Hydroponics

Picture a juice bottle on a porch, painted dark, with a lettuce growing out of a small basket in its neck. Nobody has watered it for five weeks, there is no pump, no plug and no soil, and the lettuce has no idea it is doing anything unusual. That is simple hydroponics, and it asks for little more than daylight, a container and a bit of patience.

This book is about the quiet, cheap version of growing without soil: jars, buckets, tubs and troughs on windowsills, balconies, patios and porches, and in greenhouses and conservatories, using natural light and working with the seasons rather than against them. Most of the systems need no electricity at all. The one exception is a tub bubbled by a single small air pump, and grow lights appear only as an optional winter extra.

It starts with how roots find water, food and air without soil, then takes you through choosing a site by sunlight, finding safe containers for next to nothing, and mixing nutrients without needing a chemistry degree. After that come step-by-step builds and a crop-by-crop guide, so you know what to grow, where and when.

What’s inside

• How the Kratky method works: fill once, leave alone, and let the plant drink its way down to harvest
• Reading a site by sunlight, from which way a window faces to how much light glass takes away
• Food-safe and reused containers, lids, net pots and their home-made substitutes
• Nutrients, EC and pH explained simply, with ranges rather than one figure dressed up as gospel
• Builds for a Kratky bottle, buckets, storage-box tubs and troughs, wick and self-watering containers, and a simple aerated tub
• Growing through the year with daylight, plus unpowered ways to stretch the season at both ends
• Keeping the solution cool in summer and coping with cold, rain, wind, algae and mosquitoes
• Lettuce and salad leaves, pak choi, chard, kale, spinach, watercress and soft herbs such as basil, mint, parsley and coriander
• Summer fruiting crops, including a cucumber grown in a lidded dustbin on a single fill, with honest notes on tomatoes, peppers and strawberries
• Pests and diseases, cleaning between crops, water use and costs, with a year’s calendar and a troubleshooting table

Who it’s for

It’s written for beginners who have never grown anything without soil, and for anyone short of space, power or budget. Experienced gardeners will find plenty here too: low-tech systems that keep going when the electricity doesn’t, and clear advice on fitting them to the seasons wherever you garden.

Your first bottle takes about ten minutes to set up. The lettuce will take care of most of the rest.