Hydro-Plant Design

Every time I check the plants now, there seems to be progress in the growth. Surely, I am not where I would have hoped to be at this point, but I am happy with the growth we are finally getting with our system. This project has been an up and down experience from the very beginning. Every since adding the mesclun seeds to the baby mesclun we started with we have seen growth and things seemed to be working much better. Our plants have grown a little since the last time we checked, but then do not seem to be standing up straight. I am not sure if this is a problem or just how the mesclun is growing. There is one plant that seems to look better than the others, but this could be due to having more seeds as well. I am hoping to return after Thanksgiving break and see better results with our system. The only downfall recently is that our plants still do not look the healthiest. There is some parts that look to be dying, while other parts look good and healthy. Harvest day is approaching fast and David and I do not seem to have much to provide at the moment.

I am glad to say David and I are making progress with our hydroponic system! After measuring our mesclun, the tallest plant measured out to be two inches. The other three varied in height below two inches. However, our plants do not look the healthiest right now. I am not too worried at the moment unless I see anymore signs of the plants getting worse. David mixed more nutrient solution and we exchanged that with the old. I thought this would be a good idea since the nutrients had settled on the bottom, again, and I wanted to make a fresh solution. We are still not up to the size as the other groups have with their plants, however, I am satisfied with our progress we are making since our downfall we had in the beginning. Things seem to be looking up for David and I.

Walking into class today I expected to see no plants growing yet, however, to my surprise we had all four with plants growing. Due to the fact that we added mesclun seeds in with our bay mesclun, I feel that is the reason we have plants growing finally. The baby mesclun was not real successful in our hydroponic system and I predict the mesclun will show more progress over time. The pH level was normal and was not much of a concern at the moment. I did notice some of the nutrients settled on the bottom and I mixed it up a little in the container. If the nutrients are settled again next time I check, most likely I will mix a new nutrient solution again. The next step is to begin measuring the growth progress of our plants and they grow larger and document them. I am very happy with our progress over the last week after making the improvements to our system in order to get our plants growing.

I took the advice from the three comments on the previous blog entry. I mixed a new nutrient solution with warm, close to hot, water and added two gallons to our can. After looking up the ideal pH of baby mesclun, which is what we are growing, I found it should be between 6.2 and 6.8. After mixing the solution and checking the pH, we found it to be around 6.5 which is good. However, we added a tiny bit of pH Down to the solution to making it a little lower. Our one plant I mentioned before that seemed to be getting worse looks the same with no progression. From another comment, it seems we are not the only group with this issue. With advice from Dr. Brusic, I added MESCLUN to see if this grows (better or faster). Something needs to happen soon, or I will again have to rethink some things.

*NOTE: PICTURES WILL BE COMING SOON! our plants have not made much progress, so therefore we will take pictures when we see more of a difference hopefully.*

After looking at other groups’ systems and progress, I have become worried about my system. We are not having the same progress in our plants growing as the others do. Our one plant that began to grow now does not look as healthy as it once did the previous class period. I looked very closely at our other seeds we put in last time and i could see that one or two of them had began to sprout a tiny bit. Again we found that the nutrients in the solution was at the bottom of our trash can, but yet again we stirred it up hoping it would mix together better. If this does not work we might have to mix a new nutrient solution for the third time. I do not know what is going wrong in our hydroponic system and I need to find a solution fast!

After discussing, David and I chose to let the first seeds remaining in place and to add addition seeds. We decided to do this in order to see if any of the new seeds, or old, begin to grow just as our lone seed we have. We are still unsure to why we only have had one successful plant so far. We noticed that the nutrients from our solution had settled to the bottom of our can and I suggested making a new mixture. We mixed enough for two gallons and the pH was neutral (7). I hope to monitor the pH and try to get it a little lower.

These are pictures of our system and the one growing plant:

When checking our hydroponic system today in class, I noticed that we still only had one seed growing. That one seed shows good progress, however, it is upsetting that the other three have yet to sprout and begin to grow. I am not sure if those seeds are taking longer, or if there is something I need to adjust or change in my system. Next class meeting I will need to discuss the issue with my partner and see if he has any ideas. The pH seems to be at an okay level and is not a concern at the moment. On the other hand, I may need to mix up a new batch of the nutrient solution to see if this helps the situation at all. If the three seeds do not begin to grow soon, I will have to replant three seeds to see if that makes a difference. I will not be too concerned at the moment, and give the seeds some more time to grow. I will also begin to take pictures and post them on the blog to display a picture time line of our hydroponic system. I hope to see improvements in the future, or we will have to reconsider how we set up our system and find solutions to our problems.

After checking up on our seeds, we realized our nutrient solution did not look right. When we checked the pH of our solution it was over 7 (darker blue). In order to lower of pH, to added pH Down to our solution. After working to get in lower, we ended with a pH close to 6.5. Besides our upset of too high of a pH, we noticed that after two days we had one of our plants sprout. Sadly, the other three did not show process like this one. We are hoping that since we lowered the pH the other plants will being to sprout.

David and I made the final touches to our hydroponic system we designed. We chose to design a water culture system which would use the air pump to supply air to the air stone which would then bubble the nutrients to the roots of the plant. After assembling our system to decide to grow baby mesclun lettuce. We put the system under the grow lights and hope to see results soon!