How to get started on hydroponics (in a way my wife will approve)
I have an Aerogarden Harvest. It's a pretty neat little device I picked up a few years ago on sale, and I use it as a starter for my outdoor garden. My outdoor garden inevitably fails due to forgetfulness, rabbits, or bugs. This year, after my lettuce was ravaged for the third time, I decided I'd like to scale up my indoor growing solution. My wife is on board, albeit hesitantly as she knows I'm a utilitarian and give little concern to form once function is established. We have a relatively small space, and no out-of-sight-storage-rooms to utilize for the project.
In short: I'm looking for advice on small scale, low startup cost hydro/aqua/aeroponic DIY projects for leafy greens/herbs that can be made to be "cute" or at least finished-looking, rather than a heap of PVC and 5 gallon buckets.
My best guess currently is one of the single-tower vertical PVC pipe systems with a nice hardwood box built around the 5 gallon bucket sump (lipstick on a pig) or a stacked/tiered NFT system with a nice wooden frame and channels made from some "nicer-looking" gutter.
Has anyone here actually accomplished an indoor grow that they were allowed to keep in their kitchen?
Edit: There's been a lot of great input here. I'm still researching, and if anyone else is going down this road, this channel has been very informative: https://www.youtube.com/@KeepOnGrowin
My impulse would be to look into how much footprint this stuff will need and where you'd have space for it in the home, while simultaneously doing some market research on something she wants instead of something she'd tolerate.
The goal is to build what your customer wants: does she want a cozy reading corner with cute plants? Does she want a sewing corner that's well lit with many tiny drawers? A 3D printer maker space that also provides oxygen and cooling?² -- Luckily you only have one customer you need to please
a gorgeous example of a patio build for example.
¹Agile manifesto
² these are example hobbies that appeal to me and builds that I would love in my home, not intended to stereotype hobbies for women, thanks
Might need to pull in a BA for this one because I'm not much of one for gathering the requirements myself. The Agility of the project breaks down when we're both stakeholders but have vastly different needs.
I need a constant source of fresh herbs and leafy greens and a hobby. She needs to eat good food and not be surrounded by ugliness or clutter. To fully satisfy her needs we'd just need to get rid of all my kitchen supplies, place some Etsy flour/sugar jars conspicuously on the counter and eat out every night. So in order to meet my needs to any degree, there's going to be some compromise involved.
Where Agility will be useful is in the process. As I said elsewhere in this thread, I'm leaning towards an agile, iterative design and release process. Start with absolute basic MVP Kratky jars outside on the patio to prove the concept, move it inside to add lighting features, and then incrementally augment the functionality of the system in individually approved ways.
Typically I'm prone to manias and flights of fancy where I go hard on one new thing until I hit a wall and burn out, but I think going in with an Agile mindset will increase the longevity and likelihood of success of the project.
I love the way you've phrased this and it's clear that you are aware and considerate of not just your wife but also your own needs :) eagerly waiting for any updates you'd like to share on this project, from jars to koi.
Easiest thing to start with is deep water culture in Mason jars or something like that. If you are looking to gave something more sophisticated I think it's pretty reasonable to put together a pretty compact setup with a little handiwork.
What I did was to get 2 of those plastic planter box things that'll are like a meter wide.
Then I stacked two of those on a simple rack.
The top one I filled with clay pellets to act as the garden bed, the bottom one I put a lid on and filled with water to act as a reservoir.
I put a small aquarium pump to pump water into the plant box, and a valve to dump the water back into the reservoir.
Put those on a timer and all you can start planting seedlings in the upper rack.
From there you will need to periodically check the pH and conductivity of the water to tell you when to add more nutrients. Or you can buy a sensor and automate that part too.
The whole thing is 1 meter long 2 feet high 1 foot wide, and looks pretty elegant depending on how nice a rack you build to house it. If you out siding over it it would look like any other planter box.
This is in line with my current plans. I'm plotting out an iterative process increasing in complexity. I think I'm going to start in Kratky Mason jars outside to dial in nutrient solution and then move them inside to dial in lighting, then build a small, clean-looking, modular recirculating system, then automate a sensor array, then scale that up.
On another subject, you're speaking my language with your mixed units. I greatly appreciate the dimensions of 1mx2ft. I'll end up with stupid units like cm-lbs when doing napkin math and then wonder why my kindergartener can't estimate size or weight in any meaningful way.
Haha yeah, I was just kind of deciding things as I went and picked lengths that just kinda felt right in the moment.
You could try Kratky setups for leafy greens - generally these are just netcups in mason jars and as the roots grow, they use up the nutrient solution, opening themselves up to more oxygen. Some people replace the nutrient solution regular (you can fill it back up about a third of the way without drowning the existing roots)
does she like to cook? growing herbs is very easy and doesn't need bright lights. peppers need some more light, but they just taste so much better off the plant.
It's funny in a way, because therein lies the crux of my issue. I am the sole cook, so ultimately the whole operation is mostly for my benefit. Which is why it's a matter of making it tolerable, rather than exciting, for her.
I mean .. you can make cooking look pretty damn sexy if you do it right, picking herbs right off the plant, a cocktail finished with a literal pinch of mint, possibilities are endless
Look into growing basil with a small 10-20gal aquaponics set-up, it can be set up in front of a window and I found my partner really was drawn into the hobby by enjoying the fish first and then eventually took a much more active role in the entire system. Another good plant is Swiss Chard, super hardy and you can use the stems like onions and the leaves like spinach. For fish just start with something fun like fancy guppies you dont have to eat the fish at first while you're seeing if you like it.
This is very tempting, but I think the fish would be a huge sell. I think 5-7 year roadmap I'd like to shoot for a large aquaponic system and farm something ornamental like Koi (I'm genuinely unsure how my daughter would view farming food-fish, but would 100% be on board with "pet" fish).
I don't know if you have a 3D printer, but I'm going to print my self one of these come the winter, to try growing lettuce (or other similarly easy-to-grow things). I think it looks relatively decorative and I like the idea that I can just print more rings to make it taller when I want to grow more things.
I do have a 3d printer, and for some reason it hadn't really crossed my mind as a printable project. I don't think I'd go down the route of that particular build, as I'm pretty confident I can replicate that in many fewer headaches with hardware store PVC drainpipe and a coat of spray paint, but I'm going to take a long look at applications for custom printed fittings for whatever apparatus I eventually go with.
Have you considered growing in soil?
I've done a lot of indoor gardening but always in containers with soil. Pretty simple, but you can also make it as complicated as you like with automated watering systems and such.
You could easily flush mount an LED panel under some cupboards or shelving (not sure what your kitchen looks like) and then grab a few nice looking containers and you're good to go.