Home Gardening with Hydroponics - Our Indoor Lettuce Wall Garden and How I Built It
Welcome to my first official hydroponics gardening post. This weekly series will show you my garden systems and how I go about growing the majority of our produce-type foods right at home, even with NO farmable land.
I have been growing food using hydroponics since 2013 when I made the decision to switch over from container soil gardening. This was the smartest decision I ever made with respect to gardening. I have increased our yield by 300-400% depending on the crop, which is a big deal when you have very little space to grow in. Each year I learn a little more, little things that help improve my gardens over time. Even with my wall garden, I didn't get it 100% right the first time around. Nine months after I built the system I ended up redesigning it to make it more efficient, which increased its yield. Over time I started using the term "Hydrogarden" to refer to my hydroponic garden systems, so that is the term you will most often see me use in my writings.
![Indoor-Garden-01.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPXaUDVY2ok8EVSeXDB8xfaVs9d5y3Qv4Cr2EfqSCtZRW/Indoor-Garden-01.jpg)
Various lettuce and herbs growing in our wall garden.
Growing Greens Indoors
This week I will show you my indoor lettuce wall garden. Down here in South Florida where we live has it's own unique challenges to growing outdoors. While it is possible to grow your greens outside here, the unpredictable weather, high humidity, and intense summer heat means you will have to devote more time and hands-on effort to maintaining them.
Lettuces and herbs love the sun, but in extreme heat they tend to bolt early (produce flowers and go to seed) drastically reducing the life of the plants and your edible yield. The high humidity also means more chances of disease and leaf fungus that can spread quickly through your garden.
![Indoor-Garden-02.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmSppk4XSmnf9e3fEFJgYdXBPcLDpt4DrJrx7EfTTYSKWq/Indoor-Garden-02.jpg)
Lettuce starter plants in a 45 day growing test.
The silly part about it all, was the fact that at the time I was starting my seeds in a hydroponics system I set up in my garage. That system now uses custom designed, energy efficient blue/red LED grow lights I had manufactured for me by a company over in China (where else?) to replace the T5 tube lights I started with.
Once the plants got to a certain size I would move them to the outside garden or give them to family and friends to grow in their gardens. If I did not have a home for the starter plants I would let them continue to grow there until I did. In time I realized the lettuce in the garage would grow faster and larger if I let them, than the ones I moved outside.
![Indoor-Garden-03.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcuXpozkxDYouLnAPhAj1ACcvQX8BTT6ETTZcgKWLjJZF/Indoor-Garden-03.jpg)
My Custom LED Grow Lights.
So, after battling the seasonal ups and downs for 2 years, I decided it was time to move my lettuce and herb production indoors and I got to work designing and building my 3-tier indoor wall hydrogarden.
![Indoor-Garden-04.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmQ3peTBftrBVoeqQk9H9maQtJdUF53S46K5wB6XmmUfew/Indoor-Garden-04.jpg)
Building the wall unit support boxes, my son helped with the glue.
My original design was focused on creating something that matched the modern white "IKEA" style of the adjacent living room and kitchen. I wanted to build a system that minimized the fact that it was going to be a stack of pipes and hoses bolted to the wall, so my design incorporated a complicated system of 1/2" flow and return pipes and wires carefully hidden within each level, only showing as a central "stem" in the middle from top to bottom. It's important to note that this is a huge departure from they way I built my other hydrogarden systems, and would eventually be the reason I had to rebuild it nine months later.
![Indoor-Garden-05.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmT2bASJ96iiXo3SRpQup7o6HUjGUG6VXmH5aJtVZ1g9fx/Indoor-Garden-05.jpg)
Final assembly on the system and reservoir tank connections.
After I completed the functional components of the system I let it run with just plain water for a week to make sure there were no leaks and no issues with pump pressure or circulation. Once I felt it was good to go, I built the lower box cabinet to hide the reservoir tank, cords, and timer for the lights, mixed in the nutrients, and added the plants.
![Indoor-Garden-06.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmZGPyHVPs4311hVG731vu4SvP1GSkNHQz5LfQD4QuxXNZ/Indoor-Garden-06.jpg)
The completed wall unit with a clean low-profile design.
Our new wall garden was a success and cranking out the greens! We now had fresh, crisp, clean lettuce and herbs just a few steps from the kitchen. It did take some getting used to the night club type glow put off by the LEDs during the day, but the plants seem to love it.
Over the next few months I took notes on the growth cycle of the plants as I always do during the first few growing cycles. This helps me figure out a steady cycle for successive plantings, a method of keeping plants of different ages in your garden to ensure a continuous harvest.
A few months in I realized the plants were not performing as well as the tests I ran in the garage system. While they were doing much better than my outside lettuce, they were not growing as fast or as big as the plants from the garage, and they tended to bolt sooner as well. Upon doing a complete system check, something I do every six months, I noticed the 1/4" feed lines were not flowing as well as they should and an excess of plant/root debris was collecting in the main growing pipes.
I let it go a few more months before deciding that if I wanted this system to perform the way I wanted it to, I would have to rebuild it.
![Indoor-Garden-07.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWJzxbGQXRCSp8r89RFXhzYTuJMemYDNvYf17ViZZ5HVa/Indoor-Garden-07.jpg)
Converting the system to my standard free-flow design.
The original system was built to last and there was no way to modify it in place or even to get it out peacefully. Each level had to be pulled out to snap the connecting 1/2" return pipes to break them free.
I then cut "U" shaped channels in the opposing sides with a jig-saw to snugly fit the new 2" elbow return pipes that would allow the nutrient solution to flow freely through the system. I then ran a 1/2" flow tube directly from the pump to the upper level and tucked it into the starting end of the system with a 90 elbow fitting.
I replaced the reservoir tank with a slightly larger one that luckily fit inside the original cover box, and added a new 250/gph pump to increase the circulation flow. The only thing I needed to change was make a new back section of the box cover since the return pipes are bigger.
Just as I did the first time, I let the system run for a few days before adding in the nutrients and plants.
![Indoor-Garden-08.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmXi8UTUtZbmTWkfDDnRbUXC1cb4bTx9c2jWzXpZahm4H1/Indoor-Garden-08.jpg)
The new upgraded system.
It's been six months since the rebuild and our wall garden is producing more lettuce and herbs than we can eat ourselves. Even with a conservative plant rotation schedule, every week we bring some lettuce over to my wife's family to make sure nothing goes to waste.
![Indoor-Garden-09.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZer4dwV84aLvDZuFpAh1VP49dQeZJpVNHndjsSkJEAsd/Indoor-Garden-09.jpg)
Mature lettuce plants growing under my custom blue/red LED lights.
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my home hydroponic wall garden. If you have any questions or comments, just drop a reply below.
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Man I love it! Making super good use of space in yhe house. This could be a solution for people who live in big cities!
@thedanzel - I wanted to let you know I created a new account just for my hydroponics and gardening. I will only post hydro/gardening to the new account @steempowergarden Keeping this separated from my photography and art.
Thank you @thedanzel.
Yep, this is my "prototype" for a wall garden system. Testing how it would work in the space. The only problem is I have to bolt it to the concrete wall to support the weight, so it's not practical for customers. In the future I would like to develop this in food-safe plastics that would be lightweight and easier for people to install themselves. Then I could sell as a kit product. At the moment, I am starting to build garden systems locally for people.
In the coming weeks I will post about my outdoor systems too. They are for smaller balconies and could even sit in window spaces if your have direct sun coming in.
today this post gets my 100% vote
Thank you @englishtchrivy - I appreciate the support.
keep it up
you're welcome!
Awesome stuff @steempowerpics ! Really cool project! Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your support. Be sure to follow along, I will post more of my hydrogardens every week.
That's some neat hydroponics system. So these veggies get 24 hours of light artificially? I wish I am able to do that too.
Thank you @cryptopie. Not 24 hours, they are on a timer for 12 hours on, with a 15 minute off period half way through the day.
@cryptopie got you a $0.01 @minnowbooster upgoat, nice! (Image: pixabay.com)
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You spinned the Wheel of Upvotes! Where did it land?
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Congratulations! The upvote is coming straight to your post!
If you like this idea, please upvote this comment or try another spin on the wheel so the project can grow!
Thank you for summoning me steempowerpics. This is very cool. They are also much more healthy than those in the shops, am I right? Later on you could probably grow everything by yourself. Keep it up!
Thank you @eirik - always fun to play :-)
With such a voting power you only need to spin higher than 30% to be in profit if there would be no steem decay. :)
Im so envious, learning hydroponics is def on my list of things to do; if you could make all your fruits and vegies with hydroponics... that seems like the ultamite survival thing
It's definitely a more efficient way to grow food, it uses much less water. If you are off-grid, solar would provide enough power for the pumps. I have a post last week about what I grow.
Hi Claire - I wanted to let you know I created a new account just for my hydroponics and gardening. I will only post hydro/gardening to the new account @steempowergarden Keeping this separated from my photography and art.
Cool thanks! Following :)
This is so cool! I am a vegetarian who loves to cook, and I would have never thought of this but want one in my house now lol
Thank you! I love it. Switching to hydroponics was the best move for me. Each week I will do another post about all my different systems I built.
I will be looking forward to them
Hi @itsmee.bosslady - I wanted to let you know I created a new account just for my hydroponics and gardening. I will only post hydro/gardening to the new account @steempowergarden Keeping this separated from my photography and art.
Excellent article. I love how you used the space you had and incorporated it into this living space; a very unique approach.
I did everbearing strawberries hydroponically in a 10'x12' greenhouse in mid-michigan. The berries were spectacular, consistent size and delicious. I had a couple of issues. My father passed away that summer (13') and with him at hospice at my house, I couldn't get the automatic water/nutrient feeding system working. So I had to use a 2 gallon hand sprayer each day to water them.
I also learned a big lesson. Plants don't grow when they are hot! As soon as July came around and the greenhouse temperature got into the upper 90's and 100's, there was no chance. But it was a great and relatively low cost learning for my future plans for commercial strawberry farm indoors.
Since you are so organized and documented your experience so well, may I suggest that you take your posts over the nest couple of months and turn them into chapters and post it to Amazon as a self-published do-it-yourself book?
I purchased "How to Hydroponics" and it was an excellent picture book with very good explantation for various hydroponic systems. With your unique design, think about giving away the design in great detail such that others can do the same. This will help you leverage your work. You get to keep something like 85% of the profits from your book sales and you decide the price.
I look forward to future posts. I uprooted and am going to follow.
Thank you @morseke1, I definitely try to make all my garden systems look like they are part of the environment they are in. I dont want them to look like pipes and hoses.
Very true with the heat. Most fruiting plants just drop the flowers during the summer months. I have that fight with peppers this time of year. Our cucumbers and tomatoes power through ok.
I will have to look into self publishing in time. Here on steemit, this is my first time putting together my life into a blog format.
Im happy you like my work so far.
Hi @morseke1 - I wanted to let you know I created a new account just for my hydroponics and gardening. I will only post hydro/gardening to the new account @steempowergarden That's where everything for this will be from now on. Thanks.
Thank you for letting me know. I'll follow you there. I'm looking forward to your articles.
Thank you @morseke1
This is so incredible, I love it. We grow some stuff in our home garden, but nothing like this. Can't wait to see more.
Thank you @marinella. I have lots more to come.
I was looking for some blog like yours... about hydroponics. followed - reSteem
Thank you @digitalplayer. I will post every week on hydroponics. But it will be every Thursday from now on.
Hi Michael, I wanted to let you know I created a new account just for my hydroponics and gardening. I will only post hydro/gardening to the new account @steempowergarden That's where everything for this will be posted from now on. Thanks.
This is so cool! Firstly because I'm in Florida too (central) - and secondly because I've been researching hydroponics and I love your wall set up. My husband and I are actually in search of a nice parcel of land to homestead on and I'm leaning more toward a small aquaponics system because I love the idea of having fresh fish that I've raised. Got my meat and veggies! LOL
Yes, Hi, I remember @sykochica mentioning you are from Florida too when we talked about maybe a future Steemit meetup in our state.
Aquaponics is a great way to go too, nice closed loop system. That is good for lettuce, herbs and things like that. Bigger fruiting plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers etc would do better in full hydroponics or organic soil garden since they have a higher demand for nutrients.
We currently live in a townhouse in South Florida, so space for growing is very limited. Hydroponics gave me a way to produce large quantities of food, something I just could not pull off with soil container gardens.
I'm so happy you came by my post. I will be doing weekly articles on hydroponics and everything I have learned over the last 4 years. Hopefully I can reach a lot of people who are interested and can pass on what I have learned to help others. I am going to make this a regular Thursday topic post from now on to go with the "green" colorchallenge theme.
Hey Meredith, I created a new account just for my hydroponics and gardening. I figured it would be best to keep that separated from my photography/art and other interests - they don't always mix well. I will only post hydro/gardening to the new account @steempowergarden from now on.
Everything else stays as is, @steempowerpics will still be my main "steemit community involvement" account. :-)