We have a place near us called Hydrotaste and the person who owns it developed a hydroponic gardening system that is supposed to be fairly simple to use. DH and I went to the free class last Saturday and like it. This systems allows you to grow 20 plants in a 3 foot by 3 foot area. We are looking at buying one of their large systems- it would be 10 of the HydroStackers- 20 plants in each - although we would only be planting 7 of them in the fall and 4 of the Hydrostackers 2 (made for growing root crops like carrots, asparagus and such. It will cost us a bit more than $1000 for the intial investment but we like the system and can move it without too much difficulty (a big deal for us).
I am looking at doing:
ROW 1- Tall stackers:
Stack 1: strawberries(4 plants) and herbs (i have at least 10-12 choosen out to do)
Stack 2: Boston Bib Lettuce and Spinach (these take about 21 days to grow in the stacks- so I was told plant 4 Bib in the top section and 4 spinach in the bottom week 1, plant 4 bib in 2nd and 4 spinach in the 2nd from bottom week 2, plant bib in middle section week 3. Week 4 top and bottom will be ready- replant top and cut off bottom (spinach doesn't need to be replanted- continue and will always have these ready until season is totally over.
Stack 3: broccoli and cauliflower on the bottom sections of the stack, peppers on the top 2 sections. Again plant a couple of each every week or 2 and then it somes in at different times.
Stack 4: beans- a variety of bush type beans
Stack 5: Peas- a variety of bush style beans- sugar snap and snow for sure- I am thinking about an english variety as well
Stack 6- tomatoes- regular and cherry- in only the top 3 baskets- we will use pvc pipe instead of the bottom 2 stackers
2nd row (low items- Stackers 2 and cucumbers with a small fence behind them to grow on)
Stack 1: carrots
Stack 2: scallions
Stack 3: potatoes
Stack 4: asparagus
Stacks 5/6: regular hydrostackers with only the bottom section with cucumbers- both slicing and pickling.
On the center we will need to put a 55 gallon trash can to be a reservoir.
We like the system- there are less expensive options- we like the no bending down and no weeds in the system. We do wish they had a way to recycle the water but understand the problems with purifying it.
We can add up to 2 more stack into the system before we would need a larger pump for watering and fertilizing. It looks like it will probably take about 4-5 hours to initially make the garden- setting up the stacks and planting the initial seeds.
Rebecca
