When our son visited us in August he said that he misses the fresh herbs available from my garden. I promised I could get him an indoor garden as birthday present, so he can grow his own herbs. I know we could have built a setup, but I wanted something small, easy and reliable, so I purchased a small unit called Plantui for him. This thing is designed in Finland actually looks good on the table. It is an ebb and flow system with pump and LED-lights with automatic timer. He got his unit in end of September and started basil and stevia, which I ordered with the unit. Three weeks later he was able to harvest the herbs first time.

Since he got such success with it, I wanted one too and couple of weeks ago I noticed that the bigger units were on sale. It arrived week ago and I had to right way start it up. I got basil and parsley with the unit and I ordered quite many empty rock wool capsules to grow my own seeds. In addition to the Genovese basil and flat leaf parsley I sowed purple basil, dill, purple mizuna and mini romaine lettuce.
When germinating the light dome is put directly on the base and the light is purple.


Six days later I could see cotyledons on most of the plants and I put one of the height blocks between the base and the light dome. The color of the light is now pale blue.

So far it looks promising and I hope this will be something which will give us fresh herbs through the winter. The thing is quite expensive, so I may never be able to grow enough herbs and greens with it to pay back the investment, but all hobbies cost. The grocery stores here sell fresh greenhouse grown potted herbs through the year, but with them I always get fungus gnats and sometimes even aphids, so I do not like to buy those.

Now, when I got this indoor gardening thing going, I may experiment to grow lettuce with the Kratky method and my DIY LED lights during the winter.

Sari

What a wonderful gift! My daughter's roommate got one as a gift last year and loved it too. It has done very well for them. It did attract fungus gnats though. They didn't see that as a problem and just ignored them. I myself would use a little splash of hydrogen peroxide or some mosquito dunks. They have really enjoyed the garden.

It's a very nice idea for the winter and I will be buying myself one for my Christmas gift to myself.

I use those mosquito dunks in my deepwater systems - just little pieces broken off the dunks are enough to add every couple of months, to keep the gnats from producing.

Hydro systems are always expensive, but once you buy one and use it, the underlying concepts that make it work become apparent, and then you are on your way to building your own if you so desire.

The Plantui looks so cool, especially the lights. I have 2 Aerogardens but no such colored lights, just boring normal ones. But both were free so I can't complain. I've only used them as grow lights but I think I'll try growing basil now. It's the only herb that doesn't grow well outdoors after summer is over here

Mosquito dunks also turned out to be an effective control for fungus gnats here.
Aphids are still the bigger problem in the fall. There are some even now on the greens I had growing in the greenhouse. Some napa cabbage got really badly infested and they just spread. I cleaned them out and now with cooler days they are not having outbreaks. Only now and then on a sunny day, I've seen yet another in the flying stage. I'm pretty certain that even the cleanest looking plants have some eggs on them, and if you bring indoors, out they come.
My plan B for this year is to start strictly from bagged soil products in the house, and hope that no ants are able to get in with their pets.
The hydroponics looks great!

I just purchased an IDOO kit, very similar to the Aerogarden but $30 cheaper. I'm in Zone 5b USA, and there's still too much snow in my yard to worry much about gardening. I've planted some greens and micro-tomatoes and on this, the third day, I can see a few of my seeds have germinated. So far so good! I'm looking forward to learning more.

I just want to revisit this topic considering my daughter just got me one as an early Christmas present I don’t have it yet should be here this week anything I need to get or add ?? Any special fertilizer this is the unit.
eSuperegrow Hydroponics Growing System,Smart Hydroponic Gardening System with LED Grow Light,Indoor Garden Hydroponic Herb Grow Kit with Climbing Trellis for Short Tomato,Basil,Pepper,Cucumber

AKgardener wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 12:25 pm I just want to revisit this topic considering my daughter just got me one as an early Christmas present I don’t have it yet should be here this week anything I need to get or add ?? Any special fertilizer this is the unit.
eSuperegrow Hydroponics Growing System,Smart Hydroponic Gardening System with LED Grow Light,Indoor Garden Hydroponic Herb Grow Kit with Climbing Trellis for Short Tomato,Basil,Pepper,Cucumber

Wow looks pretty nifty, I looked it up and they included fertilizer so I think it has everything you need. They don't indicate what is the NPK ratio is, my guess is something for general leafy green.

You don't have to but for the sake of the discussion, if you are growing fruiting plants you might add your own specific fertilizer that is lower in nitrogen and higher in potassium, but hydroponic fertilizer can get expensive and complicated with measurements and pH adjustment. On top of buying NPK, cal-mag might be needed separately if not included.

I would save money and buy in bulk something like the MasterBlend fertilizer combo kit or their 25lbs bag of NPK tomato fertilizer, this amount would last for years unless you're doing it big. They do need to be stored in a sealed bucket though as the nutrient can escape into the air and moisture causing caking of the powder.

I bought two 25lbs bags of powdered NPK like 7 years ago, they still haven't ran out. I use a few tablespoon for the garden maybe a couple times a year.

Personally, I always use a PH-Buffered nutrient. I use Aerogarden nutrients for my Aerogardens, and Maxigro/bloom for my buckets. Both are PH-buffered so I don't have to deal with testing that.

Thanks everyone I do have materblend I also just got some fox farms grow big and tiger bloom for my indoor maters I plan on trying it out on a cucumber plant and maybe a mater will see

Editing
I did read you can use master blend for hydro now it’s figuring out how much to add ..