Hello, my Hivians friends! I hope you are all well. In this post, I want to share the growth progress of our mint that we planted not from seeds but from cuttings and grown hydroponically in front of our house in a grow bed.
We have a 200 cm x 120 cm x 30 cm grow bed that we fill with water mixed with hydroponics nutrients solution. The grow bed has 77 grow holes. Each grow hole is about 18 cm apart. On July 5th, we started planting some Italian basil from seed, Mizuna (Japanese mustard greens from seed), Thai Basil (cutting), and mint (cutting).
Here's an example of Italian basil cuttings wrapped in Rockwool and placed inside a container filled with clean water.
Propagating plants from cuttings is actually quite simple. You just need to ensure that you use a healthy plant and a sharp cutting tool. We use Rockwool, which has high water retention properties for the media to hold our cuttings. First, cut the Rockwool into a 3 cm cube, and make a small hole (about the size of the stem of the plant) in the middle (about 2,5 cm deep) for holding the cutting. Cut the stem of the plant you want to propagate, about 20 cm in length, and have several nodes and leaves at 45 degrees angle. Place the cutting in the Rockwool hole, put the Rockwool in a container with clean water, and make sure the water touches the Rockwool. Watch as the Rockwool absorb the water and becomes soggy. If it's an open container, wrap it with plastic, and place it so the cutting can get indirect sunlight.
Ensure that the Rockwool is always wet. A newly forming roots will start to appear and grow in the Rockwool after 10 - 14 days. This would be a good time to transfer the cutting to the grow bed filled with water containing hydroponic nutrient solution. Watch them grow and the best part is you don't need to water them!
The picture above was taken on July 19th when we moved the 2-week-old cuttings to the grow bed.
The picture above was taken on July 31, 12 days later. Just take a look at how dense they are now and still growing!
In the picture above, I could not pull the net pot any further as some of the roots have penetrated the styrofoam. One thing I learned from growing mint hydroponically is their root system will penetrate deep and damage the styrofoam.
The root system has not penetrated the styrofoam yet.
So, that's our mint in front of our house. You can smell the strong fresh scent of mint when you are standing near the table. Pick some of the leaves and put them in your tea... very refreshing!
All images in this post are created by me, otherwise, they will be specified. You can also support me using this link: https://buymeberries.com/@rebolegi or click the image below. 🙂
