Hydroponic Gardening Growth and System Updates for 2022 | NFT 72

Since I have reactivated the hydroponic garden for 2022, I've been doing weekly/semi-weekly garden vlogs to keep up with the progress. You can find the catalogue of videos and episode notes from the 2022 growing season below:

Initial Startup

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Weeks 6 -7

Weeks 8 - 10

Weeks 11 - 13

Purchase the plans to build this hydroponic garden

Learn More about this Garden

Screen Filter Test and Propagated Basil | Weeks 11 - 13 | NFT 72

Topics of these weeks of hydroponic gardening:

The Summer heat has killed the lettuce and Chinese cabbage

Basil Propagation has started

Interchanging ingredients for Pesto

Mesh Screen filters installed, working great

Black Widow Spider living on the garden 

Massive Heat Wave! Transitioning to Summer Gardening | Weeks 8 - 10 | NFT 72

Topics of these weeks of hydroponic gardening:

Hot weather!!!

Harvesting lettuce and Chinese cabbage before the heat

Floating Gravel getting stuck in places it shouldn't be

Mesh Screen filter test

Basil getting bigger, almost ready to propagate

Hydroponic Amaranth? 

Delicious Lettuce Harvest; Leaving the System Unattended | Week 6 + 7 | NFT 72

Topics of these weeks of hydroponic gardening:

Leaving the Garden alone for 1 week

Refilling the Reservoir

Lettuce Harvested, delicious salad

More Basil now growing in the system. Cuttings soon?

Hot weather to cooler temperatures next week

Will the Chinese Cabbage bolt? 

Starting up a 2nd set of channels | Week 5 | NFT 72

Topics of this week of hydroponic gardening:

A new set of growth channels has been activated

Lots of rain filling the reservoir

Basil starting to enter the system

Taste testing some lettuce

What to use the lettuce for before it bolts?

More Vegetables into the System; Succession Planting? | Week 4 | NFT 72

Topics of this week of hydroponic gardening:

14 plants now in the garden. Is it time to open up a new set of growth channels?

Cold Weather stopping basil from entering system

Lettuce Ready to Harvest?

Succession Planting and timing

Moving Plants to the Lower Channels; Leaving the Garden Unattended? | Week 3 | NFT 72

Topics of this week of hydroponic gardening:

Plant roots getting longer, moving to the channels with lower water height

Wild weather swings

Can you take a weekend trip with the garden unattended?

Do the upper channels block light to the lower channels? 

Hydroponic System Troubleshooting, Leaves, Lightning, and Lettuce | Week 2 | NFT 72

After 1 week of growth, @vinnygrowsvegetables discusses how plant growth has been, and the various problems he encountered. Problems included debris from the canopy above, a rainy day, and slower than expected plant root growth.

Loading Plants in the Reactivated Hydroponic System | Week 1 | NFT 72

With the vegetable starts now larger, it is time to activate the pump, and transplant the plants into the hydroponic garden.

Hydroponic System Returns for 2022 | NFT 72

It's finally spring again, and I have a new location for starting up the hydroponic garden. Join me in seeing how my seed starting is coming along and where the new garden location is.

DIY 72 Plant NFT Vertical Hydroponics | Technical Package

Are you looking to grow food at home, but lack space or don't have soil?

Have you ever been interested by hydroponic gardening? Does the premise of food security mean anything to you after we have experienced lockdowns and bare shelves?

Well I may have the solution for you! You can build your own hydroponic garden, just like this one! Available today from Greens and Machines is the technical package detailing how to construct this hydroponic garden.

Hydroponic Garden Collapse! | NFT 72 Update Week of June 15, 2020

I've shown you guys the massive tomato plant growing in this hydroponic system. It's HUGE. So big I've been having to trim it because it's growing so much foilage. I had transplanted a 2nd tomato plant into this system and that one had started to get bigger. Seeing that the biggest plant had taken over a whole channel, I needed to find the second plant a new home. I rescued another used kitty litter container from the dumpster and made it into a soil-based planter for this tomato plant. Transitioning from hydroponic to soil based isn't easy on a plant, but since it had a lot more roots, it was easier to get it to stabilize in the soil. Think of it as an extended time cloning experiment....

What's Growing in my Hydroponic Garden? | NFT 72 Update Week of May 11

Let's take a look and see what I've got growing in this hydroponic garden...

Restarting the 72 Plant NFT Hydroponic Garden | 2020

If you have been following our YouTube channel or blog back at the end of 2018, you may remember me showing off some of this garden. If you haven't, then welcome to Greens and Machines and I'll give you the cliff notes...This is a hydroponic garden which has the capacity to grow 72 vegetable or herb crops in ~8 square feet. That's a lot of produce! It operates by principle of the NFT method, or nutrient film technique, where the plant roots gather water and nutrients through a thin film of nutrient solution. If you want to know more about that nutrient blend, here's the link.

Portable Hydroponic Market Gardening? | 72 Plant NFT Vertical Hydroponic Build DIY

Can this hydroponic garden build be used as a portable market garden?

Although I've moved and haven't reestablished my hydroponic garden yet, I still have some practical ideas of how to use this design commercially. I've even tried selling the whole garden too, but after thinking up what I'm about to share in this blog post, I will keep it unless I'm convinced otherwise. I've had several ideas about how using the NFT I built last year could be used for market gardening. This all stems from a business model Curtis Stone of Green City Acres has proven and from a concept seen in this YouTube video.

Checking in on my New Years' Resolutions and Store Announcement | Vinny

2019 is flying by pretty fast, wouldn't you say? 1/3rd of the way down and 8 months left to go. Let's see how I'm holding up against the resolutions I made back in January, what to expect coming in the summer months, and an important announcement at the end of this post.

Resolution #1: Weekly blog posts

I had promised at least 1 post per week in my resolution, as I count now, excluding the video recap posts and individual posts for the Trader Joe's Beers, I'm up to 15 posts, which you can count to check my math by clicking here. Considering that 18 weeks have already passed, I'm a little behind schedule. Oops. The good news is that I have a lot of new ideas for blog posts and videos coming up. With summer approaching and my living circumstances now different, you can look ahead to a fresh new garden. I'm really excited about being able to grow again.

Starting Seeds for the Unlimited Basil Factory

Now that it's a new year, I need to get some plants started for my NFT garden to plant in it when spring rolls around. Let's walkthrough my process of filling my system with plants.

Vinny's 2019 New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!

Here is what I (Vinny) am striving to accomplish in 2019 on top working at my day job:

Top 10 Greens and Machines Projects from 2018 -- A Year in Review

Wow 2018 has come and gone, have you forgotten all the amazing things we've done so far? Here's a list of our favorite posts in no particular order!

How's that for a north-facing garden?

Through a stretch of summer degree weather through the beginning of November, the NFT has been growing well. The mixture of Basil, Kale, Swiss Chard, and Bok Choy is not only doing well, but it's thriving, even with the minimal light. I can only imagine how well this setup would do if it is able to get 10+ hours of sun per day.