Our green house at the South Pole Station, Antartica is having some issues. It's run by some station people with limited experience and most of our equipment is failing/patched together. These are the only fresh foods we get for the next 8 months. We are seeing a lot of leaf curl, some fungal issues, yellowing and leaf burn. We added more fans to keep air circulation up to try and reduce the leaf curl.

I am unsure about nutrient mix and ph setup and we have no way to test current levels. Temp:71 Humidity: 68% Lighting: 12 hr CO2: 986ppm

Any advice would be appreciated for adjustments or what to look at first.

I made my first hydroponic setup for some pepper plants so that they'd be watered and growing well while I was traveling. I got back home and have this infestation. I had sprayed with Neem oil once before leaving.

Where did I go wrong? How to fix this?

This is my first attempt, please forgive any ignorance. So I got these two weeks ago. They were happy when I first put them in, now not so much. I’m keeping the Ph in range, however I’m having a hard time keeping the water cool, it’s about 75 degrees average in both containers. I bought a small water cooling pump, but it’s not doing much. Any suggestions, or recommendations on how to keep my water cool would be greatly appreciated.

My younger brother designed and 3d printed a netpot/plug holder that's so cool. He's been using them but hasn't told anyone, so I put together a little demonstration!

-Gentle on roots when transplanting -Easy grow cleanup, no cutting net pots -Snugly holds plugs to prevent plant tilt and spray -Neoprene water seal -Printable at home -Just cool, tactile, satisfying

Tell me what you think and I'll pass on any good feedback here! 🌱 ✌️ ♥️

Can someone tell me what im doing wrong? Feedback much appreciated

Hello Dear , Brothers and Sisters of reddit

Im very sad and financially hurt after spending tons of time and effort. I wanted to grow some strawberries among other plants through hydroponics , i hand made my entire setup , believing it would work out great but i have failed.

I believe i have everything i need , vitamins , water shade , etc. (Photos)

After making the setup the first strawberries dryed up fairly quickly in about a day , i was using straight spigot water.

On my second attempt i tried to add vitamins checking Ph,EC, PPM. Gemini told me the levels i needed to match. I watched my plants die a second time.

My last and most recent attempt , i insulated my water bucket , added ice packs , and instead of the spigot water that had mixed nutrients and such messing up my ppm , ec etc. I used good drinking water , purchased separately and made the vitamin mix. I was very determined and i believed this would be the one. Sadly i was wrong..

Im not sure what i am doing wrong and i ask you guys for much need assistance on this matter. I wanted to grow my own strawberries because , the ones i purchased from grocery stores are usually rotting or flavorless.

Basically the title. New to hydroponics (a few months) and left these bad boys for a few days (okay like a week) and it is COVERED in something that looks eerily like tiny larva. Please tell me I don’t need to burn my house down 😭

Update: they are definitely bugs. I am unequipped to handle such a thing so the whole thing unfortunately went in the bin. Currently deep cleaning the kitchen of its tiny evil offspring

I’m new to hydroponics and trying to setup a 3 tier rack with bins that will be “fed” by one 40 gallon tub of nutes. I was/am trying for a sort of DWC system.

I have 15 - 1.5 gallon black bins with lids that I plan to put 2” net pots in. The net pots will sit about 3” off the bottom of the bins once inserted.

I have a pump that runs water to the top tier with 5 bins connected by a pipe which then runs down to the 2nd tier which has the same setup and then runs down to the 3rd tier before returning back to the bin - a continuous loop, if you will. I was hoping that by putting the end of each pipe run with a section that comes up at the same height of the bins (a sort of ”control”), water’s natural self-leveling would ensure the bins equally filled to that level before spilling over to the next tier and repeating this same process on down each tier. Keeping the pump running 24/7 would keep the water up in each bin and constantly refresh nutes and oxygen.

Unfortunately, the 1st bin in the run fills up to nearly overflowing while the last bin stays very low. I tried lowering the ”control“ on each level and it only prevented the 1st bin from overflowing but the last bin still never fills to the same level. The bins in between were lower and lower across the run. Slowing the pump speed didn’t help. Any recommendations to fix this?

If it can’t be done the way I’d hoped, would it work if I just ran the pump several times a day to refresh the nutes/oxygen in each bin but treat it sort of like NFT as the water level would be low (about 1/2”) after the pump turns off and the water drains out? Or should I use clay pebbles in the bottom of the bins and treat it more like ebb and flow?

Hoping this video gives a good visual of what I’m building. A couple bins are missing because I glued everything up the way I thought it would work and had to cut parts to try and figure out why it didn’t. Need to order more of the specific connectors for those bins. The bottom tier does not have the “control” on it like the other 2 tiers in this video either. I built all 3 tiers with it then when it didn’t work, I tried getting rid of the “controls” to see what it would do. Just didn’t let the top 2 tiers fill with water before draining which is what I originally expected. Also, ignore the state of the water - the white pieces are just from cutting the PVC. I’ll clean everything thoroughly once I figure out the final configuration.

Hi everyone! So I've been having trouble with aphids on my chilli plants for a little while now, but before I could solve the problem bees/wasps swarmed and now I'm terrified! I think they're bees but I'm not sure. Either way, I'm not sure what to do and could use some advice.

If it matters, I live on the 10th floor of a city apartment in the Philippines.

Thank you!

I live in a 10b growing area while the system is not in direct sunlight it does sit in an open tent on the patio which faces north. My container is around 25 gallons of water it is black but I plan on wrapping it in something reflective.

My container averages about 80f and I can’t get it to drop further. I know the frozen 2L bottle method but logically won’t be possible as I work.

Is there any other things I can do short from dropping an arm and leg on a water chiller?
Would a small aquarium chiller (like $50) work to chill it enough to make it suitable temperature considering I’m going to wrap it?

Any other advice is definitely welcomed to.
I’m growing vegetable’s that have been able to grow in my areas soil but this is my first venture into hydroponics.

HI FRIENDS okay so Ive never grown anything like, ever before this year, and I started a kratky hydroponics set up on my patio with 10+ cherry tomato plants I grew from seed. Apparently this fertilizer is plant crack and all of my tomato vines have exceeded the 12 ft height of my ceiling (I didnt know they could get this tall 😭). 80% of the flower production is at ceiling height, and the plants are still growing and starting to get top heavy. Is there a way to promote flowering in the lower branches? Idk what to do other than add a second net trellis horizontally so the plants can crawl along the ceiling.

Here is my aeroponics concept, kindly requesting your feedback to optimise. It’s basically a stack of 20x30 cm boxes.

Following the flow of the water: It is getting sucked in by high pressure pump through pre-filter, transported to 0.4 mm nozzle creates fine mist (≈ 25 ml into 9 l box) for 15 secs from side in 20x30 cm root chamber box. Excess water drops onto sinter stones (providing more surface area compared to expanded clay balls) and filter sponge. Nitrification bacteria on both process NH3 and O2 into NO3. Air pump provides constantly the required O2 through two sparkling stones under a meshed plastic plate (to distribute bubbles better) below filter sponge. At the same time bubbles of sparkling stones create motion in water, sparing a circulation pump. Temperature controlled heating is inside the water. pH, EC, Temp in water, Temp, humidity in root chamber.

How can I simplify? How can I improve? What might go wrong?

Im very new to hydrophonics but I bought second hand suncoze growing system and i germinate some pak choy and teansfer to this recycled bottle water. The light is also second hand and I think it went well. I have some 5 gallon boxes waiting,how many spaces should I make each of Im growing more salad and pak choy. Thank you

Buttercrunch lettuce; mizuna; thai basil; chile pepper.

I am using TPS liquid plant food. The mizuna tasted awfully bitter. Im afraid to try the lettuce.

I am a beginner and my routine is to flush every 15 days. I am using brita filtered water. Should I big chop and regrow so the plants taste better?

Ty for your help 🩷

It's been 40 days and no progress...

Help me please

I’m growing various types of lettuce, as soon as they pass the early growth stages they fall over. I’ve tried using a small fan throughout growing to strengthen them and also propping with q-tips. Do I need to push the seeds further down in the rooters? Does it matter that they’re droopy like this? New to hydroponics any feedback is greatly appreciated.

I'm working through my first round of Dutch buckets and have a project going in ChatGTP to advise me through this learning experience.

I shared what I thought looked like health plants, but the feedback received was that they don't look like they are thriving.

So can I get some human feedback? I'm using General hydroponics Flora series, EC is 1.6, pH is 5.8-6.0, res temp is 70 and room temp fluctuate from 75 daytime to 68° night. SF2000 grow lights for 16hrs a day.

Just as the post says. I finally got my 3D printed hydro set up going. But I realize I'm unsure how to start seeds in clay pellets. Any advice?

I was looking to start growing some veggies. I see a lot of these hydroponic towers. My concern is most of them are plastic? Wouldn’t this leech or just be bad for the plants?

Picture is a reference not this specific one.

Hello I’m germinating seeds for my hydroponic tower for the first time, I’m starting my first hydroponic tower. The substrate I’m using is called root riot, it was recommended to me, and everything was going well, but I think maybe it’s too humid and some of the seeds got moldy.
Ill put a picture of the whole thing. ( Also this does have a lid I removed it for the pictures )

From left to right I’m planting: first tray - cherry tomatoes on the top two and bottom two; next to them top and bottom is basil; next tray first two top and bottom it’s rocket; then next two top and bottom is spinach; then last two remaining is lettuce on top and parsley at the bottom;

It’s been 7 days since I planted these seeds and one of the cherry tomatoes still hasn’t appeared anything; neither did the spinach or the parsley. I know parsley takes a bit of time, but I think it’s weird the spinach and one of the cherry tomato didn’t appear.

One thing I know I did wrong is that I put some of the seeds too deep, I don’t know if could be the issue in some of these. And also I was spraying water on them everyday because I saw this somewhere, and then I saw that we don’t need to add water.

I think the green stuff around some of these seeds is mold but I’m asking, praying that it isn’t and that everything will be ok 🥲

Also if it’s mold should I try removing these seeds and putting new ones not so deep in or are these cubes already far gone, or will they still grow and this is not a problem?

So I have aphids in one corner of my hydroponic system, and I thought it was under control by using neem oil and isopropyl alcohol in a spray. Suddenly they went to the plant pot on the side, where they are thriving. No matter how much I spray them, they bounde back in less than 24h. The plants in the pots are isolated and they are sticky from too much oil, but these buggers don't give up!

Is diatomaceous earth my only hope?

Is lettuce supposed to grow tall-ish like this? Did I transfer them to the tower too soon (i did when they had 4 true leaves)? Or is just the weather (indoor temp reached 30 the past 2 weeks)?

Hi, I’d like to ask for some advice about my hydroponic tower. I 3D-printed a simple tower out of PETG; the reservoir is a pot that holds about 15 liters of water, and I wanted to give it a try to see if it works.
Unfortunately, it’s not going as I’d hoped. The pH level jumps to 9.3 after a few days. After a week, I have a lot of algae, and the strawberry roots are dark instead of clean. Wild strawberries, surprisingly, are fine.

I tried growing lettuce—it was practically disintegrated/dissolved by the water.
Strawberries and wild strawberries—they last a week and still going, but the strawberry roots are brown even though they don’t smell bad.

Environment:
The water is typical “German” tap water, 7.5 pH, and hard water.
Fertilizer: HESI Hydro Wuchs.
I lower the pH using BioBizz Bio Down to a level of 5.5–6 pH.
Pump used: Vivosun 800GPH
Watering cycle: 4 minutes every 20 minutes (4times per hour between 8-22) and 5 minutes every 30 min between 22-8.

Before pouring water into the system, I filter the water to reduce particle levels, and the pH drops to 6.5.
I fertilized in proportion to the amount of water, waited an hour for it to stabilize, and lowered the pH level if necessary.
I read somewhere that a white tower causes problems, so I’ll probably just paint it black.

NFT. Using General Hydroponics three part formula. Growing bok choy varieties in rockwool. Im going to add more grow lights. Used all schedule 40 potable water safe pvc. I think I have enough aeration from the 90⁰ drops but very new to this