Herbs!!!!

by Stephen
(Lytle, Texas)

A couple months back I wrote to you about starting my hydroponic herb and lettuce garden.
I finally have basically everything needed to start my bato drip system. My question now would be how many herbs can I plant per bato bucket : 1,2,3...? Also can you keep too much light on lettuce an herbs? I have a sun room that's bright but also have a t5 lamp so could I burn them or I should be okay using both because I don't believe that the sun room would provide enough light alone. Thank your for the advice and once I get it up and going will update with pics!
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Answer from Stella/Simon:

Hi Stephen,
Good for you for getting started on your hydro adventure! Herbs are a great choice for a garden. Bato buckets are big and can hold many plants, depending on which variety.

Chives can be planted thickly so that you end up with a bucketful of stalks, whereas the larger plants, like basil, you might want to just plant 4 or 6 to a bucket. My advice is to sow in your bato spacing about how the seed packet advises. You can also sow lots of seeds then thin out to a desired consistency.

We have always had good luck with herbs, they grow like weeds.

You cannot have too much T5 lighting. Hang it very close over the plants, even 2-3 inches above. Fluoro lights do not burn like HID, and if you keep it close in, it prevents your plants from getting leggy and spindly. Thick and compact plants are preferable.

Well, good luck Stephen, and send us some pics!

Hope this helps!

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