Maximum Yield USA December 2021/January 2022 | Page 46

The pandemic has been a challenge for teacher Phil McIntosh ’ s classroom hydroponic lessons , but observations show that if you want to grow a reliable and forgiving plant , spider plants are the way to go .

TOWERING

46 Maximum Yield

Spiders

by Philip McIntosh
hen one thinks about what kind of plant to grow in a
Whydroponic tower , Chlorophytum comosum ( Thunb .) Jacques , the spider plant , may not be the first species that comes to mind . Maybe it should be . Since my school began operating three garden towers seven years ago , we have grown lettuce , vit mâche ( kind of like lettuce ), morning glories , Coleus , and , most recently , spider plants . We ’ ve had good success with all those species , but nothing has been as reliable , productive , and forgiving as the spider plants ( Fig . 1 ). We have had all three towers stocked with spider plants at various times , but the tower shown in Fig . 1 has been operating with little maintenance for more than a year under moderate light conditions in a basement near a window .
Fig 1 . Tower Garden with a full load of spider plants .