A Hydroponic Homestead Timeline

 

A Homestead Timeline

The following timeline presents a way to start up an indoor garden with a minimum of time investment and complication.  It is organized in this way so you aren't overwhelmed with starting a dozen gardens on the same day and monitoring their progress all at once.

The expectation is that the recommended steps will be completed near the beginning of the week, preferably on the initial weekend.  Saturday and Sunday begin the week.

This gives the basic outlines of each step.  However, there are numerous other fine details that you should incorporate at the same time, but I'm assuming that you are familiar with the basics of using an AeroGarden or other indoor hydroponic garden system.

This system requires a minimum of a 2-tray microgreen set-up, 3 basic indoor gardens, and 1 larger indoor garden.  In addition, you will need the seeds to plant them:  Lettuce, Bok choi, Basil, Cherry Tomatoes, and dried Lentils.

 Introduction

I have found that the key to the indoor winter garden's success is establishing the practice of eating what you plant.  For me, this routine is based on the weekly salad routine.  Each week, you should put a significant salad on the menu using as much of what you grow as possible, but supplementing from the grocery store where necessary.  Choose one day of the week to be your salad bar and you'll always have an use for your garden

If you don't have an occasion to use your produce during the week, at least you will have one healthy salad that will require the output from your greens.  If lettuce isn't picked regularly, it will start to bolt, so you always need a way to use that lettuce to keep it healthy.   Look for opportunities to harvest early lettuce greens and baby bok choi. Later, add a few basil or dill leaves.  When the tomatoes and peppers begin to fruit, slice a few and add as a garnish.  

 

Week 1.  Microgreens and Salad Menu

If the Weekly salad is the key to the indoor garden, then the key to the weekly salad is the microgreens garden.  Microgreens are typically ready to eat in 7 to 10 days.  This means you will always have something ready add to your salad every week, even if you can only add it to a bagged salad from the grocery store.  

Growing microgreens means that you establish a routine of harvesting something each weekend.  It gets you in the habit of checking and maintaining your garden regularly, because microgreens don't last forever.  They need to be harvested when they are young and succulent, before they get too leggy and overgrown.  Once that routine is established, it is natural to expand that care to the rest of your indoor garden.

This week, 

1. Go to the grocery store and buy a mixed salad.  Add some radishes, or an apple, sliced thinly.  Finish it with some deli sliced chicken or ham and garnish with the salad dressing of your choice.  This will be your dinner for tonight.

While at the grocery store, pick up a bag of dried lentils or black eyed peas, or mungo beans.  Even navy (white) beans will sprout readily if nothing else is available.  A 1-pound bag of beans will last a long time as a source of microgreen seeds.

2. At home, set up your microgreens station. I like to have two bays for my seeds.  Each week, harvest one bay and use it in your salad or add it to a soup.  To harvest, use scissors to chop the sprouts off the seed and rootlets.  (Any potential pathogen will be confined to the seed itself and will not be found in the green sprout above.) 

Measure out the volume of seeds that fill your trays so you can easily re-seed each week. Then re-seed the harvested side while the other keeps growing a little longer.  Next week, harvest the older bay and maintain the rotation.

 

Week 2. Lettuce and Hardy Greens

Plant Lettuce in a 9-pod basic system.  If available, plant two different lettuce varieties so you can compare growth, taste, longevity.   Use 4 pods for lettuce and 2 pods for the aromatic of your choice.  Do not add nutrients at this point and cover the empty pods with spacers.

Plant Bok Choi in a second system.  The size can be any that you have.  Plant them in about half the pods you have available;  in a 9 to 12 pod system, plant them in 5 pods.  Cover the empty pods with spacers.  As before, do not add nutrients yet.

Most lettuce and cabbage will sprout within the first week.  Watch the pods and make a note of the day when the germinated seedlings first appear.  This is the kind of info that will be different from what you can find on the seed packet and is the first information to write down in your gardening journal. 

Always end the week with your weekly salad menu, harvesting your first tray of microgreens and re-seeding.  This will be your first harvest from your indoor garden, so enjoy your quick win.  Add the sprouts to a store bought salad mix and have it for dinner.

 

Week 3. Start Tomato and Pepper

After 7 days, the plants in both systems should have germinated with visible sprouts.  If any have not, it is time to examine them closely to determine why.  Check for the growth of mold/algae that is inhibiting the seeds.  Also, check the seed packet for the expected germination period.  Many will say 7-10 days, but some can take longer.  The front of  your garden will likely have the number of days planted so you can compare where you are in the timeline and consider re-planting new seeds

In those systems where some have sprouted, its time to add nutrients.  Give only half of the recommended nutrients to these newly growing seedlings.

Remove the domes, when the seedlings touch the tops.  Set them aside to be used later.  Very carefully help any sprouts that are stuck under the labels.

It is time to bring a third system online.  This will be the garden for peppers and tomatoes.  If you have a 6 or 9 pod system, then you will plant one of each.  Larger Farm systems can accommodate 2 or 3 plants.  Follow the standard process for seeding the required number of pods, cover with domes, don't add nutrients yet. Tomato and pepper seeds take a while to germinate so prepare to wait for activity here, but this is also the reason to get this started early.

Keep up the salad menu routine and continue harvesting the second tray of microgreen sprouts.  This tray will have been growing for 2 weeks, so it will definitely need to be brought in and re-seeded to keep the harvests rolling.

 

Week 4.  Aromatics

On day 15, gardens 1 and 2 will report that they needs nutrients.  Add the full recommended amount, and this time hit the "Plant food added" button.  This will bring the total nutrient concentration up to the standard and will last for the next 14 days.

Thin all your sprouts to one per pod. You should have two systems planted and growing well.

 Start garden 4.  Plant basil and dill in this garden, using about 5 pods and following the nutrient protocol.

Maintain your levels. For every garden, begin a regular maintenance routine once a week to keep it in top condition:

• Check water levels and refill even if it isn't at the minimum
• Check nutrient levels and add according to the schedule.  
  
• Evaluate if you need to raise the lights. Lettuce likes to be cool so keep the lights at least 4 inches away from the top of the leaves.
• Trim any branches that are crowding, or escaping from under the lights.
• Remove dead leaves.  Clean the surface of the garden.
• Harvest at least one leaf from every plant, and up to 1/3rd to be used in the weekly salad.
   

Tomato and pepper seeds may take longer to germinate, so be patient, but look for germination.

Always return to the Salad Menu, and rotate your microgreens.  Try adding the sprouts to a soup, this time to see how you like the variety.

Week 5. 

By this week, your lettuce will have been growing for 28 days.  This week it is time to make your first harvest of lettuce, taking the outer 1 or 2 leaves from each plant.  Clip a few leaves from the herbs in your garden as well, harvest half the microgreens, and enjoy your first fully homestead salad.

Lettuce and Bok choi gardens will report they need nutrients.  Add full strength according to the nutrient directions. 

Add 5 ml or 1 capful of Hydrogen peroxide to the basin. Keep the water level topped off.  The H2O2 will ward against the roots developing disease.  This isn't necessary when the seeds are just starting, but as they hang down into the water reservoir all the time, it helps to keep them clear.

Tomato and pepper seedlings will begin to appear.  Add half strength nutrients when you see the seed leaves.  Remove domes when the leaves touch them

Rotate the microgreen trays.

 

Week 6. 

• Weekly Maintenance   (see week 4)
  
• Weekly Harvest
  

If the bok choi has been growing more slowly, it may finally be ready for its first harvest.  Gather 1-2 leaves from each plant for your cooking.  Identify a menu item, a stir fry or soup, that you can make each week that will require your bok choi.

It's also time to revisit the salad gardens and harvest what's ready, 1 leaf per plant.  Harvest the rest of the microgreens and replant.  Remember that harvesting is just as important a maintenance task as all the others.  A well harvested garden is healthier and easier to maintain.

Evaluate.  Evaluate the maintenance requirements of your existing indoor gardens and decide if you can support additional gardens.  Consider starting:

a root vegetable garden with turnips, radish, and beets.

a flower garden, with petunias or dwarf marigolds, both of which grow well in indoor gardens.

Week 7.

Harvest lettuce, basil, and the rest for your weekly salad.  This can be a more aggressive harvest if the lettuce is growing vigorously.  Lettuce that isn't harvested will flower and go to seed sooner than if it is clipped regularly.

Week 8. Harvest and Maintain.

At this stage, your gardens should be in regular maintenance and harvest mode.  At this time you can turn your attention to the tomato and pepper plants, which may be getting large enough to set flowers.  

• Actively pollinate any flowers you find.
• Trim excessive leaf growth to keep the plants contained and focused on fruiting.
  

Week 9.  

• Weekly Maintenance   (see week 4)
  
• Weekly Harvest
• Weekly Salad
  

Deeper Clean.  After two months you should consider changing the water in your gardens.  Remove the top and set into a plastic container.  Then simply drain all the water into the sink and rinse the tank.

While you have the top off, look at the roots to see if they are growing into each other or getting tangled with the pump or water gauge.  Using scissors, cut the two root masses apart from each other.  Trim the bottom fourth of the roots that are touching the bottom of the tank. 

Add H2O2 to the basin and fill with clean water.

Add nutrients following the program

 

Week 10.

• Weekly Maintenance   (see week 4)
  
• Weekly Harvest
• Weekly Salad

Note that the tomatoes are only about 50 days old at this point.

Week 11.

• Weekly Maintenance   (see week 4)
  
• Weekly Harvest
• Weekly Salad

Week 12.

Once the lettuce has been growing for 12 weeks it may show signs of bolting.  Some varieties will continue to produce for several more weeks, while others may be about done at this point.  Keep an eye on both the lettuce and cabbage and document their life span in your garden journal.

Create a Seed pot kit with 9 baskets, sponges, stickers, and domes.  Have this kit pre-assembled and ready to go, so that you can minimize down-time when a garden needs to be replaced. 

You should see tomato flowers and some peppers may begin to flower as well.  Tap the stalks to assist in pollination.

Tomatoes may be ready in the next two weeks, while peppers probably need 4 more weeks to mature.  When they are ready, add them to the weekly salad and keep them harvested.

 

This is the end of the first cycle.

At this point, any of your plants may begin to bolt or may stop growing vigorously and you should consider replacing them.  Other plants, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, will continue to grow if trimmed and harvested regularly.

When plants actually bolt or slow down,  return to Week 1.  Renew and Replant each of the indoor gardens in the order given, changing the water and washing out the bowls to give them a fresh start.

Alternatively, if you have another aerogarden, use it to start seeds for the replacements.  When the existing plants go to flower, remove them and replace with the prepared seedlings.