Hydroponic Planting During The Pandemic
Beginnings
When the pandemic initially hit, everyone was sent into a state of lockdown. We were limited in the amount of time we could leave the house for necessities: food and water. With empty supermarket shelves being the norm, we needed to find a better way to get food into the house. My dad and I began looking at alternatives for growing food inside without having to use too many extra resources. We found that hydroponic indoor gardens would be the most efficient way to solve our problem.
Hydroponics
Hydroponic planting is an alternative way to grow crops, using a water solution for the roots of the plants to develop in rather than traditional soil. This method allows you to better control the environment the plant grows in and the type and amount of nutrients it receives. Also, hydroponics allows you to grow them in any environment which was a key reason for choosing this method of planting.
We began to experiment with hydroponics using mason jars to hold the system while keeping them in the basement. The structure of the system is a jar filled with pure, filtered water up until it barely reaches the slotted cup container at the lid. In the cup, there are clay pebbles below coconut coir- which is soil-like material made from the husk of a coconut- topped with a few buried seeds covered in water so the coconut coir is moist. We have used different nutrients in the water to control what the plants receive.
We are planning on expanding this hydroponic garden to a less experimental and more permeant structure to increase efficiency in our planting.
