Hydroponic tower pack 30 sites with LED lighting

The three varieties don't germinate at the same rate, which is actually an advantage for spreading out harvests. Pak choi is first to emerge, in 5 to 10 days, then lettuce in 7 to 14 days, and basil in 1 to 2 weeks. Room temperature matters more than the season: lettuce germinates between 15 and 21 °C but the seed can go dormant above 25 °C, whereas basil requires 18 to 22 °C. In midsummer, sow your lettuce in the coolest room available. The guide to hydroponic growing season by season extends this schedule beyond the three varieties in the pack.

The tower runs on a 10-litre reservoir, which makes each dose straightforward to calculate: work per litre and multiply by 10. At first roots, all three TriPart fertilisers are added at 0.5 ml per litre each, that is 5 ml of Grow, 5 ml of Micro, and 5 ml of Bloom. When the first true leaves appear, the dose moves to 1 ml per litre, so 10 ml of each. At full leaf growth, Grow reaches 1.8 ml per litre, Micro 1.2, and Bloom 0.6, giving 18, 12, and 6 ml for a full reservoir.

At this rate, the 500 ml Grow bottle in the fertiliser kit covers more than 25 full-strength fills during active growth, and the other two even more. Add each bottle separately to the water while stirring, then adjust the pH last using the pH- sachet, adding it in small pinches and measuring between additions. For lettuces and pak choy, aim for a pH of 5.6 to 6.0, the range in which nutrients remain available to bare roots.

Once fully grown, 30 lettuces take up 2.4 to 3.4 litres of water per day, meaning you'll need to top up with plain water every 3 to 4 days at full capacity, compared with several weeks of autonomy just after transplanting. Between top-ups, the conductivity of the solution, which reflects the concentration of dissolved salts, rises as the level drops: it's the water that's leaving, not the fertiliser. Replace the entire solution every 2 to 3 weeks, and rinse the reservoir at the same time.

All three varieties in the pack tolerate aquaponic water with a pH between 6.5 and 7.5, which suits both fish and bacteria. The tower itself requires solids filtration upstream, as its level distributors block quickly with suspended matter. Basil slows down as soon as the water drops below 15 °C, which limits the use of an outdoor pond in winter. With pond water, nitrogen is already present as nitrate, so the solution is topped up rather than built from scratch. The difference between the two methods is covered in our article on aquaponics and hydroponics.

The pack contains 50 baskets and 50 sponges for 30 slots, leaving 20 spare sets. These are useful for doubling up on seedlings where germination is uncertain, and for preparing the next cycle while the first finishes growing. The packets contain approximately 200 basil seeds, 500 lettuce seeds and 250 pak choy seeds, more than enough to sow across several seasons. Between cycles, empty the reservoir, separate the six tiers and rinse them under clean water before adding a fresh solution. Cut 3 cm above the collar, pak choy will regrow even without resowing.

The pack contains the 30-slot tower, supplied flat-packed with its support frame, 4 LED bars, 12 V submersible pump, mains adaptor, and water level indicator. Also included are 50 mesh growing baskets, 50 peat germination sponges, and 3 seed sachets of basil, lettuce, and pak choy. The fertiliser bundles add 3 x 500 ml TriPart bottles and a sachet of pH-. Items do not all ship from the same warehouse: they may arrive in 2 or 3 separate parcels, a few days apart, so a first parcel that seems incomplete does not mean anything is missing from your order.