To understand the context of this post you may want to read updates one and two.

The half gallon mason jars worked well as shown with the romaine growing in the photo above. The jars started developing hairline cracks in the bottoms that started leaking.  This was more than likely due to routine handling during weekly water changes. This lead to attempting to find a plastic substitute for the mason jars.  The jars that were selected were a 96 ounce petg plastic container with a handle. These were prepared with a net cup similar to the process in post two. After a few months of growing an algae problem occurred in the jars. This is probably due to the high nutrient levels and bright lights the plants are grown under. A test is being conducted to see if painting the jars black will help combat this problem. Below is a photo of basil grown in the garden vs hydroponic basil grown in the new containers. The basil was started by cloning a basil plant purchased in the supermarket. The grow medium was rock wool.