The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky

RainerRocks

New Member
The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

I been watching tons of youtube video's on every type of Hydroponics plus reading several forums.

Anyway I came upon this video "The Kratky Method " on youtube and was wondering if anyone has ever tried it.

Here's a youtube video of someone growing many leafy greens using the Kratky method .

Pretty Kool....

I did a search here using the name "Kratky" and nothing showed up here and other forums. I use the same UN on all grow forums so I'll also post this on other forums. Anyway I searched the Web and found this PDF.

This method was developed at the College of Tropical Agriculture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
by Dr. Bernard Kratky. Here's his PDF file on comparing 3 different non-circulating hydroponics
methods for growing lettuce.

Controlled Environment Agriculture Center | Research, Instruction & Extension for Producing Crops With Sustainability, Efficiency & Eco-Friendliness

PS: At least you would be able to eat if things got bad due to some kind of catastrophe....just be
sure to always carry some seeds with ya just in case...Hmmmm not a bad idea .
 
Re: The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

5 Gallon Buckets full of good old Dirt (well could be "soilless mix") are so much more dependable than pumps and chemicals why even go there? All this Hydr stuff is over rated. Ive done it all Ebb and Flow, Deep Water, Areoponics, and out of all of them, the taste, smell and just general feel of growing in dirt is at least for me, the only way to go. Everypne thinks I have "Hydro" and you know they can think what they want to. Dirt Rules. Oy yeah, and fert wise, Canna is the only one out there worth a crap.
 
Re: The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

well i am a coco/soil grower im doing a bubble bucket /dwc/recirculating for the first time, i agree its alot of work the plant is not as pretty or fragrant as her sisters in my 100% organic coco soil blens, but i disagree on nutes blue planet nutes are amazing have a look at what i have going , bpn is cheaper than most any other "premium" nutes out there and results are superior to any of the canna,AN,heavy 16, etc etc out there i tried many and this bpn stuff is the cats pj's and a sponsor , i would try another hydro setup if i could find one that would allow full 100% organic till then its bpn farmers pride and coco/soil for me:thumb:
 
Re: The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

It looks interesting to say the least. I might give that a try just to see what happens. Looks like it good be a good way to do SOG style grow. I personally would still drain and fill that reservoir with fresh nutes and up the strength as needed every 2 weeks instead of 30 days as suggested by that guy in the video. plus if he would have at least topped off that reservoir the "small" lettuce would have looked just as good as the rest of the stuff on that table. At least I imagine it would. "Idea" since you could do this from clone to finish, you could set up a run of tables in a row for every 2 weeks of stage growth. first put your plants in the foam slabs with net pots like in the video. Fill each reservoir with the different nutes for that stage and then rotate the pants/slabs of foam across every 2 weeks along the run of tables. I think along with the reservoir changes I mentioned above and you have a perpetual SOG grow going. with less power consumption for sure. especially good for those going for GPW. just my thoughts anyways, LOL!:thumb:
 
Re: The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

It looks interesting to say the least. I might give that a try just to see what happens. Looks like it good be a good way to do SOG style grow. I personally would still drain and fill that reservoir with fresh nutes and up the strength as needed every 2 weeks instead of 30 days as suggested by that guy in the video. plus if he would have at least topped off that reservoir the "small" lettuce would have looked just as good as the rest of the stuff on that table. At least I imagine it would. "Idea" since you could do this from clone to finish, you could set up a run of tables in a row for every 2 weeks of stage growth. first put your plants in the foam slabs with net pots like in the video. Fill each reservoir with the different nutes for that stage and then rotate the pants/slabs of foam across every 2 weeks along the run of tables. I think along with the reservoir changes I mentioned above and you have a perpetual SOG grow going. with less power consumption for sure. especially good for those going for GPW. just my thoughts anyways, LOL!:thumb:

It was the first time for the guy in the video so he didn't expect the Lettuce to grow like it did due to the water level getting lower due to the more thirsty Bok choy. Good for me now I won't make that mistake.

Anyway...The link in my first post no longer works. Here's a link of Mr Kratky himself with pictures of him and some Kratky growing.

UH prof honored for hydroponic lettuce-growing paper | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

He also said (just like you mentioned)........ " Although the results of the topping-off were favorable, he notes that at some point the tanks should be drained and refilled with fresh solution"

I'll be giving this a go myself...going to try one set-up with aeration and one without.

Should be fun :thumb:


PS: Here's an update of the guy on youtube growing letttuce again.

He said "Published on Dec 7, 2012

"I've started a second crop of lettuce in the floating raft setup. The non-aerated side is well underway, and looking great. I'm planting more lettuce and greens in the actual floating side. As for any algae issues, the non-aerated side was perfect, no algae at all. On the floating side, I did have a bit of algae between the rafts where I didn't have a tight fit. Pushing the rafts closer together and covering the gaps on the edges should resolve that problem."

Here's the new video

 
Re: The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

cool thanks bro!

not to toot my horn but this methode works exactly how its shown on the video from clone to end as far as the water level drops i would replace it every 14 day its a great methode a bit slow at first but over all great experience to try and get a great understanding of how strong these plants really are
 
Its just another form of DWC when you look at & in fact they have been using that particular method for massive commerical scale lettuce production for a couple of decades now.

Also known as Floating Raft Hydroponics.
 
I worked with Bernard Kartky for a number of years with his lettuce operation in Hilo, Hawaii. It has several variations and adaptable to a lot of different plants. I am probably the first person ever to have used his methods for CB back like 91 on for a number of years until I moved to a non medical state. The raft method is only one variation of passive non-circulation systems. The lettuce we grew was far superior than any soil grown or "organic" lettuce, sorry to burst that bubble, but it is factual. I had excellent result w CB using storage container, or 5 gal. buckets with suspended plants. I wish I was in a medical state and could do it now.

My first grow was off the shelf products at home depot and wal mart, with some grow baskets from the local farm store, and a lot of florescents (the blue and pink) from the sides for penetration on some storage shelves. Fertilizer was 2 different miracle grow, one for growth (higher N) another for budding (higher P), I think at quarter strength, or half that, about what one would do for orchids so don't burn. The containers were storage containers, I use a undersize hole cutter and pared it to size with a potato peeler to hold the baskets. I added air stones and an aquarium pump to generate some spray and keep the baskets wet suspended about the water an inch or so initially. For many crops some additional calcium is needed, I used fine dolomite that coated the bottom. That grow was as lo-tech/hi-tech as I could imagine. Supplies were common off the self everyday items that would not catch attention. I think 5 gal buckets are great, holds a bit of water and weight keeps the plants stable. Top off the nutrients as needed or just change out the water weekly.

I did other grows with a 1 gallon pots set in resevoirs. In Hawaii it was volcanic cinder with some shredding tree fern or coconut husk. The fiber wicks the water up to smaller plants root systems. I only filled the resevoirs to go half way up the pots, this allow air to the roots, a lot of holes drilled on the side of the pots.

My initial experience for about 4 years with the system was with hydro lettuce. It was grown on table about waist high and 4 foot wide, that was to allow for reach. The tables had a 4 inch grid and at first we used old beer cans with holes punch, but switch to 4 inch pots, 1 to the square foot, later 2. 1 gallon of initial charge of nutrient solution fed gravity flow from a mixing reservoir with a open catchment above grade with a dug out pond lined with plastic to catch rain. Nutrient solution only went half way up the pots or cans, allowing air to the roots. We used 1 week old seedlings (germination later) one to a pot. Grow period was 5-6 weeks, depending on the season. In the summer (5 weeks) and as lettuce has a logarithmic growth we sometimes had to top the water the last week.

Initially the operation we composted the cinder/tree fern mix each cycle, but I noticed that ants gardened (overturned) the media after harvest and we started using 2 pots, side by side) to each square foot. We would plant one and allow the ants to garden and compost the harvested pot. We had no pathogen build up and it eliminated the biggest labor input of composting the media. This was a true passive, not circulating hydro system. The biggest energy input was each Friday night we used lanterns to harvest, first going around with a watering can over the plants so they would perk up and then harvested and down to the Hilo Farmer's Market before dawn the next day.

Over the course of 4-5 years we had 1 bad spot in the harvest, rats came onto the tables ready for harvest, we had to toss them, disinfect the table, fortunately they only had a taste for the mature crop and that was all we lost. We did eliminate the rats, unfortunately for the rats.

Germination: the system used leaf lettuce, the bread and butter of the operation was bibb lettuce, Manoa and a Dutch hydro variety that cost a half cent a seed. Berny Kratky is a scientist, truly. He wanted to get the best return and beside calculating the nutrients to a T for cost, was to effect the best germination...Styrofoam 1 inch cell starter flats were used with a fairly standard sterilized potting media was used, dampened, not wet, down and a piece of plywood with short screws every inch with head sitting out a quarter in or so. This was pressed onto the Styrofoam cell flats creating a dimple and 1 seed (mostly) was put into each dimple, that was it, not covering the seeds, the flats stacked, with a blank on the top and allowed to sit overnight and germination was almost perfect and cost effective, I've used this for cb with the same results. We transplanted seedlings usually after 1 week using a butter knife.

During my experience of 4-5 years the lettuce came off like clock work every single week. Except the one harvest that we trashed because of the rat patrol.

I experimented with a variety of vegetables and herbs over the years and the system was very successful for most things.
 
Kratky Nutrient solution

Equal amounts of two stock nutrients were added—just once per crop—so that the electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution in the raceways ranged between 1.5 to 2 mS. One nutrient stock solution consisted of 1 pound of soluble greenhouse-grade calcium nitrate per gallon of water. The other stock solution was comprised of a mixture of .6 pounds of magnesium sulfate and 1 pound of Chem-Gro 8-15-36 Lettuce Formula per gallon of water. The Chem-Gro formulation, available from Hydro-Gardens (Hydroponics Green House Hydroponics Gardening Supplies Garden Supplies), also contained micronutrients. The 25-gallon batches of stock solutions were stored in opaque plastic trash containers and mixed prior to use.
 
Kratky Nutrient solution

Equal amounts of two stock nutrients were added–just once per crop–so that the electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution in the raceways ranged between 1.5 to 2 mS. One nutrient stock solution consisted of 1 pound of soluble greenhouse-grade calcium nitrate per gallon of water. The other stock solution was comprised of a mixture of .6 pounds of magnesium sulfate and 1 pound of Chem-Gro 8-15-36 Lettuce Formula per gallon of water. The Chem-Gro formulation, available from Hydro-Gardens (Hydroponics Green House Hydroponics Gardening Supplies Garden Supplies), also contained micronutrients. The 25-gallon batches of stock solutions were stored in opaque plastic trash containers and mixed prior to use.

This was the solution used for "lettuce." A green leafy vegetable. The extra calcium was needed. Seemed to work well for most vegetative growth. Mentioned earlier, I did well with miracle grow with micros, diluted to the strength one would water orchids. Powdered dolomite coating the bottom of the resevoirs. A higher N for vegetative, a higher P for budding.
 
Re: The Kratky Method By Dr. Bernard Kratky .

It was the first time for the guy in the video so he didn't expect the Lettuce to grow like it did due to the water level getting lower due to the more thirsty Bok choy. Good for me now I won't make that mistake.

Anyway...The link in my first post no longer works. Here's a link of Mr Kratky himself with pictures of him and some Kratky growing.

UH prof honored for hydroponic lettuce-growing paper | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

He also said (just like you mentioned)........ " Although the results of the topping-off were favorable, he notes that at some point the tanks should be drained and refilled with fresh solution"


I'll be giving this a go myself...going to try one set-up with aeration and one without.

Should be fun :thumb:


PS: Here's an update of the guy on youtube growing letttuce again.

He said "Published on Dec 7, 2012

"I've started a second crop of lettuce in the floating raft setup. The non-aerated side is well underway, and looking great. I'm planting more lettuce and greens in the actual floating side. As for any algae issues, the non-aerated side was perfect, no algae at all. On the floating side, I did have a bit of algae between the rafts where I didn't have a tight fit. Pushing the rafts closer together and covering the gaps on the edges should resolve that problem."

Here's the new video


Just to make sure noone gets confused, thats not kratky. very similar though. When growing kratky u have to have the plant somewhat off the water so it will grow roots for oxygen at top, and roots for water at bottom. Very visible difference. Just because it's not using a air stone to oxygenate doesn't mean its kratky. I have grown some kratky style tomatoes and it can compete with the best soil or dwc, but my kratky style tomatoes always seems to stop growing a few weeks earlier then my dwc or ocean forest tomatoes. Also my kratky plants get alot of unwanted pests in them that i've nvr seen in my dwc. If you have a algae problem just use aqua shield, hydro guard, or something else with Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens or really any bacteria or fungi that can colonize almost every available space. some of the root "enhancers" contain good bacteria or fungi that can colonize the water first b4 the algae. Humic Acid even can supposedly beat out algae but i have only had luck with the root enhancers and water treatments.
 
I worked with Bernard Kartky for a number of years with his lettuce operation in Hilo, Hawaii. It has several variations and adaptable to a lot of different plants. I am probably the first person ever to have used his methods for CB back like 91 on for a number of years until I moved to a non medical state. The raft method is only one variation of passive non-circulation systems. The lettuce we grew was far superior than any soil grown or "organic" lettuce, sorry to burst that bubble, but it is factual. I had excellent result w CB using storage container, or 5 gal. buckets with suspended plants. I wish I was in a medical state and could do it now.

My first grow was off the shelf products at home depot and wal mart, with some grow baskets from the local farm store, and a lot of florescents (the blue and pink) from the sides for penetration on some storage shelves. Fertilizer was 2 different miracle grow, one for growth (higher N) another for budding (higher P), I think at quarter strength, or half that, about what one would do for orchids so don't burn. The containers were storage containers, I use a undersize hole cutter and pared it to size with a potato peeler to hold the baskets. I added air stones and an aquarium pump to generate some spray and keep the baskets wet suspended about the water an inch or so initially. For many crops some additional calcium is needed, I used fine dolomite that coated the bottom. That grow was as lo-tech/hi-tech as I could imagine. Supplies were common off the self everyday items that would not catch attention. I think 5 gal buckets are great, holds a bit of water and weight keeps the plants stable. Top off the nutrients as needed or just change out the water weekly.

I did other grows with a 1 gallon pots set in resevoirs. In Hawaii it was volcanic cinder with some shredding tree fern or coconut husk. The fiber wicks the water up to smaller plants root systems. I only filled the resevoirs to go half way up the pots, this allow air to the roots, a lot of holes drilled on the side of the pots.

My initial experience for about 4 years with the system was with hydro lettuce. It was grown on table about waist high and 4 foot wide, that was to allow for reach. The tables had a 4 inch grid and at first we used old beer cans with holes punch, but switch to 4 inch pots, 1 to the square foot, later 2. 1 gallon of initial charge of nutrient solution fed gravity flow from a mixing reservoir with a open catchment above grade with a dug out pond lined with plastic to catch rain. Nutrient solution only went half way up the pots or cans, allowing air to the roots. We used 1 week old seedlings (germination later) one to a pot. Grow period was 5-6 weeks, depending on the season. In the summer (5 weeks) and as lettuce has a logarithmic growth we sometimes had to top the water the last week.

Initially the operation we composted the cinder/tree fern mix each cycle, but I noticed that ants gardened (overturned) the media after harvest and we started using 2 pots, side by side) to each square foot. We would plant one and allow the ants to garden and compost the harvested pot. We had no pathogen build up and it eliminated the biggest labor input of composting the media. This was a true passive, not circulating hydro system. The biggest energy input was each Friday night we used lanterns to harvest, first going around with a watering can over the plants so they would perk up and then harvested and down to the Hilo Farmer's Market before dawn the next day.

Over the course of 4-5 years we had 1 bad spot in the harvest, rats came onto the tables ready for harvest, we had to toss them, disinfect the table, fortunately they only had a taste for the mature crop and that was all we lost. We did eliminate the rats, unfortunately for the rats.

Germination: the system used leaf lettuce, the bread and butter of the operation was bibb lettuce, Manoa and a Dutch hydro variety that cost a half cent a seed. Berny Kratky is a scientist, truly. He wanted to get the best return and beside calculating the nutrients to a T for cost, was to effect the best germination...Styrofoam 1 inch cell starter flats were used with a fairly standard sterilized potting media was used, dampened, not wet, down and a piece of plywood with short screws every inch with head sitting out a quarter in or so. This was pressed onto the Styrofoam cell flats creating a dimple and 1 seed (mostly) was put into each dimple, that was it, not covering the seeds, the flats stacked, with a blank on the top and allowed to sit overnight and germination was almost perfect and cost effective, I've used this for cb with the same results. We transplanted seedlings usually after 1 week using a butter knife.

During my experience of 4-5 years the lettuce came off like clock work every single week. Except the one harvest that we trashed because of the rat patrol.

I experimented with a variety of vegetables and herbs over the years and the system was very successful for most things.

Did you guys notice any leaching of chemicals into the water/plants due to using styrofoam? That is the one big concern for me.
 
I'm done with DWC. tried it, didn't like it. Root Rot was the main reason. I could never keep milky white roots for longer than a few weeks before creaming and browning took hold. I recommend Aeroponics or soil. Roots swimming deeply in water just seems like Russian Roulette to me. Cannabis can take 3 months from seed to finish, I'd rather not spend that long grueling period crossing my fingers and checking the roots every day.
 
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