Welcome to Seed to Feed, a series where we take you through the journey of growing a specific plant from germination to harvest.
Along the way, we’ll cover everything from the growth timeline, yield, and nutrient experiments to the flavor profile and overall cost to help you decide whether it’s worth it for your home hydroponic system.
We’ll also follow up with some of our favorite recipes featuring the star plant.
We’re starting with Rosemary, a culinary herb with fantastic flavor, versatility, and growth potential in hydroponic systems.
Our Rosemary Stats
Age: 9 Months (up to sep'24)
Seed Source: Johnny's Selected Seeds (Primed Rosemary)
Flavor: The flavor of our home-grown rosemary has been far superior to anything we've bought from stores, whether fresh or dried. It's significantly stronger, so much so that we have to use less than what most recipes call for. The intensity and freshness really shine through in dishes, making it a standout herb in our kitchen.
Yield: While we haven't kept precise track of the total yield, the rosemary plant has been producing more than enough for our needs. We’ve been regularly cutting branches, with each one providing about a tablespoon of chopped rosemary—perfect for most recipes.
Power Usage: Approximately 90.72 kWh of electricity to date. On average, it uses about 15.12 kWh per month. ($10.89 CAD to date, or about $1.81 per month)
Water Usage: Over the entire growth period, the plant has used approximately 596 cups of water (141 liters or 37 gallons). This equates to a daily average of around 2 cups/day. We've been using water enriched with microcultures, which also contributes to the flavor.
Nutrients Tried: We've experimented with several nutrient lines with this plant, including General Hydroponics FloraSeries, Innovative Plant Products HOG, GroTek Precision, and are now trying Green Planet GP3. Each one produced excellent results, largely thanks to the AI recommendations provided by the Kanana Gardens App. This allowed us to optimize NPK values and ensure consistent, healthy growth.
Overall Cost: The total cost for growing the rosemary plant has come to approximately $14.35 for nutrients and buffers, and $10.89 for electricity. This brings the overall cost to date around $25.24, or $4.21 CAD ($3.10 USD) / month.
Is it Worth it? Absolutely! The rosemary has been an essential part of our flavor arsenal, packing far more flavor than anything we've bought in stores. Not only has it been cost-effective to grow, but for those of us trying to eat healthy, having such a potent herb readily available makes a huge difference in our cooking. The robust flavor and ease of growing make it more than worth it!
The Growing Process:
Germination:
We started on Dec 9'23 using the damp paper towel method in a ziplock bag.
Seedling Stage:
Transplanted to the DWC Bubbler (Kanana HydroStarter) on Dec 19 (10 days after germination started), with nutrients calculated using the Kanana Gardens app.
Early Growth:
By Dec 27, we had a good start (about 2-3 inches tall), but the roots still needed to develop a little more before being ready to transplant to a bigger system.
By early February (2 months from seed), our roots were established enough to upgrade to a bigger system. We moved the plants stage to "Vegetative" in the app, which both increases the concentration and optimizes the makeup of the nutrient formula specifically for rosemary in its growth stage.
At his stage, our plant was about 4-5 inches tall.
On February 17th, we finally found the time to transplant our new friend to a bigger system, in our case a HydroPlanter which is an ebb & flow style of hydroponics.
The clay pebbles in the system work as a habitat for healthy microcultures, effectively working as a bio-filter, which not only keeps our nutrients free from pathogens, but also allows us to use our aquarium water (loaded with healthy microcultures). Don't try this in regular setups without some sort of bio-filter as there's an increased risk of a pathogen bloom! (E. Coli etc)
By late march (4 months from start) our rosemary was rockin'! We've learned with most herbs you really need to keep your patience hat on, they start off a lot slower then most plants, but once they're going, they take off!
We've already been consuming it regularly at this point, building up our taste buds to the flavor explosion from this guy - while I've always liked rosemary, it takes a little to get used to the punch it packs when you're growing it fresh. From this point on, we started struggling trying to keep up with the production in our regular meals.
Our rosemary keeps on growing, we keep on feeding it, and trying to stay on top of trimming and using it, but as I'm sure like many people, trying to keep up with your gardening chores is never an easy task!
Up until now (early September), we haven't had to do anything other than top of the reservoir, however we're starting to see some brown tips, which for us likely indicates either salt burn, a condition that happens when too many salts build up in your nutrient solution, or related to the new nutrients we're trying. Either way, this means it's time for our first nutrient flush (7 months later) to reset things.
Keep in mind that in most types of hydroponics without a bio-filter you should be flushing your nutrients every couple weeks.
Conclusion
Growing rosemary hydroponically has proven to be a rewarding and flavorful addition to our home garden. Over the past 9 months, the plant has thrived using a variety of nutrient solutions, minimal power, and water, while delivering a yield far beyond what we expected.
The flavor intensity is unmatched compared to store-bought options, and with a total cost of around $3 a month, it has been an affordable and healthy investment in our kitchen. We’re looking forward to sharing our favorite rosemary-infused recipes (such as our Zesty Rosemary Steak Bites) with you next!