Starting Gardening at The Beginning of The Year - My Hydroponic Journal #13

Hello everyone and all members of the hive garden community, how are you today? I'm happy, I can come back to share stories about the hydroponic gardening activities that I do. Usually, every Monday I will keep a hydroponic journal, which is a summary of my gardening activities and the progress of the vegetables I grow. However, last Monday I went out of town because I had to mourn the death of my cousin. Okay, let's just get started with what's been going on for the past two weeks in my hydroponic garden.

Quality of Vegetable Seeds

In the last Hydroponic Journal, I told about my activities in seeding large quantities of pakcoy vegetables. At that time, I used seeds from East West Seed in large packages. I planted pakcoy seeds in about 600 planting holes, and only about 60% sprouts. I'm thinking and trying to analyze, whether the seeds are of poor quality or I have the wrong method of sowing.

Many factors make the viability of the seeds low. Seed viability is the ability or power to grow seeds that can be observed by looking at growth symptoms. The influencing factors exist externally and internally. External factors such as careless seed storage, or how to sow seeds that are not in accordance with procedures and standards. Internal factors are also like seeds that are not of good quality.

The non-uniform seed growing conditions made it impossible for me to plant these vegetables at the same time. Only a few that I can grow in my hydroponic media. In addition, the lettuce seeds that I sow also have etiolation problems. Etiolation is an abnormal condition in plants, which is caused by plants growing in the dark. At that time, because of my condition, the lettuce that I was sowing was not exposed to direct sunlight, so that it became etiolated.

lettuce seeds are etiolated

Pakchoy or Bokchoi Development

Pakcoy seeds that grow there are about 300 planting holes. Everything I move to the hydroponic media that I have. I transplanted these pakchoy seeds on January 5, 2022. In the hydroponic system, each vegetable seed will be placed in a netpot, and then covered with flannel. Flannel fabric aims to help absorb water in hydroponic media to vegetable seeds. The uniqueness of the hydroponic system is that each seed is in one planting medium (rockwool) so that we can control or observe its development easily.

The pakchoy that I plant uses hydroponic liquid fertilizer with a water concentration of about 800 ppm. Based on the literature, pakchoy requires a water concentration of 1000-1400 ppm. Why did I set it below standard? I've been doing this since 3 times the last planting period, and the results are also quite satisfactory. I want to reduce the burden of using fertilizer a little bit.

You can see, all the pakchoy seeds that I planted are growing optimally and the green color is very beautiful. Next week, I want to share tips for protecting vegetables from pests by using some organic ingredients found in our kitchens.

Harvesting Mint Leave

I also grow a lot of mint leaves in my hydroponic installation. If all the vegetables I grow in hydroponic media in the form of Styrofoam. But for mint leaves I specially grow them in pipes. This is because mint leaves grow and develop better if planted in flowing or circulating water.

I got a lot of mint leaf orders this week. Some coffee shops, restaurants, and cafes order my mint leaves for every dish or drink they sell on their premises. In addition, I also had an herbalist who used mint leaves as therapy or medicine to reduce dependence or addiction to cigarettes. I wanted to ask how to use mint leaves to get rid of smoking addiction but the herbalist instead offered to come to his place.

Mint is a type of plant that can be harvested at any time and is difficult to die. However, the treatment must be optimal and good. We must regularly check the quality of the roots of this plant. Mint leaves have very thick roots and can curl. This root condition can sometimes block the flow of water and can have a bad impact on plants.

Apart from harvesting, I also cut or trim the roots of all these mints. You can see the condition of the roots in the photos above. In the past, I did not clean these roots and made the water not flow, I was not aware at the time, and made my plants at the bottom die because there was no running water.

The Condition of My Mydroponic Garden

I took this photo on Sunday, January 9, 2022. Some of the pakchoy that I planted have grown bigger than the photo a few days before. I have also prepared the kangkong seeds for planting. The condition of my hydroponic garden is still a lot that is empty, and this must be planted as soon as possible. Some of my customers have called and asked if any vegetables are ready.

Okay, this is my Garden Journal this time, not much I can tell. See you in my next journal.

About Author

_{Call me Isdarmady, because I have a full name that is very long, namely Isdarmady Syahputra Ritonga. I am a head of the family who work as Farmers Vegetables Hydroponic and Consultant Hydroponics, sometimes I also sell coffee from various regions in Indonesia.

I have expertise dispensing coffee with a variety of techniques and tools brewing, because I have the desire to make a coffee shop with hydroponics as centerpieces. Help me realize that dream.}

_{Thanks for read, vote, re-blog and support me in Hive. Maybe god will reward the kindness, let’s success together.}