I'm getting more and more comfortable with maintaining the hydroponic set up. It's been so productive for us and I love having it right outside the back door.
This is the original Red Russian kale and it's still providing plenty of kale for the two of us (John hates kale! ha!) I think I'll have to replace it soon, the stems are getting too tall for this particular set of tubes. Probably next month. I'll start the seeds in a few weeks.
I've replaced some of the lettuce with this Cosmic Mix from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. We've used a few young leaves but it should be ready to start using soon for full sized leaves.
The Tiny Tim tomato is getting so much taller then I thought it was going to. It touches the grow light now. Sigh. Thankfully it's covered in blooms, too, hoping to see little tomatoes soon. There are smaller lettuce in the bottom two tubes (a mix of Solar Flare, Ice Queen, and Little Gem.)
I've started another tray of lettuce as I still have about 10 holes that are empty right now.
John and I cleaned out the entire set up last weekend and put fresh water and nutrients. I can see that the hose draining the system will be continuing to grow algae as it's clear. We're looking into a black hose to replace it in the future. Other then that, the system looked pretty clean with a minimum amount of algae in the bucket and tubes.
