The Time Capsule: Google, celery and hydroponic marijuana

The Google Doodle, which Google uses on their search engine page each day to highlight or commemorate a notable person or event, chose on Easter Sunday to go with the birthday of Cesar Chavez.  This upset a few Christians, who felt something else took place that day that was perhaps more significant.  Next year Google may do a colored egg. 

Speaking of Google, I used it a few weeks ago to find plans for a hydroponic system. On one of those cold, clammy and not-so-spring-like days when it seemed the growing season would never arrive, my wife decided she wanted to try indoor hydroponics. When we built an outdoor set-up a few years ago, I found instructions on the Internet, but it took some digging. 

Apparently interest in home hydroponics has grown immensely since then.  Google those keywords now and page after page appears. Initially, I gave this little thought. Raising lettuce and spinach, even tomatoes and strawberries, indoors is something people enjoy doing and that more were getting into it was understandable. 

Then, while ordering fertilizer (ordinary fertilizer available locally doesn’t work well) I noticed an online source of grow-lights and other hydroponic supplies that promised, in a prominent portion of their ad, to ship all material in a plain wrapper without any exterior label to indicate contents. 

This struck me as odd. Why would I care if Dale, the fine fellow who delivers our mail, knew I was growing spinach in my office? 

I had a question regarding nutrients for blooming tomatoes, a dealer had an 800-number and invited questions, so I called. A pleasant lady named Cary answered my tomato question, then laughed at the next one. The explosion in the popularity of indoor hydroponics is, it seems, largely going to pot.  Marijuana, Cary said with a degree of confidence that aroused suspicion, does well without soil. 

A fun and legal project with hydroponics, one anyone can do and requires no air pumps or special nutrients, is growing celery. Try it. When that clump of celery in your refrigerator has been used, take the stump you normally throw away. Make a fresh cut across the top, use a sharp knife to make a cross-shaped cut about 1/8th inch deep across the bottom.

Set this little celery stump it in a dish on a sunny windowsill, add enough water to keep the base wet, and wait.  Mine’s in a hydroponic solution and the leaves formed and little stalks started to grow within a few days. They’re now large enough to clip and use.  Roots form and the re-grown celery can be planted outdoors, but I plan to leave mine inside and see how big it gets without dirt.         

Anyone who suspects the green thing under my grow-light isn’t celery is welcome to drop by have a look.  Bring salt and a proper warrant.     

 Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.