Meet the Team Behind Sun Hydroponics
A father-daughter team on a mission to help anyone grow fresh food at home.
It Started with String Beans
Growing up as an only child of a single mom in South Florida, I didn't have a choice about going to garden club meetings. Mom couldn't leave me at home. She was a member of the Pompano Beach Garden Club, and every meeting I went to with her. I didn't mind. We planted string beans together, and I had the biggest thrill watching them grow.
That early spark never went away. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, Mom and I planted gardens filled with flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables of all kinds. I loved watching butterflies dance among the flowers, and angrily peeled hornworms off the tomato plants.
By high school, the gardening bug had merged with my inner science nerd. I started running experiments to optimize vegetable growth, which led to local science fairs.
The Moment Everything Changed
After college, I got married, raised three children, and spent years building businesses. Then one evening I saw a Discovery Channel segment about large-scale hydroponics for growing lettuce. Something clicked. I dove into research, read everything I could find, and discovered a video by the University of Florida's IFAS Extension program about building a deep water culture floating lettuce system.
I decided to duplicate it. I built a greenhouse and created two large hydroponic pools with floating rafts.
The First Harvest
My first planting was a huge success: 192 heads of lettuce with nearly a 100% success rate. Verdant green, tender, and delicious with a flavor you just can't buy at the grocery store. We had more lettuce than we could possibly eat, so we gave it away to family, friends, and neighbors.
The second planting in late spring worked great too. Then came the third planting, and the scorching central Florida summer sun caused all 200 heads to bolt. Humbling, to say the least.
But that failure turned out to be a gift. It pushed me to build a 4' x 8' deep water culture system indoors, pool-table-sized, with LED shop lights on a 16-hour timer. The result? Regardless of wind, rain, or hurricanes, I grow beautiful lettuce year-round. No bolting. No bugs. No pesticides. No maintenance.
From Wall Street to Hydroponics
Before Sun Hydroponics, I co-founded a non-profit investment education and research association to help individual investors learn to manage their own investments. I then co-founded an SEC-registered broker-dealer and investment advisory firm that grew to several billion dollars in client assets under management.
After selling that firm, I spent eight years developing enterprise web applications, until the company outsourced all development offshore. I took another development job, only to be laid off again when a major client cut its budget during the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I decided to retire and focus on personal projects. Sun Hydroponics became the marriage made in heaven: combining my lifelong passion for growing food with software development in a way that can potentially reach and help millions of people globally.
Father & Daughter, Building Together
It's made all the better because my daughter Rebecca has agreed to join me. Recently graduated with her business degree, Rebecca serves as Marketing Director for Sun Hydroponics. She brings fresh perspective and energy to everything we do.
Growing up on our farm, Rebecca is extraordinarily creative and innately data-driven, analytically and mechanically minded. Her middle school science fair project on the effect of nutrient solution pH on hydroponically grown buttercrunch lettuce won a blue ribbon.
In fact, it was Rebecca's idea to give the plans away for free. Over a lunchtime conversation, she pointed out that a hundred times more people will download free plans versus paying for them. Her thinking: we could at least cover operating expenses through Amazon's Affiliate program, and far more people would actually benefit.
Why We Give the Plans Away for Free
Beyond the business logic, giving plans away is personal for me. In college, I was broke and know first-hand what it's like to have nothing to eat and no money to buy food. I know what it's like to pick food out of a dumpster behind a restaurant. I know what it's like to not have enough money to buy a dozen eggs.
Today, I'm blessed with adequate resources for my family and me. But if I can help people who are struggling, it makes me feel good. That's the pay-it-forward spirit behind everything on this site.
What We're Growing Right Now
We're currently growing several varieties of lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, and cucumbers. Every plan on this site is designed with the philosophy that you should be able to build it using what you already have. If you prefer and can afford it, you can choose to buy upgraded components, but it should never be a requirement.
"We want you to feel the same excitement we do. The comfort and pride of knowing you cultivated a healthy, vitamin-rich, and delicious harvest for yourself and your family at rock-bottom cost. The knowledge that you're more self-reliant food-wise."
- Paul Perkins, Founder
We're All Better Together
We believe that we're all better together. We encourage you to engage and interact with us and other site visitors to share your experiences: what worked and what didn't. Our hope is to develop a global community of hydroponic gardeners with a site that is accessible, inclusive, and sustainable.
How We Keep the Lights On
Sun Hydroponics is free to use. Some pages include affiliate links, primarily through Amazon. If you purchase products through these links, the site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This revenue helps cover hosting, development, and the creation of new plans and tools.
For more information, see our Affiliate Disclosure.
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