We're not growing drugs!

Hydroponics sounds dodgy. You mention hydroponics, you get a sideways glance (or a wink and a nod from certain folk), but sadly it was not that exciting and and we used our hydroponics system to grow chillies and tomatoes.

Hydroponics simply means to grow plants in water using nutrient solutions, as opposed to growing in soil .

We did it really just to see how it worked and it gave Elliot something to do (it really does sound like he's a child who constantly needs entertaining). Elliot watched hours of Youtube clips on what to do and how to do it and we ended up with a pretty impressive system.

The system consisted of two tubes with four net pots in each which housed the tomato and chilli plants. The plants sit in the net pots which are filled with hydroton (clay balls) and the roots grow down through the balls into the stream of water.

The water is pumped from a tank through the tubes and back into the tank. Nutrients are added (we used Growzilla and then Budzilla) as the plants need what nutrients they would normally get from soil (as a side note, if you want to feel like you are a crim without actually doing anything wrong, take a trip to Switched On Gardener - you feel dodgy just walking in but it was also a source of great amusement when you notice the lengths this place goes to say they do not support illegal growing activities - these are of course spelt out on signs mounted next to grinders, bongs and pipes; we also interrupted the guy who worked in the Pakuranga store from what I think was an impressive sleep on his feet with his eyes open and the guy in Henderson from his "smoko" break out the front).

Anyway... above the tubes sit the fluro lights. These are on pully hook things (that's the technical term) that are raised as the plants grow. The tank water and nutrients get changed about once a week.

Elliot is an automation technician by day which means if something can be programmed or timed using gizmos and gadgets, it will be. The pump cycle for the system and the lights were all automated and timed to turn on and off at certain times. Our set up was in our conservatory which gets really hot so we had a fan hooked up which turned on when the temperature reached a certain level and off when it fell again.

We germinated the seeds in a propagator. Once big enough they went to little cups in a light box. When they are big enough the roots get washed, they get put in the net pots and then placed in the tubes. The results were pretty impressive.

The seeds in jiffy pots in the propagator

The seedlings in the light box

The set up

The tomato plants grew out of control and gave us huge tomatoes. We also did the hydroponics as a comparison to growing the old fashioned way and the hydroponic plants certainly grew faster and produced impressive fruit.

We would not grow tomatoes in this particular set up again as there simply was not enough room for these huge plants.

The chilli plants also grew well and we got some great chillies from them.

Today marks the change from a hydroponics to an aquaponics system. We decided the plants needed to come out as they were too out of control. We also needed a full clean out of the system and conservatory as they had been overtaken by aphids and white flies.

We turned the hydroponics system off when we went on holiday so naturally what was there died and we got the last of the tomatoes and chillies off the plants and pulled them all out. It seemed then only natural to upgrade the system, add some more gizmos and gadgets, introduce some fish into the mix and see what happens.

Aquaponics is also organic as nothing is added to the water as the fish's waste provides the nutrients, so this was a plus and something we are keen to try and carry on.

Naturally Elliot has researched aquaponics extensively and as I write is wiring, building and programming ready for the fish to be introduced later today. Water testing is underway and we are as prepared as can be for this new system to take shape.

Updates and photos of our system and new little friends will come later today when we are all set up.

I'll leave you with an image of what our poor neighbours had to look down on from their place one night when the lights had been left on in the conservatory... they must have wondered who on earth had moved in next door...