Sprouting Seedlings for Hydroponic Towers

Have you ever heard of hydroponic towers? I previously had no idea what these were, but they sure are pretty cool.

Here is a quick introduction to what they are:

Hydroponic towers are a way to grow plants. They take up less space and the plants are grown using a solution of water + nutrients. Plants grow vertically on a tower that has water continually running through it, dripping into pockets that contain plants. In these pockets there are plants with roots in materials such as rock wool or coconut husks that absorb a lot of water. Growing vertically, saves a lot of space and can be convenient for families who want to grow their own vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

At my school there is hydroponic tower, it is, around 5 feet tall. So far some lettuce and basil plants have been growing in the tower. As a part of a class I take at school, I was tasked with growing some seedlings to eventually be planted in the tower at school.

In class, I chose cabbage seeds and basil seeds and I placed 2-3 seeds in each rock wool cube, put them in a plastic container and put the lid on. The next part, making sure I got the seeds home safely, was a little more challenging. I’m not the most organized person, so losing the container throughout the school day was a slight worry of mine. A disaster almost happened when I dropped the container and the seeds fell out of the rock wool. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to determine which were the cabbage seeds and which were the basil seeds. Fortunately, the cabbage seeds were easy to identify as they were bigger than the basil seeds. Eventually, the container with rock wool and seeds made its way home safe and sound, partly because I made my brother carefully guard the container while I drove us home. I definitely did not want to spill the seeds another time.

When I got home, I filled the container up with water until the water level reached about halfway up the rock wool. Given my previous failures at growing plants, I immediately thought that nothing would ever sprout. However, I was really surprised when they sprouted in only THREE days! I thought that was a surprisingly short period of time. So far I’ve been learning that it’s fairly easy to sprout seeds, but the keeping them alive long enough to get way bigger, is a whole other problem.

Now the basil and cabbage plants are happily sprouting in a bright, sunny spot on a table in the kitchen. Once the seedlings grow more leaves, I will take them back to school and they will live in the almighty hydroponic tower. It will be a massive upgrade from their plastic container home! They will live in a tall tower with an abundance of water constantly dripping and they can take as much as they please, and there, they will hopefully thrive forever and ever and ever and ever!!!

Basil on the left Cabbage on the Right