Hydroponic Microgreens & Peppers
I have held for a few years now, though may not have expressed in so many words, that I would love to be a farmer.
I have held for a few years now, though may not have expressed in so many words, that I would love to be a farmer.
The ground is on a single plane, and only so much can be grown and sown, it stands to reason, multiple planes would allow more to be grown. The height of any given plant would be limited, but with plants such as microgreens you don’t need a lot of vertical room to grow! That and in the future, I’d love to grow and sell microgreens, as turns out it is easy, and they are a bit of a cash crop.
With this in mind, and no job but travel over the summer, I decided to build a hydroponic grow rack, to experiment and see what I can grow! Only recently have I had the time to sit down and write about it.
Planning and Building
I drew up some plans for a Nutrient Film growing system (NFT), which I have been unable to find, but the idea can be seen here. The basic idea was to build a PVC pipe rack, with four different tiers where the microgreen trays would be placed. Plastic tubing would be used to have water flow to each layer, and a slight angle to each layer would cause the water to pour through the system, recycling whatever wasn’t absorbed by the plants! Below pictures of the assembly can be seen, there were a few different trials I went through to get the final design, but it works very well!
One change I made to the final design not pictured here, is how I ended up putting the whole PVC rack in a larger storage bin. This allowed me to more easily add water, and I didn’t have to fill up the water as much.
It worked very well overall, and while it was a bit leaky at times, some duct tape and hot glue kept that in check for the most part.
Growing
I bought some seeds online, later discovering the local seed store North End Organic Nursery where I could purchase seeds much more cheaply and avoiding shipping costs. For the first batch I used a hemp fibre that worked really well, and later experimented with a reusable growing medium that worked alright.
After a three day blackout period, I placed each of the trays on the rack to see how it grew! I had Mizuna, Mustard, and Spicy Radish microgreens.
For the first batch of micros, a few small things failed on me, first was the pump which quit and didn’t provide enough pressure to get water to the top level. The second thing was that one of the leaks led to the shorting of the lights which I had to replace. I had a few extra trays, so I filled those with water, set them outside, and let them grow a bit there until I could get a replacement pump.
Once replaced, the pump worked very well and after a little over a week, I had some good microgreens growing! I continued growing microgreens over the summer, selling a few ounces here and there, but most giving them away, and once trading a few ounces of microgreens for bread which I found quite quaint. I have since stopped consistently growing the microgreens due to the limited time I have on my hands during school, but I am looking forward to picking it back up this summer or early in the Spring!
Peppers
It was around this time that I learned that a family friend had grown some peppers using a hydroponic method known as Aeroponics where the roots are suspended and water is sprayed on them. In exchange for some microgreens, I borrowed his system, and with some nutrients and advice from him, I started growing some peppers!
After a few weeks, and some trial and error with the nutrient balance, I got some baby peppers! My initial plan was to dehydrate the peppers and chop them into a powder that could be put in burritos and dip, but as I didn’t end up having very many nor very large peppers, I opted to keep them as pepper chips. I also purchased the wrong types of peppers, so they were all sweet peppers, so they served better as chips anyway.
I’m hoping to do better this next summer when places are selling pepper plants again, I think I messed up the nutrient balance early on, throwing the natural cycle out of rhythm and hence diminishing my potential yield.
Conclusion
With the trials this summer, I’d not only like to take what I learned into future summers, but also whatever farm I hope to live in in the future. I put together a rough spreadsheet documenting potential earnings which was fun. It all seems overly optimistic, but with it does give a good idea of what is possible when growing efficiently.
I also have attached a few links that I’ve found helpful during my research, and if anyone is reading this, and is interested, hopefully it’ll be helpful to you as well!
Bootstrap Farmer is where I bought my trays for the rack, initially my order was wrong, but they corrected this by sending me the right trays, and letting me keep the ones they had sent, so I’d wholeheartedly recommend them!
Learn How to Grow Microgreens at Home: Bootstrap Farmer
Another Bootstrap Farmer link, with good information and growing guides
In case anyone wants to see my math and tell me how wrong it is or how rich I can be by following through on it all.
Good luck, and great growing to you all! Gage Coprivnicar