Every hydroponic guide for apartment beginners. Systems, lights, nutrients, and crop-by-crop tutorials, all written for small spaces.
Every guide on this site is written for growing food in a small apartment, with no garden and no experience needed. They are organized into four topics, and each topic page has its own reading order, gear picks and quick answers.
New here
The Start Here pageA reading order built around what worries beginners most, and a way to pick your first crop.The complete beginner guideEverything from your first jar to your first harvest, in one place.
The best herbs to start withSeven herbs that thrive in small systems, and which to grow first.
The book, if you want the whole path in orderApartment Hydroponics for Beginners: six numbers, two builds and 39 crops in one chart. Paperback and Kindle, free on Kindle Unlimited.Browse by topic
Gear and tools
Fix a problem
Brown roots, a bad smell or green water.
Yellow or bleached leaves, slow seedlings or bland herbs.
Numbers that drift or climb too high.
Something is eating or spotting the leaves.
Short on time
One Kratky jar with a single basil or lettuce plant. It needs no pump and no electricity, so there is almost nothing to go wrong while you learn the basics. Build your first jar.
A DIY Kratky jar setup comes to roughly $25 in parts. Once the gear is paid for, basil works out at about $0.40 to $0.75 per plant, with the grow light shared across several jars. The full cost breakdown.
A full reservoir change every 2 weeks, with top-offs of plain pH-adjusted water in between. Kratky jars are the exception: the level is meant to fall as the plant drinks. The 2-week rule.
14 hours on and 10 hours off, with the light 6 to 8 inches above leafy herbs. Spinach is the exception at 12 hours. Light height and hours.
Everything on the site
Newest first.
Organic hydroponic nutrients for herbs are possible, but they are not a straight swap for the bottle of mineral nutrient that comes with most kits. Organic fertilizers are made for soil, where bacteria and fungi break them down into the simple minerals roots can drink. A jar of water has none of that life. So
Organic Hydroponic Nutrients for Herbs: What Works in Water Read More »
Hydroponic micro basil is basil harvested as a seedling, 2 to 3 inches tall, from a shallow tray. You get the full perfume of basil packed into a tiny leaf, ready to scatter over pasta, tomatoes or a cocktail, from a tray that fits on a shelf. Micro basil takes 16 to 28 days from
Micro Basil in Hydroponic Trays (and Why Micro Mint Rarely Works) Read More »
Hydroponic sage is a slow start and a long reward. From seed it takes 3 months or more before you can cut it, which makes it one of the slowest crops you can grow indoors. Once it is established, though, a single plant keeps giving for years: sage lives 4 to 5 years in a
Hydroponic Sage Indoors: A Slow Start and Years of Harvests Read More »
Hydroponic Swiss chard is one of the most generous greens you can grow in a small apartment. One plant gives you big, glossy leaves on colorful stems for weeks, and you only ever take the outer ones, so the plant keeps making more. It shrugs off pH swings that would stall lettuce, tolerates a cool
Hydroponic Swiss Chard in a Small Apartment: Big Harvests from One Plant Read More »
A portable hydroponic jar system is a set of Kratky jars living in one sturdy crate with handles. Six loose jars on a windowsill are six chances to knock one over every time you clean, chase the sun or move flat. Six jars in a crate become one object you can lift, carry and set
Portable Hydroponic Jar System: A Kratky Crate for Renters Who Move Read More »
You can grow arugula, kale and spinach together in one reservoir, and they make a better team than most mixed plantings. All three are cool-season greens, all three like the same pH, and their feeding ranges overlap. Put them in one tote and you get a peppery leaf, a sturdy leaf and a soft one
How to Grow Arugula, Kale and Spinach Together in One Reservoir Read More »
Hydroponic dwarf peppers are one of the few fruiting crops that make sense in an apartment. A compact pepper plant tops out at about 12 to 24 inches, lives for months, and keeps setting fruit in flushes as long as it has strong light and a steady feed. One plant in a single bucket can
Hydroponic Dwarf Peppers in a Small Apartment: One DWC Bucket Read More »
A one reservoir hydroponic salad garden is the simplest way to keep two people in fresh leaves every week. Instead of a row of jars, each with its own pH reading and its own fill line, you run one opaque tote with six plants in the lid. You test once, top off once, and change
One-Reservoir Hydroponic Salad: A Weekly Plan for Two People Read More »
Hydroponic rosemary starts best from a cutting, not a seed. Rosemary seed is slow and unreliable. It often takes 2 to 4 weeks to sprout, and many seeds never do. A tip cut from a healthy plant, on the other hand, roots in 3 to 6 weeks and gives you a plant identical to the
Hydroponic Rosemary From Cuttings: Root in a Jar, Grow in a Bucket Read More »
Are hydroponic nutrients safe for pets? The honest answer has two halves. Nutrient bottles are not: nutrient concentrates, pH Up and pH Down belong in the same category as cleaning products, and a chewed bottle is a trip to the vet. The water in your jars is a different thing. It is mostly water, but
Hydroponic Nutrients and Pets: How to Keep Cats and Dogs Safe Read More »
