My version of Kratky non-circulating hydroponics

I learned about Kratky's research from Mike Adams (The Health Ranger). Mike has created a stir with his new website teaching people how to grow food in plastic bins. I really appreciated Mike's videos showing how to build his system. I love his passion and his transparency. That said, I do have a critique: He is touting his plans for a float that you can 3D print out of a special filament that he helped to design. That's fine, but one of the selling points of his campaign is that we all will be building his new grow boxes after an EMP. Um, how are we going to fire up the 3D printers after an EMP?

So, I thought about how he's building his Food Rising Mini-Farm Grow Box. And, I decided to put something similar together with the items I have around the house or could easily (and affordably) acquire in town.  A year ago, I bought a couple planters on legs from Rite Aid for $25 each. They are very nice actually. I'm not sure how well they would hold up outside because they are brittle plastic. But, they do well inside in my dining nook. I had two 10-gallon fish tanks hooked up (one to each planter) for aquaponics. The aquaponics did nicely for a while. But, with time, the plants faded in vigor. I believe they needed more nutrition than the fish can provide. So, I chose to disconnect one of the planters to use in this test of the Kratky non-circulating hydroponics.

Here's the planter. Don't peek at the other thing yet <wink>. The black cylinder in the middle is part of the drain that I purchased last year off Amazon. It's a Botanicare Ebb and Flow fitting that I love. With two extensions, it is the perfect height to both keep the water full in the planter and also support the center of the foam top that I will install. I don't have the media filter attached (as I'm not actually using the drain most of the time for this type of system. I expect I'll only need it when I flush the planter as needed to keep the salts down.)

I went to Home Depot and looked around until I found something I liked for the top. It's a piece of foam insulation with a reflective covering on one side. I especially liked that it said it won't mold. I cut the piece of foam with a camping knife by eyeballing the measurements. Hey, this is gardening, not architecture. I chose the reflective side for the top thinking that it would be a nice addition to help warm my plants and bounce the light back up. Maybe that will help promote bushier growth? That side also looks more water-resistant. I like to mist the plants.

Once I got it the size I liked for the top, I flipped it over to cut holes for the 2-inch net pots. I switched to my fishing knife as it's much better in those tight spaces. Basically, put the pot where you want it, outline it with a pencil mark, and then cut a little bit inside the pencil mark so that the lip of the pot will sit on top of the foam board.

Flip the board back over and nestle your pot into the hole. The foam is very forgiving and also creates a snug fit for the pot.

Repeat for as many pots as you would like to install in the foam top. I took a break here because I had forgotten to soak my coconut coir. Plenty of other things to do on the farm while I waited. Of course, one of my favorites (not necessarily what I "should" be doing) is to visit my goats.

My 8-year-old herd matron, Limerick, (gold with blue eyes) with her yearling daughter, Rondeau. Poem, Limerick's 3-year-old granddaughter, is in the back.

Here is yearling Chanson with her mom Mikado. Two-year-old Hailey is the chocolate buckskin on the right. I'm losing daylight here, so eyes are starting to glow.

Here is Poem's yearling daughter, Virelai. She is so sweet! Virelai means an old song or poem. Do you see a pattern with last year's names? (Virelai, Rondeau, Chanson).

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming....

I've planted all the baby greens that I picked up at Valley Nursery in the net pots using coconut coir.

After I took that plants out of their little plastic prisons, I gently rinsed the planting mix from the roots in a bucket of water. Then, I carefully unraveled the tap root and poked it through the bottom of the net pot. I hope this will help the plants to grow their root systems down into the nutrient-rich water. The idea with the Kratky method is that you allow the water to slowly evaporate, so a set of air roots develops near the lid of the enclosure, and the tap roots lengthen down as the water recedes.

Next, I took the planter back into my dining nook. I filled it with water from the kitchen sink.

Here, I am testing the ppm of my tap water in the City of Poulsbo. I bought this TDS meter from Amazon on the recommendation of Mike Adams in his video where he showed how to assemble one of his grow boxes.

By the way, all the indoor pictures are pretty yellow because I've got my Mini-Sunburst mounted above this planter. The other planter has a Hydrofarm Fluorowing above it, which I think I like better.

I had ordered a bunch of Ultraclean Super Plant Food from Mike Adam's Supply Source a couple weeks ago, but it hadn't arrived yet. So, I picked up a container of FoxFarm 3-2-6 plant food for hydroponics systems at Valley Nursery today.  I added a couple splashes to the water in the planter to get the ppm to around 900.

Below the planter is the fish tank full of platies with a couple guppies, a couple corydoras catfish, and an algae eater. It used to be hooked up for aquaponics. Eh, but what is with the weird little fence? Pitiful attempt at quaint? Nah, our young cats that we adopted in September (after Teddy died) have decimated any kind of plant life that they find. I'm hoping this can be a temporary fix until they are trained to stop eating PEOPLE food!

Here's another view of the setup. I just misted the plants.

Oh, and I added another lovely item: a screeching alarm that will trigger if one of our cats tries to put his little paws up on the edge of the planter.

So, we shall see how this all works out. I am still learning. I am grateful for the insights I gathered from The Health Ranger. If anyone else has any advice, I'm all ears. Just comment on the blog post.

I'd especially like to learn why my plants don't continue to thrive on the aquaponics system after a few months. I am not sure how to increase the nutrition for the plants without causing issues for the tropical fish. My other tank will still be aquaponics (at least that's my opinion today). I have various tetra, a blue gourami, a red-tailed shark, and an algae eater in there.

I have some foam insulation left and lots of net pots and coconut coir. So, I hope to create some other small non-circulating hydroponic grow boxes that I will set out in the garden or the hoop house.

Update: I just got off the phone with a nice lady at Fox Farm Fertilizers. She said I can mix up a foliar spray with the Grow Big to use on the aquaponics plants. That won't bother the fish. Hooray!