How to grow Strawberries in Hydroponics, Tips #1 2013

2nd season with my strawberry tower. I show you how I get my system up & running & how i transplant my strawberry plants into my hydroponic system. I also answer a few question & show you the new hydroponic nutrient that i’ll be using this year. Easy home made Vertical Hydroponic system. This is a great way to grow food in a small area. Q&A at the end of the video.

Off-Grid Hydroponics Experiment - The Kratky Method & Floating Raft Hydroponics

A major concern for people today is loss of electricity. If you are running a hydroponic system with air and water pumps, this can be a serious problem. Even with solar backup, it’s not easily dealt with. It would be nice to find a way to grow leafy vegetables in a hydroponic setup without any concern for the power going out, in a true off-grid manner. Plus, with no need for pumps, it would be a lot less expensive.

There is a way to do accomplish this goal. It is called the Kratky method, developed by a professor from the Univ. of Hawaii. He found a setup that would allow you to grow the plants in a static nutrient solution without the need for aeration.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawaii/downloads/Three_Non-circulating_Hydroponic_Methods_for_Growing_lettuce.pdf

I am testing Mr Kratky’s method and have learned a couple of things that that will help in the future. First off, it does work…and very well. It is so simple, just set it and forget it. But, for each setup, you need to be consistent in what you grow. Not all plants grow at the same rate, and if you’re not careful, the faster growing plants will consume the water and the slow growing plants will be left hanging. I saw this first hand.

The traditional floating raft with aeration has worked excellent as well. Swiss Chard, Arugula, Tatsoi Asian Greens…. they have all done great.

We’ll take a close look at some of the roots, and I think you’ll be impressed with just how clean everything is. And the Chard roots may surprise you with their colors.

In closing, if money is tight, or you’re short on time. … I don’t think you’ll find a simpler or more productive way to grow leafy vegetables than what I’m using in this video.

My nutrient formula: http://youtu.be/vYv9iu2NI3M

How to grow Strawberries in Hydroponics, Tips #1 2013

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39 Comments

  • Chaney Gierhart

    Use PVC glue on the fittings, use a fernco gem cap instead of the clean out cap, and use fernco unions when joining pipe like your drain into the tote. This will stop every leak you could have.

  • Neorott

    The whole system needs to be painted white to avoid over heating, especially your reservoir. I'm not a fan of one size fits all fertilizers. It's important to get the right N-P-K for each plant type on the system. mhpgardener's channel has an excellent video on explaining fertilizer mixes in a hydro system.

    Personally, I buy my nutrients from a couple places, hydro-gardens.com for the calcium-nitrate and trace element mix (depending on the plant type). And the Epson salt (magnesium sulfate) from any grocery store.

  • HydroMan Sam

    Good vid i guess, however you didnt grow anything , all you did was change the medium on mature plants…Thats not really growing, thats just transplanting.

  • namvet Anke

    You may be able to use cheap sponges as well for a root system, and you might look into an Ozone generator to eliminate bacteria from your system eliminating the need to change out the water. just and idea is all. Ozone generators have been used to keep swimming pools clean. Sponges can be rinsed and used a second time(possibly more) saving money on root mediums.

  • Martin Brenmann

    Do you sell your straberries at a farmers market? What is the yield of strawberries? What strawberry varriety do you use? Can you use any?

  • Revolutionary Socialist

    Why do you need to change the water every 2 weeks? Also with a smaller guage tube and filters could you not keep the soil in the tube along with the plant {I know it'd drain slower so I'd need to do my maths there} thereby keeping nutrints in and getting around the need to feed the plants from a bag??

  • jhon milton

    +Austin Family Gardening Channel , it's nice to hear you. Actually it was excellent. you discussed the matter very neatly. and I want to add that I find useful about the talk of how to grow Hydroponics. I learned well hearing you. Besides it can be mentioned that I find it helpful to search in google writing – panlarko expert aquaponics planner . so if anyone interested he/she can check it out. 

    thank you very much.

  • Leslie Charles

    This is LESLIE again one more quick question does Kratky System need Green House or it can be done in open sky. and question about Dutch bucket ,Can that also have to be in Green house. Pl reply thank you.

  • Mason Ball

    Home Boy, you fire me up!!! I am so excited about doing these projects. Thank you for the inspiration, first of all but the technical guidance is so much appreciated.

  • astrangeone

    Lol. That's a small scale? I'm working on a system using a cardboard box and a few nutrients to do so. (Not a fully hydroponic system – just the "double cup" one.)

    I'm going to try it out with a homemade version of the hydroponics for a few plants. Maybe a few peppers…

  • Mario Hemsley

    Had to go back and watch this again because it has so much information. I will probably end up watching it ten or more times! Will have to come back and post once my system is up and running. Thanks again, this was truly an excellent production, and the science involved was superb. Bravo!

  • Aloha Miller

    Dr. Kratky began his floating raft system partly due to the outrageous electricity prices on the Big Island of Hawaii. Also, we have a serious rat lungworm disease infestation in 75% of the invasive snails and slugs so the Kratky system allows us to keep the snails out of the letttuce beds. No one grows lettuce on the ground here. There is a tweak to his system now. He uses a horse trough float to keep the water levels up so an aggressive plant can't overuse the water. The incoming water is premixed with the chemicals in a 55 gallon drum and gravity fed to the raft. All you have to do is make sure the 55 gallon drum doesn't go dry.

  • Daniel Zaman

    I gotta say man….your genuine love for gardening and overall friendly demeanor has earned you yet another subscription.
    -Horticultural student from University of Florida

  • Teresa Huffman

    Love all your garden videos. I am a science teacher and we are going to put in a small garden and "experiment" with it. We are going to try a lot of the ideas you show here. We are setting up Kratky method, a mittleider system and a organic square foot garden. We are in GA so it won't be long until we can plant. We are going to compare cost, production and availability among other things. Of course then we can use the veggies in Health class, big bonus. Thanks so much for all you do.

  • tom jens

    So krattky method is good because roots have air when the water goes down. And floating system does not have that air because it lays directly on the water all the time. So can we conclude that you actually do not need that air krattky method advocates? I am confused :)

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