Good news for us... Our new hydroponic gear has arrived.  We spent most of the weekend getting it up and running; but we're pretty pleased with the results.

Some of you may remember the MegaGarden from the previous posts.  It's the red square on the right side of the picture.  The MegaGarden is a compact ebb-and-flow system.  We've been very happy with it, especially for wheatgrass.

The new addition is the TurboGarden.  It's the larger white unit, on the left side of the picture.  The TurboGarden is an aeroponic unit.  Aeroponics is a really unique method for growing.  The plants sit in net pots (which rather resemble pool skimmer parts).  Rather than being "flooded" like the ebb-and-flow, the roots of the plant are continuously sprayed with nutrient solution.  The spray is fired from small jets underneath the pots.  Although I haven't yet proven the theory, the idea is highly oxygenated nutrient gives far superior results.  We'll have to find out with a few trials.

If you notice a large difference in color across the picture, you're very right.  Nothing is wrong with the camera.  The D80 is just fine.  We're running two very different lights over the two units, with very different appearances.  We run a 125W Compact Fluorescent over the MegaGarden.  It's particularly well suited for vegetative growth.  We're using a new Hortilux 400W HPS (High Pressure Sodium) bulb over the TurboGarden.  The HPS bulb has a very yellow light, as it's meant to support fruiting and flowering plants.  We hope to grow the wheatgrass and sproutlings in the MegaGarden, and grow the mature plants in the TurboGarden.

It took a long time, but I'm really pleased with the PVC frame that we built for the TurboGarden. I didn't want to put any holes in the ceiling, as this is a new endeavor.  The PVC light stand worked so well on the MegaGarden, that we decided to build a bigger and better one for the new unit.  It's all done with 1" PVC, no glue necessary.  We wanted it to be stable, be able to support the light, and be able to support plants as they grow.  If you notice the frame at the top... We'll be dropping plant supports from those as the plants grow.

This closer shot of the TurboGarden shows that it's still mostly empty.  We moved our baby tomato plants into the new aero.  They're the small green fellows.  I'll admit that we bought some strawberry plants from Home Depot (the dark green leafy ones).  I wanted to see some fruit in the near future, and it looked like an idea setup.  We removed them from their soil and washed their roots.  They seem happy in the substrate.  In theory, the warmer light of the HPS bulb should cause them to flower and fruit.  Only time will tell.  The 15 strawberry plants in the back yard are already flowering.  We ought to get a large crop from the outside bed alone.

This picture is a much closer view of the strawberry plants (foreground) and the baby tomato plants (background).  I hope the tomato plants are old enough for the aero.  We should know soon.  They seem happy at the moment.

We're still working through the aeroponic thing.  I'm still experimenting with the best methods for water change and fill.  The TurboGarden holds much more water than the MegaGarden, so it's going to be quite the learning experience. 

The wheatgrass experiments continue...

We're using the baskets we made to facilitate staggered growing, so that we will always have a fresh batch.  They aren't ready yet, but here's what the MegaGarden looks like at the moment:

The sprouting fellows in the front corner aren't wheatgrass at all, they're baby tomatoes, lettuce, and eggplants.  Once they're ready, we'll be moving them to a new home in an aeroponic system.  We've ordered it, but it's not here yet.

We've ordered a TurboGarden made by American Agritech.  We decided to give our (new) local shop a try.  It's the Newark branch of Healthy Gardens.  In addition to the new aeroponic unit, we've got some new lighting on the way (that's more suitable for fruiting plants, such as tomatoes).  Our existing lighting is great for vegetative things like wheatgrass, but not suitable for fruiting and production.  I'll post updates once the gear arrives, and we have more details.

As I've continued to experiment with the hydroponics setup for my wheatgrass; I continue to learn interesting and useful things.

The first crop of wheatgrass has been fully harvested.  Some of it is still in the fridge, awaiting the juicer.  I've done my first full tear-down cleaning of the MegaGarden.  Here's a picture of the MegaGarden at the moment:

I've decided that I don't need the full capacity of the MegaGarden for growing wheatgrass anymore.  I ended up producing more than I could use, and I ended up wasting some of it due to poor planning.  Here's the new idea:  We've made small baskets by using plastic canvas  (that we bought at AC Moore).  Plastic canvas is commonly used by people doing yarn projects, but we had other ideas.

The baskets are made from two pieces of material.  Firstly, we cut a square.  Secondly, we cut a long strip (long enough to wrap all the way around).  We wrap the long one around the square, and sew it with fishing line as we go.  It takes a little time to make them, but they should give us more flexiblity in the future.  We tried it, and yes, they are dishwasher safe.

The baskets will allow us to grow enough grass for one ounce of juice.  Also, since they keep the seed separated, we will be able to stagger the growth cycle in the garden.  Although the picture above doesn't really show it, the seeds were started two days apart.  Hopefully, we can get the grass into a natural cycle that matches our juicing demand.

The odd-looking basket in the top-left doesn't contain wheatgrass; it's filled with Rockwool cubes.  We're starting other plant varieties in the garden.  The Rockwool is the staring point for our tomatoes.  I'm sure they will take a long time to mature, but that's ok.  We've got the extra room, and I'd like to see what happens.  From what I've been told by HydroFarm; I should switch to a 200W Compact Flourescent bulb when the tomato plants begin to flower.  That makes sense.  More light should drive greater growth.

Also, I recently learned something the hard way.  I ended up having to tear down the whole MegaGarden for a cleaning after a mold outbreak.  Mold started to appear on the roots of my mature wheatgrass, then on the seeds.  In retrospect, I was being dumb, and the mold was a normal reaction.  Here's the moral of the story:  Don't run your pump (for flooding the tray) when the lights aren't running.  Ideally, the tray should be dry when you shut down the lights for the night.  I was running my flood cycles at 15 minutes / hour, 24 hours a day.  That meant that the floods were still happening in the dark hours of the night.  Secondarily, I forgot to turn on the lights for a day; so that only made things worse.  No problems now; live and learn.

I should probably set up a timer for the lights, but I've been switching them manually up to this point. 

It's funny how things work out:  I started this because I couldn't find a lot of information about hydroponic wheatgrass.  Now I'm ranked on Google for that very topic.  I admit that I'm not near the top (yet); but I'm sure it will improve over time.

As you may have noticed, I've been doing a lot of writing about wheatgrass lately.  Although the results have been very favorable, I've decided to take a step back and ponder the results for a moment.

I've noticed that the vast majority of wheatgrass information on the internet is biased; usually from a sales perspective.  I've seen websites claiming that wheatgrass contains every vitamin you'll ever need.  It looks to me like people might just be overselling it a bit.

Lots of things are overrated.  Let's get to the facts.

I've managed to locate a few quantified items about wheatgrass.  Here are a few websites that have lab results posted:

• NutritionData.com (looks FDA-ish, but is a private company)
• WheatGrassForLive.com (selling a product)
• NutriGrass.com (selling a product)
• NaturesGreenz.com (selling a product)
• SweetWheat.com (selling a product, complete results available by calling)
• Independent Analysis (Vanderbilt University)
  

After reading through all the different reports; I've drawn a few conclusions:

1. Although wheatgrass does contain a number of beneficial compounds, it's by no means a multi-vitamin.  It contains a good quantity of Vitamin A and Vitamin K.  If you're drinking 1-2 ounces of it; you'll get a good daily load (~2000 IU A, ~55mcg K).
2. The content of Vitamin C has been highly overrated.  Although wheatgrass juice does contain some Vitamin C, the quantities are pretty small. They're not going to add enough to your diet to get you to a good level. (I don't think the normal recommendations for Vitamin C are enough anyway, I like 2500+ mg per day).
3. Wheatgrass does not contain the secrets of world peace.
4. The statement "15 pounds of wheat grass is equivalent to 350 pounds of the choicest vegetables." is crap.  Although Ann Wigmore made a lot of solid points about healthy living, she was more of a true believer than a researcher.  Click here to read part of her book, The Wheatgrass Book.
5. Chlorophyll is really the strongest ingredient in the juice.  Although it's not a supplement in the traditional sense (as the human body doesn't uptake Chlorophyll very well), it does offer powerful effects as an anti-mutagen.  It's good stuff to have rolling around in the digestive system.

So, what's the deal with wheatgrass then?  It's not a magic bullet; but that shouldn't be a big surprise.  It's a good thing to make part of diet, and we could all use some anti-mutagenics.  I'm still undecided on the anti-oxidant properties; I haven't found enough solid research to make a final determination.  I plan to continue growing and juicing it, but remember, it's part of the solution, not the entire solution unto itself.