Growing Chives in Hydroponics (without soil)
We’re going to talk a little bit about chives.
I know that we've covered chives in the past but we're going to cover them again because we really like chives.
Now, chives are a great grower and when you plant in ZipGrow towers, you plant them by division.
If you've got a tower of chives already growing in your greenhouse or on your Farm Wall, all you need to do is pull apart the old tower, grab a few of the chive bunches that grow in there, and you plant them in a new tower.
After a couple of weeks, the chives they become very productive.
Transplanting and Weeks to Maturity
Starting with a plant that you can divide up is the easiest way to grow chives, as growing from seed can be a real challenge. Once you transplant it, it’s about six to eight weeks before it is fully mature.
After about eight weeks you can start cutting on it really regularly. By regularly, I mean every three weeks you can go through and cut the thing practically back to the crown. You can take all of the plant matter, and about three to four weeks later it will be completely regrown.
pH, Sun, Temperature and Harvest Style
Chives prefer more of a neutral pH. If you decide chives are the right crop for you, try to keep you pH in the mid 6's, maybe the high 6's if you can’t get it too low. Within this range, you'll get a pretty good yield out of them.
When it comes to sun exposure, chives prefer full sun, so make sure you provide them with a lot of light. And don't worry, it’s hard to give chives too much light, so long as they're well-irrigated. Again, they are a very hardy crop, which is why we recommend them to beginning vertical farmers.
They'll also handle swings in temperature very well. In all, it’s hard to beat chives if you have a market for them as a commercial grower. If you're growing for yourself or your family, I hope you like chives because you'll have a lot of them!
Chives are a great “cut-and-come-again”-type crop where you cut multiple times on the same tower for markets. Once they start getting a little unruly you can always go through and pull the tower apart, divide them up and replant a bunch of new towers from the old tower.
Chives can get pretty big in a hurry. They can stick at least 14" to 16" off the front of the tower and around the sides once they’re fully grown out.
Just make sure you keep an eye on them and make sure you’re trimming them really regularly to keep them producing as efficiently as possible. A routine harvest is probably the best thing you can do to keep them in shape, and from getting too far out of control.
If you need more info on harvest styles and equipment, check out this video!
Possible Pests
Typically, there aren't a whole lot of pest issues when growing chives. You may run into some fungal and disease issues with different onion diseases, but overall it’s pretty uncommon and these are fairly rare. Like most pest and disease issues, your growing climate is a huge factor so having a solid IPM strategy in place is VERY wise.
Need help with pest and disease? Here’s our control guide.
We love chives.
From a hydroponic (or aquaponic) grower’s standpoint, chives are a fantastic herb to grow in your greenhouse, warehouse, or even your Farm Wall. They're great to cook with, and you'll find that some markets will pay top dollar for them. Chefs, for instances, love chives and you may be able to help them accomplish their goal of getting fresher, more flavorful herbs for their dishes.
A note to aspiring Upstart Farmers
As always, don't forget that before you decide to take the plunge into Upstart Farmerhood, you'll need to do that ever-important market research to ensure you have a demand in your local area for herbs like chives, or any other crops you're thinking of growing!
That’s about all you need to know about chives.
Hopefully this is useful to you! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask or check out our blog for more helpful information.
