Hey greenhorns. This week was mostly the horizontal hydroponic system I have been building from scratch. I am learning it as I go, which is the honest truth of most things around here. One loose end from last week first. That sunk tire is still down in the pond, and I do not have a verdict on the mint yet. That takes a whole season to tell, so I am waiting on it.
The build
Part two of the build went up this week and landed with more than fourteen thousand of you. Here is part one and part two if you want to follow the whole thing in order. What I liked most was the comments. One of you wrote that you can start from almost just sticks and tubes, and that is close to the truth. You do not need a fancy kit to grow this way. A few of you also asked the fair questions about organic feeds and the supplements in the water. That is exactly what I get into in part three, where I show how we handle organic in this system. Soil is still doing the heavy lifting in my beds while I dial it in.
On YouTube
The newest one is up here. I made a joke about the first step sinking in, and one of you wrote back that step one did sink in. Another said you know the joke was good when your eyes roll. I will take it. Corny is a family trait.
What I would tell you before you build one
If you want to try one yourself, here is what I have picked up so far that you will not catch just watching the clips.
Start cheap. You can rig a working setup out of tubes, cups, a small pump, and a bucket for the water. Do not go buy the expensive kit for your first one. Build the ugly version, learn on it, then decide if you even like growing this way.
Sand your holes before you put the cups in. One of you flagged this in the comments and it is the best note I got all week. When you drill the openings for the net cups, you leave little plastic shavings behind. If those work loose later they ride the water straight into your pump and can gum it up. Thirty seconds with a bit of sandpaper on each hole saves you that headache. I would not have thought of it on my own.
And keep your soil beds going while you experiment. Hydroponics is a fun side project for me right now. The dirt is still where most of my food comes from.
In the app
We also put out an update to the Garden-to-Table Companion this week, and it is a practical one. The calendar now has Day, Week, and Month views so you can look at just today or the whole month without hunting. When you set it up, it asks which days you actually have time, and your watering, weeding, and feeding land on those days. Finish a task and the next one reschedules off of what you logged, so the plan follows your real week. The crop list is alphabetized and searchable now, you can set an exact planting date, and you can check off a task right from the list. We also fixed a crash some of you were hitting on launch.
From the comments
A bunch of you have tomatoes coming in. One greenhorn asked for a marinara you can actually can and keep in the pantry, from a whole season of tomatoes. I made Mom's version last week, so if you grow paste tomatoes like some of you mentioned, start saving them.
Reply and tell me what you are growing this year that you want to put up for the winter.
Most watched this week was me breaking down some watering myths, then part two of the build.