Hydroponic mint is one easiest hydroponic projects you could start. Mint is easy to start from cuttings, grows quickly and is not very nutrient demanding. They like full sun to partial shade so they are not very demanding in terms of hydroponic lightning either (but need the regular 14 to 18 hours of light). PH is around 7 so you might not need to PH control the nutrient solution at all. The perfect choice for any hydroponic start.
Nate Storey from ZipGrow tells us why growing mint hydroponically one of the most popular crops for commercial hydroponic growers:
Starting mint plants from seeds or from cuttings
Of course, you can start hydroponic mint using any hydroponic seed germination techniques, but look how easy is to clone them by placing stems in water (even from store bought mint, they are very resilient). You just have to cut the bottom leaves and new roots will grow in about 6 or 7 days from the nodes. The mint plant will actually start growing new leaves from the beginning!
Starting mint from seeds is not complicated either; just that the seeds are very tiny and you need to spread them very well and consider that they don’t have a great germination rate:
Vivid gets us a 31 days timelapse of starting mint from seeds. Unlike starting from cuttings where you can see new mint leaves growing almost immediately, starting from seeds takes a bit more time: germination time around 14 days, seed to transplant 4-5 weeks, time to harvest 6 weeks:
Mint varieties
Probably the most common mint varieties are peppermint and spearmint – the true mint types. Beside these there are a lot of other varieties (some are not even mint technically) that are easy to grow and have an amazing taste: Apple Mint, Basil Mint, Chocolate Mint, Cat Mint, Cala Mint, Chewing gum Mint, Field Mint, Ginger Mint, Grapefruit Mint, Horse Mint, Lavender Mint, Lcorice Mint, Orange Mint, Pineapple Mint, Pennyroyal Mint, Red Raripila Mint, Watermint. Plants Insider makes a nice description with pictures for each one:
Hydroponic mint pests and diseases
While mint is easy to start and to grow they are prone to aphids, thrifts,but the solution to these problems is usually simple as the mint plants are so easy to regrow. Gardening at 58 North shows us how easy is to regrow damaged mint:
Of course, doing hydroponic mint doesn’t mean you have to invest in expensive hydroponic systems, nutrients and so on. UrbanGardening shows us you can grow mint cost free by using water and a plastic container with self made holes for the plants:
How to use hydroponic mint?
Mint can be used fresh or dried. Fresh it can be added to the summer drinks, deserts or even meat meals. Dried is mostly used for refreshing teas:
