Hydroponic Planting

Have you heard of Hydroponic? It is a method of planting plants, small shrubs and flowers, fruits and vegetables without using soil, pump, animal fertilizer; and best of all without insecticide.

It's easy and clean method; introduced in Malaysia since in the 1990's. The required materials are safe, cheap and removable. We have bought the materials from a local company, Kazz Marketing .

THE REQUIRED MATERIALS (given when bought) :

1. 15 centimetre depth of hydroponic pail/sump


2. a polystyrene cover with holes


3. small cups with few holes


4. threads


5. plants/vegetables seeds


6. Organic fertilizer
   

NEXT TO DO :

1. Pour 20 liter of water into the pail provided and cover it using the polystyrene.
2. Put a bunch of threads into a cup. Pull some of the threads out of the cup.
3. Soak the threads with water and put them into the holes on the polystyrene (look at the photo below).
4. Put 3 nos of seeds into each of the cup.
5. Coming to the seventh day, pull out 1 of the growing plants. Let 2 nos of plants continue to grow.
6. On the seventh day, open the cover and you need to add 2 cups of the organic fertilizer. Remember to stir the mixture and close the cover.

You need to mix all of the organic fertilizer given by adding 20 cups (250ml/cup) of water into a different pail and mix them together. Organic fertilizer and 250ml cup is provided. Cover the pail and put in a cool, shade and safe area. Stir the fertilizer before using them.

We have planted Kai-lan or known as Chinese broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra). The above photo showing the progress on the second day of planting the seeds; and 6 days later, the leaves were growing beautifully in the photo respectively. And kept on growing, and growing and growing. But remember to cover them from rainwater.

Make sure the water is enough, but not to cover the white roots as they are the source of 'breathing' for the plants. It is important to check the water level especially during drought season.

As you can see below, the images was taken when the water was finally dried. We have forgotten to check the water level and only realised something gone missing when the leaves were droopy and not fresh. The plants can be harvested after 4 to 6 weeks of planting.

These were the Kai-lan that we have planted using the Hydroponic system. Impressed with the result, we are planning to do it again using other seeds of vegetables. In case you are interested of getting the Hydroponic materials, just let us know.