Prepara Power Station: Indoor growing fail?

[xenon]

Anyone else tried one of these or similar?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prepara-PPL1-PM201-Power-Plant/dp/B0014XMV86

Yeah I know, discontinued by manufacturer and probably the least energy efficient way of growing a bit of basil but it was sat there doing nothing... So after having had this thing a while, just recently set it up. I am not mr greenfingers here. There's some small fragile green shoots. How long til I actually see something resembling a plant? AKA when do I abandon this experiment and turn it off. Has been a few weeks now.

Also what kind of plant food do you reckon it uses? For herbs, maybe chilis? It came with a small bottle of liquid stuff but that's been used now. I use distilled water per the instructions.

Do you grow anything edible in doors?

 

[Wilson]

I've not tried one but it's basically just a hydroponic system, you probably need to use the distilled water to stop limescale from blocking up the pump and you probably want to use a hydroponic plant food as the non hydro ones might block up the pump.

I'm not too sure about when you'll see proper plant like plants but if what's in it is alive then it'll happen in a week or two.

 

[xenon]

Thanks.

I'll get some more hydroponic food.

I've probably done something wrong, there's been some fragile shoots for a week or so but not much progress. Is sat on a table in a south facing bay window, so plenty of light.

 

[Supine]

Male or female plants?

 

[gentlegreen]

how many actual electrical watts of lights and over what area ?

 

[gentlegreen]

"No bugs, no worms, no dirt"

 

[gentlegreen]

Oh I see, natural light .....

Basil is a high light plant - needs a south-facing window, West or less possibly East...

Without good light by far the best option is sprouted seeds.
You can easily grow more sprouts than you can eat.

Lentils / mung etc are very cheap from your local Indian-run shop.

 

[xenon]

Male or female plants?

Just herbs and chillis mate. My window's a bit obvious...

Oh I see, natural light .....

Basil is a high light plant - needs a south-facing window, West or less possibly East...

Without good light by far the best option is sprouted seeds.
You can easily grow more sprouts than you can eat.

Lentils / mung etc are very cheap from your local Indian-run shop.

Yep light isn't the problem. I need to identify a liquid plantfood I can use.

Can I use Baby Bio for now?


Something I half read via Google suggested it might be bad, if it gets taken up in mist from the pump. There's a lid over the thing and I can't say there's any noticeable mist. It's only a small box.

 

[gentlegreen]

Baby bio is a rip off - cheap fertiliser with a bit of seaweed colouring.
Unless the substrate is very sophisticated (or simple - I think coir simplifies feeding too) , you need specific, PH-balanced hydroponic nutes.

 

[xenon]

What's coir? The substrate is some kind of sponge.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

What's coir? The substrate is some kind of sponge.

Coconut fibre.

 

[gentlegreen]

I just watched their video.
I'm not surprised they discontinued it.
A sideline for a maker of injection-moulded kitchen utensils.

That's a sort of hydroponics that would only work if you used their nutes and distilled water - or rather their nutes and whatever water they used to formulate the nutes.

There's a reason most plants are grown in compost ...
I briefly had a watercress unit set up in the greenhouse - using professional nutes and PH paper.
I didn't persevere with it ...

If you have the light for basil growing, buy a bag of decent multi-purpose compost.

 

[mauvais]

Growing basil is easy without anything special. I'm a numpty and I'm doing it now. Cuttings from a supermarket plant, stem in water for a week, plant it in compost and nanny it for a while, then replant it out once established.

 

[Wilson]

Just herbs and chillis mate. My window's a bit obvious...



Yep light isn't the problem. I need to identify a liquid plantfood I can use.

Can I use Baby Bio for now?


Something I half read via Google suggested it might be bad, if it gets taken up in mist from the pump. There's a lid over the thing and I can't say there's any noticeable mist. It's only a small box.

Plant Magic Plus Hydro Grow A + B

 

[existentialist]

Pretty much any standard NPK fertiliser will do fine.

 

[gentlegreen]

NPK plus all the trace elements because they won't even get enough chlorine or calcium from tap water.
I mostly use Chempak.

I've heard good things about Plant Magic.

And it'll be a big gamble that they'll work with tap water - probably especially if it's a hard water area.


This is why I like compost gardening - the manufacturer usually gets it fairly right and on a garden scale, I'm very disorganised with feeding routines, but I get away with it. Plus all my compost gets revitalised / boosted with Aldi chicken poo pellets.

 

[Wilson]

I do think growing things in pots with compost is the easiest way.

 

[mauvais]

These are what I grew in water and then compost.

Edit: gah, stupid Tapatalk - hold on...

and some more in progress:

Infinite basil for about £2.

 

[gentlegreen]

You would speed up rooting by excluding light.
I wrap aluminium foil around my rooting jar.
If you want even faster rooting, add an aquarium stone.

 

[xenon]

I'll get some Plant Magic and start again I think. I have various random seeds, types of chili, couple of types of basl, origano and something else.

 

[gentlegreen]

Looking at their website I'm struggling to establish if PM nutes are hydro and whether you're absolved from checking PH and EC ...

 

[campanula]

Can I recommend Maxicrop...and if you can get the red bottle of Maxicrop tomato fertiliser it is all you will need.
Hydroponics are tricky - I find soil is always better, tastes nicer too. A good John Innes loam substrate should sort out the growing medium.

Oh, and Xenon - plants do not grow at a fixed rate - they kind of do it in little bursts so your seedlings can sit looking minuscule, doing nowt for a few weeks then have a big surge. Don't fret - green is good, yellow or blotchy less so.

 

[gentlegreen]

It needs to have ALL the trace elements and for them to work with the particular tap water.