New Hydro Grow Starting...Basil doing well

17 years ago

In case anyone's interested in looking, I've got a new grow started. This time trying for basil, rosemary, and some other herbs for cooking. My last venture was jalapenos.

I'm using a flood/drain tray that I put together myself with parts from the hardware store. So far things are working well..the toughest hurdle to overcome was the low low temperature of our basement.

I am also tracking temperature, ph, tds, etc twice daily in a database online so I can see trends over time.

Is anyone else growing in a cold basement? What temp is your nute solution?

Our basement hovers in the mid to upper 50s this time of year, and my nute solution is being heated to 75. I've also built a greenhouse-type chamber to keep the plants warm which has seemed to help spur them along.

Happy to answer questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos and Information on my setup

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Comments (8)

posix337
17 years ago
Hello!

I've recently started with indoor growing, my starting garden consists of False Alarm Jalapeno's, Best Boy Tomatos (Determinate), and Some Habeneros.

I've also got seeds for Basil, and Rosemary that I'm about to start. Your basil has inspired me.

I grow in my basement, but it's not as cold as yours, my furnace is in the same room, and I use a fan to move the excess heat around. I've also cranked the heat up to a cosy 72 in the rest of the downstairs.. about as low as I go is mid 60's.

Currently I'm only nursing seedlings in rockwool, and I mix my nutes in a 2 liter bottle that I keep on the seedling heat mat. I used a vegetable tray with a cover to start my seedlings. I'm running that at ~85 degrees.

My Tomatos were sprouted in about 72 hours, the FA Jals took another couple of days, My first habenero just popped up after 7 days. All of which are excellent times from what I read. So far so good, now if I can keep from killing them some other way...

I've checked your site out, and it's awesome, I particularly like the graphs, I would love to track my setup in this fashion as well. However it'll be a bit before I can get a nice PH and PPM monitor.

I have pictures of the beginnings of my setup here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Pepper Hydro
habman
17 years ago
I like your site. Very nice.
I also grow hot peppers and herbs in hydro.Got started this year in december.
What kind of basil are you growing? It looks completly different then my Genovese Basil.
I have fail to grow in hydro greek oregano and my wild thym is not doing very well.
But my basil and peppers are doing great.
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nicepants
Original Author
17 years ago
I think it's either Lemon Basil or Sweet basil. (I've got seeds for several types.) I think I have seeds for Genovese as well and will start some of that eventually as well.

I appreciate the compliments on the site. I wanted to make it a useful information resource for anyone from the casual visitor to the hydro nut. The graphs are a new addition. I have been tracking my PH/TDS...and now Temperature/humidity in a database for a while now, and recently added these graphs. They automatically update when new information is added to the database, so all I have to do is take my readings. It's great to be able to visually see how things are changing over time.

I had some oregano and thyme in my last grow. Neither did very well, but I attribute most of that to the Jalapenos taking over. I've got Oregano and Rosemary germinating now. I'm especially looking forward to the rosemary.

Great setup, Posix. You might find a good PH/TDS on e-bay. I use a Hanna Gro-Check combo...think it cost me around $125.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydro de Nicepants
loves2grow
17 years ago
I see your setup and it looks good. nice hooded light.
here's what I would suggest. Get some good heavy tarps and hang them around your table your plants are setting on. It looks like you could do that from the ceiling. or make a little frame. Under your table, if the tarps are long enough, you can get some Compact fluro bulbs and setup a nice cloning table there, you have potential for a nice setup. That lamp will warm them up nicely. You can get a small 6" inline fan from Home Depot and put it on one end of your Hood and it will help exhaust some of the heat. You may need a little humidifier to help keep the air a little moist and moving around. I garden in my basement and it's cold. I have tarps hanging around my gardening area and it helps keeping the heat in.
frozen_man
17 years ago
From my experience Thyme does better with a weaker nutrient solution than what is commonly used for Basil and Peppers. I think the Thyme is used to growing in poor soil conditions....
frozen_man
17 years ago
Can you get it up off of the floor? Plastic container not in contact with cold floor + hot air rises.
oldclunker
17 years ago
Put an aquarium heater in the solution. This will boost the root growth and in turn help your plants grow larger and more productive. Keep the solution around 75 degrees F
kinderella
17 years ago
Hi all, I'm a hydro enthusiast and am taking the garden indoors. I've previously transplanted basil from dirt to rockwool cubes to have basil through winter and it worked well.

I'm now trying two things - first, I've taken a Costco rootball of strawberries and will try to veg them in a Baby Bloomer with a 6 gallon reservoir and tray above. I'm also trying my hand at seedlings for my new garden. I've recently purchased a home and have always wanted a vegetable garden. I'm great at cloning but was briefly unsuccessful starting from seed so I stopped. Now I'm at it again. The Baby Bloomer is my set up with a heating pad set at 85 degrees. The ambient temperature is approximately 60-70 degrees and the tray floods daily.

Question: For seeds, do I need to have lights on for 24 hours or can I cycle 18 on, 6 off?

New Hydro Grow Starting...Basil doing well

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New Hydro Grow Starting...Basil doing well

Comments (8)

posix337

habman

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loves2grow

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