Rats Infest My Hydroponic Garden and Current Conditions of My Vegetables - My Weekly Hydroponic Journal

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Hello Gardeners
How are you today ? I hope and pray, we are all always in good health and also happy in this life. I am also very happy, finally given the time and also the opportunity to be able to participate and contribute to the Hive Garden Community again.

It's been almost a year and a half, since I started actively writing and posting on this platform. Hive Garden Community is one of the most frequent and consistent communities where I share my creativity and inspiration. During this time too, I also tried to share stories and experiences about my activities in my hydroponic garden. So, what's going on in my hydroponic garden this time? keep watching my post this time.

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The Rats are Coming Back
For the last six weeks, my hydroponic garden is safe and rat free. I installed lots of wire brushes to keep rats from climbing over the posts of my hydroponic rack. This method was very effective at that time, I did not find any of my vegetables damaged by rats in the last planting period. I had the feeling that mice would not come back to my hydroponic garden.

Unfortunately, as people say, rats are animals that are very smart and difficult to control. This week, the rats came back and destroyed a lot of the vegetables in my hydroponic garden. From my records, there were about 80 pots of kangkong and 45 pakcoy which were damaged by rats. I have to take swift action for that rat attack.

Finally, apart from using a wire brush and I went back to using rat poison. After 3-4 days I put rat poison. I found 3 large rat carcasses around my hydroponic garden area. For a while, the rats are out of sight but I have to prepare for their counterattack later.

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Condition of Pakcoy in My Hydroponic Garden
After seeing the vegetables that were attacked by rats, I asked my friends to see the current condition of the vegetables that I grow in my hydroponic garden. First, I invite you to see the pakcoy that I grow in my hydroponic garden.

When I made this post, the pakcoy that I planted in my hydroponic garden was about 29 days old after sowing. In general, apart from the damage done by the rats, the other pakcoy in my hydroponic garden grow well and optimally. We can see it from the condition of the green leaves and the growth of the pakcoy stems which look sturdy and strong.

During this planting period, I used liquid fertilizer with a concentration of around 1100-1200 ppm ppm. This ppm concentration is in accordance with the standards that we often find in the hydroponic literature for mustard greens such as pakcoy, caisim or you guys. Apart from that, I also do regular spraying of liquid hydroponic fertilizer every morning. This method seems to make vegetables more beautiful and also fertile.

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Condition of Kangkong in Hydroponic Gardens

After seeing the pakcoy, I invited my friends to see the condition of the development of the kangkong that I planted in my hydroponic garden. I planted about 300 pots of kangkong in my hydroponic garden. Currently, the kangkong that I planted is about 14 days old after sowing. The condition of the kangkong looks very beautiful and its growth is very uniform. Although, I lost 80 pots of kangkong, I was a little annoyed to see kangkong growing well.

During this planting period, I used a hydroponic liquid fertilizer solution with a concentration of around 1000 ppm. I also do routine spraying every morning with hydroponic liquid fertilizer. I spray kangkong every morning at seven in the morning after I do my morning exercise.

This week, I also sowed about 100 pots of kangkong seeds to replace damaged kangkong in my hydroponic media. The kangkong seeds that I sowed grew very well, almost all of the seeds germinated and were ready to be transferred to the planting medium.

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Conditions of Lettuce in My Hydroponic Garden
This week, I did a lot of lettuce work. I transferred about 500 lettuce seeds that I had sown some time ago to my hydroponic medium. The work of transferring seeds to the planting medium is one of the hardest and also tedious jobs when we garden with a hydroponic system. Just imagine, we will transfer the vegetable seeds that we sow in rockwool to the planting medium one by one, of course that requires more effort and more love.

We also have to prepare and condition the water in our hydroponic media. During this planting period, I used a liquid fertilizer solution with a concentration of 600-700 ppm. When compared with other vegetables such as kale, pakcoy or caisim. Lettuce is the least demanding vegetable for hydroponic liquid fertilizer and is considered a profitable vegetable due to its low production costs.

Apart from the economical use of hydroponic fertilizers, lettuce is also known as a pest-free vegetable. As long as I garden with a hydroponic system at home. I have never seen my lettuce leaves eaten by insects or caterpillars. I also never saw a rat eating lettuce. I feel, even pests don't like the taste of this lettuce.

I also still have a few pots of lettuce in my hydroponic garden. On the balcony of the second floor of my house, there are still about 50 pots of lettuce that I haven't harvested yet. Lettuce that I do not harvest, we use it for personal consumption only. So, every lunch or dinner at home. We'll take a pot or two of lettuce in addition to our veggie menu.

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Mint Leaves Condition in My Hydroponic Garden
Lastly, I will invite my friends to see the current condition of mint leaves in my hydroponic garden. Currently, I grow about 250 pots of mint in my hydroponic garden with various hydroponic installations.

On the wall of my house I made a wall hydroponic installation for 60 planting holes. The mint leaves grown here grow well, despite the limited sunlight. This week, I also harvested at this hydroponic installation and got about 200 grams of mint leaves this time.

On the front of my house I also bolted a PVC hydroponic installation kit for 150 planting holes. Actually, one hydroponic installation unit in front of this house is two PVC hydroponic installations that I have combined into one.

The mint leaves that I planted here also grew very well. If you look at the photos, I've done a lot of mint harvesting so some of the plants look clipped and also short.

Apart from these two installations, I also have a simple PVC hydroponic installation. I use this installation as a medium for seeding mint leaves and will transfer the mint leaves here to other hydroponic media when they grow well. I installed the hydroponic installation over my fiber pond.

This week, I also assembled a new hydroponic installation with leftover materials in my house. One of my jobs is making hydroponic installations for other people. Because of that, I have a lot of short lengths of PVC pipe that I can reconnect. I also have some unused mild steel rods, the result is like the photo above. The hydroponic installation is not perfect and working, there are a few more partitions that I have to make.

So, this is a story about my weekly hydroponic journal this time. See you next time.

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