What is hydroponics?

What are the advantages of hydroponic (soil-less) growing?

What are the difficulties in growing plants in soil?

How does the Floating Garden^tm Kitchen Garden Kit Work?

How does the Floating Garden^tm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit work?

What are the differences between the Floating Garden^tm Kitchen Garden Kit and the Floating Garden^tm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit?

Can I grow lettuce and herbs indoors in the Floating Gardens?

Where is the best place to locate the Floating Garden?

What's in the Floating Garden nutrient mixture?

For the Floating Garden^tm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden, does the nutrient solution need to be replenished or replaced during the growing cycle?

What is the purpose of aerating the nutrient solution?

What is aero-root technology?

Can flowers be grown in the Floating Gardens?

Can tomatoes or other heavy crops be grown in the Floating Garden Hydroponic Gardening kits?

Do the kits come with instructions?

How do I clean the Floating Garden between crops?

What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is the process of growing plants in a water-based liquid nutrient without soil. In translation the term hydroponic means water work. It is also known by the term 'soilless gardening'.

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What are the advantages of hydroponic (soil-less) growing?

In addition to water and carbon dioxide in the air, plants need nutrients, trace elements, and oxygen to be supplied to their roots for photosynthesis to occur. This is true whether the plants are grown hydroponically or in soil. Plants essentially "don't care" where the nutrients are coming from as long as they are available in sufficient levels and in proper form for uptake by the roots. If the hydroponic nutrient solution contains the right proportion of inorganic compounds and trace minerals to optimally support photosynthesis and plant growth, the hydroponically grown plants will be afforded what they need for growth and at the same time their roots will be maintained in a moist or wet root environment. In short, hydroponics affords optimal control of plant nutrition, oxygen delivery and root moisture - difficult to obtain when growing plants in soil.

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What are the difficulties in growing plants in soil?

For plants grown in soil, soil conditioning and fertilizing is crucial for healthy plants and high yields. In the home gardening context, soil conditioning, as generally practiced, is an inexact procedure at best. The home gardener generally doesn't know the composition of his/her soil. Soil mixtures differ in makeup and organic content, as do soil amendments. There are a plethora of fertilizers on the market that are intended to be added to the soil on a regular basis; most casual gardeners apply fertilizers irregularly, if at all. And the downside of fertilizers is that they kill soil microbes necessary to break down the organic compounds into inorganics that the plant can utilize. Fertilizers also percolate through the soil and contaminate our aquifers and groundwaters.

Even if optimal soil chemistry could be concocted and maintained, the soil must also remain porous for oxygen to reach the roots, but not so porous that regular watering will quickly leach away plant nutrients from the root level. For nutrients to be made available to the plant roots, the soil must also contain microbes that break down organic compounds not directly usable by the plants. Importantly, the soil must also remain moist for the plants to uptake nutrients and for photosynthesis to proceed. These issues are not only important for plants grown in the ground but are particularly challenging for plants grown in pots due to nutrient and mineral leaching and the difficulty of keeping a uniform moisture level.

In a world where water is becoming a scarce commodity, much of the water that we use in both commercial and home gardening percolates below the root level and carries "nutrients" into the groundwater. From a water utilization standpoint, even drip irrigation is a poor compromise to growing plants hydroponically.

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How does the Floating Garden^tm Kitchen Garden Kit Work?

The Kitchen Garden Kit has a square reservoir containing a specially formulated nutrient solution and a closed-cell foam plant bed which floats on the surface of the nutrient solution. Plant roots extend into the nutrient solution where they absorb just the right amount of nutrients for their growth. The roots never dry since they are constantly bathed in the nutrient solution. As the plants respire and liquid is lost by evaporation, the nutrient level drops. A small gap between the planting bed tends to resist algae growth. Oxygen is transferred to the nutrient solution at the air gap, fill port, through the plant net pots, and by periodic addition of fresh nutrient or water. By periodically lifting the planting bed out of the solution and by occasionally emptying the unit and replacing with fresh nutrient, oxygen in the nutrient solution can be kept at an acceptable level.

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How does the Floating Garden^tm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit work?

The Floating Garden Vegetable Hydroponic Garden kit has a reservoir containing a specially formulated nutrient solution and our patent-pending floating plant support platform for holding the plants above the nutrient solution. Plant roots extend into the nutrient solution where they absorb just the right amount of nutrients for their optimal growth. This kit includes an air pump and aerator which maintains the roots in a high oxygen environment.

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What are the differences between the Floating Garden^tm Kitchen Garden Kit and the Floating Garden^tmVegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit?

You can see a comparison of the kits at:
Floating Garden Kit Comparisons

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Can I grow lettuce and herbs indoors in the Floating Gardens?

Yes, but adequate light is required. As long as the plants are grown in a location where they can receive sunlight (say through a window) for a portion of the day, the plants will grow. You can supplement the available lighting with inexpensive full spectrum compact fluorescent (CFL) lights or fluorescent "grow lights". This will markedly enhance your plants' vitality and growth. We have successfully grown basil and other herbs solely under CFL and fluorescent plant lights. We make a plant light assembly designed specifically for the Vegetable Hydroponic kit; this lighting unit can also be used for the Kitchen Garden kit and for providing illumination for potted plants.

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Where is the best place to locate the Floating Garden?

If indoors, locate your hydroponic garden near a south-facing window where the plants can receive sunlight during a part of the day. During the summer months, direct sunlight does not come in through a south window. Early in the day, the sun comes in from an east window, and the Floating Garden can be placed in an East window. During mid-day, the south window is best, and late in the day, as the sun sinks toward the West, a West window has the most sun. As a rule of thumb, if you do not have supplemental lighting (like our plant light assembly), locate the Floating Garden in the location where the most window light is available.

Outdoors, you can locate your Floating Garden on a sunny patio or in your yard. For summer gardening outdoors our recommendation for lettuces is to choose a location that is relatively cool. This might mean trading off locating your garden in full sun with locating your garden in partial or filtered sun to reduce lettuce leaf burn.

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What's in the Floating Garden nutrient mixture?

Each of our Floating Garden kits is supplied with packets of dry nutrients which are added to water to make up a nutrient solution. Each nutrient packet comprises the twelve macro and micro nutrients that all plants require. The Floating Garden nutrient mixture is intended solely for use in our Floating Gardens.

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For the Floating Garden^tm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden, does the nutrient solution need to be replenished or replaced during the growing cycle?

As the plants grow, the level of the nutrient solution in the reservoir will lower primarily due to plant respiration. (Since by design, our Vegetable Hydroponic Kit is covered, evaporation of nutrient solution is minimized and most water loss is by plant respiration.)

As the liquid level drops, you should periodically add plain water via the fill port to bring the floating plant bed up until the black plastic sheet is even with the top edge of the water reservoir. As water is used, the floating plant support bed sinks, and when water is added it rises to the initial level in the reservoir when it was first filled. Simply observing the level of the planting bed affords an easy way to see when you need to add additional water/nutrient solution to your reservoir.

As a rule of thumb, for long cycle plants such as tomatoes, after you have added about three quarts of water over time, you can empty the reservoir and replace it with fresh nutrient solution. You can also just alternate between adding water and adding nutrient when the solution level appreciably drops. For plants that fruit and/or respire heavily (i.e. tomatoes), you may have to refill the reservoir with fresh solution (water followed by nutrient solution) several times during the growing cycle. You will find that a vigorously growing tomato plant uses lots of water. This might explain why many home gardeners who don't attend to their plants regularly have poor success growing tomatoes in soil-filled planters.

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What is the purpose of aerating the nutrient solution?

Roots need oxygen for the plant to grow. The aerator puts oxygen in the water and the roots absorb this oxygen. Our Floating Garden Kitchen Garden Kit is non-aerated. As the plants respire, the oxygen concentration in the nutrient solution slowly decreases. Without aeration, oxygen transport into the nutrient solution takes place at the boundary between the floating bed and nutrient tray, the fill port, and through the net pots. This kit is not appropriate for long growth cycle plants such as tomatoes and cucumbers. To help aerate the roots in the Kitchen Garden Kit, it is recommended that you periodically raise the planting bed out of the nutrient solution and "dunk" a few times to help aerate the roots and the nutrient solution. We will soon offer an optional air pump and aerator for the Kitchen Garden Kit which will increase production of lettuces and herbs such as basil.

Our Floating Garden^tm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit is supplied with an air pump and aerator to help oxygenate the nutrient solution. In this kit oxygen is transferred to the nutrient solution via the water-air interface between the myriad small air bubbles released in the solution. This process offsets the oxygen lost due to normal plant respiration.

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What is aero-root technology?

Aero-root technology is our term for our patent-pending technology imbedded in the Grass Garden^tm Wheatgrass Hydroponic Garden Kit. Using our patent-pending technology the upper portions of the roots of the developing grasses are kept in air while the bottom portions of the roots are maintained in nutrient. This not only enhances the growth and vitality of the grasses but also virtually eliminates the chance of fungal growth - which is prevalent with other methods of growing wheatgrass in soil or coco fiber or inorganic media.

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Can flowers be grown in the Floating Gardens?

Yes. Annuals like Icelandic poppies, marigolds, petunias, and pansies make excellent choices and can yield spectacular results in all of our Floating Garden kits. Furthermore, there are a number of edible flowers that can be grown in the Floating Garden and harvested periodically for salads, etc. Try growing nasturtiums to add to your summer salads. With the Vegetable Hydroponic Kit, vine plants such as snow peas or sweet peas also are ideal as long as you provide a support structure above the Floating Garden for supporting these plants. We have grown snow peas in the Vegetable Hydroponic Kit utilizing vine support. (See the next question for further details)

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Can tomatoes or other heavy crops be grown in the Floating Gardens?

For the Vegetable Garden Kit the answer is "Yes". The Floating Garden Kitchen Garden Kit doesn't have the reservoir capacity to make tomato growing feasible. However as an experiment, we have successfully grow dwarf determinate tomatoes in the Kitchen Garden Kit.

Without providing supplementary vine support, the Floating Garden Vegetable Hydroponic Garden kit should primarily be used to grow annual plants that don't have heavy stems and leaf systems (i.e. lettuce, chards, basil, thyme, oregano, chili peppers, etc.). For these types of plants the plant bed will quite adequately support the plants during their growth cycle. We make an add-on vine support stand for the Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit which enables you to support the vines and produce for vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and gourds, (for example). Before we designed our vine support stand, we grew tomatoes by tieing the plants to an overhead patio pergola using flexible plant tape. One of our Vegetable Hydroponic Gardens yielded many hundreds of cherry tomatoes (Sweet 100 variety) during the summer 2008 growing season.

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Do the kits come with instructions?

Each kit comes with complete instructions covering setting up the Floating Garden, starting your garden from seeds or seedlings, routine maintenance, and starting a new crop.

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How do I clean the Floating Garden between crops?

The Floating Gardens are extremely easy to clean and make ready for your next crop. For the Floating Garden Kitchen Garden Kit, remove the net cups and rinse the reservoir and planting bed. Then rinse the net cups, rockwool plugs/cubes, and ceramic beads (they are re-usable).

With the Floating Garden Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit the design of the units eliminates algae buildup. You can simply empty and wash out the reservoir between crops; remove the net pots, rockwool plugs/cubes, and ceramic beads (they are re-usable) from the plant support bed; and wash off the floating plant bed and the re-usables. Your garden is now ready to replant by re-following our simple instructions.

Periodically you can sterilize the Floating Gardens and re-useables by rinsing with a dilute bleach solution (1/2 cup bleach to 2 quarts water). Pour the solution into the reservoir or tray, float the planting bed in the reservoir and soak for five minutes on top and bottom. Remove the planting bed and rinse thoroughly with fresh water. Pour the bleach solution into a bucket and soak the net pots, rockwool, and ceramic beads in the solution for about 5 minutes. Remove from the bucket and rinse thoroughly with fresh water, squeezing the rockwool a few times to remove all of the bleach solution.

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