I used to be nervous about trying hydroponics because there were piping, air tubes, pumps, and chemicals. Though I studied engineering in college and had a jack-of-all-trades dad, I have never felt comfortable taking on projects that involved hand tools and equipment that might need maintenance. But living in a townhouse with a gravel yard and an almost completely shaded deck has sent me searching for ways to garden indoors. So I bought a grow light system and a soil-less microgreens growing kit about a year ago, and well, now I'm hooked and ready to at least put my toe into hydroponic territory. Enter Kratky.

So this professor Kratky over in the paradise state of Hawaii developed a passive hydroponic set-up that allows the roots of the plants to follow their nutrient solution down as they soak it up. There is no need for air pumps, tubing, or circulation (Yay!!). The roots adapt to the situation differentiating into air roots (near top) and food/water roots (below). You try to give the plants a big enough solution reservoir to last the growing season. But if that isn't possible, just refill it, but not all the way, so the air roots don't drown.

I started a lettuce mix from seed in coco coir pellets. After a week and a half or two weeks, I transplanted them to their permanent home - a 10 gallon tote with net pots inserted into 2-inch drilled holes. The tote was filled with 7 gallons of nutrient solution using General Hydroponics Maxigrow formula. 7 gallons of water brought the nutrient solution high enough to just go over the bottom of the net cup. It turned out to be more than enough solution to support my plants for their 8 week growing cycle that included 4 weekly harvests starting at week 5 from seed. The tote was placed under my JumpStart grow light system that had 4 T5 bulbs in it. The lights were on 12 hours a day.

Below are pictures documenting the grow cycle.

Since I had my growlights on a timer, this was by far the EASIEST gardening experiment I have done, and it was amazingly productive. I literally just had to keep reminding myself, "Don't do anything to the lettuce," until week 5 when I got to start harvesting the bounty. I forgot to weigh my harvest, but each week I got two large picnic bowls (Dollar Tree) piled high with lettuce 4 weeks straight. Those bowls easily fed me and my husband each 2 meal-size plates of salad a week.

Here is the wonderful weekly Asian-inspired salad I enjoyed.

Have you experimented with the Kratky hydroponic growing method yet?  If so, what have you successfully grown?

Last week, I formally started homeschool preschool with my son Shiloh who turned 4 in July.  He has learned so many things before now already due to our focus on memory work since he was 2 years old, but he does have a few gaps we need to fill in, like penmanship, speech, coloring and using scissors and glue.  Since I accelerated his reading and math, he already knows the following at this point:

• how to read (since 27 months old)
  
• all his books in the Bible in order
  
• how to use his Bible and find a chapter verse he needs
  
• 10 Commandments
  
• 25 Bible stories and where to find them in the Bible
  
• place value into the billions
  
• all of his addition and subtraction math facts
  
• all of his skip counts through 12's past 100
  
• how to count money (bills and coins)
  
• how to read a ruler
  
• how to read a scale
  
• his United States presidents in order
  
• all of his states and capitals
  
• the continents
  
• the countries and their capitals of North America
  
• the entire periodic table (element name, number, and symbol)
  
• the planets of the solar system
  
• how to recognize different backyard birds
  
• major scales C to B on the piano
  
• the corresponding major chords on the piano and how to make them minor chords
  
• perfect pitch - Shiloh can hear any note and on the first try, find it on the piano.
• how to read the diagrams and put together his snap circuits
  

This year, the plan is to fill in the gaps he has in penmanship, speech and crafts, and to continue moving forward in all subjects, namely mastering...

• multiplication tables
  
• multi-digit addition and subtraction
  
• addition and subtraction models for word problem solving
  
• Bible history timeline
  
• spelling all sight words
  
• basic grammar (sentence writing and punctuation)
  
• basic drawing
  
• presidents term in office and 1 fact about each one
  
• the rest of the countries in the world with their capitals
  

Due to Shiloh's behavior, I did not trust him to handle a writing utensil for fear he would be writing on everything in the house, so I delayed working with him on writing till now.  He still does all kinds of crazy things (he's a scientist in the making - but his unending quest to explore and see what OTHER ways he can use stuff get him into trouble), but at least he responds better to discipline.  He knows how to form all of his letters with his finger, it's just learning how to rest his hand on the table and bear down with the pen that he seems to struggle with.  Hopefully, we'll get that sorted out sooner than later.

Shiloh did not start talking till after he turned 3 years old, so now that he is trying to talk, we see many gaps in his ability to express himself fluidly.  He often uses "you" when talking about himself.  He uses a lot of short phrases instead of sentences.  Anyways, this is a big area of remediation or catching up that I will be focusing on now that he is cooperating with me.

Lastly, due to Shiloh's behavior, I have not allowed him to handle scissors.  I still haven't done it yet.  But this year, we're going to do it.  He also hasn't shown much interest in art, so he does not have well developed craft skills, like coloring (which is related to me delaying giving him writing utensils).  I hope to change that this year, so we will see.

I plan to use this blog to keep track of our activities and progress along the way.  Lord bless each one along their journey.  Surely, parenting is the hardest job in the world.  Signing out, Inga