Hydroponics

Here are a few photos of our experiments with hydroponics. Apparently, most supermarket lettuces are now grown hydroponically, which I guess explains how little soil you see on the leaves. We sowed some fast-growing cress seeds in expanded hydrogel. In the petri dishes, we experimented with one watered only with water and another with some vinegar added
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In the cut-down bottles we tested seeds fed with some nutrients (the packet of blue-tinged powder) against a control of watered seeds.
The seeds in the 'vinegar' dish didn't germinate at all; the seeds in the shallow, watered dish did germinate but didn't really grow much - possibly too shallow a layer of gel or insufficient water?
Both the deeper containers allowed germination and growth. But the best shoots were, surprisingly, those that weren't fed the nutrients.

We'll keep observing the two deeper containers to see what happens over the next few days. We may need to investigate what happened to prevent the nutrients from working. I've read on some forums that some proprietary nutrient formulae act like junk food on hydroponically grown plants, so maybe we've supersized the portions too much and left them bloated and unable to function.