Hydroponic System...cheap and reliable. Grow your own!

a reply to: IvanAstikov

I think so ivan. There are maybe a few circumstances I can see that will beat out a proper hydro system.
For instance...say the north side of a Hawaiian island, with years and years of decomp in the soil, making extremely nutrient rich soils, combining with heavy humidity, while fighting molds with intense tropical sunlight and constant wind current.

I know from experience that growth rates cant touch hydro with soil in regular greenhouse or indoor lighted conditions. These conditions, in some plants will halve the total time to maturity.

originally posted by: EndOfDays77
Hi

I really like your design!

In my XP NFT is the most reliable and simple and is easy to set up and reuse (this is my recommendation).The fully submerged bubble pots and aqua phonics are what you need if you want best yield and quickest results,although if a failure occurs they will be effected the most compared to other systems.

Flood and drain (ebb and flow) systems are again great,also they won't fade away dramatically if an outage occurs,but they are a pain in the sense that you need to replenish the substrate,you don't have to always do this,but I have found it difficult to remove all the previous old roots and this brings in detrimental pests and bugs.
Soil and ORGANICS are the way to go IMO! All these chemicals are killing us slowly.

I have thought about combining the two ie ORGANICS and hydro although you will need to dial in the nutrients precisely as with the quick growth, deficiencies would most likely set in fast.

As another poster pointed out.If we are looking at survival,then hydro is a no no,unless you have solar power,but even still you maybe putting all eggs in one basket (solar systems could be destroyed by EMP)..I feel that is not wise.As the same poster mentioned,a gravity system is what would be ideal under those set of circumstances.

An idea that has occurred to my imagination,was if you could divert a river flow (or utilize it) and have a flow of water over rocks,which as you build it up,would contain different grades of material,say large rocks,smaller rocks,gravel and then possibly soil or rock wool?

Thanks for. Sharing your ideas,you have sparked my passion for growing veg,now the spring is on the way! happy season!

Submerged roots aquaponics are OK....the problem with this is lack of oxygen. As well as submerged organics decomposing changing pH content of the water. They can be successfully, but will require massive bubble action added to the water, below the roots. If you really want the fastest system, try out a high pressure recirculating aeroponic setup. This is the system I said beats the one in the op. Noeltrosky mentions this above. You have a light tight container, 10" deep, 3" net pots hanging through the lid, filled with hydrotron clay pellets. Inside pvc pipes drilled and tapped for sprayer nozzels. The nozzles are configured to fire between the pots, this deflects off of the lid and produces a thick, highly oxygenated mist/fog. The pan drains to res and never lets water pool up. The opposite end of the dist tubing exits the tub, returns to res and has a valve. The valve controls the back pressure in the line, hence controlling the spray intensity. That line then sprays into res, causing massive oxygenation. Clogged sprayers can be cleaned by closing valve. 24/7 run time. This system beats maturity time by 2 weeks over hydro.

I like your thought process on the outdoor setup. The most simple, non-powered hydro system I know of is a wick system. Cotton rope hangs into water,then is wrapped into the root ball/pot. You can use a small piece of pvc, bury the pipe with the rope in it, so the ground doesn't soak it up, or hang directly above water. It will wick against gravity for a slow controlled moisture...pretty awesome low-fi tech. Soil based nutes on that.

originally posted by: noeltrotsky
Good Post OP!

I'd suggest, if you haven't already, read more about what creates the best root growth. From my reading you get way more root surface when they are suspended in air and not in a medium, cube you mentioned. Also the nutrient spray size droplet matters when suspended in air. As fine a mist as possible, like a fog, stimulates intense root surface growth.

en.wikipedia.org...

I built a small system but never got the best mist sprayers so always felt I wasn't doing 'the best'.

It's an amazing subject to be honest. Of course you didn't go into lighting which is a major key to the whole growing of any plants. I guess that's a detailed thread all by itself!!!

You are dead on with that idea. The oxygenation decreases grow time by 2 weeks. Try out 0-3 adjustable gph hog lot sprayers. They thread directly into pvc with a tap. Overpower the system with a 1", 3/4 hp pump. Mag drive pumps cuts heat unlike cheap pumps. This pump will run 3 4x5' tables at once, with enough pressure to create massive oxygenation on the return line in the resv.

While this is the best system, it has a drawback of dead plants within a day if ranges get off or pump dies. Dried and dead roots and overheating. Requires in person or wifi monitoring of nute solutions, pH and temps.

If you wanna get crazy, add an inline chiller,& wifi dose bot.

My light recommendations today are 1-1000w digital matrix ballast with 1060watts, matched with a blockbuster 6 sealed reflector and hortilux super hps for highest par ratings and best footprint to a 4x6 table, surrounded in Orca film. Hps for flowers and growth and Mh for growth only.

If you have the money $1k, the new plasma lights are the bees knees. A slightly reduced footprint, almost no heat, no venting of hood. Much cleaner spectrum for plants compared to HPS. Power draw is ridiculously lower and performance higher. take a look at the chameleon plasma, I think it's called. This thing in an orca tent is ba.

originally posted by: nonspecific
If you used this system near a pond do you think you could use the pond water as a nutrient ready water source similar to an aquaponic system?

I ask as I have toyed with the idea myself, setting up an aquaponic system utilising a natural source as opposed to a made version.

Pond water makes an excellent source of water. You may need to add nutes to that source though.
A hannah multimeter can tell you what your dealing with as far as water quality goes.(pH and ppm)

Some plants use around 1000ppm of dissolved solids or fertilizer, minerals etc for food from water.
A lot of municipal water supplies contain as much as 500 ppm of crap in them from the tap. Some of that crap is herbacide, pharmies, nicotine etc... This leaves the allowable ppm at only 500 ppm, so you never get the 1000 of good stuff that plants crave..the Brondo, if you will

Rainwater is awesome, at a 12-20 ish ppm from your gutter.
Oppm ro filtered water is the best. The parts clogging minerals are gone and you add back only what you want and what is healthy to you and the plants.

The good hydro "chemicals" out today are food safe and refined from natural sources then filtered to work without clogging up system and resist fungus and bacterias which can grow on the roots.

Where as something like fish emulsion, wood ash, or whatever organic will rot and get funky, requiring more frequent cleaning of equip as well as slower growth rates.