Greens on floating raft - failure

My last experiment also regretfully failed. After being replanted into hydroponic system plants significantly withered.

Seeking for a reason of my failures I checked pH level of fertilizing solution. Test showed value of about 8. I was quite surprised with such a fast rise of pH level of solution. By adding some vinegar I adjusted acidity of solution back to 6. But when I checked pH level next morning it was 8 again. I repeated procedure of adding vinegar next 2 days in a row and both times next morning pH level was 8. I decided to check pH level of clay to find out if it is the cause of my problems. I put a handful of clay into 1 l of water for half a day and checked it's pH afterwards. Result of this test was 8 although in the beginning it was about 6. It became clear that clay was guilty in my previous failures also. I decided to use more neutral substrate for my following experiments. Most probably it will be coco-coir.

Greens on floating raft under LED-light

Finally I've received my order consisting of LED bulb. This is how LED bulb with red and blue diodes and 15W power looks like:

Wasting no time I prepared my self-made floating raft hydroponic system and filled it with fertilizing solution same amount and concentration as I described in my previous post. For this experiment I used basil and lettuce plants which grew in turf on my window sill.

After washing roots carefully I replanted basil and lettuce plants into pots filled with clay and installed them into hydroponic setup. After that I hanged LED-bulb above plants and switched it on.

Now I'll watch how my plants will develop. I hope that this experiment will be successful!

Replanting basil

I didn't update my blog for a while because of having a lot of urgent work to do. Meanwhile my basil plant has experienced some changes and transformations. I'd like to describe all of them in one post.
Plant has grown enough to be replanted to hydroponic setup. Zachary Jones advised me to replant it after first set of true leaves. Unfortunately I've skipped first leaves because extreme lack of time - I had to finish and defend my diploma-work. At the moment of replanting there were already few sets of leaves on the plant.

Besides, seedling which sprouted on clay also grew a bit taller. I carefully took basil plant out of its cup with turf on its roots.

I made deepening in clay inside my hydroponic setup and put my basil plant inside. After that my plant constantly received full dosage of fertilizer. Besides roots constantly received oxygen from aerator.

For first 3 days there were no changes. I started thinking that replanting was bad idea. But apparently this time was necessary for adaptation. Starting from day 4 basil started growing very fast. This is how it looked approximately a week after replanting:

Unfortunately the seedling which sprouted on clay died. I think - because of overflow. Hereafter I filled hydroponic setup with fertilizer on regular basis and watered leaves with dispenser. After 3 weeks basil grew very big.

It's leaves are sweet. Added to a salad or porridge they added wonderful aroma to a meal. I never noticed same quality with basil from a store.
I decided also to describe my observations about my first hydroponic setup. Its undeniable advantage is easiness. Such a setup is very easy to build and also to use. But on other hand it has also huge disadvantages. This is open type setup. As a result fertilizer evaporates very quickly. In one month I spent about 5 l of solution. In my opinion it is quite big amount. Second disadvantage is size of setup - about 2-3 plants can be planted only. Enlarging it would mean also increasing expenses on substrate (in this particular case - clay).

Basil

Surprisingly two of ten seeds which I planted straight into clay finally sprouted.

I added 50% solution to water in the setup and put it under sunlight. It is interesting how growing will develop.
Besides basil which I've planted in paper coffee-cup has grown much bigger.

I think that quite soon I will be able to replant it into my hydroponic setup.

The first basil sprout

One week have passed since I planted basil seeds. One of them finally sprouted.

This is sweet basil 'Holy'. Unfortunately other seeds died. I put a paper-cup with seedling to window sill to receive sunlight. Since now I'll have to water seedling 3 times per week and feed standard nutrient solution 2 times per week (info from http://hydroponeast.com website)
Besides Виталий Марин gave me an advice to try planting seeds directly to ceramsite. He also showed me a picture where this method gave him results. I decided to give it a try. I filled my hydroponic setup with water to which I added a bit of vinegar to keep pH level at about 6. Then I poured about 10 seeds into it, turned aerator on and covered setup with folded cheesecloth to keep seeds in darkness. Hope that this one will succeed.

2nd experiment - basil germination

This time following Zachary Jones advice I decided to germinate a plant which is easier to grow hydroponically - basil. Besides I decided to germinate seeds on turf. I was in need of special baskets for this purpose. I've seen them on foreign websites but didn't find anything alike in my city. I made decision to make  baskets by myself by cutting holes in paper coffee cups.

I learned from mistakes of my first experiment that pH level of substrate should be checked before planting seeds. Test showed pH level about 6 which is optimal for basil.

After filling cups with turf I planted seeds about 1 cm deep. I planted sweet basil Holy in 2 cups and Thai in another two.

I put cups into container and watered them well with warm water. In materials on growing basil which I have read it was mentioned that few days after planting seeds fertilizer shouldn't be used. Recommended water temperature - 22-24°С.

I placed container with cups into self-made growhouse described in one of my earlier posts. Recommended temperature for basil germination is 22-24°С but recommended air humidity 93-95%. Thermometer inside growhouse shows 22°С. I am worried about air humidity. Right now I don't have any tools to check it or keep at constant level. I decided to use a bottle with sprayer. I will spray water inside my growhouse few times every day. Now I have to wait few days for my seeds to germinate. Then I will move seedlings to window sill to continue growing under sunlight.