First plant

Now is time to put in the plants. I had one Jalapeño plant that was on death's door, so I decided it would make a good first candidate for the system.

I will be using a type of deep water culture (DWC) system, which means the roots of the plant are suspended in a nutrient solution. This usually consists of a reservoir of nutrient solution with an air supply. Due to frequent power outages, such a system that depends on 24/7 electricity is not an option, so I'm doing an experiment, the roots will be suspended in the air, but just touching the surface of the water. Hopefully they will get enough air while still being able to reach the nutrient solution. I've seen this demonstrated before and apparently it does work. we will see.

First I cut open a 1.25 liter soda bottle to serve as the reservoir, and put a Styrofoam cup with holes poked in it to serve as a net pot. For a growing medium I am using cotton balls and coral chunks that behave much like hydroton, which i found washed up on the beach.

Hydroponic nutrients are not available here, So I bought some 20-20-20 in the capital which was sold by kilogram. Standard fertilizers like this lack something called micronutrients, which is what sets hydroponic fertilizers apart. However, if you look closely on the bag to see what its made up of it is possible to find regular household fertilizers that do in fact have micronutrients. One of the keys is magnesium, this one's got it.

Next, I take the plant out of the soil and wash all the dirt off of the roots, then wrap whats left in wet cotton. Afterwards, center it in the grow medium.

And we're ready to grow! I started spray painting the bottle so as to keep algae from growing inside, but ran out of spray paint. So later on I wrapped the bottles in foil and it seems to be a good solution. I even put in a bluetooth speaker to play music for the plants. Might sound crazy, but its been proven on many occasions that music aids plant growth. The same with talking to them.

 Finally, here are the foil wrapped reservoirs, with some newly added Oregano plants.

What are the different types of grow lights?

There is no shortage of sunlight here in the Caribbean, but as explained in another post there are compelling reasons to grow indoors. Professional grow lights can be very expensive, but you might be surprised what you can come up with on your own, so long as you are aware of a few basic principles.

Firstly, when it comes to light more is always better. But intensity is not at all the only factor. You want lights that will be efficient and not produce too much heat, which could risk burning your plants. There are several major types of bulbs each with their advantages and disadvantages.

1. Incandescent
These are your typical household bulbs. They produce a yellowish-white light and are very cheap and very common. They are also completely useless for growing plants indoors. They are terribly inefficient, giving off 80% of their energy as heat and only 10-20% as light. They get extremely hot, they don't last long, and the light they produce in no way resembles natural sunlight. The average household incandescent bulb uses 60-100 watts of power and only gives off about 800 lumens.

2. Fluorescent
Fluorescent bulbs are nothing new but are gradually replacing incandescent bulbs even in household use. They are many times more efficient, converting about 80% of their energy into visible light. They get warm, but not so hot that you can't touch them with your bare hand when they are on. This means little or no risk of damaging your plants if they grow into the light and touch the bulb. The light they produce much more closely resembles daylight, and they are inexpensive and common in many countries. Fluorescent bulbs come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Wattages can vary greatly. A 20 watt bulb can produce as much as 1,000 lumens.

3. Metal Halide
These are common in hydroponcis and indoor gardening, as they have a very high output. But they also use a lot of power. They are quite efficient, the only problem is they don't come in small sizes. They tend to be in the 400-1000 watt range and produce enough light to seem like there is a second sun in your closet. They get hot though, so if you go big with these you should think about cooling systems as well. Metal Halide bulbs are commonly seen in older street lamps and give off a blue-green light.

4. High pressure sodium (HPS)
Also common in large scale gardening and hydroponic systems, Very similar to metal halide bulbs, but using a different chemical reaction. They are equally bright, but slightly more efficient. The difference is mainly the color, these are bright yellow, usually these are used in combination with metal halides.

5. Light Emitting Diode panels
This is a new technology on the market of indoor gardening, I have experimented with it somewhat with mixed results, but I believe that it is by far superior to other grow lights. It also costs more. LEDs are extremely efficient and almost never burn out. They use a fraction of the electricity of a fluorescent bulb, but give off far more light. 120 watts of LED lights can easily be enough to grow large plants like tomatoes and chili peppers to fruiting stage. The light output may be deceptive, as they are often tuned to specific color spectrums. Be careful with high powered LED systems though, as looking directly into them can be like looking at the sun and damage your eyes. This is a good thing for your plants though.

So how do you decide what to use? Well I just use what I can get my hands on. In my case the only thing available was CFL fluorescent bulbs. But what really matters is providing what the plant needs.

Hydroponics with limited materials

One of the big challenges of designing a hydroponics system on an Island like this one, is the lack of materials. Some countries have big hydroponic supply stores where you can buy everything, even pre-made high end systems. In other places, you can still find nearly anything you need on the internet and have it shipped to you. Not so here. Where I live we don't even have a mail system, we can't even get letters mailed let alone packages. Also, even traditional garden centers do not exist in this country, gardening just isn't a thing. Farming is a thing, but here farming is walking into the jungle with a machete and chopping down any plant or fruit you need that just happens to be growing there.

Hardware stores, or "ferreterias" in spanish are a good resource. Here you can get basic materials like wire, pipe, tape, light bulbs etc. Nothing is labeled for gardening use so you need a bit of knowledge to know what to look for. Grow lights are not too difficult, My wife and I built our own grow light out of a metal shelf piece, tin foil, wire, and CFL bulbs. It has yet to catch fire, so thats good.

Selling seeds is rare also, so you will have to find most of you seeds in the wild, or take cuttings from the wild or from your neighbors (yes, I ask permission first). People here don't know Jalapeños, but I love them, so I went to the one market that sold them and bought the most shriveled up, over ripened Jalapeño they had. I got some strange looks for buying one single rotten pepper, but it was full of viable seeds. Sadly most of the sprouts died from salt and wind exposure, which is part of my inspiration for doing this hydrponic project. I also plan to grow lettuce, spinach, oregano and other herbs that are not available from the markets here.

I was able to find fertilizer in the capital on the mainland, but had to know what I was buying. Hydroponic nutrients can't be found here so I had to buy some other fertilizer by the kilogram, i'll go into more detail in another post.

In all I think I spent $10-15 on the entire setup, but it took some work and some creativity. In future posts I'll explain in detail each of the steps.