This man threw out the rules of gardening to grow all he needed for a salad in a tote! Jeb Gardener wondered if he could grow the vegetables hydroponically – a method of growing plants without soil using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. Jeb plants a radish, romaine and butter crunch lettuce, cilantro and two Nantes Coreless carrots.
Jeb breaks all the traditional gardening “rules” and actually makes watching growing a salad in a tote a fascinating adventure!
For his hydroponic salad, Jeb provided a few more details in the YouTube description:
“I grew a radish, romaine and butter crunch lettuce, cilantro, and 2 Nantes Coreless carrots in a 3 gallon Rubbermaid tote with square holes cut in the lid for the 1.5 inch Grodan Rockwool cubes,” he writes. Plants were grown Kratky style, however several top offs (to about 50 percent reservoir capacity) were performed. Some refills were fresh tap water and some were nutrient solution (depending on appearance of new growth in plants).”
“I don’t check PH anymore, but in the past, this tap water has started around 7.8 and comes with about 350ppm of salts (mostly calcium I hope).”
“My setup:
Light fixture is a 4 bulb 4 ft T5 Milliard grow light 216 watts 6500k.
Tops of the plants were on average 8 inches from the bulbs.
14 hours on 10 off light cycle was maintained by a digital Hydrofarm timer (little white box everyone else uses).
Office environment stayed around 70 degrees F with 40 – 50 percent relative humidity.
“Nutrient Solution Recipe (same thing I grow everything in)
1 gallon water
2 grams MasterBlend Tomato 4-18-38
2 grams Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0
1 gram Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate)”
If you enjoyed watching Jeb’s gardening tips, you’ll enjoy this “how to” of how to make a sub irrigation planter out of a tote so you can garden in small spaces. Try this video as well on making a stackable garden with soda bottles!
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