A Little Experiment

I have been experimenting with hydroponics for about 3 years now. I like to see what will grow and what it will take.

About a month ago I had the opportunity to take a bunch of potato eyes from someone I know and since it is much to cold outside (5F-30F) (-15C to -6C), I decided to try putting them in my 10 gallon aquarium.

I have some small floating seed pods I made last year and these were the perfect size for the potato slips. I simply fit the slips into the floaties, fed the fish and hooked up a grow light on a timer.

These first few started putting out long roots and grew nicely.

 
After that I ended up with way more slips than I had floaties. I took to lengths of pool noodles and wedged them into the aquarium. On these I placed the slips and put the lid back on the aquarium creating a sort of green house.

It has now been a month and I have no room for these potato plants outside of the aquarium. I will have to see about moving them (slowly) outside under a roof to acclimatize them to the temperature.

Here they are today

We'll see what happens to these little guys but if the weather cooperates they should have a very productive future.

I don't treat the water in my aquarium with anything and I feed the fish TetraMin tropical flakes. There is a basic pump with an activated charcoal filter but that's it. I may not be the cleanest fish caretaker but the water us far from filthy so I'm not sure where the slips are getting the nutrients unless it is from the part of the potato that's still attached. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post,

Danny