If you want to grow hydroponics indoors but you have pets that might destroy the plants, you can place the plants and grow lights behind a cabinet door.
Get one with plastic or glass doors for a more aesthetic look that lets you see the plants. Or! Get a wooden or plastic cabinet with doors that are fully opaque.
Remember the grow lights are inside the cabinet, the plants will grow just fine!
@tinker how much has your setup cost you so far if you don't mind disclosing? :o I have space in my kitchen but I don't know if it'd reallt be worth it compared tk goinf to the grocery store over however long the machine would last.
@mauve - So you can grow things darn near free in upcycled food containers, such as an empty protein powder container, and free light if you grow it outdoors.
Indoors you'll need to get grow lights. You can buy a single plant halo grow light for about $10 on amazon (you can bring that down to $3 or even $1 if you buy in bulk on alibab). You can get grow light LED strips (3ft) for $11 a strip for example.
Nutrients come and grow medium come out to about 10 cents per plant. You can bring that down even further if you use cheaper grow medium (I use rockwool which is 6 cents per cube, but you can grow on paper towels or cotton balls or just dirt for the seedling germination phase).
Seeds are either a cent a piece if I buy new or cheaper if in bulk or free if I get it from a seed library or seed exchange or harvest my own seeds.
Here is an example of a very inexpensive grow setup. It comes out to about $10 per bin, but I'm trying to get it down to about $3 per bin by buying in bulk: https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/111321153719012419
If you want a shelf, you can spring for an aesthetic one like I did for my kitchen garden, or go for a wire utility rack bought cheaply on craigslist or facebook marketplace, or a garage sale, or found for free being thrown away, or opt for a self-contained modular solution like my grow bin with halo light and just stick wherever you have room.
Big thing is you might pay more upfront by buying in bulk. Buying grow medium (such as rockwool) is $17 for 300 cubes (<6 cents per cube). Or $35 for large bags of nutrients, but it comes out to a couple cents per plant.
You can either do this up front yourself, or go in with some neighbors / community, buy bulk, and split it up among everyone cheaply.
Long and short, you can spend as much or as little as you want. If you don't have a lot of money up front, start small and then add as the months go by and you find deals or snag used items or get protein-powder bins from your friends, etc.
@tinker Interesting, ty for the tips. I think one of my pals managed to do closet tomatoes using similar methods.
I was imagining an out of the box thing like this: https://zipgrow.com/product/8-tower-farm-wall/
Scraping together some buckets and lights seems a lot more affordable. 😅
But honestly even this fancy thing doesn't seem too bad if I saved up for a few months. 🤔
@mauve - USD 999.99 – USD 1,859.99 for something that cost $70 bucks to build. I'm big into this being cheaper than the grocery store.
I watch a lot of Mike VanDuzee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Pa2QuMvXs and like his philosophy. He grows a lot outdoors hydroponically, I grow mine indoors as I don't have a yard.
If you buy the consumer grade grow solutions, you're buying a hobby. Which is fine if that's what you want. But I've found they break a lot easier and are more hassle keeping it working. Not worth the time, money, and effort.
I like cheap and hands off. Making the plants grow on their own, then harvesting when ready.
This is something I have been thinking about trying.
One thing I've heard is to look for HDPE plastic containers since they are less likely to leach stuff.
I have a clear plastic container on my counter right now that I'm deciding whether to pitch or keep - it would make a nice mini cloche for outdoors, but it is made of PET which can leach phthalates and antimony.
Incidentally, it was a container for butterhead lettuce - it would be so nice not to have to buy it ($) and also not have more plastic waste from containers.
Butterhead is good for dietary nitrates, my family likes it, & I'm not allergic to it.
@mauve - Do it! My recommendation is start with leafy greens. They're the easiest. Once you get the hang of them, you can then upgrade to beans and peas, and then finally to cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes, etc.
I've had a lot of success with butterhead lettuce varients for example as a starting crop.