How'd you do that? I'm was planning on using starting plants from the local nursery - the dirt grown kind. Can I do that?

art

Hi Art,
The Japanese Cucumbers were started in rockwool plugs from seed. Once they had developed their first true leaves, I placed them in the netcups and filled in with perlite. The cukes are in a DWC system where the nutrient level just touches the bottom of the cup. I've found that as the level drops it stimulates the plants to reach for the nutrients and thus grow more roots. Eventually, the ideal situation is to have the nutrient level about 3-4 inches below the bottom of the netcups to provide a valuable high humidity air layer that helps the plants grow faster.

I used nursery starts of Japanese Cucumbers grown in soil last year, it works fine! Just make sure to get all the soil off, every little speck, before you put it into the hydro system. Last year was the first year I tried hydro and made lots of rookie mistakes. The biggest lesson learned was NOT to push nutrient levels too high. Plants seem to do great with 1/2 to full strength nutrients (as recommended by the manufacturer) don't try to push it higher to match PPM's found all over the internet. Just start with 1/2 strength when you first introduce the plants to the hydro system and then slowly increase to full strength over a few nutrient changes.

No better way to learn than to just jump in and try it.

Here is a link that might be useful: PlantLab