Hey there,
I am autistic (mentioning this hoping to get some more wiggle room, when being bad at human interaction) and some time ago i started to develop interests in hydroponics. I worked in construction for some time and I am also into 3D-printing. Thus I used cheap plastic containers, some old spray paint, my printer, rock wool and a drill to create my own setup consisting of grow lights and multiple 4L containers, each holding three netcups. The netcups contain the rock wool cube in which I started the seed and some clay pebbles on top to block out most of the light. The Containers themselves I painted to block the light out.
Usually I start by cleansing all the utensils thoroughly. Then I rinse the rock wool cubes and I put a seed in each cube. I let those sit in a container which has a small layer of water at its bottom so that the cubes and seeds are damp at all time. Next I put some cling wrap over the container to keep moisture inside. Now I wait for the seeds to germinate. This seems to work just fine as (most of) my seeds tend to develop roots and begin to grow. When I feel like they are ready to go into their respective big container I transfer the cube into a netcup as I‘ve described above. The container gets filled up with nutrient solution (I use 2g Master Blend, 2g Calcium Nitrate and 1g Epsom Salt as the masterblend calculator suggests for lettuce going up to 2.4g Master Blend, 2.4g Calcium Nitrate and 1.2g Epsom Salt which it‘s suggesting for tomatoes. I use 4L of water and I try to eyeball where on the scale of lettuce – tomato the plant I am using would be)
. When I fill the container with the nutrient solution and I put the netcups in, then the roots of the fresh plants are touching the water, but the netcup it self isn’t. Next I wait and let time and light to the rest. When I first started like this I grew some different lettuces and all of those grew just fine until at some point I got into a rut and let them dry out. I had a steady supply of lettuce for quite a while and I enjoyed eating them as well as watching them grow. But when I went for the next round and sew new plants everything turned out all different. And since then I experience the same problems everytime.
My plants germinate just fine and I feel like they start growing perfectly healthy and okay, but then I tend to find these small black dots on them and since they move I do suspect it‘s aphids. But I do not understand how they get there in the first place. I had breaks of up to 5 months between trying to grow the plants. I cleaned the equipment and the environment thoroughly and the other plants in my place don‘t seem to have aphids on them.
Am I correct in assuming those are aphids?
If I am not, then please help me to identify the pests.
Either way I‘d love some input on how to avoid the pest infestation on my next try. As well as more constructive criticism if there is anything else you want to say.
Since this is my first time actively using reddit, I‘d also appreciate feedback on what I should have done different when posting this.
Have a great day everyone
by lovelyhumanman