DIY Firestarters

Making your own fire starters is an easy and fun project that can be done in an afternoon.  You will need the following items:

• Empty Egg Carton
• Wood Shavings or Saw Dust
• Left Over Candles or a Wax Block
• Two Pots (one to melt the wax in, one to hold water and the wax pot)
• Water
• Heat Source
• Stir Stick (scrap piece of wood works well)

Take the empty egg carton:

Add the wood shavings, compacting them into each egg-well as tight as possible. Poke a hole in the center to allow full penetration of the wax:

Using your heat source (a DIY Ammo-Box Wood-Stove in this case), take the larger pot and fill it 1/2 way with water. Then place your "wax pot" into the water along with your wax to be heated/melted. Stir the wax and heat until completely melted:

Carefully pour the hot wax evenly and gently into the egg carton, completely covering the shavings:

Allow the wax to dry overnight:

The next day, cut the egg carton up into individual sections/fire starter pods:

Pack up the fire starters in a Zip-Loc bag to keep dry and ready for use.

Hooray!

Well it was touch-and-go there for a few days, but it appears that the majority of the plants have come back from the brink of destruction. I added an additional light to the lettuce side to help out--a 75watt CFL, and it appears to be making a difference.

The basil is progressing very well.

Call Me Charlie Brown

I don't know what happened over night, but something went South--the plants!  Perhaps it was the 'addition' of the nutrients, or the pump didn't operate, or ?? Either way, the plants are looking even worse and I think we've totally lost one of the lettuces. I drained the reservoir and refilled it with plain water and have been running it through the system for the past 30 minutes. I wanted to try and 'clean' the roots as much as possible before adding the nutrients back to the system. Here are some photos of the massacre.

More to come... but hopefully not death and destruction...

-Sam

Status Check

Just a quick drop to give a status update. Growth is slow. I'm beginning to think I should invest in better lighting. Going by the appearances of the lettuce and broccoli they act like they are not getting enough light. I recently added another bulb to try and help the lettuce out. It's a plain incandescent--nothing fancy.

Since the last post, I purchased a digital timer and have my flood cycle running 6 times a day for 10 mins each--just long enough to get the roots and media good and wet. I have also postponed my weekly nutrient exchange. The current nutrient solution still appears clean and good. Nutrients are pricey so I'm going to monitor it on a daily basis and see if I can stretch it any. I added about 1/4c. of 'Gro' nutrient tonight to 'top it off'.

I am debating pulling the lettuce and trying another variety if they do not perk up or improve soon. The lettuce is an organic variety and my thinking is they may be a little less stout? I'm not sure... we'll see.

Now to the photos! :)

The basil is doing good. The second set of leaves have sprouted. None of the other herb seeds sprouted, so we'll be re-sowing more soon.

A peek in the growing area. The lettuce is stringy and very weak. I added the small lamp above to try and boost their growth. I also lowered the florescent lights to get them closer to the plants. You can see the broccoli in the background doing fairly well.

Another view of the progress. The broccoli is doing much better than the lettuce, but still not as well as I had hoped. Perhaps I am doing something wrong... I need to research more and find out. I have a feeling it's my lighting. Unfortunately lights are very expensive $200+!

More to come...
-Sam

Basil Beginnings and Ebb Update

We transferred the basil to the DWC herb kit tonight. Only the basil is ready, but we wanted to get it going. Here is a photo of the tiny, tiny basil in its new home. Snug as a bug--a small bug!

The broccoli is doing well

However, I am concerned the lettuce is not. I believe I am over-watering them, partly due to my timer not being able to be set per minute 'on'. I am going to try to pick up a digital one tomorrow.

They're growing, but are just weak looking... we'll see.

More to come...

-Sam

Changing the Nutrient Solution

Today I changed the nutrient solution on the Big Kit (ebb and flow). Today is the start of Week 2 and I upped the Gro Nutrients (as directed) and added the Cal-Mag additive (as directed). Hopefully I'll notice a difference in the plants with the additional nutrients.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions, and that's the truth. I discovered a clever way of draining my reservoir today; I used an old garden hose that just happened to be 1/2" i.d., stuck to the water pump, and ran the hose into the bathroom tub. I switched on the pump and viola! I was very pleased it worked--I wasn't looking forward to dragging the 20 gallons of water in the tub into the bathroom or out the door to dump--I wasn't even sure how I was going to do that. After the pump emptied as much of the old water as possible, I carried the tub to the bathroom and rinsed it out. While the tub was drying I went to the garage and built a small skate for the tub to sit on and easily roll from one location to another. I built it from a piece of 1/2" plywood (18" x 30"), (2) 30" 2x4s, and (4) old casters. I'll take a photo of it later to show you.

I refilled the reservoir one gallon at a time (keeping count) and rolled it back into the growing room and hooked up the lines. I only put 10 gallons in the reservoir, instead of 20 gallons, as the flood system only needs about 8 gallons to operate. Less water equals less weight, less nutrients used, less money, etc.

More to come...
-Sam

Washing Hydroton

Here is my process for washing hydroton. This is done outside, usually in the driveway, with the following items; plastic tub, modified 5 gal bucket, water hose, and hydroton. Here's how it goes:

Start with an empty tub. In this example, I picked up a cheap "hinged lid" one and took off the lid pieces. I would estimate this to be around a 12 gal. tub.

I used a standard 5 gal. bucket and drilled several 3/16" holes in the bottom and sides to create my "Modified Bucket". The holes are for drainage and go about 3" up on the sides of the bucket.

Pour the amount of hydroton you want to wash into the tub.

Fill and spray the hydroton. As the tub fills with water be sure to slosh the hydroton around a lot to dislodge the dirt and dust. I usually stick the hose down in the water to stir the hydroton.

Carefully lift the tub and pour the water and hydroton into the bucket. It's easiest to pour from a corner. Try to control the situation if possible... you don't want your hydroton going all over the place to pick up one-by-one... trust me. ***Be sure not to fill the tub with more water than you can lift and pour!***

Repeat the process until the water is clear when filling in the tub. For this amount of hydroton in the photos I had to rinse/drain it about 6 times.

After your hydroton is washed you can use it as needed. Store the excess covered in a dry place. It's easier to store the excess than to go through the entire process for a cup full of hydroton.

More to come...

-Sam

Update

Just a quick post to show the progression of the plants. They're not growing as fast as I had hoped after seeing the sprouts explode, but I have to remind myself that for however much they grow above ground, they are doubling their growth below.

The broccoli after four days. They have almost doubled their height and all have their third leafs now.

The lettuce after four days. They too have grown, although not as much height-wise as the broccoli, however their developing leaves are much more prominent.

I started the flood cycle for once every 3 hrs, then switched it to once every 4 hrs, but moved it again tonight to once every 3.5hrs. I am trying to get the media to be nearly dry right before the next watering cycle but not too wet or dry.

More to come...
-Sam

Transplanting the Seedlings

The broccoli seedlings were beginning to climb their way out of the starter tray so it was time to transplant them to their new homes. I added my nutrients - Botanicare Pure Blend Pro - Grow (see photo below; the Cal-Mag is for later as an additive). The nutrients are 100% natural and organic--hooray!

After adding the nutrients, I checked the pH to ensure it was correct (6.3-6.4) and began transplanting the seedlings into the pots. Here is one of the lettuce seedlings about to be placed into the pot.

We carefully filled in around it with hydroton making sure not to crush the plant in the process.

You want to have one layer of hydroton covering your seed starter to help prevent algae growth. This is one of the broccoli plants.

And the final results. Lettuce on the left and broccoli on the right. As soon as we finished transplanting them we ran a flood cycle to ensure the seedlings and hydroton were well hydrated and to introduce the seedlings to their new yummy nutrient bath--Seabird Guano, Kelp, Na, K, Mg, and Ca.

For the next week the light cycle will stay at 18/6 as well.

More to come...
-Sam

DIY Deep Water Culture Herb Garden

As promised, I documented each step in the process so, should you wish, you can build your very own hydroponic system. Here are the materials that you will need for this project:

• storage bin with a flat lid
• black spray paint
• net pots
• grow medium (hydroton)
• air pump
• air tubing
• air stone
• seedlings in rock wool or other hydroponic starter material
• nutrients
• pH test kit

Once you have all of your items, here's how I went about assembling the kit.

This is the storage bin I chose. Two factors made me grab this one; a flat lid and a good depth. The deeper the container, the more room your roots will have to grow and the longer your nutrient bath will last.

I traced around the pots where I planned to cut the holes in the lid.

All eight pots were traced. This is not the size of the holes to cut though, I free-handed smaller circles inside these that were about 1/4" from the edges so the pots would not fall through the lid.

I used a Dremel with a spiral cutting bit to cut out the smaller circles.

Finished cutting, now to spray paint.

I placed a strip of masking tape at one corner. This is to leave a 'window' to see the water level without opening the lid.

Painted and waiting to dry. I used Rustoleum flat black paint. It is crucial to paint the container black (or another solid color) so as not to allow sunlight to penetrate to the water and to prohibit the growth of algae. You do not want algae growing in your nutrient bath. If you discover any, wash out the container and refill with fresh nutrient bath solution.

After paint dried and with the lid placed on top. The masking tape was removed as well for the 'window'.

The air stone ($3), airline tubing ($3), and air pump ($7) were all purchased from wally-world. I hate going there, but it was better than a trip to the next town solely for these three items at the hydroponic store.

I picked these 4" pots up from the local garden store. They were used, so they let me have them for $0.05 each. My plan was to drill holes in them and make my own net pots. After breaking one or two using a drill and bit (thank goodness I bought extra), I found that the Dremel with the spiral cut bit worked the best. Each pot averaged about 60 holes each and for 8 pots that means I drilled approximately 480 holes! It took me a good solid hour sitting at the workbench drilling the holes. If I were to do this again, I would just buy the net pots for the $.50 they cost. However, in this case, that would have meant driving 20+ miles to the next town to get them, so maybe it was worth it? 

Everything ready to begin assembly.

A 3/8" hole was drilled a close to the top of the container as possible to pass the air line through. Be sure to check for clearance with the lid and be mindful of your waterline level. It may be best (depending on your container) to run the air line through the top of the lid.

Air line ran and air stone placed.

Lid on.

Home-made (and homely looking) net pots placed.

Pots filled with hydroton. I have run across others that have used pea gravel as their medium and claim it works, but I would recommend using the appropriate material if you can. Either way, you need to wash the medium before using it. To wash hydroton I have a 5 gal bucket with small holes drilled in the bottom that I pour them into and rinse with a water hose. A full bucket takes several 'baths' to come clean. The next time I wash some I'll take photos of my process and post it.

The hydroponic herb garden sitting in it's home! It's placed next to a southernly-facing window in  our home atop a stool.

And another view, showing the placement of the air pump. I zip-tied it to the stool.

When your air pump is below the waterline of your container, it is very important to install a one-way check-valve to prevent water back-flowing into your pump and causing failure. To my surprise, this $7 pump came with one! I can't say that about my larger pump!

Reservoir filled with water and air pump on... we have bubbles! Now is the time to inspect your air stone and make sure it is producing adequate bubbles and is working properly. Oxygenated water is vital to hydroponics.

I filled my container one gallon at a time. After each gallon, I used a marker to indicate in the 'window' where each gallon's level was. From this, I learned that my reservoir takes 6.5 gallons to fill. You MUST know how much water is in your system to measure the nutrients appropriately.

Lid on and air pump going. The air pump runs continuously. Also notice that you can see the water line in the 'window'. You want to allow the water to sit for a day or two prior to introducing plants to it. This time will allow the fluoride and other water treatment chemicals to evaporate.

You want your 'Full' water line to be about 3/4" above the bottom of your pots. In this photo the bottom of the pot is the shadow. As your plants grow and their roots lengthen they will grow down into the nutrient bath, so keeping the container full is not as vital as when the seedlings first get placed. Either way, it is best to keep your container full.

And there you have it! All-in-all I believe the items cost me under $25, $50 if seedling trays, starters, medium, etc. are needed. Even at $50, having fresh herbs available that YOU grew is worth so much more! Especially with the amount of toxic chemicals used in the commercial food market today. Now we're waiting for the seeds to sprout to place into the kit. We're hoping they'll be ready in 3 days.

More to come...
-Sam