This article is a follow on from my recent purchase of the Moistenland hydroponics growing system…
This hydroponics unit is an indoor gardening hydropoincs unit, with an automatic timer for the lights, water pump and fan….
It is quite a large unit with the base being 330mm by 240mm (13 inches by 9.5 inches), but that gives you a large growing area compared to the aerogardens…
At the time i did mention that i was not too impressed with it compared to the aerogarden….
You will find out later what i think about it now….
Looked at the alternatives to aerogarden
I have noticed the Aerogarden pricing going up and up…
And some newer units coming onto the market that could give the aerogarden harvest and others a run for their money…
Looking through the different models i decided on the Moistenland unit….
What you get
I bought a unit and it arrives in a few days…
I was surprised about the good quality packaging…
And the unit really didn’t take too much time to put together…
Going through the 32 page instruction manual ( all in one language)
You are left with a hope that it will do well…
Setting up the hydroponics unit
Removing the parts from the box and assembling the unit…
I still preferred the Aerogarden for aesthetics…
The moistenland is a bit of a lump…
More function that form…
But that’s ok, you get more growing area, as long as you don’t mind the looks…
I had to add a couple of mods to the unit to help me out with things like the water level…
I couldn’t see the marks, so used a silver pen to highlight these…
I was going to replace the fan for a silent one, worrying about the noise the standard one would make…
But decided not to and it really doesn’t make that much noise…
A few suprises
I started growing lettuce in the unit…
Only populating four spaces, the others were covered to reduce the amount of light getting into the 4l large water tank…
As they supply 6 lids for where you are not planting then i had to find a couple of other covers…
The hydroponic growing system does not feed the nutrient around to the holes for the growing pods, i just used a thick paper….
At the start i just added water and made sure that the level was above the bottom of the seed pods, so the bottom would be constantly immersed and wicking up water in the grow sponges…
This would allow the seeds to have the moisture they need to start germinating….
I knew that they wouldn’t take too much and with the massive amount of water in the reservoir i wouldn’t need to touch it for a long while…
Setting the lighting to vegetables, with their 16 hours on and 8 hours off times, and switching the unit on at the start of the day allowed the lighting to co-inside with our daily routine…
I said in the review i was concerned that there was no bottom heat to increase the temperature of the water tank…
But i didn’t need to worry as the full spectrum led lighting grow light includes some deep red leds….
These have the same effect as the infrared of the sun in warming you, as they are just about the same spectrum…
And they do the same with the top of the reservoir and contents…
I found that they increased the temperature of the reservoir by a few degrees…
Whether this was by accident or design i will never know….
Personally i think they added the deep red as another band of light to help the plants….
The seeds i used were old, far too old, but they were ones i had…
A tip for what it is worth, throw seeds away after a couple of years, or sprinkle them on the ground outside, where they may have a chance of growing, at the right time of year, rather than throwing them away…
You don’t need that many seeds with a hydroponics unit over a year as you can use cuttings, or keep the plant alive a lot longer…
I got some new seeds and……
How has it done in a couple of months
So it has been about 7 weeks now and after that faltering start of the seeds rotting…my fault…
And replacing these with new fresh seeds….
There was signs of life within days…more of what i would expect…
I think the addition of the deep red helped warm the seeds to reduce germination time…
I am really glad they started, and i added paper covers to reduce the algae growth on the top of the grow sponges…
I used a rockwool sponge to see if that made any difference and noticed that it started going slightly green after a week….
The seeds were starting to grow so i left it to see how it did…
The seed packet i bought was a mixed one , so i was playing lucky dip…
And it turned out that i was growing broad leaf and wavy leaf lettuce..
With the fan coming on every time with the water pump, the seedlings got a breath of fresh air, it is only a very gentle breeze, but it still mimics a breeze.
I am hopeful this will reduce any problems with disease or bugs that like still air…
The water circulation happens for 5 mins every 30 mins and you have the opportunity to tap the fan button on the grow light to disable it for 10 hours, before it resumes its cycle…
This is ideal if the unit is located where it can be heard overnight as the trickle of water every 30 mins may wake you…
Once the real leaves appeared i added half strength nutrient mix….
The same one as i have used for years…the canna vega two part…
So for 4l and at a rate of 2ml/l for full strength, i added 4ml of part A…
Then 4ml of part B, both of these were added during a period when the automatic pump was circulating the nutrient….
What i probably should have done is to decant some of the reservoir and then mixed the nutrients in there…but it worked…
And as usual i didn’t check the pH or the EC of the nutrient…making it as simple as possible…
And they are growing well…
I am glad i didn’t populate all of the grow positions as there would be far too much for two people to manage, unless you eat lettuce meals…
The other portion of the grow table has been used as a lighting source for my other experiment of growing microgreens…i will create another post about these soon…
But what do i think of living with a moistenland unit….
My thoughts after a short period of time
Looking at the quality of growth of the lettuce, i am impressed…
I have grown lettuce in the past in the aerogarden and they turned out so limp that they couldn’t support themselves…i was surprised and disappointed….maybe it was something i did…but repeating it and getting the same results left me going back to growing herbs only in the aerogardens…
These are growing faster and healthier….
But with the success of the moistenland hydroponics unit…
The leaves are self supporting, and they are around 150mm ( 6inches) long for the largest leaves and the broad leaf…they are around 200mm ( 4 inches) width….
The plant roots are growing well in the reservoir and i can see a few in the water level area, the roots were growing well before the first two main leaves were produced, so i would say that this is almost ideal growing conditions…
I still struggle to see the water level and have now found that shining a light into the viewing area allows me to see that they have only reduced the level by half a litre in two weeks…
Going by that if all of the positions were populated then the reservoir would be reduced by 1.5 litres per two weeks…
So a weekly refill would be necessary…
With the four plants i can go away on holiday for a couple of weeks and not worry about them…
Am i impressed with the growth and operation….
In a word …yes…
It has exceeded my expectation…
i was expecting poor growth at this time of year as the nutrient would be cool for good growth, but with the led lighting adding the heating effect this has improved the growing performance of the unit…
I will be starting some herbs in there soon and will update this post on their performance…
I will try some corainder ( cilantro), parsley and i might even try a couple of tomatoes…but these will have to wait as i need some more lettuce to keep a continuous supply….
My main problem may be yet to come, when i empty out the reservoir and refill it….
As the lighting unit is powered then i will have to detach this to lift the reservoir ( remembering that 1 liter of water weighs 1kg or 2.2lbs, so it may still be heavy when you lift it) to the sink to empty it ( don’t worry it doesn’t go down the drain i collect it and feed it to my other house plants)….
Or i may try my siphon system i use for the aerogardens, but the filling hole is small….
There is a drain on the rear of the unit, but where i have placed it i cannot get to it….
We shall see….
In the meantime would i recommend it as a indoor herb garden starter unit….
Definitely yes…
With the only drawback in having to buy nutrients and seeds…
It is not the most pretty of units, but is very functional…
And you can stand other plants on the grow table to benefit from the height adjustable extra lighting if they need a quick boost….as i say this is what i am doing with the microgreens….
But seeing the health of the plants along with the growth i am very impressed with the Moistenland hydroponics growing unit and would strongly recommend anyone who is thinking of trying indoor hydroponics, indoor gardening or even wants fresh vegetables and fresh herbs, knowing where they have come from and how they have been treated, to get one….
Note that this unit is the same as the idoo hydroponics unit with the fan in the led grow light unit..
Thanks for reading….
I will keep this post updated with what i am growing and how it does….
So it may be worth signing up to be kept up to date with what i am growing and how it is doing….
I have been growing plants hydroponically since 2009. For years before that i was reading books and looking at systems and saying ...no way...
But once i had taken the plunge with the tomatoes outside, then there was no stopping me.
I tried out most of the systems and started to refine them, getting the plants to grow more efficiently.
Now I am more interested in indoor hydroponics and the challenges it presents. Being able to control the environment, feeding the correct nutrients and giving the correct length and type of lighting....