Soo for anyone who is interested.. I added a wick to the bottle and it works great! The plant is thriving and it is easy to refill the bottle every couple of days (in the beginning it was weeks but it is getting hungry). It went from slowly dIng to really growing into a full salad. Very happy to share this.. it is just exiting what plants can grow in!

brrrrrrr

Some foam for into the cups, in tgis case explicit for Hydroponics, but pool noodles are usable and often used.

This is super helpful thank you!

I have one and I use my own seeds with generic substrate sponges. They’re basically triangular sponges of peat type stuff, lots of generic options if you do a search.

I reuse my original seed pod baskets but if you don’t have yours you can either buy 3D printed ones on places like Etsy, or you can buy a single seed kit from aerogarden then reuse the baskets and little plastic covers in the future. It’s usually pretty easy to pull the plant out of the basket when you’re ready to start a new batch. For the cover I just use tin foil and punch a hole with a pen.

Idk where you’re located but I like buying my seeds from Renee’s Garden (search for “cut and come again container” to help narrow down). I’ve done various lettuces, herbs, and green beans successfully. I mostly use mine for lettuce type stuff.

midlle with a bit of algae are cuttings

Whats that holding them? Pool noodles?

I didn't realize this was a community. Oh man I don't need another hobby 🤣

Its with diffusors, all of that air stuff is aquarium parts, as hydroponic marketet stuff costs atleast double.

I actualy wanted oversized basil, as im going to make pesto.

Edit: This is one Month ago

Thanks 👍

Seems like the basil is growing faster than you can eat it? That is the main reason I don't grow any... too little use as a herb in cooking for my taste.

For the air bubbler you just use an open hose? Have you tried a stone diffuser from aquarium supplies? Might give better results.

The fan is for simulated wind, the rigth most plants are cannabis, they need a breeze. Wind is the reason plants grow stronger branches, so anything thats getting heavy at the branches/outside is helped with a bit of breeze.

At the top is a cheap 100w growligth, started as sun support (dimmed to 15w) and dayligth extension. I had the windowsill full of seedlings at the beginning of the year. Now its on full blast until the cannabis moves into my growtent.

Leftmost in Glasses and in the midlle with a bit of algae are cuttings.

The Basil is standing in a 20lPot in dire need to be cut, as its starting to flower. It was a single cutting from a storebougth pot of basil. Pic of Roots:

The Cannabis is standing in leftover plastic container from supplements. Both will move into the same 20LPots as the Basil, when they have a respectable size and fluid ussage.

All 3 have air bubblers in them, would recommend as it speeds up grow and helps against root rot.

Can you please give a bit of an explanation what can be seen on the picture?

That basilicum(?) is huge 🤩

What is the point of that fan on the right?

This community is just awesome! Thanks so much for the advice! Yeah I will probably try other vessels soon, also want to look into DWC and bigger kratky growing methods..

Others already touched on it, but yeah. Wine bottle is not really the ideal shape for this, very cute though! Wide and shallow means water level won't change so much with volume, a 10x12x2" paper organizer tote with very similar cups to yours set in the lid is what I usually recommend for a little beginner window garden. You aren't doing anything wrong so much as tricky/ambitious. It'll naturally get easier as roots come in, and next time you could try waiting until roots reach past the neck of the bottle. Still won't be ideal conditions, but should work fine with tough stuff like lettuce :)

I love that idea! I will try that for sure!! Should not be that hard to cut it and it should increate the available water!

Yeah that might work, or the glass cutter idea is probably not bad either.

Really there's not a lot of liquid in the neck of wine bottle, it fills up fast compared to the rest.

I wonder if a glass cutter to take the neck down to ~1" could be helpful? Or just a different bottle in general. Again, idk how most of this works do I'm just throwing shit out there lol.

Haha thanks! Appreciated! I also really like the look of it.. now it just needs to work!!

That sounds right.. so I just need to grow the seedlings larger and then it should work?

Imo the wine bottles may just be too narrow compared to how long the roots take to start? Not sure there's any thing you can do besides more time.

I know nothing about this so I can't help. I just stumbled upon your post and wanted to tell you that I think it's cool!

My god, that is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!! What a great design! Can you explain me, when you refill the bottle? Just started in hydroponics and if I understood it correctly, I have to refill, when it is nearly gone and just fill it up a little bit, right?

Alpine strawberries grow like regular plants, no funny cold stratification or weird co-dependencies needed.

I've mostly grown them in soil where they can be quite moody (poor germination until suddenly thriving half grown plants), and the one try I've done hydroponically I just germinated them on paper towel as per regular.

Some reading online seems to confirm that they have worse germination rate than many commercial seeds, and that they can take longer (up to a couple weeks) to germinate.

When I tried them in my hydro setup they behaved entirely normally. Same germination setup, growth rate etc. as the herbs and flowers I typically plant. Mine came out a little weak to support the hanging fruit, but with some wind agitation and/or supports you'll probably be fine.

This is a slightly embarrassing question, but I've never actually done cold stratification. Do I just put them in in a bag, or do they need some kind of moisture and/or growth medium, or?

while I was reading your post I was thinking in cold stratification. Just try putting some seeds in the fridge for a few weeks before sprouting

This is so cool! I've always wanted to do a planted tank with shrimp, it'd be incredible if I could do an edible planted tank with shrimp