Food Security – Exploring Hydroponics Indoors

I decided to grow some of my seedlings indoor in my hydroponic pots. The idea is to figure out a method that works for me so that I can have fresh greens all year. I’d like to grow spinach, cherry tomatoes, small cucumbers, and possibly some other leafy green. But thus far, I have a bean plant, a tomato plant and a cucumber plant growing hydroponically and thus far they are doing great.

I am experimenting with homemade fertiliser solutions because I don’t want to buy my own. Relying on commercial hydroponic fertiliser would quickly get expensive and I am not looking to to sign up for more expenses. Luckily there are ways to make your own, and thus far it seems to be working well. I have tried a few hydroponic systems over the years and surprise surprise, the cheapest/free version was what worked the best. The fancy hydroponic system that I had did not work well at all and it was anything but practical.

Walk the unconventional path

Over the years I’ve pursued self-sufficiency, one thing in particular has stood out to me. The well marketed expensive options almost never work. The cheapest options, or even the free solutions, have worked better than anything else. People just want you to consume more and stick to the one way of doing things. The way that costs money.

Almost every single thing I have tried over the years have caused people to frown, shake their heads and tell me it will never work. And yet, the vast majority of the things I have tried have worked. They didn’t all turn out perfectly on the first try, but there have been very few failures.

I’ve been told there are very few things you can grow in containers, you can’t make your own fertiliser, you need a ton of space, growing food is expensive, growing food is too difficult, you’ll never be able to grow enough, it’s not worth it and so on and so forth.

People don’t care what you are doing as long as you are doing the same things they are. But the moment you decide to walk a different path, everybody has an opinion they’re determined to share with you.

If you have an idea, go for it. Try it out. If it works out, that’s great. If it needs a few tries, you’ll learn more each time. If it doesn’t pan out the way you hoped, you’ll learn even more. Truly, you cannot lose.

Canning jars

I have had a lot of canning jars over the years and some of them have a flat lid and a ring that goes on top. The company that sold the jars decided to stop selling the lids, and I haven’t been able to find any lids that fit them. Finally I decided what to do with them. I will turn them into hydroponic systems. I have a lot of them though, so I may still donate some. I need to get these little baskets that fit the mouth of the jars so that I can grow vegetables in them. Specifically, New Zealand spinach. That’s my favourite. The spinach sold in grocery stores is so expensive, so I’d rather grow it myself all year round.

Paper tape or brown wrapping paper

Either one will work. Just make sure the environment inside your hydroponic container of choice is dark. The roots do not want light. You can use. glass jars and tape or cover the outside with brown wrapping paper. You know the kind that’s used as packing material when you order online? That one works well. You can also use a large plastic storage box, tape the outsides if it is see through, drill holes in the lid and get started. You really don’t need much money, if any, to start growing your food hydroponically. You can even set up your vertical systems with PVC pipes. There are so many solutions out there just waiting for you to try them out.

As for the little net baskets, you can get at least ten of them for like a dollar.

I’ll keep you posted on how the plants fare.

Would you like to grow growing your food without soil?

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