Growing Thai Roselle in Hydro

-Luis Guerra-

At the beginning of the Summer I was contemplating our next hydroponic display at the shop. Having grown Thai Roselle in my backyard in South Florida, I did some research into whether or not it would respond well to being grown hydroponically. I searched and searched, but it seemed no one had documented this trial.

Well, I went ahead and germinated some seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in some propagation plugs inside a 7” Mondi Dome and tray. A few days  later, I had a few small sprouts full of potential. I raised them carefully under the dome until I could start feeding them some Clonex Solution, placed them under a T5 fluorescent fixture, and nurtured  them into some good looking seedlings.

I decided the Green Trees System would be a good choice to mature them in. I’ve used this system many times in the past, mostly to grow peppers. I was very curious what my results would be. After transitioning them into the system, I started them on Fox Farms’ 3 Part formula, Gringo Rasta  at ¼ strength and ran the lights on a 12/ 12 cycle.

Here they are at a month in.

After they reached a certain height in the tent, I changed the light cycle to 8 on 16 off. They started to bud and looked fantastic. I easily followed the feeding schedule from Fox Farm, and raised the PPM as the buds started to swell.

I harvested the whole plant in late August and shared some with friends. I dried all the calyx on my nifty dry rack, and then collected all the dry material and ground it to a fine powder. Now I make delicious ‘Te De Jamaica’ with it to cool off in these last days of Summer.