber but never kept anything in it too long. Many of the grocery store tomatoes are grown hydroponically. I saw some PBS show about growing hydroponic toms a while back and those things got huge! I guess constantly being bathed in nutrients does it. These plants don't have their roots submerged, but are constantly showered with the nutrient enhanced water. I honestly don't know how they'll do with the roots submerged. It will be interesting to see. Good luck. Keep us updated.

Ya know Disney grows tons of stuff Hydroponically in tall columns.. I read some of their literature not to long ago.. It was very cool.. I think I read it at their site.. Good Luck with that Annette! I hope you share some pic's of your progress.. BTW Very NICE to see ya!!

Kylie

Kylie:

Yea, I looked at those pics. Those are amazing! The deep water culter system is the easiest to set up (which is why I did it) rather than the spraying of the roots.

And given I don't have a wide enough space for the wash method, I figured this would be the easiest. (room is only 8 foot wide, but 22 feet long)

Apparently, when you lower the water level a little, make the roots work to get to the water, then they get bigger root systems.

I'm gonna give it a shot, see how it goes. The nursery had Savoulens seeds for sale. I just grinned and thought, now why would anyone buy those seeds?

Ran into a woman who had hydroponics. She said you're gonna want a "pulley" for each plant to raise them up and down. I thought "oh mannnnnnnnn. . " What's wrong with a tennis net stretched along the ceiling (steel cable) hanging down and then just strapping the plants to the net?

All the reading says they plants get very big, very fast because they're not fighting in the soil for nutrients.

Kylie, nice to see you guys too. I've missed you all so very much. As I said, I gave all my cuttings away to a friend in Florida who had a massive "freeze" and lost a lot of his stuff. Even though I don't grow beautiful bamboo like he does, I sent him my cuttings to replace some of his beautiful plants.

I went to a huge nursery and asked about "hydroponics" and they said "you're the 3rd person to ask about it." They had this little set up for 89.00 and thought "oh for petes sake, my set up is 5 times this size. . ."

So, I'm going to make the aerobic solution (as opposed to the anerobic solution - one has oxygen, one doesn't) Apparently "micronutrients" and bacterial versus fungal based aerobic solutions. . .etc. They're being talked about as being as important as regular nitrogen and stuff.

As I said. . .had no idea I was getting into a science experiment when I started. So, I have worm castings, bat guano, cow manure and chicken poop as bases to try various "aerobic compost tea" starters. Dragged it all home yesterday. . .sheesh.

Gotta bubble the stuff for 24-48 hours, large bubbles, not small bubbles. . .don't wanna break the "strands" or something like that. . .

Makes me scratch my head. . . .