Tweet

Pocket

I gave an introductory workshop on hydroponics in July 2015, and I prepared a set of blog posts to use as materials for that.  Here’s the syllabus from it, with links to blog posts and other resources.  I’ll be continuing to develop it, fleshing it out and adding pictures especially.  I’ll also be adding blog posts for the parts with no links, which are parts of the workshop that I taught using live demos or just by talking.

If there’s something I haven’t written about yet that you’d like to see, let me know in a comment!  See the bottom of this page for a list of recent updates.

1.  Introduction
   1. About hydroponics
   2. About me
   3. About you?
2. Plants’ basic needs and how we meet them in hydroponics
   1. Lighting
   2. Rooting medium
   3. Root aeration
   4. External support
   5. Water, nutrition (covered in ongoing care section)
3. Other variables when designing a hydroponics system
   1. Reservoir size / water volume
   2. Net cup vs. grow bag style and their sizes
   3. Choosing materials
   4. Preventative measures against algae, mold, bugs
4. Ongoing care elements:
   1. Nutrients, supplements
   2. Nutrient solution pH and TDS/EC
   3. Water temperature
   4. Monitoring for deficiencies, illness
   5. Monitoring for algae, bugs, mold
   6. Pollination (if applicable)
   7. Ongoing support needs
5. Factors in choosing the right system for you
6. BREAK TIME
7. Your new system
   1. First a little more theory: Kratky hydroponics (here for cucumbers)
   2. Case study: Corey’s plants
   3. How to start your Kratky system
   4. Maintaining the Kratky system
   5. What to do if you’ve mastered it:
      1. Fogponics, anyone? (Results from 19:06)
      2. Add an airstone to make a mini Deep Water Culture
      3. Make a float level indicator
      4. Start thinking about electronics, scaling up, lights, etc.
      5. Start spreading the gospel of easy hydroponics.
8. Case studies
   1. Wick hydroponics
   2. Yamazen LED planter
   3. Deep Water Culture
   4. Ebb and Flow
   5. Nutrient Film Technique (NFT)
   6. Lufa Farms
   7. Dutch bucket (from 4:00, then from 8:04)
   8. Aeroponics (reservoir/pumps not shown, but freeze at 0:30 to see piping)
   9. Hybrid
9. Skill building and experiments
   1. Germination tips
   2. Keeping a store bought hydroponic lettuce alive
   3. Learning to clone
   4. Transplanting soil to hydroponics or hydroponics to soil
   5. ‘Repotting’ into a larger net cup
   6. Pollination
10. Hydroponics and making