My Most Successful Hydroponic System, missing info?
by Alex
Hi, We love your website. We will be building this system. When looking at this diagram (My Most Successful...) off to the right , what are those 2 grey curvy lines going off to the right and the 2 little orange boxes? Is that inside the system or outside. Thank you so much for your reply. Thanks, Alex
Answer: Alex- on the diagram of My Most Successful Homemade Hydroponic System those two little orange boxes are aquarium air pumps, and the grey lines are standard 1/4 inch air tubing.
Every plant requires oxygen at the root level. In fact, the roots will only absorb nutrients in the presence of oxygen. This is not a concern when using a flood and drain system or a drip system, but in THIS system the plants are grown directly in the water. In order to provide enough oxygen to the roots, you need to add a couple of air pumps and air stones to the system.
When I first started using this design, I put two 6 inch air stones in the nutrient reservoir. This put enough dissolved oxygen into the nutrient solution, but the air stones and air lines were always in the way (especially when doing nutrient solution changes). That's when I decided to put the air stones in the elbows of the system instead of having them in the nutrient reservoir.
To do this, simply drill a 1/4 inch hole in the top of the elbow. Slide your air stone into position, feed the air tube through the hole, and connect the two inside the system. If your air stone is too long, you won't be able to slide it into place (it won't make it past the bend). If you're not sure, you might want to put the air stones into the elbows before you glue them together.
I have a couple other suggestions if you want to be successful using this system. In my original article, I include instructions on how to fill the "cups" with clay pellets and how to transplant your plants into the system. Making sure you fill the clay pellets even with the water level, and making sure you fill around you transplants with pre-soaked clay pellets are both important to the survival of your plants in the first week.
Cool water will hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water....also, warm water supports many different pathogens. For both of these reasons, you never want your nutrient solution to get above 72*F. Keeping the reservoir on a cool concrete floor (as you might have in a basement) is a good idea. You may also want to pick up a floating thermometer for the nutrient reservoir....you can get these at a pet shop in the aquarium department.
Chlorine from tap water can harm your plants, but worse....I've seen a whole garden wiped out overnight from temperature shock when cold water straight from the tap was used for a nutrient solution change. Room temperature water is always best. I highly recommend using TWO nutrient reservoirs- fill one with plain water and set it off to the side, waiting for the next nutrient solution change. This will eliminate BOTH of these problems.
Make sure you have adequate temp control in the garden area....see my pages on exhaust fans and oscillating fans (both important). Make sure you have adequate lighting....a 4' x 8' system does well using one 1000 watt light on a light mover or two stationary 600 watt lights (for most crops). Be sure to maintain your nutrient solution properly- see my how to grow hydro page. Finally, most crops require a dark period (12 hours) every day in order to trigger flowering- learn more about this on my flower forcing page.
Running this system, I tried to keep the water level as high as possible. This might not be necessary (it led to occasional small leaks for me). Once your plants have rooted well, you should be able to drop the water level just a tiny bit without harming the plant growth. This will also help you run the system without having any leaks.
I know this is more info than you asked for, but I would really like to see you succeed with your efforts. Feel free to write again if you have any other questions, and Happy Growing!
Comments for My Most Successful Hydroponic System, missing info?
|
||
|
||
AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
