I'm trying the Kratky Method this year (pumpless hydroponics)

I have seen these types of systems and they look really cool. I want to try it but we have mosquito issues. I can’t leave a dog water bowl outside for more than a day or mosquitos lay eggs in there. How will you keep mosquitoes from breeding in the water buckets with this system?

The one thing I did try (for a season) when I was short on space for gardening was planting a garden inside an over-the-door hanging cloth shoes storage rack (the kind with pockets the you slip you shoes into). I just put 3 sturdy nails in the fence and hung the shoe rack on the fence….worked amazingly well and was really easy to move. gardens.theownerbuildernetwork.co...


a reply to: [post=26453596]tinker9917[/post

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: tinker9917

Only thing I don't like is all the plastic.

But I don't see why I couldn't use other materials.

This is awesome.

I use food safe plastic, but of course those are always white so I wrapped them in aluminum foil to prevent light reaching the interior.

I tried rigging up some glass bakeware once, but never found enough parts to assemble the puzzle.

originally posted by: Buvvy
I have seen these types of systems and they look really cool. I want to try it but we have mosquito issues. I can’t leave a dog water bowl outside for more than a day or mosquitos lay eggs in there. How will you keep mosquitoes from breeding in the water buckets with this system?

a reply to: tinker9917

The same air pump prevents mosquitoes, you'll just want to leave it running 24x7.

Also works for dog bowls, mosquitoes need still water.

If the mosquitoes where you live are too tough for just the bubbler (like summers in Wisconsin), you can add a small aquarium pump to constantly circulate the water, it doesn't have to be all that powerful, just enough to keep the water surface in motion.

a reply to: Buvvy
I love that idea!

a reply to: tinker9917

Hello Tinker. Been here long like me I see. Nice to speak.

I'd like to turn you onto the magazine of the hippie culture in the 60's and 70's: Mother Earth News.

Not a news but monthly magazine how to every darn thing you could think of but we werent doing yet: Cultural, Enviromental (SAVE THE EARTH)...you name it.

Solar Power
Communal Farms
Composting
Water, Foods, Organics

If you werent aware! There are years and years of it each one a wealth of what you speak.

God Bless.......BOIL THE WATER 1st! Stay well.......

originally posted by: Mandroid7
Don't do it
I can give you some tips if you want, but that type of stagnant water setup is terrible.
Root rot, fungus, overwatering, nutrient uptake etc is the main issue there.
I could help you retrofit your setup if you like. Not all is lost there.

Seconded.

The point of the pump in a hydroponic system is not to provide air to the roots, but to prevent stagnant water.

a reply to: tinker9917

You going to grow that light green or Bobby brown 💨?

Jk

I’ve never heard of this method before I might have to get me a bucket now and give this a try.

originally posted by: Brotherman
a reply to: tinker9917

You going to grow that light green or Bobby brown 💨?

Jk

I’ve never heard of this method before I might have to get me a bucket now and give this a try.

Stick with an air pump and fast growing low temp low light crops like lettuce and it works pretty well in front of a southern facing window.

My preschool aged grandkids each set one up properly with supervision, it really is just a matter of waiting after that.

Looks an interesting idea but I doubt it'd be safe to eat anything due to stagnant water/toxic mold being a perfect environment for very nasty diseases like legionairre's, weil's disease etc...and better habitat for mosquitoes than plants.

There's cheap solar powered pumps ($70ishq for 100ft/40 plant set up) that can be added to your set up for aeration and irrigation that would get rid of that issue and be far safer and allow far better crops.

Mycorrhizal fungi may help reduce the ammount of fungus, root rot etc... but as far as I know they require soil - I'm using a few varieties of Mycobacterium at an allotment patch I own to try and counteract the fact that I can only access it one day a week.

a reply to: bastion


Agreed, the water needs an air pump at an absolute minimum.

a reply to: tinker9917

Wonder how it would work with Green?

a reply to: andy06shake
Very, very well!!! Did even some tests by myself but ended them, never send them into flowering stage. I don´t have a activated carbon filter set yet and the smell would alarm every cop within a radius of a few hundred meters. But soon three plants will be legal here too and then i don´t care for that smell anymore.

I suggest aerating the root ball with air stone or similar. Otherwise chance of root rott.

a reply to: rounda

Is there any way using physics that one could move the water without electricity?

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: rounda

Is there any way using physics that one could move the water without electricity?

As long as the water butt is a couple of foot or more above the delivery point then Gravity will do all the work/energy (known as gravitationl potential energy - GPE = mass x height difference x gravitational field (9.81 on earth) and if pipes/tubes have small enough diameter you can get a good ammount of pressure (pressure = force/area, where the force is the gravitational potenial energy and area is cross section of the pipe).

Currently designing one trying to use minimum water/cost and thinking this type of system with a few tweaks could work very well. A weak solar powered pump seems pretty essential though as the highest demand for water/pressure would be when it's least available.

I've not looked into it yet but guessing it'd be possible to place fine netting/fabric to recondense some of the moisture lost to evaporation and feed it back into the system; but there'd always be some loss.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: rounda

Is there any way using physics that one could move the water without electricity?

Suspend the buckets, then give them a push a few times a day. Or just give them a good shake a few times a day.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: tinker9917

Wonder how it would work with Green?

It can work well, as long as setup proper, and you know how to spot and deal with problems. We got 6 pages in High Times with our system, designed to produce clean medical. I will say, dirt is much easier, or much more of a buffer zone. Hydro, is ultimately more controllable, but less forgiving.

Got me a new bucket I got ideas