So, last year, I saw this commercial for this nifty hydroponic tower. I'm sure many of you have. And then you see how much it costs; wow. Well, that led me to Youtube, where I went down that rabbit hole for some time. Also, because I'm cheap, I settled on the idea that I'd play with growing some vegetables via static hydroponics. I didn't bother with a lot of the history, but it seems a guy named Kratky had a big hand in developing this method.

At the end of last season, I decided to try a winter experiment with this. I have a spare grow light, so I use it. I ordered some romaine lettuce seeds. I also had one last cherry tomato, and I decided to experiment with it. I cut the tomato in half, and put it in dirt. After a time, I had 2 plants!

Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly what went wrong, but I lost all of my lettuce seedlings before I could get started with them. But this gave me some more time to plan. I started prepping my containers, while I waited on my tomato plants to be big enough to transplant.

On Jan 1st, the experiment officially started. I put the two tomato plants in their jugs, with the nutrient solution. That same day, I started some sweet basil, and some more lettuce.

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I saw where someone managed to grow cantaloupe with this method, which led me to an experiment. I had a bunch of pumpkin seeds. What if I could grow them hydroponically? I started to germinate a few seeds...

The tomatoes suffered a little shock, going from soil to solution, but bounced back. I quickly saw the start of new seedlings, and waited. The romaine popped up quickly, and after 2 weeks, I started to see a pumpkin seedling. I did miss taking a picture after 1 week, but there wasn't much to show.

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Things progressed quickly. I now had 3 pumpkins, and was looking forward to starting a lot of lettuce. On the 19th, I put two of the pumpkins in the bucket, and one in it's own 2 1/2gal container. Forgive the paint can. You can see how happy the tomatoes and the lettuce look.

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I topped the containers off, and went on vacation for 8 days...

We got back from vacation late on the 3rd, and had a family loss. So, I didn't even think of looking at the plants until the 4th. When I discovered tragedy had struck my lettuce, again! I guess I didn't realize just how thirsty those suckers got in that short period of time. I tried to refresh it, but it was too late.

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But, you can see how quickly the tomatoes grew. I didn't get a good picture of the pumpkins that day. Back to the lettuce drawing board.

Next week, things got even bigger. I didn't realize that the tomatoes were going to get so crazy in size. The parent plant was container grown traditionally, and hadn't been that big. Of course, it wasn't getting 16 hours of light a day. At this point, it was too late to try and cage them. What the hell, it's just a winter time experiment. Lots of flowers developing, as well.

The pumpkins were really progressing well. In particular, I think that the single one, placed vertically in it's "pot", looks a little better.

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I had surgery on the 16th of Feb, so I didn't get down to take more pictures. I finally managed to get one this past weekend, which I need to upload. The tomatoes are going crazy, and throwing a lot of flowers.

The single sweet basil plant that I started in it's own container wound up not making it. Perhaps it wasn't mature enough when I started it. My lettuce seedlings are slowly proceeding, and I'll update when those are ready.

The pumpkins are the real surprise. I'm fairly certain they're all developing flower buds. These have gone far further than I would have thought. I'm honestly not sure what to do with the plants, at this point. By the end of April, when it's safe to plant here, they will likely be out of control. I may have to end that experiment.

Where is all of this headed, you ask? Well, here's my outdoor plan.

I am going to have at least two buckets of tomatoes; Roma and Cherry. I'm also going to have a bucket with everbearing strawberries going. I'll likely be doing some various peppers, as well.
I do plan on growing the romaine lettuce and sweet basil inside, since I know lettuce tends to like being cooler. I'll grow them under light, in my basement, where it will be cool.

The indoor pumpkin experiment has made me decide to definitely experiment with growing them outdoors, in the bucket. Once again, I'll only start with a couple of plants, since I don't know yet that they will indeed produce. I'm planning on keeping these on the deck, instead of on the ground. I'm trying to determine how viable it could be for someone to grow some in an urban environment.

OST

This picture was taken on the 25th. The pumpkin leaves are getting huge.
As soon as my rockwool arrives, I'll be moving some of the lettuce to that, and into their containers.
I'll be starting a few spinach, as well as the sweet basil, if I can mature some healthy plants.

I will be growing the leafy vegetables in the basement, under light. I know they prefer it cooler. Additionally, I'll be trying a few of each in my outdoor garden, and compare results; though I expect my indoor harvest much sooner.

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Excellent thread.

I've done the outdoor Dutch bucket method for the past two years with mixed results. Cucumbers and squash loved it and went ballistic, tomatoes did well and the peppers were just ok and need some refinement.

If youre interested in xping w/different systems, you might look through Hoocho's channel. He builds a large number of different types of hydroponic systems, usually they're pretty clever.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DFOHCzzuSlS8vyrvMq7Ng

I've been messing w/hydroponics for about 4 years now. A few random tips that might make things easier for you-

Try to make sure your containers are light fast, especially outside ones, it helps prevent algae and root rot.
You'll prob get both at some point, you can treat w/h2o2, I usually had about a 60% recovery rate
You might want to get an air pump for larger resoviors, they help keep away the problems and oxygenate the water, and they're pretty cheap
Gravel and lava rock both work pretty well as a growing medium, and are cheaper and easier to get than stuff like hydroton
And I'll prob think of some other irritants that happened and how to avoid them later on
Actually, one way to avoid irritants I just thought of, is that you want to try to be scrupulous with cleaning your plants off if you xfer them inside form outside, aphids, spidermites and all kinds of pests love indoor grows, no predators to eat them. This includes sterilizing soil and some growing medias

For indoor growing I settled on a drain to waste irrigation type system with the plants rooted in a mix of coir, vermiculite and perlite. Its really almost maintenance free once I get the plants going, I just have the keep the res filled.

I haven't heard of someone xfering into rockwool, usually thats used to start, then the cube goes into whatever system you have. But if you think you'll be using much of that the best bang for your buck w/it is to buy the big slabs and cut them up. Lets you customize the size, too. Greenhouse megastore has the best prices on those.. but they recently upper their free shipping to 150$, but they also have the best prices on rootpouch growbags, which are considered among the best, so it might be worth it for some.  

Some good info, thanks. Responses in red above.

The pumpkins still look good. Flowers may open this week. The tomato plants still look a little weak. I'm not sure what is going on there. The water levels are good. Maybe I should lower the light down and see how they respond.

Last week, I put some spinach seeds in rockwool. Not seeing anything yet. Yesterday I transferred 3 romaine lettuce to hydro containers. These, I think I'll keep inside. I'll start some more seeds soon, and place a few outside to see how they do.

As rapidly as the tomato plants took off before, I'm planning to hold off until the end of this month to start the seeds for the outdoor hydro setup. Same for the pumpkins.

Yeah, Kraty works fine, but IME the water starts to get suspect and can cause problems after refilling it a few times. If its reasonably convenient I'll put a pump and airstone into the container, it helps keep the water in better condition and it gives a bit better results. Pretty much all the hydroponics I do are inside, though, when I've done a couple outside it usually has been plain passive hyro up till now.

Good info for me to consider, thanks.

I transferred 3 of the Romain to containers. 2 are looking good, the other slightly behind. While the lower parts of the tomatoes are ugly, the plants overall seem to be happy enough to produce fruit.

The pumpkins are at least, teaching me some things. The tubing to hold them needs to be longer, and put in quicker. I'm pretty sure that the 2 horizontal ones pinched themselves from the weight. The vertical is getting too heavy to maintain itself in the container. Making longer foam support isn't working as well as I'd hope. I need to think of something else. I'm not certain about trying again outside, but I'll let these plants keep teaching me.

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I've got seeds starting for Roma, more cherry, and spinach. Those are all intended for outside.

I think my lettuce is going to take over.

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