28/07/2026
Most students spend their daily allowance on food, transportation, or small things that make school days a little easier.
Karl Castro chose to save his.
With only ₱50 a day, Karl slowly set aside whatever he could. After nearly a year, he had saved around ₱3,000. It was not a huge amount, especially for someone dreaming of starting a farm, but it was enough for him to begin.
Instead of buying a new phone, clothes, or anything most teenagers his age might have wanted, Karl used his savings to build a small hydroponics setup in his family’s backyard in Remedios T. Romualdez, Agusan del Norte.
He did not build it alone. With the help of his father, Karl constructed his first greenhouse using whatever materials they could find: scrap wood, mosquito nets, and recycled plastic bottles. It was simple and far from perfect, with space for only around 50 heads of lettuce.
But for Karl, those first plants meant something... they proved that his idea could grow.
His teachers became his first customers. Their support gave Karl more than his first sales. It showed him that people were willing to buy locally grown lettuce and that the small farm he had built at home could become something bigger.
Like most beginners, Karl learned by trying, adjusting, and solving one problem at a time.
He first used the Kratky method, a basic hydroponic system where plants grow above nutrient-filled water. When the setup could no longer keep up with his growing production, he shifted to the Nutrient Film Technique, or NFT, which allows nutrient-rich water to flow continuously through sloping PVC pipes.
The new system helped him grow more lettuce using less space.
What began as a makeshift greenhouse built from saved allowance and recycled materials eventually became HydroVeggie, a 100-square-meter farm capable of producing around 1,500 heads of lettuce in a single growing cycle.
Today, HydroVeggie supplies cafés and restaurants, including Korean barbecue establishments that require a steady supply of fresh lettuce for samgyupsal meals. Karl grows varieties such as Jonction, Tourbillon, and Batavia, choosing what to plant based on what his customers need.
At only 18 years old, Karl is already balancing two demanding roles.
He is a freshman Agriculture student at Caraga State University, and he is also a young farmer and entrepreneur earning an estimated ₱30,000 to ₱34,000 a month from lettuce grown in his family’s backyard.
The income helps pay for his education and personal needs. More importantly, it allows him to contribute to his family and help support the parents who helped him begin.
Karl has also learned how to make his own nutrient solutions, adjusting the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium depending on the plants’ stage of growth. By producing the mixture himself, he lowers his expenses while maintaining the quality of his harvest.
But the greenhouse has grown into more than a business.
Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering students from Caraga State University have visited HydroVeggie for fieldwork and practical learning. The farm that began with a teenager’s saved allowance has now become a place where other young people can see how modern agriculture works outside the classroom.
Karl’s story challenges the old belief that farming is a career people choose only when no other options remain.
For him, agriculture was never a fallback.
It was a future he deliberately worked toward, one ₱50 allowance at a time.
Somewhere between the scrap wood, recycled bottles, PVC pipes, and rows of green lettuce, Karl built more than a greenhouse.
He built proof that young people do not always need large capital, complete equipment, or years of experience before they can begin something meaningful.
Sometimes, the future begins with a small amount of money, a willing pair of hands, a family that chooses to help, and the discipline to sacrifice something today for the life you hope to build tomorrow.
Story source: Agriculture Monthly and Manila Bulletin feature by Jhon Oliver Nery, with photographs and information provided by Karl Castro.
