Hi this is Peter Stanley, welcome to my channel.
Today I'm going to show you how to make a simple
herb garden
using the Kratky method
Basically it's a non-circulating hydroponic method
you don't need any air stones or anything
This is what I'm going to use
It's about a four and a half gallon
and I like this because the lid
is raised so I can get more
head space to, so I can actually use more solution
but to show this on a micro scale
this is a lemon balm
in a
bottle with nutrient solution
this
this is the sponge material. I started the seeds
directly in this
filled the solution up till it came to about here
and the rest wicked up via capillary action
so the seeds sprouted in this
and this has been growing, so I'm going to
transfer, I've got a few of these
some Catnip
there's a little Rosemary
got some White Sage
this is regular Sage
it's in a, all of these are Kratky systems
and I've got a couple
Basil's that are in AeroGardens
but they could've been started the same way
so I'm going to do eight plants
and I'm going to use these AeroGarden
baskets, just like I did
with these and
I've found that a 1.5 inch hole saw drills a perfect size hole
for one of these baskets
and
but don't limit yourself if you don't have these
if you have 2 inch net pots
3 inch net pots
you can make any of these work with
the grow sponges
you can use the AeroGarden grow sponges
I like these bio dome sponges from Park Seed
they're basically the same thing but they
they're way cheaper and they're shaped
a little differently
but they
fit in these just fine
but you could also
fit some in one of these and just fill
around with some clay pebbles or
coco chunks or something
you could cut one down and stick it in a 2 inch net pot
or you could even use rock wool
if you didn't have these or you could use rapid rooter plugs, you could cut those
so just
follow more the principles of what I'm doing if you don't have
the exact same thing, just improvise with what you
have already or
what you can most easily acquire
I like
these just because they're convenient
they work really well, and you can buy these separately
without having to have an AeroGarden
what I'm going to first do is
just take an old one
and I'm just going to draw out where I'm going to place my holes
so I'll do that with a Sharpee
so I want to put
three on the outside and
two on the inside that should give me eight.
just kind of eyeballing getting as close as I can
try to space them out as much as you can so they have room
when they grow
and I'll probably not keep them in this system
forever, it's kind of a
something to get through until plant out time and
I'll probably move them to something bigger
later
if you've watched my lettuce
kratky video it's pretty much the same
principles I'm just growing herbs
so that's kind of
what I've got
so let me go ahead and drill my holes
and
for the hydroponic solution I've got some premixed
It's Master Blend mixed with
Magnesium Sulfate and Calcium Nitrate
and it's kind of a weaker solution that I would normally use
any kind of water soluble nutrient solution that you already have
or that you can get cheaper or easier than this
will work fine too
just maybe mix it a little less than full strength
anyway I'm going to go ahead and drill these holes
I'll start in forward direction
until the
until the center piece goes through
and then I'll switch it to reverse
it just makes it easier and cuts a cleaner hole in plastic
so anyway I'll go ahead and drill these out
and I'll show on the first one kind of what I'm talking about
this is in a forward direction
that's through, and I'll just switch it to reverse
see the hole and see how that
fits in there just right
so I'll go ahead and drill the rest of these out
alright, that's how those look
and also if you haven't used Kratky method
there's a lot of information online. So it starts out
with seeds or even a transplant
you wick it up via capillary action
from the solution that's touching the sponge
and the roots will grow down. These haven't really
there's a few coming out but
the roots start to grow down into the solution and use it up
the roots are hanging above the solution in the moist air layer
between the lid and the top of the nutrient solution
will start doing all the air exchange
so that's how the plant primarily gets its oxygen
through the roots, and the roots that are in the solution
do all the feeding
so if you
ideally you'd have a system with enough solution to carry
the plant to maturity
to harvest
but if you're using smaller systems you have to add some back in
and there's different ways to do that but if you're just
pouring it back in, make sure not to add too much or you'll drown those air roots
so if you see that your plant starts to droop
after you've added some
you probably filled too much, pour some of it back out
so just be aware of that
so anyway
let me
get this cleaned up and I'll get the
this into position where I'll put it and
fill with solution and add the plants
I'll be right back
I'm going to keep it here
on this wire rack under two t-8 shop lights
I'm going to go ahead and pour in my nutrient solution
I went ahead and took tape and
labeled where I'm going to put everything
and I want to go ahead and
snap this on so I can check the depth with an empty net basket
okay, that's about right
so I'll go ahead and add the ones I've got
here, Catnip
White Sage
Rosemary
Lemon Balm
regular Sage
Cinnamon Basil
and I need to get some
net baskets for these other two, I'll be right back
these I had in my AeroGarden Sprout
this one, Mugwort, actually fell out, fell on top of itself
so hopefully this didn't get damaged, but I think it'll be alright
goes there
and this is my Italian Basil
kind of stick these in the back because I know they'll grow faster
and if I need to rearrange I can do that
so anyway that's
that and
so today is March 10th
I'll do updates on this for a few weeks before I post the video
to see how it does
one thing with light proofing I probably
should have done something with the lid
maybe use a plastic
spray paint and painted black underneath
but with just being shop lights
I'm not sure that it'll actually penetrate
enough for this to be a concern as far as growing algae
but I would definitely would need to do something if it was under a stronger light or going outside.
I will follow up soon with progress updates
okay, here's the herb garden 19 days later
this is, so this was started on the 10th and
this system was started on the 10th. It's the 29th now.
The ones in the back are growing a lot faster, we've got
the Catnip here
it's really nice
this is the Cinnamon Basil
and the Italian Basil
a little bit taller
this is my Sage
it's just the regular
sage
it was flopping over a little bit so I
made a little
it's, kind of got it in the little hole in the cothespin
I could probably adjust it a little more but it's
keeping it more upright that what it was
the ones in the foreground
aren't growing quite as fast but have actually done a lot in the last week or so
this is the Lemon Balm
Mugwort
it's actually done quite a bit in the last week
and the Rosemary is
the smallest but it is actually
progressed quite a bit as well
so I think it's starting to take off
starting to get the roots going and all
I'll take a quick peek at these roots
yeah, it's looking really good
quite a bit of solution left in there as well
but yeah, those look great
so yeah, that's real easy to start
maintain and really
once you get it going you just have to
top and prune occasionally
harvest, whatever you want
some consideration should be given to the types of plants you grow together
as far as the growth rates
see these I'm having to raise
lights to accommodate the taller ones
and that means less light for these smaller ones
so that's something to consider
anyway, hope you liked that
thank you for watching, and please like, comment and subscribe
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