WOW! Just Wanted to Say,
What a Hydroponic System!
by Matt
(Fort Worth TX)
I saw a picture of your PVC DWC hydroponic system and I was amazed that someone else had come up with this idea. I know nothing about hydroponics, but after a trip to Disney World I decided to build a home system.
In case you have never been Disney's Epcot Center, it has perhaps the most impressive hydro grow labs in the world. Several of their systems are build with PVC and have pumps, drips and different aeroponic techniques. It was really inspiring to see.
So I devised my own homemade hydroponic system and built it last night. It's 4 - 3 foot PVC tubes that zig-zag back and forth like switch backs coming down a mountain. I couldn't start it yet because I bought a Walmart fish tank pump that wasn't strong enough to elevate the water.
Then I searched "hydroponic systems" online and I saw your sawhorse setup, and it was strikingly similar to mine. I also learned a lot from your post, such as placing an insert to keep the water level higher. I just have a few questions about it.
Do you run a continuous flow of water, or turn it on and off during the day? Also, with the elevated water level do you worry about the roots being exposed to too much water and nutrients? Finally, how do you drain the system? Thanks, and nice work with the PVC...I can't wait to get some tomatoes and berries growing at home!
Answer: Matt, when using my PVC hydroponic system, I keep the water pump running all the time. The reservoir is kept quite full (maybe 15 gallons) and the pipes themselves have about another 15. That's 30 gallons for 34 plant sites...very nearly 1 gallon per plant (which is about how much nutrient solution you should have).
The problem came one night when the power went out (and this is why you need to keep the pump running all the time). Power goes out, water all drains from the pipes back into the reservoir...which is nearly full already...and so the water tops the reservoir and ends up all over the floor. So, I bought a flood and drain fitting (local garden shop), bought a second large storage tote, and installed the fitting into my normal reservoir with a short length of hose going to the other (empty) storage tote as an overflow. You simply need to cut a hole in the overflow storage tote for the hose, so the water level never tries to go over the top of your first reservoir when it begins to overflow.
As far as having too much water on the roots...that is why you need a couple of air pumps constantly Oxygenating the nutrient solution. Those roots all need a little Oxygen, even if it's dissolved Oxygen from the water!
For most crops you will not have a problem doing it this way...but there are exceptions. Strawberries, for example, do not like to be grown in standing water. If the crown (the very top of the roots) gets wet, strawberries tend to develop root rot. You are better off putting strawberries into a flood and drain system or a drip system. Just be sure to do a little research about the plants you are trying to grow and you should be just fine.
As far as draining the system, I take the water hose going into the hydroponic system and move it over to the empty overflow reservoir until it has several gallons in it. I than move the hose back into the system while I dump the nutrient solution. I repeat this process until the system is completely empty. If you want to streamline the process, you can get a long piece of hose that will reach from your water pump to a nearby sink, tub, toilet, out a nearby window, or to your soil garden outdoors. Easy! I hope this helps, and Happy Growing!
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!
