A Fun Way to Grow Food in your Garage

 Hydroponics is a fun way to garden in the winter in St. George. Here are some lettuce and kale that I am growing in my garage right now.

Kratky Jar Method Find dark wide mouth jars or paint any similar jar with  black paint. The dark jar prevents algae from growing in the water .

Here's what else you need: 3" net cups, clay pebbles or other inert substance to hold the plant, plant food (I use a 4-18-38 hydroponic soluble fertilizer and calcium nitrate which is 15-0-0.) and two buckets in which to dissolve your two fertilizers. 

The fertilizers are dissolved separately and mixed together as you fill the jars.  You need 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water.  My buckets hold two gallons so I put 1 teaspoon fertilizer in each bucket and then fill it to the brim. 

The reason you have to buy the fertilizers separately is because they will lose their unique qualities if processed together as solids.  Hydroponic farmers only mix the two together at the point of use.

Lighting

The light I use is a T5 LED fixture I got at Walmart for $10.  I hung it from the cabinet above the desk.  This type of light is good for leafy veggies but may not have the light spectrum needed for flowering plants, like strawberries.  Although, I notice that the strawberry plant in the picture has a blossom!

THAT'S IT FOR TODAY.  I AM HAVING FUN EXPERIMENTING WITH ALL THIS.  I HOPE SOME OF YOU MIGHT TRY IT TOO.

In case you are wondering where I got my fertilizer, I found it at Steve Regan's on Industrial Drive.  When the numbers didn't make sense, meaning the low nitrogen in 4-18-38, I called the company.  I knew there was no enough nitrogen to grow leafy greens with just a '4'.  The representative explained to me about the very inexpensive Calcium Nitrate, 15- 0- 0 that you can get anywhere and why they don't package them together.  (Thank goodness, I have a background in college chemistry!) But you don't need it. Let me know if you have any questions.