Earlier this month, we announced that two Realityworks marketers, Emily and Allen, were on a quest to grow fresh, healthy food hydroponically for the first time ever. Allen took home our Plant Mini Educational Hydroponics System, while Emily is maintaining greens in our Plant Lab Educational Hydroponics System at our corporate headquarters. Their goal: to find out how hard hydroponics is for beginners – and share tips and ideas along the way.
When we posted our first blog about two weeks ago, both Allen and Emily’s plants were still germinating in Emily’s Plant Lab system. One of the many benefits of hydroponics is the speed with which plants grow to full-term, and these plants are no exception!
In the last two weeks they’ve gone from this…
… to this:
Getting started: Allen’s experience
As we shared a couple of weeks ago, Allen is using our Plant Mini Educational Hydroponics System to grow rosemary, dill, oregano and basil. As soon as the seeds he germinated in Emily’s Plant Lab system were ready, Allen got to work setting up the water and nutrients in his system so the started plants could be placed in the tray.
A learning opportunity
Unfortunately, Allen’s experience started with a problem: low pH in his unit. Following the troubleshooting directions in the Quick Start Guide that accompanies each system, Allen began adding water and checking the pH and EC a few times a week, in addition to checking root growth and overall plant health daily. After a few days, his pH balanced out and his small-but-quickly growing plants are looking great!
Allen documented his efforts in a vlog. Check it out below:
Getting started: Emily’s experience
Emily is using our Plant Lab system to grow spinach, kale and lettuce. Along with Allen’s seeds, Emily planted her seeds at our corporate headquarters following the instructions in her Quick Start Guide. After planting, Emily took her seeds home to germinate in the sun. Germinating in the hydroponics unit using its lights is also an option, but since Realityworks employees work largely from home, Emily simply brought her plants home so she could watch them and keep the rockwool damp.
Another learning opportunity!
After 5 days, Emily brought them in to grow in her Plant Lab system, where she reports they grew at a much faster rate. At this point, however, Emily also encountered a problem: Her spinach seeds did not take off. She suspects it’s due to the rare type of seeds; however, her kale seeds were from 2020 and they are still growing well:
Lessons from getting started: Tips for the first two weeks
So, what have Emily and Allen learned in their first two weeks of hydroponics gardening?
- Check the pH and EC regularly. Your EC test checks for the electrical current in the water. If it’s low, there aren’t enough nutrients in the water and you need to add some. If it’s high, you have too many nutrients. Your pH test is the opposite: if pH is high, there aren’t enough nutrients in the water and you need to add some. If pH is low, you have too many nutrients and should add water.
Tip: If your pH is high and EC is low, as Emily experienced, try putting 1 teaspoon of nutrients in the water, then letting the water run for a few days.
- Kale still grows after being dropped! Emily dropped some of her kale plants while putting them in her unit, and they are still growing
- When you’re putting the plants into the rockwool, make sure the roots are touching water
- Leave an empty space towards the front middle of your hydroponics system so you have some where to get water samples and add nutrients
- Label your plants so you know which plants are which! According to Emily, they moved their plants around so much it that was hard to keep them straight
- If something doesn’t work the first time, try it again! It might take off the next time.
This tip comes directly from our Subject Matter Expert (SME) Dave, who helped develop Realityworks’ hydroponics systems. Teachers, this is a great opportunity for your students to hypothesize, test and re-test!
Next: Growth check-in
As of this blog post, both Allen and Emily’s plants are growing well. Additional plants have started germinating in Emily’s Plant Lab unit to take the space of the spinach plants that did not grow.
Stay tuned to learn how these novice growers are doing a month into this effort, and what they are doing to keep their plants happy.
Resources for learning more about hydroponics for beginners
- Download our Educational Hydroponics Systems Overview to get a better understanding of how hydroponics works and what makes the systems Emily and Allen are using so unique
- You can also watch our recent webinar, “Grow Learning with Hydroponics Educational Systems: A Panel Discussion.” During this 40-minute presentation, you’ll hear from Realityworks marketers Emily and Allen about their hydroponics growing experience and Realityworks Education Programs Manager Jamey McIntosh on the best ways to teach with hydroponics. You’ll also discover a variety of free hydroponics resources:
