Growing Strawberries, Chard, Lettuce, Tomatoes and Stevia in the Same Home Hydroponic System

This spring we tried growing a wide variety of plants in our indoor home hydroponic system and had good results. In this video I review how it went and give some tips based on our experience thus far. I encourage you to try indoor hydroponics!

As mentioned in the video, we've created a full video course going through all the steps of building and setting up a 2 or 4 rail home hydroponic system. We show you every step as we build it and we think you'll find it very helpful!

Here is some of the gear we use within our systems (these are affiliate links so if you make a purchase using them, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you):

[TheDLCIncluded]

I'm in the process of building a system based on yours, thank you for all the info! I would be really interested in a video on how you did the strawberries from the start with a bit more detail, but over all thanks! Keep it coming!

[martysgarden]

G'day, I have actually watched this video before, , but dropping into say g'day again! Cheers from Australia Marty

[SandyWalsh]

A "Nutrients 101" video would be great.

[mmmm]

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL, THANK YOU FOR SHARING THE KNOWLEDGE

[pralinbakery]

Hey! Could you share on how did you manage to get your stevia to germinate? Thanks

[spiritburners]

🍅🍓🍅🍓Why not root prune the larger growth plants to control the growth of the roots? Is that not possible newbie here, tx by the way useful info

[pierreshasta]

Very nice work, congratulations. It's funny, I have exactly the same tomato plants as you that I grow in a method (kratky + air pump) they don't grow in height, but in width (40 cm high and 75 cm wide) and give continuously tomatoes. Like you, the top of the leaves turn yellow, it is due to the light being too close.
I would be very interested in how you process stevia plants, to replace powdered sugar.
PS : In my first message, I had attached a picture of my tomato plant, to show you, but it seems that your youtube channel does not accept links, because my comment has disappeared.

[darriendudley]

What would be the minimum width of a shelf to support the 4 rail system?

[isoiso]

this is exactly what i was looking for...i was wondering could u grow cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, spinach, kale together in a kratky style container or how would that be possible

[dvdgalutube]

Can you trim the root from time to time? Nice video! I always enjoy time lapse vids. Thanks!

[anujshah]

Hi very nice and informative video !!!! How's your experience with growing Stevia in a hydroponics system

[CaitlynGrad]

What room in your house is the best place to put something like this?

[tulipsmoran]

Your problem isn't the size of the rail it's that you're crowding the plants and mixing plants with greater nutrient requirements with plants requiring less (both EC and pH) Grow tomatoes separately, grow nutrient hogs like Chard, Kale and other fast growers together and keep strawberries separate. Also you're trying to combine NFT with a hybrid deep water culture. The issue isn't that your rails are not large enough but you're flow is near nonexistant because your system is level, roots grow above the nutrient level and block flow. So when heavy rooted plants like tomatoes and strawberries bunch their roots directly below the net pot they keep 80% of their roots above the water and cause a clog which then stagnates because there is no flow. Instead raise your system 3-5 degrees and allow nutrient to "flow". The plants' roots will chase the nutrient and their roots will spread along the bottom, stretched out and not bunched. If the flow is moving you only need a scant amount like 1/4 to 1/2 inch max of nutrient. Remember NFT is nutrient FILM technique not nutrient FLOOD technique. With the drain outlet at the rear side of the channel it will be very difficult to reduce that flow down to where it should be. The drain works best at the bottom with a drain collar a fraction of an inch high allowing the nutrient to flow out and not collect. NFT is a continuous flow, not on a timer. With the limitations of your set up, maybe consider using your channels as a wicking system using containers with coco/perlit medium (think hybrid Dutch buckets type concept), spread the plants out. Good luck with your system.

[awells]

Is this an NFT system? I’m looking to set up something similar but I was wondering if the pump would be strong enough to feed the top tray

[tonytubini]

I'm very new to hydroponics but I've been cutting the non producing leaf stems off my tomatoes as I figure they're not needed for fruit production and when my plant starts getting old and straggly I cut out one of the fruit producing stems and grow a clone, I don't know I if I'm doing the wrong thing but we seem to be getting a good supply of tomatoes. I looked at your site to see if there were any nutrient need differences between strawberries and tomatoes and lettuce as my strawberries seem to go really well then start dying off while the tomatoes and lettuce keep powering on 🤔 Your nutrient ppm levels seem very low as everything I've read suggests at least 1450ppm and Houcho who sends very successful said in one of his videos that he keeps his at around 2000 to 2400? I'm confused 🤯

[isoiso]

is it possible for you to show how much this setup cost, cost of running per month and how much you gain by growing yourself as opposed to buying on the store

[ishvarlaltandel]

My friend where to buy good seeds please provide link.

[crowned.king.immortal]

Hi I tried to sign up for your rail system videos and the udemy gateway would not allow it it was trying to force me to use google sign in and would not allow anything else. this is probably a problem for many you might consider using another option...would still like your system

[revivingindiamovement]

How much electricity this system consume on daily basis? What's the growing cost?

[privileguan]

Great video, thanks. Looks like an invasion of leafy terrestrials.