After returning from the long weekend we were delighted to find our change had paid dividends. Four additional sprouts appeared, in each of the cups we planted a single seed. In the double seeded cups we observed only minor changes in the seeds, still seeming to be in a germinating state. Our pH has also receded to an acceptable level of 7.0.
Since we first planted our seeds, only one has sprouted. We decided today that something must change. After some further research, we decided to make a few minor changes to our system. We left the one sprouted plant in its cup full of perlite, but we cut a few more holes in the bottom to increase the oxygen that reaches the roots. For the seven other cups, however, we made more major revisions. Since we’re worried about the lack of moisture in the cups, we cut out the bottoms of the Dixie cups and replaced the perlite with rockwool. We’re hoping that the rockwool will absorb more of the nutrient solution and help the newly germinated seeds grow. We’re looking forward to seeing how the plants have progressed when we get back to class on Monday!
We noticed that a layer of calcium has built up on the sides and bottom of the aquarium. After stirring up the water, the calcium came off and made the water extremely murky. I did a little research, and many people recommend using vinegar to remove it. We’re planning on waiting until after the weekend to clean the tank. On Monday, we’ll empty the tank, scrub it down, and fill it with fresh nutrient solution.
Today marks the start of our second set of seeds’ germination. We’ve noticed one of our seeds has already began to germinate after sitting in a paper towel soaked in nutrient solution, similar to our first set of seeds. We are going to continue to let them germinate for an additional day, then will begin to plant them tomorrow.
We’re pleased with the water temperature, which is at 75.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
We decided to add a second air stone in the solution reservoir. Using only one rock stone in our five gallon aquarium wasn’t cutting it, so we added anther one for increased oxygenation in the water.
Since only one of our seeds has sprouted, we’re concerned that the other seeds will never start growing. Therefore, we placed seven seeds in a wet paper towel moistened in nutrient solution to germinate over night. If we find that any of the seeds have started germinate tomorrow morning, we will plant them in the perlite and replace them with the dead seeds.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on our only plant and keep you all updated on its development.
We tested the pH level of the nutrient solution in the reservoir, and we found that it’s at 7.5, which is slightly too basic for the optimal radish growing environment. We want the pH level to be between 6.5 and 7.0, so we added a pH Down solution. This should do the trick, but we’ll be wary of this in the future.
We have our first sprout!
The little guy’s already an inch and a half tall, and that was only after a weekend. The other seven seeds haven’t sprouted yet, but we uncovered them from the perlite and saw that they are in the process of germinating. We sprinkled some of the nutrient solution in each of the cups to help them through the germination process. We hope that the other seeds start to sprout soon.
We completed our system! As we mentioned in the previous entry, we built a water culture style hydroponic system. We have an aquarium that acts as the nutrient reservoir with a Styrofoam tray floating on the surface. The tray holds eight Dixie cups, which sit half an inch deep in the nutrient solution and are filled with perlite. We buried our radish seeds half an inch deep in the perlite, as we found was the proper procedure during our research.
As we leave our system sit for the weekend, we can only hope that we will see results when we return on Monday.
It’s day one of our planting season for our radishes to begin growing in our hydroponic system. The technique we used to germinate our radish seeds is referred to as the wet paper towel approach. It required us to wet a paper towel with tap water and then enclose the seeds within it while letting it sit in a dark place. We were delighted to find that in this short amount of time one of our seeds actually began to sprout a root. Later we will begin the process of moving our seeds to the newly completed water culture hydroponic system.