Grow 1

This grow is hydroponics. I’m using a 2 litre bottle with the top cut off and filled with a SNAP mix (a liquid fertiliser). For the grow medium I’m using a fibre like material and I’ve added an air stone to increase oxygen to the roots.

Grow 2

This is a standard soil set up. The pot is a mix of old and new soil.

Time line

During the first week or two, a small halogen light was used, switching from one grow to the other each night.

8th Nov (4 days into the grow)

Hydroponics on the left. Soil on the right. Small halogen light above. This is 4 days after planting the seeds.

11th Nov (7 days into the grow)

Here we can see that the grow is about equal between the soil and hydroponics. The plants in the soil are stretched towards the light (sun)

16th Nov (12 days into the grow)

Since I’ve removed the halogen lighting, I built a reflector using some reflective paper (PHP17) and a cardboard box. While it’s not reflecting as well as other materials would, it appears to be doing a reasonable job. You can see that the plants have become some what of a mess now. They’re inter-winding and having difficulties standing up because they’ve stretched so much towards the light but still have weak thin stalks. Hopefully the reflector will help balance the direction of the light.

A DIY reflector has now been added behind the plants, meaning sunlight is reflected back towards the plants.

21 Nov (17 days into the grow)

Since the plants are still having trouble standing up on their own (weak stalks), I’ve added an oscillating fan to the grow room. It does not run all the time. It’s on a timer to come on and off throughout the day for brief periods of time. This should help strengthen the plants.

A fan has been added to the grow room. It runs on and off through the day on a timer. It should help strengthen the plants.

25th Nov – Gave over

I decided to try an organic plant food (liquid) to promote growth in the plants. A small amount was sprayed on the plants growing in soil and those growing hydroponically. Unfortunately the hydroponic plants all died within 12 hours of being sprayed, the soil plants remain okay. I knew that plants grown hydroponically were sensitive (constant checking of water PH level etc) but didn’t really just how sensitive they were! Lesson learnt, only use solutions made specifically for hydroponics!

The cactus shown below is the mother plant from which a cutting has been taken for this grow. As far as I can tell (thanks to the guys at CactiGuide.com), the cactus is a Opuntia monacantha.

The mother plant is being grown in the UK from a cutting taken in Spain 2005.

Mother Cactus Nov 09, UK

What / Why?

My intention with this cutting was to leave it purely in an hydroponics environment to see how it would grow with lots of water and no soil. Yes, the opposite of its natural environment! After leaving it in a hydroponics environment for around 15 days, I decided to instead move it to soil and run the experiment later from a cutting of the soil based cactus.

Time line

3rd Nov – Cutting, started in Hydroponics

The cutting started out in a hydroponic environment on the 3rd Nov 2009. I used SNAP (Simple Nutrient Addition Program) as my liquid fertiliser and added an air stone to promote growth.

10th Nov- Water roots grown in hydroponic solution

The Cactus grew its water roots about 7 days after being in the SNAP solution.

20th Nov- Cactus cutting moved from Hydroponics to soil

After having the cutting in a hydroponics environment for about 15 days, I've moved it into soil(20th Nov).Since the water roots are different to those used for soil, it may not survive. Time will tell! If the Cactus does continue to grow, a cutting will be taken from it in future to continue the purely hydroponics grow test.

23rd Nov – New cactus shoot

3 days after transplanting from hydroponics to soil, a new growth has started. Seems like the transplant went well.

26th Nov – The shoot is growing fast!

The cactus shoot on top is really growing quickly. I'm wondering if there's anyway to promote growth of other shoots below this one.

29th Nov – Shoot growth update

Not much to update other than the size of the shoot.

8th December – Shoot growth update

Still the same shoot. The growth has continued at its rapid pace and has become taller than the original cutting but still quite slim. It's being given water every 3-4 days, partly for the basil growing next to it.

30th January 2010

The 'new shoot' has now become quite long and the Cactus has been re-potted to something a little bigger. It bends back and forth through the days, depending on the closest light source. It's hard to tell but it looks like another shoot has started at the top.