gardening

You can heat it with any type of fire or if you have an electric stove you can put the cookie cutter directly on the stove itself (I'd put down some aluminum foil first since you don't want to get any melted plastic on your stove.)

If your cookie cutter is all metal, you can also use an oven to heat it up.

It's possible to do it with boiling water but it will be a bit messy and tedious so that would be my last choice and I'd only do it this way out of desperation tbh.

As for how hot - hotter than you're able to hold it with bare hands. At around the boiling point of water you'll be able to melt through the plastic to cut a hole but if you're only just at that temp then it might take a few goes before you get through so ideally you want something that is about 150°C to 180°C (300°f to 350°f.) But don't overthink it - if progress is too slow then heat it up a bit longer and if it's too hot to control it comfortably then let it cool down for a minute.

It's definitely a good trick to have up your sleeve for a collapse, whether it's societal or it's a personal one. You can survive with very little but having food is nonnegotiable.

The first question that came to mind for me was how long the nutrient solution lasts before it's depleted, and how to know when you need to add more.

I'd do it before the bucket runs dry but even then, if your plants are still kicking and you notice the bucket is empty then give it the incremental top up using about 2L at a time until you're back to a comfortable level.

Worst case scenario - the bucket runs dry, your plants end up too stressed and they die off after you refill the bucket so you replant it with new plants and you start again. No big deal.

As for depletion of nutrients themselves, that really shouldn't be a problem. If you grew a perennial plant in this system then over a long period (I'm thinking years), depending on the nutrients you are using you could see some nutrient deficiencies or excesses gradually emerge but that's a long shot tbh and it's something that I doubt would happen regularly so it's really nothing to worry about. Given that it's super easy to reset a system it's not much of an issue and if you've been using it nonstop for multiple years where these problems might arise then you're miles ahead of where this guide is aimed at.

Are Kratky hydroponics really less labor-intensive than regular 5gal planters with cardboard mulching?

Once it's set up I'd say so. You take out the need to figure out a fertilizing schedule, there is zero weeding, and you don't need to concern yourself with soil conditions. But if you want to go with 5gal planters then definitely do that, I wouldn't dream of knocking that approach.

This way is good for people who don't have much space, since it's vertical, or who don't have good access to transport or who lack the physical strength to deal with soil etc. (although can be a good option for plenty of other people too.)

When my friends/org were starting out doing gardens, we grew a lot of tomatoes and chili peppers in buckets with soil. I would suspect that using a conventional method with mulch and compost would build more easily transferrable skills to growing on a plot of land.

I agree with you on that.

In terms of transferrable skills for growing on a plot of land, conventional container gardening is more transferrable in a direct sense without a doubt. But the problem is that it can be really difficult to get started if you don't know where to start and it's your first time, especially if you don't have access to a more skilled gardener for advice - kratky hydro eliminates the concerns about soil and fertilizing and watering (for the most part, at least) and it's a good way to get started on observing plants growing in fairly optimal conditions so you can start developing your skills since there aren't as many variables to consider once it's set up. It's also nice if you're forgetful or you struggle with fatigue (hi, nice to meet you!)

Honestly in every respect aside from perhaps convenience, this is the least optimal way of growing food - although kratky sometimes outperforms other hydro methods with certain plants, there are more consistent hydro methods that tend to provide better yields and as for growing conventionally in soil, there's a lot of benefits to that approach especially in terms of skill building and soil enrichment and closed-loop gardening. If you have access to a plot of soil and you know what you're doing then, unless you want a very convenient little herb tower as a kitchen garden right outside your door, I'd advise against this method. (Or maybe if you regularly work away and can't tend to plants while you're on trips or you're in a drought-prone area and you have your heart set on growing a semiaquatic plant.)

But it still holds a lot of use for different cases. In terms of transferrable skills, this method is really useful if you want to dive deeper into hydroponics or even aero/aqua but you're just starting out and you don't want to throw big cash at it yet. You also get a fair way into transferrable skills for doing intensive mycoculture (as opposed to open mycoculture), believe it or not, but that's a different subject for a different post.

Ultimately if this puts gardening within reach for people who it might not otherwise had been or it gets people started and they see enough results to motivate them to keep at it or, ideally, this turns out to be the perfect method for them then that's great. It makes for an easy first step that will get people to explore growing from seeds, seed saving, taking cuttings, pruning, and all sorts of other paths that lead outward from there and that includes conventional horticulture too. I'm not here to tell anyone what they have to do (ignore the title of the post pls) - my hope is just that it inspires someone to try out gardening especially if trying to start growing in soil seems too daunting.

"just putting some seeds in the ground" is a cool way to have everything die or feed local wildlife instead of you

It sure is, but I think it's a little deceptive since with any hydroponic growing you frontload most of the work in setting up your growing conditions and then after that point the maintenance is pretty minimal. In this example it's the simplest hydroponic method so once you've established it, continuing it through the seasons requires very minimal effort. In terms of actual effort required to have consistent yields, this method is only rivalled by establishing a food forest imo but those are almost always syntropic so they require quite a bit of maintenance and adjusting until they reach an equilibrium after all the succession, plus you need a decent plot that you'll have long-term (ideally forever) and the amount of planning and learning required for a successful food forest is really steep. This is the polar opposite - it's for the person who would like to grow some lettuce and basil on their balcony or their paved yard but they've never tried gardening before.

It all depends on what your expectations are and what skill level you bring. Plenty of people are happy with guerilla gardening or throwing some skirret or chaya into the ground and knowing what to do with the product you get at the end but a lot of people either want more "conventional" vegetables, they don't have access to soil, or they don't know how to fertilize plants and how to make the right soil conditions for the plants they want to grow.

The point of this is to make something as simple with the highest rate of success as practical on a shoestring budget without requiring any specialized knowledge or access to soil. It's a way to eliminate as many variables as possible - soil quality, watering and drainage, fertilizing, plating location, dealing with temperature extremes like frost, addressing lot of accessibility needs etc.; all the stuff that poses a barrier to getting started and seeing early success.

There's no one-size-fits-all gardening method. To each their own and if this helps someone get started on growing some food on their balcony or in their yard then that's a win in my book.

Don't stress too much. There are better and worse nutrient solutions out there, at least if you believe what your read online.

The plants will absorb the nutrients they need from the solution so you don't need to worry about trying to dial it in or buying the "right" nutrients, any more than a gardener needs to worry about getting the "right" type of horse manure for their garden; yes, you can get right into the weeds over addressing nutrient deficiencies or nutrient requirements of plants but if you're not growing for commercial purposes or, uhhhhh, "small business" purposes then it's really not something that is important. If you want to try your hand at gardening or starting hydroponic growing then you can just throw this together and let it do its thing.

The powdered nutrient can be hard to dissolve and dilution can be a pain (and I'd probably opt for reverse osmosis water to get it to fully dissolve) so imo the liquid stuff is much better for the purposes of doing small batch stuff, but use what you can find that is within your budget. Sometimes you can get all-in-one nutrient liquid but often it comes in two parts - get whatever is a reasonable price and that gets good reviews (if buying online.)

For making a solution from the liquid you need to know how much you're making, so measure out your water first. Then you will need to follow the directions on the back stating to add x ml per x L. This is where a little measured plastic pipette or syringe barrel is important. Add the amount directed on the bottle(s) and give it a good stir. That's all there is to it.

Currently I'm using two-part liquid nutrient that is 3ml per L. It's two 1L bottles so I have enough to make over 300L (hydroponic nutrient isn't the cheapest when it comes to upfront cost but it will last you a long time especially if you're just growing in a couple of buckets.)

Keep in mind that this method is sort of going against the mainstream in hydroponics. Hydro started as cutting edge technology and it used to be very expensive so it still has a strong culture of it being technical. But it doesn't need to be that way. You're not going to reach 100% optimal growing with this method and that's the whole point - most people who garden don't achieve the optimum either and often simpler is better especially when you're just stating out. There's a lot of hydroponic advice online that is geared towards the really expensive, technical side which is really neat but it's also really overcomplicated - I just wanna grow vegetables for god's sake!

I would suggest masterblend (they sell a lettuce blend that’s basically for non-fruiting veggies, and a tomato blend that’s for stuff with fruits). It’s very cost effective and works well. I also keep a bucket of it premixed and give it to whatever I’ve got growing in containers (soil) after it seems like their compost is no longer feeding them. Can definitely vouch for the tomato blend growing the crap out of my tomatoes.

Just keep in mind however you dispose of either old/used solution or the stuff that drips from your containers will leech into the local environment and can eventually mess up the soil if it’s allowed to build up anywhere. Not really friendly to the local municipal water to toss it down the drain either.