naked hydroponics

Naked Hydroponics. As simple as not putting clothes on.

Everyone knows hydroponics is a complex science,right?

Everyone knows hydroponics is highly technical. You need a lot of knowledge,read a lot of books…

You need a lot of equipment,like pumps and lights and aerators and testing equipment…

What if I told you that’s all bull?

There’s no doubt,by spending lots of money and having lots of equipment you can get great results;but do you actually need it? We have spent several years proving that the answer to that question is a resounding

NO!

Leave all that crap to the commercial growers who can get their money back. As a home gardener,you can’t afford it,and -for salad veggies*- you don’t need it.

Naked Hydroponics is hydroponics stripped back to the bare essentials,starting with NO growing medium. It’s the roots of the plants that are naked,not -necessarily- the gardener. Because there is no medium,there is no need for aeration. You just have to replace fresh nutrient every fortnight or so,and top up with fresh water in between times.

No medium,no pumps,no expensive overheads,no electricity costs…

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Just look at the photographs. We know it works,because we’ve done it;and believe me,we are remarkably ordinary people,and even more ordinary gardeners. If we can do it,anyone can.

In fact,this system is so simple,and requires so little in basic components,any handy man with a reasonable workshop and basic tools would have no trouble in making his/her own,and we’ll even help you do it! There’s no need to make mistakes we’ve already made. You can download a PDF file here

Read on and view our photo collection. Nothing is faked -for a start when it comes to computers I’m not that clever,and besides,why would I? I want you to succeed so you come back for more!

It really is that easy.

*This system is not recommended for root vegetables.

Yet.

Introducing “Naked Hydroponics”

The ultimate in simplicity and convenience and the most cost effective for the home gardener. Just walk onto your veranda or balcony for that lettuce leaf,celery stalk,tomato,fresh herb…
No dirt,no shovels,no wheelbarrows,no heavy lifting or digging,no weeds,no bending,kneeling or squatting…
There’s also no water or air pumps to break down or fail,or medium;it’s the roots that are ‘naked’,not (necessarily) the gardener. You don’t have to be an industrial chemist,or hydrologist. In fact,you don’t even need a green thumb!
Hi,my name’s Peter Grimley,and I swear I’ve been able to kill plants with just a look.
Ok,that’s probably a little exaggeration,but honestly,I’ve had more success with this “naked” hydroponic method,than I have ever had in the garden.
And it’s so quick and easy!
Just for perspective,that’s a Great Dane in the foreground.
(OK,that’s another little exaggeration…)
Naked hydroponics is quite simply hydroponics ‘stripped bare’. Our goal has been to create a system which is simple,convenient and cheap enough to buy that you will actually save money by using it.
Most hydroponic hobbyists will cheerfully admit they will never get their money back on their capital investment,but that was never their intention. They just enjoy growing and fiddling,and trying to achieve the best and biggest. Naked hydroponics is in that sense a ‘Clayton’s’hydroponic system. It’s for people who aren’t particularly interested in hydroponics,but just want results. With no moving parts,and requiring no energy -apart from sunlight- your “naked” planter costs nothing to run,and will last for years,which makes the initial cost very cheap indeed;and for around $30 worth of nutrients you can grow 2 years supply of lettuce,as well as other veggies. Visit our online shop for all you need to start your own ‘veranda veggie patch’.
So simple,it’s almost a crime!
It’s exactly as hard as measuring out cough medicine. Once a fortnight. Into a 5 litre watering can. (Really bad cough).
Have you any idea how many varieties of tomato there are?
Well as it happens,neither do I. But I know there’s a bloody lot;and what’s more,I know the very best varieties you’ll never find in the local supermarket. I’m particularly fond of yellow tomatoes. When was the last time you saw those in a shop?
I’m currently growing Roma (very prolific),cherry,yellow pear,mortgage lifter,green zebra,black russian,colossal yellow,patio prize,Golden Jubilee and a couple of others I can’t remember the names of.
And the only reason I get to try all these,is because I grow them myself.

So far,we have successfully grown tomatoes,lettuce (do you know how many types of lettuce there are?),celery,cucumbers,zuccini,capsicum,chilli,heaps of Chinese stir fry greens as well as Basil,mint (grow it? The stuff’s taking over the planet!) thyme,coriander,sage,and flowering plants. Petunias and nasturtiums,Pansies;the world’s your oyster (plant). We’ve even grown the
world’s ugliest carrots,would you believe.

May 1st Video,update 3

We’ve decided (belatedly) to do some comparisons between feeding regimes. We have had good results -and have made recommendations according to those results- starting off with just fortnightly nutrient changes,building up to weekly changes,but we have never really quantified these results in any methodical way. We’ve basically just played it by ear.

So we thought it might be interesting to do a direct comparison. We’ve set up a second planter and transferred a couple of plants from the first planter to the second. Then we added a couple of lettuce which were out of the same batch as the lettuce in the first planter so they are the same age,plus a strawberry we had in another planter. We will now see if weekly changes -at half strength- are better than fortnightly changes.

Keep in mind this will hardly be definitive. already some spots have appeared on the leaves of some of the tomatoes,which will inevitably affect some of the results. Also the tomatoes are ‘pot luck’;we’re not even sure what varieties they are.

Still,it should be interesting.

Keep Murphy’s Law in mind,here. Since this is essentially “live as it happens”,you know everything that can go wrong,will go wrong. We’ve already had to chuck one lettuce which failed to thrive,and the one next to it doesn’t look that flash,either.

The only excuse I can offer is “hey,shit happens.”

How we do things the movie,the ongoing saga…

It’s now week 3 of our naked hydroponics video journal,the ongoing adventures of a few good plants (and cuttings) boldly going where no plant has gone before…How many clichés can one man fit into a sentence,you wonder? Wait for our next update on May 1st (or thereabouts…).

How we do things,the movie (?)

Here’s a short video of how we use our Naked Hydroponics Planter.

Hope you find it helpful.

Correct Nutrient Levels;a pictorial guide.

The Dose is the key.

If you aren’t getting the results you were hoping for from your Naked Planter,it’s almost certainly due to the wrong amount of nutrient.

And I’m prepared to take -at least- some of the blame.

The problem is there are just too many variables to give an exact dosage,starting with the amount of sunlight your planter gets every day,the time of year,your locality and latitude,the hardness or softness of your water…The dosages I prescribed on the first run of sample bottles were,I have to admit,almost certainly too high for most situations;even though they are in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations. I guess I was more concerned with being able to honestly tell people “there is enough nutrient in the sample pack to last at least 2 months”,than with the results people were likely to get.
Unfortunately,too much nutrient is probably worse than not enough;not only does less nutrient cost less,but you don’t really have to panic if you’re going away for a weekend. Even when your heavy feeders are coming into full fruit,changing the nutrient fortnightly will just slow them down;it generally won’t kill them,provided of course they don’t run out of water altogether.

Too much nutrient,on the other hand,does appear to be toxic.

Capsicums and Chilli’s I’ve discovered,are particularly susceptible to over feeding. Although they don’t actually die,they just look ridiculous. These are photo’s of capsicums we’ve treated like tomatoes.

It seemed reasonable to me to group all ‘fruiting vegetables’together;certainly tomatoes,cucumbers and eggplants go well together.

Clearly,I was wrong.

This is my idea of what a Capsicum should look like.

Unlike the first 2 photo’s,it was really challenging to show the fruit,the plant was so bushy. Note the red fruit at the bottom;it won’t be there for much longer.

In terms of dosage,the first 2 capsicums went on to 10ml of Optimum Grow a week fairly early,and went to fruit almost immediately. The last capsicum has only ever received 10ml a fortnight,and secretly I think we may have missed a couple of changes too.

Now that it is nice and leafy,we have just -3 days before this photo- changed the nutrient to 10ml of ‘Optimum Bloom’,to encourage more fruit;although I think 15ml of Optimum Grow would probably work just as well. I now intend to find out,with a direct comparison starting March 16,2011. Watch this space (for a few months).

As for general feeding,this is a planter on just 5ml of Optimum Grow a week.

By the way,all photo’s on this website should be “clickable”,for a closer view. If you find any you can’t click on,please let us know. We have placed mint in the extreme left,furthest away from the filler hole,as it will be permanent. All the others could be transplanted,if necessary.

These tomatoes have just been promoted to what I would call a ‘lazy 10′ml;ie they could be replenished every week,but I wouldn’t lose any sleep if I forgot.

This planter is also on (a very strict weekly) 10ml,but on this day it’s due to be upgraded to 15ml. It won’t do the lettuce any good,but it’s about to bolt anyway. Dianthus are great value by the way;they flower for months and take up little room.

This is the time to move tomatoes up to 15ml a week,when they start to flower. It doesn’t hurt to prune your tomatoes fairly strictly;remember it’s fruit you’re after,not a big mass of leaves. If you can trim the growth tips about 150ml (6”) long,you can pop them straight back into a planter -with only 5ml nutrient,or less- and keep your best plants going pretty much forever. I’ll show you how I do cuttings a bit later on.

Tomatoes,basil,mint of course all strike very easily,as do a number of flowering plants and trees. In fact,it was taking cuttings of Hibiscus which started me on the Naked Hydroponic road.

And finally we come to the 20ml weekly maximum tomato plant. This to my mind is the perfect hydroponic tomato bush,heaps of fruit on a nice compact vine.

All these planters are in varying degrees of shade.

A northerly aspect is generally ideal,as you really want more sun in winter,and shade in the hottest days of summer,if possible.
Too much sun in the hottest months can lead to ‘blossom end rot’;bad fruit on an otherwise healthy plant is quite disheartening.

I hope you find these notes on my methodology helpful,but please don’t ever take anything I say as inarguable gospel;you need to assess your own situation,and make your own decisions. I’m still learnin’,and as I’ve said,I was a bloody awful gardener to start with.

But these days,I do manage to keep the weeds in check…

P.S. (or Piss…)

About my lovely ‘perfect hydroponic tomato bush’…

Pride do Goeth Before a Fall. I have stressed on a number of occasions not to trust the plastic plant ladders with your tomato vines. This was a real ‘Oh Bugger!’moment.

About Us

About us? Well basically we’re not ambitious. We just want to change the world. (Doesn’t everyone?)
This is just the first step. For my long term goal,read my blog about “Living off the Land”,at avasay.com.
After thousands (millions?) of years of being totally at the mercy of the weather,Hydroponics has finally enabled us to literally live “off” the land. We no longer need the Land,and it’s becoming increasingly obvious the Land doesn’t need or want us – at least,not in our current (and future) numbers.
In the short term,I believe it is quite possible to make many beneficial changes without paying more taxes,or more for electricity,or more for basic staples. We could for a start decentralise our markets,so food doesn’t have to travel so far,and buy local,instead of importing food from thousands of kilometres away.
Or we could just use hydroponics,so our food doesn’t have to travel at all…
Naked Hydroponics isn’t the ultimate food producing system;in fact,just the opposite. Rather than trying to create the bestest,fastest,biggest,most productive…we wanted a system so simple,so convenient and so cheap that anybody and everybody could use it,and save money by using it.
The concept is really so simple someone handy with tools could make their own,particularly if they had a little help…
The question is:Why would you bother? If you look at our pricing structure,you should find our labour costs are covered by our bulk buying. If you had to go out and buy PVC cement and primer just to build one planter,plus the PVC pipe and caps,and drain hose and foam packing,you’ll probably end up paying more than our ‘Basic’model costs -and you’ll end up throwing away an almost full bottle of glue and primer.
Add to that our 60 day satisfaction guarantee. If,within the first 60 days you decide you couldn’t be bothered,wrap the whole kit up and send it back to us and we’ll give you a refund on the price of the kit. You only have to pay return postage. In 60 days,you could grow maybe 20 bucks worth of fresh,chemical spray free lettuce,before the guarantee runs out.
If you make your own,you’re going to have to shell out around $35 for nutrients and if you change your mind you’ll end up having wasted your time and money building your kit,and have all that nutrient left over.
But if you want to build your own,that’s fine;we’ll help you if we can. Go to our shop and for $5.50 we’ll sell you a pdf. file with full details of how to make your own,and detailing our experiences so you don’t have to make the mistakes we’ve already made. We can also sell you just the mounting brackets,or just the planters without the brackets,or unpainted planters,or just the drainage tubes and foam,whatever you want. What we can’t sell you is the sample packs of nutrients without buying a kit. The good folks at Growth Technology won’t let us,which is fair enough. You can however,buy the 2×1 litre packs of our favourite nutrients.

So,how does it work?

Nutrients

The one mixture which stood out head and shoulders above the rest was ‘Optimum Grow’,by Growth Technology,in Western Australia. We have found it works well for both light and heavy feeders,and for seeds and cuttings -at the appropriate concentrations. The only other nutrient mix we have had some success with is ‘Dutch Master Gold’,which we found to be very good for tomatoes,but that was about all.

Other Products trialled:

Dutch Fest Hydro Grow
Monsta Bud
Bio Juice
Searles Fish Kelp
Oz Hydro Plus
Manutec Hydroponic Nutrient
Worm Wee

The ‘worm wee’is an ongoing -and probably never ending- project;there are just too many variables. It has to be the ultimate goal in sustainable self sufficiency though,and so to me is unquestionably worth pursuing. I’m particularly interested in the possibility of using seaweed/kelp for the worm food (see my blog:Living off the land)

Getting back to the Optimum Grow,based on our trials we recommend 2ml/litre for cuttings and seedlings. We grow our seeds in vermiculite,sitting in a tray of nutrient;‘unsoiled’from go to whoa. Don’t waste nutrient on seeds;start the nutrient mix after the seeds have sprouted. We leave the seedlings in vermiculite until they are at least 75mm high,before we transplant into a planter. Not using soil makes transplanting a very clean and easy process. We use 5-10ml per planter (not litre) for newly transplanted seedlings for the first fortnight,building up to a maximum of 20ml/ planter for large plants. It’s difficult to be more precise;plant growth is largely determined by sunlight,so the more sun the more nutrient required. We’ve generally found we can get away with only changing the nutrient fortnightly,until the heavy feeders start to bear;but all our verandas get a fair bit of shade. Interestingly,we have found our tomatoes currently appear to grow best in shade,which is counter to just about all the advice I have ever seen;but then it does get pretty bloody warm in Qld in summer.

Sadly,I have to admit that hydroponics is no guarantee against disease. We’ve had a very wet,humid (but relatively mild) summer here in SW Queensland,and fungus diseases -particularly in the tomatoes- has been rife. I dislike using commercial synthetic chemical sprays,so we haven’t had too many tomatoes. I have had some success with using copper sulphate and dolomite (see our page on tips for growing tomatoes) but it’s not real consistent. I’m currently trialling hydrogen peroxide;the results so far have been very good. I use a 3% solution from the chemist,and dilute it to 15ml in a 500ml spray bottle. I just spray the infected leaves,and so far it appears to stop the spots from spreading.

Nutrient Comparison

Thanks to a little prod from ‘Fiona’(see forum) I have finally addressed a long standing (and embarrassingly obvious) ‘gunnadoo’. After trialling many different brands of nutrient,I have at last gotten around to making a simple comparison of the elements included in the 2 nutrient mixes we have had most success with. Whereas we have had the best consistent success with Optimum Grow for all the plant varieties -that we have had any success with at all- one other mix has consistently shown a better result with tomatoes;and only tomatoes. The mix is Dutch Master Gold. nutrient comparison chart 1
Here is a table showing the elements as listed on the respective bottles. To make the comparison a little more obvious,I have highlighted just those numbers where the Dutch Master mix exceeded the Optimum Grow mix.
Not being an industrial chemist or botanist the only way I can really work out if the different trace amounts of Manganese and Molybdenum are significant or not is by trial and error. Obviously the easiest element to adjust in this table is the Calcium;the most common form of calcium -for gardeners- is calcium carbonate,or lime.
These figures tend to bear out what I said in my article about growing tomatoes,and the need for extra calcium -at least for us. Our rain water tanks generally run a PH of 6.8,or just about ideal for general purposes;just slightly acidic (7.0 is neutral). So will adding extra lime be beneficial? The recommended pH for tomatoes is around 6.0 to 6.5,so adding more should be too much,unless I also add hydrochloric acid…What we need is more feedback from people with other water sources;chlorinated town water,dam or river water…
In the absence of other feeds,I shall just have to do the experiment myself;3 planters,one with Dutch Master,one with Grow and one with Grow plus lime.
Come back in a few months.

Why 2 part Nutrients?

A couple of people have asked me why Optimum Grow and Optimum Bloom both come in 2 parts. The reason for this -as I understand it- is because some elements tend to react with other elements;specifically calcium tends to react with phosphates and sulphates. This causes what is variously described as ‘nutrient lockout’,‘nutrient fallout’,and ‘precipitation’;basically these elements become unavailable to the plants. For this reason the calcium part is kept separate from the others to prevent a premature chemical reaction.
Bottom line:Best practice is always mix the 2 parts in equal proportions;always mix the 2 parts in the presence of water,either in a jug or in the planter itself IF the planter already has some water in it.
As to whether you need Optimum Bloom,honestly for the small timer with only one or two planters,I just don’t consider it to be good value,as you still need Grow for the early stages,even of flowers.
Yes we have used it,and yes we have had good results with it,but we have also grown flowers quite successfully with just Grow. It really depends on how many planters you have as to whether it’s worth your while,and how keen you are to achieve best results,I guess.

Our friends at Growth Technology recently sent us a new product to trial,called ‘Ionic Grow‘. This -despite everything I’ve just written- is a single part nutrient. it appears Carl the Chemist at GT has been working for years to overcome the precipitation problem,and has now licked it. It is of course a trade secret,so don’t ask me how.

So far,the trials are going very well. Will being a single pack make it cheaper? Yes and No. Yes it will be about half the price,-but you have to use twice as much. In other words,you won’t have to fork out as much,but to get a year’s supply you will either have to buy 2 bottles,or pay twice for freight,which is almost as dear (for some,possibly more dear) than the article itself.

It will obviously make mixing easier though.

As always,we will keep you posted on our results.

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