The Hydro Guy

Outdoor hydroponics

2017-02-05T20:41:00.002-05:00

I apologize on how long it has been since I have stopped to make a post.

Last year (2016) season I decided to try something new. I went ahead and started growing some tomatoes, peppers, lemon basil, lime basil and lettuce outside.

I took 2 of the black and yellow 27 gallon totes from home depot, bought airstones and aerator from amazon. I cut 6 four inch holes in the top of the totes, then placed the plants in. I had 10 total plants (I used 1 open hole in the top to check water levels, ecc, pH, etc.

The tomatoes grew to 12+ feet, the peppers over 6, and the lemon basil was amazing as usual.

I want to just say that I explained what I was doing to two different people at two disparate hydro shops, both of which said it is impossible to grow hydroponically outdoors.

This is incorrect. Maybe what they were growing is impossible to grow outdoors for legality reasons, or who knows, maybe they just always had that thought. It is incorrect. You can absolutely grow hydroponically out doors. Also, I am expanding my outdoor hydroponics garden this year. I am going from 10 sites, to 30. I am going to do those 10 DWC sites as well as an additional 18 dutch buckets.

I will create DIY sections for each of the projects. Depending on funds, I may make an Ebb and Flow rail system this year as well which would be an additional 30+ sites.

We will see.

I have my tomatoes, and pepper seeds started as well in preparation for the buckets! I am super excited for this growing year and I hope you are as well!

More to follow!

Thanks!

Ebb and Flow Update

2016-01-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

The last three posts that were made were on an Ebb and Flow system. I wanted to follow up on the update of that system:

Day 1 in system: (4 days after seed germination)

Day 35: (I did add a lot of new plants, which are various days/weeks)

As you can see it is working out quiet nicely! The lettuce is doing well, and the Thai basil is doing really well. The broccoli is also doing outstanding so far.

There are some newer plants in there such as leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, lemon basil, and curled parsley.

First time, beginners DIY guide Ebb and Flow Table setup - Part 3 (Finishing Touches)

2015-12-17T12:28:00.002-05:00

- Once you have finished those steps, now you need to decide how far apart you want your net cups. They need to be far enough apart that if you are growing lettuce for example, it has enough width to allow another plant to sit beside it.
- Now you are going to make your marks on the board and begin drilling your holes:

- Special note, just make sure that the hole you create, your net cups fit inside snug.
- Once you have completed this task, you are ready to go.
- Once you have seedlings that are ready to be transplanted over to your new system (around 1-2+ weeks after they sprout) you can place you rockwool cubes into the net cups with the growstones.

- You will want to hand water these plants 2-3 times a day with water from your reservoir until their roots can reach the water during the flood.

- As your plants sprout, and you begin to use this system, make sure that you are covering all holes you are not using so you do not get mold growth.

This is right after I transplanted my first six plants into the setup. 3 Basil plants, and 3 lettuce plants. (Cinnamon Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, ButterCrunch lettuce, Romain Lettuce, and Leaf Lettuce)

Part 1

Part 2

First time, beginners DIY guide Ebb and Flow Table setup - Part 2 (Prep Work)

2015-12-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

Now that you have all of the supplies your next steps are to get started on your new project!

- First you may want to soak your seeds for 24-48 hours in water, or a mixture of H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide)
- While those are soaking you can start drilling holes in your tote. Make sure that you use the whole saw size that is the same size as the ebb and flow fittings. You are going to place two holes in the top of that tote. I placed mine towards the middle. The Mason Mixing tub had a bit of a bow in the center of it, which is fine because that is where the lowest point is located. That means water will flow towards that area when it is draining.
- Remember that the lower ebb and flow fitting is what the pump hooks up to. The taller one is the drain.
- Here is a picture of the Mason Mixing tub on top of my reservoir:

- Once you have those holes drilled in the top of the tote, now you can line up the mixing tub on top of it, and drill those holes.( I took the lid off of the tote, lined up the holes, then drilled them to make sure everything lined up the way I wanted them to line up.
- Next, you will need to put the fittings in. I placed them around the mixing tub. They are free hanging into the tote.

- Here is another picture of the fittings on, and inside of tub:

- After that you can hook up your pump to the pipe, hook that pipe up to the small ebb and flow fitting.
- Next, you will want to fill up your reservoir. This is just for a test run. Make sure you have at least 25 gallons in your reservoir. Turn on your pump, and set a stop watch. Wait for it to get to around 18-19 gallons full, then stop your stop watch. How long did it take to fill up your reservoir? It takes around 8 minutes for mine to fill. Now you can set your timer to that time limit of "on" for 8 minutes.
- I let it flood the table three times a day. You can do two, or more than three if you would like, but I prefer 3 times a day.

- Setup your light, and your hangers. Adjust your light to the correct height (can be as close as around 10-16 inches above the plants).
- Start soaking your rockwool, and growstones.
- Soak the growstones 48 hours in advanced. I soaked my initially in regular tap water in a bucket for 24 hours. Dumped that water, then added pH balanced water, plus 1/4 strength nutrients to the water. Let them soak for another 24 hours.
- The first soak helps remove any dust.
- The second soak preps the growstones for use.
- The rockwool can be soaked 24 hours prior to being used in pH balanced, 1/4 nutrient strength water.

Part 1
Part 3

First time, beginners DIY guide Ebb and Flow Table setup - Part 1 (Item list)

2015-12-17T12:09:00.000-05:00

Here is a walk through that I did not have when I first started looking into Hydroponics. A complete, beginning to end documentation of the first Ebb and Flow table I built. It is a rough cost estimate as I waited for a lot of the items to go on sale prior to buying them. The prices below were just what the prices were when I looked them up during the creation of this post.

This series is being created because I remember when I wanted to get into Hydroponics. I did lots, and lots of research into what I wanted, and needed. I thought that I had the list, and boom I started to buy items off of my list. It did not completely fit together correctly. I ran into issues, after issues. I wanted to make a guide to list out ALL of the items needed to not only get into hydroponics, but also build your first setup.

Here is a simple way to create an ebb and flow (flood and drain)table. It is quick, easy, and cheap.

I used very specific items due to durability, and cost. You can choose other options, but it is up to you of course.

Also location pending since you may not have the same stores near you.

1.) Hdx 27 gallon storage tote ($11.97) - Home Depot (Reservoir)
2.) Mason mixing tub 3x2 21 gallon ($12.98) - Home Depot (Flood table)

3.) 400 gph pump ($22.92) - Amazon
4.) Rockwool ($10.33) - Amazon
5.) Foam topper($5.99 a piece x 2) - I used something similar to this but it was 2ft x 2ft and I snagged two of them - Home Depot (Goes on top of the Flood table)
6.) 100 net cups 2 inch ($11.95) - Amazon
7.) Growstones ($29.99) - local hydro store, or Amazon
8.) Bontanicaire ebb and flow fittings ($8.95) - Amazon
9.) Pipe for the pump ($0.10 per foot) - Local Hydro Store
10.) Timers (13.99)x2 - Amazon
11.) Grow light ($110.00) - Amazon
12.) Nutrients ($37.99) - Amazon
13.) pH up/down ($15.59)- Amazon
14.) TDS meter ($13.99) - Amazon

15.) Power Drill

16.) Whole saw kit (something like this Amazon)
17.) Seeds (Price depends on what you are growing)

Total: (Minus the Seeds, Power Drill, and Whole saw kit) = $327.62

There is ways to go cheaper:

- Make your own light. DIY CFL setups can be very cheap. DIY LEDs could be a little cheaper.

- Use something other than Growstones. You could any inert material.(The sky is the limit)

- Only use 1 timer (this means you HAVE to remember to turn on your light, and shut it off.)

- Only buy only the "grow" nutrient instead of the three pack (only if you are growing vegetative items that do not bloom such as lettuce, basil, etc.)

- Skip the TDS meter for now. You can go by how much they describe to put in the water, but these are handy if you start having any issues in your setup, what your water's base is, and what it is after adding your nutrients. It helps you solve too issues of too little nutrient, or issues if your nutrients are too high.

- Skip rockwool, if you have another alternative that is inert and retains water.

**Do note, by changing these variables, you are going to affect the outcome, in which could be negative, or positive.

There is cheaper ways to go about Hydroponics, and if you have the option of a local hydroponic store, they usually have nutrients, timers, pumps, airstones, etc cheaper than Amazon.

If you are already growing hydroponically, or have some of these supplies like I did then it is far cheaper to build an Ebb and Flow table:

1.) Hdx 27 gallon storage tote ($11.97) - Home Depot (Reservoir)
2.) Mason mixing tub 3x2 21 gallon ($12.98) - Home Depot (Flood table)

3.) 400 gph pump ($22.92) - Amazon

4.) Bontanicaire ebb and flow fittings ($8.95) - Amazon

5.) Timer (13.99) - Amazon

6.) Pipe for the pump ($0.10 per foot (~$1) - Local Hydro Store

7.) Foam topper($5.99 a piece x 2) - I used something similar to this but it was 2ft x 2ft and I snagged two of them - Home Depot (Goes on top of the Flood table)

Total: $83.79

Part 2
Part 3

High Pressure versus Low Pressure Aeroponics

2015-06-19T15:51:00.000-04:00

High Pressure versus Low Pressure Aeroponics

First off, let's take a quick peek at the definitions of these two difference styles:

High Pressure Aeroponics (HPA) is defined as a form of Hydroponics in which the roots are suspended in a chamber with nozzles that delivers nutrients through a mist to the roots between 5-80 micrometers. Most argue that the range is smaller (20-50 micrometers). This mist is usually derived from some form of pump (typically a diaphragm pump such as a reverse osmosis pump). This type of system usually has a PSI of 80-150PSI to attain the droplet size. Also, it uses specialized misting heads to attain the correct mist droplet size. Research from NASA shows that at the 20-50 micron size, the roots can grab the water/nutrient solution right out of the air and instantly absorb them without any wasted energy.

Low Pressure Aeroponics (LPA), aka soakponics is defined as a form of Hydroponics in which the root zone is suspended in a chamber with nozzles which delivers nutrients through a spray. The droplet size is not exact. These systems typically use a plastic spray nozzle, and a typical fountain pump to get their spray out of the nozzles.

High Pressure Advantages:

Superior crop
Of all current methods, this grows plants upwards of 20% faster
Uses the least amount of water, of any system
Uses least amount of nutrients of any system

High Pressure Disadvantages:

If issues arise in the system (power outage) you lose your plants in minutes
Most finicky form of Hydroponics
Super expensive
Clogged sprayers

High Pressure Hydroponics is great for high dollar cash crops, or those seeking the highest quality crop in smaller scale environments / hobbyist

Low Pressure Aeroponics Advantages:

Simple, easy to DIY
Grows plants faster than other forms of Hydroponics.
Cheap to build

Low Pressure Aeroponics Disadvantage:

If issues arise in the system (power outage) you lose your plants in hours
Clogged sprayers

There are not very many disadvantages to LPA as you can see above. These systems are not the best for larger plants, but can be used for such. The sprayers can get clogged from the plants roots. These are mainly used for cloning. They do a fantastic job at cloning plants.

Soil / Hydroponics trade-offs

2015-06-18T10:56:00.000-04:00

Keep in mind, soil to hydroponics has it's trade offs. What exactly do I mean by this? Well here are some examples:

Going from soil to hydroponics you are trading:

Soil born illnesses for water born illnesses

Now you need RO (Reverse Osmosis) or Distilled water to eliminate that issue.
It is cheaper to make your own, but more expensive up front.

Introduction of pests from buying soil, versus introducing pests because they are on you.

When buy new soil to switch out your old soil, you can introduce pests via that soil you are placing in your environment. You can also introduce pests bringing outside plants inside, and by you, yourself. You can carry pests inside which will then eat your plants.
With Hydroponics you can only introduce pests from bringing outside plants in, and you, yourself.

In soil plants can die slowly if not properly addressed for pH, and nutrient levels. It is much more forgiving.

Hydroponics is not as forgiving. Depending on your setup, you could have days, hours, or minutes to resolve your issues with nutrients, pH,etc. Your plants can die must faster.

Soil grown plants take longer to grow overall.

You are reducing the time (again depending on method) substantially. Lots of studies show getting in bigger, better yields in shorter amounts of time. You can also gain additional harvests per year if you have your setup configured correctly.

Soil grown plants like to take up way more space for their roots. Their roots have to reach, and stretch for nutrients/water/oxygen.

Hydroponics gains a large advantage here. They can be grown in smaller containers, the roots do not have to reach/stretch to get the nutrients//water/oxygen levels they want. They can be smaller, take up less room, etc.

Soil is usually a run to waste setup. You get new water, water your plants, then get new water, etc. Each watering, the plant is only getting a percentage of the water supplied.

Hydroponics, you can recirculate the water, and utilize it, or still do run to waste. You can also take the run to waste/old reservoirs, and run it back through a RO system. You can re-utilize your water, over and over again.

Many options from cheap, to very expensive for different types/mixtures of soil.

Same goes for Hydroponics. Depending on the type of Hydroponics you choose, you can be completely medium-less, to growing in coco coir, and perilite. These range from very expensive, to very cheap. It just depends on your knowledge of the qualities you want in your growing medium, and how thrifty you are.

In soil you mostly do not have to worry about hardware/equipment failure.

With Hydroponics, your plants survive based upon your water/feeding schedules, your air pumps, etc. If you have an equipment failure, you better be able to fix it quickly.

Why Chose Hydroponics Over Dirt.

2015-01-23T08:39:00.002-05:00

So you might ask yourself, why would I ever stray away from the conventional, proven technique of growing plants.

Well, we figured we would continue from an older post, and go more in depth this time from the older post found here. That blog was just a general overview of Hydroponics.

Why would you want to go the way of what seems to be a very complex way of growing plants?

Well here are some of the benefits to growing Hydroponically:

Just as enjoyable as traditional gardening is, and can become so much more satisfying.
You will no longer have to take time to pull out weeds, use weed killers, pesticides, etc.
No tilling dirt, plowing dirt, pouring manure, and sometimes no animals to keep out.
You are controlling even more of the process, how much oxygen hits the roots, how much nutrients the plant will receive,
No more soil born illnesses,
You can recirculate your water, which means you are conserving 90-98% more water over traditional gardening.
Usually you can get more per harvest compared with soil, but you get yields 20%+ faster than soil. Your plant will use it's energy towards growing above the roots in a Hydroponics setup since it does not have to waste energy making a giant root structure to get the adequate amount of nutrition.
You can automate you setup as much as you would like. You can place an arduino controller for PH testing / EC / and TDS. These three things test water PH levels, water quality, and nutrient levels to make sure that you are in the correct ranges. You could then even setup email alerts, or text message alerts for when they hit certain levels. This is only the tip of the iceberg of automation.
You can combine your traditional methods of pruning to get an even larger yield.
Building your own system, automating it, and getting more crops out of less space is extremely gratifying.
Great project for adults, and kids. You will both learn a large amount of information. Even if it does not work out, you may learn how to become better at growing in soil from this knowledge.
Every time you buy soil, whether it be cheap soil, or super expensive soil you are potentially introducing new pests, mites, etc into your environment.

You will want to remember, the above list seems like it makes perfect sense, and lets go get started on your Hydroponic garden right now! Let's take into account some of the disadvantages:

Cost, upfront it will be much larger. You will have to purchase equipment. Some equipment you can scrounge, or barter/bargain for such as buckets. Other equipment you will more than likely have to buy, such as a water pump.
When your system goes south, your plants go south with it, super fast. Depending on your system you may have hours, or minutes to fix your issues and get your setup back up and running. Otherwise, your crops will be gone in that time frame.
Your crops can be tasteless, and bland, if you do not give them the proper nutrition. If you skimp on the nutrients, your plants will be lacking. Do remember that if you over do it though, your plants roots may get "burnt" by the nutrients.
You may end up putting in more time for gardening. You will more than likely put in more time upfront at least. But on the counter, we did find it more enjoyable, and you learn so much more than with dirt.

Dutch Buckets

2015-01-02T15:11:00.001-05:00

http://trudat.info/2014/02/yield-tons-of-tomatoes-grow-bags-or-dutch-buckets/

I wanted to add a link to this website. It is very informative. He gives great ideas, and how to's on dutch bucket systems. This is one of the cheapest, and effective systems I have come across so far!

Check it out!

Thanks!

Aquaponics / Fishponics

2014-12-15T13:00:00.000-05:00

Aquaponics / Fishponics - Hydroponics

Aquaponics (AKA Fishponics) is one of the few more "organic" versions of Hydroponics. You can integrate Aquaponics into almost any Hydroponics system. The difference between regular Hydroponics and Aquaponics is the introduction of fish into the nutrient solution reservoir. Instead of using a nutrients bought from the store, the fish in the reservoir are what produce the nutrients needed for the plants. This can make Hydroponics cheaper, and more organic at the same time. This is a great learning experience for children as well as adults. This method is by far my favorite. You are building your own ecosystem. You take care of the fish, the fish take care of the plants, and your plants take care of you!

Aquaponics is typically accomplished using Tilapia fish as they give very good results for proper amounts of nutrients for the plants. This can be accomplished with other fish, however make sure you do your research prior to thinking any old fish will do. This could become costly to you. By using Aquaponics, this does not mean you will be 100% organic. You may still have to add nutrients every now and again. You can make compost tea however, if your goal is to stay 100% organic, instead of using store bought synthetic nutrients.

Remember that just because you use compost tea, and Aquaponics, that does not mean you are growing organic produce. Just make sure that if you want to grow "organically" via some forum of Hydroponics to read every stipulation on what "organic" is defined as in your state, and federally.

Aquaponics Advantages:

Great learning experience.
You will use far less nutrients overall, which will save money in the long run.
Self sufficient. If the fish are happy, the plants should be happy.

Aquaponics Disadvantages:

Large learning curve.
Must have knowledge on keeping fish (Tilapia) alive.
More costly upfront. You may need lights for the fish, and your plants. Most people buy Tilapia, which is a cost, plus the fish tank to hold them. (Depending on how much ingenuity you have, or how worried you are about looks.)

Wick - Hydroponics Method

2014-11-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Wick - Hydroponics

Wick is another simple form of Hydroponics. This form of Hydroponics can be built from two buckets, nutrient solution, wick (cotton rope), vermiculite, perlite, and the plant/seeds such as lettuce. This method is really good for growing lettuce outdoors. Anyone can build this contraption. Essentially the nutrient solution is being "wicked" up from the bucket holding the nutrient solution, to the bucket on top that holds the vermiculite/perlite combination, and seeds/plants. That is all there is to this method. It is that simple.

Check out a quick how to on this method here:
Simple Wick Hydroponics Setup

Wick Advantages:

Easy to create/understand
Very cheap
Made from readily available components
Can use more than just a vermiculite/perlite combination. You can use a variety of growing mediums for this, but be mindful of how they will help/hurt your plant
This system has very low maintenance
Lots of oxygen

Wick Disadvantages:

This system cannot support larger plants, or large amounts of plants per site. This is because of the nature of wick. You can only pull the nutrient solution as fast as the "wick" allows
Slower growth than other Hydroponics systems
Not very much room for improvement

Ebb and Flow

2014-11-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ebb and Flow - Hydroponics

Ebb and Flow is a very common, well known type of Hydroponics. This form of Hydroponics is also known as Flood and Drain. This is very easy to build, and cheap. The theory behind this system is very simple. It is actually as the name suggests. The system is simple, a water tight vessel in which the roots are suspended into, is flooded with the nutrient solution. Typically a "flood" lasts 5-10 minutes, then it drains back down to the nutrient solution reservoir.

Ebb and Flow is really good for certain plants, but not so much others. For example Strawberries do not work very well for Ebb and Flow systems. The roots do not like dry periods. Other plants such as tomatoes will work in this environment.

Ebb and Flow Advantages:

Easy to build
Easy to understand
Abundance of nutrients
Cheap to build
Highly reliable

Ebb and Flow Disadvantages:

Pump break downs
Issues with Salt buildup on root systems causing deficiencies.
Unstable pH levels for all plants
Shared water can lead to all plants becoming infected with disease very easily. The same water is flooded across all plants then drained back to a reservoir, then cycled over and over again.

N.F.T. (Nutrient Film Technique)

2014-11-23T18:14:00.001-05:00

N.F.T. (Nutrient Film Technique) - Hydroponics

NFT is another form of Hydroponics. This form is quite popular in the commercial Hydroponics industry. NFT is simply a gravity fed nutrient solution system. You setup rails with holes in the top for the plants, that is at a slight grade. Then you will want to have a very shallow nutrient solution moving down across all of the roots of the plants. This is simple, and requires very little to get started. You will only need minimal pumps for a system such as this since it is gravity fed from the top, to the bottom of the rail. The water runs down the slope across all of the root systems.

NFT Advantages:

This system is relatively cheap to make. Made from readily available supplies from any hardware store. You can use gutters for rails, or outdoor railing.
No stagnant water.
Easy to clean.
Easily expanded.
You can use any grow media, or combinations of media.
Reusing the nutrient solution

NFT Disadvantages:

Pump failures kill the plants very quickly
You may need a chiller for your nutrient solution.
You will need plants with long enough roots for the system, so you will want to use clones, or plants that already have a good set of roots since they have to touch the bottom of the rails to get the nutrients.
If plants get any diseases, especially the closer to the top, the rest of the plants will get that disease as well.

Deep Water Culture

2014-11-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

Deep Water Culture - Hydroponics

Traditional Deep Water Culture is a simple method, and easy to setup. This one is cost effective, as it is more than likely one of the cheapest. Typically Deep Water Culture or DWC is effective with larger, more hearty plants. These are usually made from five gallon buckets that have been painted black. The reason for the black paint is to keep light away from the roots. Next, the five gallon bucket will need to have a lid. The lid will have a cutout for a net pot. This is where you would place your plant. The bucket will also have an aerator in the bottom. You will need a pump for the aerator, or air stone. Once you have your plant in the net pot you will then need to fill the bucket up with the nutrient solution.

This is a basic system. You can easily make these at home. You would just need to buy a net pot, five gallon bucket with lid (plant size dependent), net pot, clay, air stone, and nutrient solution. You would need to paint the bucket black as well, so you may need black paint. Also, you will need to have liquid nutrients, and pH adjusters. Those would help.

Once your plant is ready to bloom, or fruit you would then lower the liquid nutrient levels in the bucket to allow for even more air to reach the roots.

DWC Advantages:

Higher amounts of oxygen in comparison to other forums of growing plants.
Lower maintenance
Quicker plant growth
Cheaper option
Uses less fertilizer than other systems

DWC Disadvantages:

Difficult to maintenance water/roots temperature. A lot of the time when growing using a growing light, the black buckets absorb the light, and increase in temperature. You want the roots to be less than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Most growers use water chillers to lower the temperature of the liquid solution for the roots.
Plants die quickly if something goes wrong with the air stone. If the air stone fails you have a very limited time for figure that out, and replace/fix that air stone. Otherwise, you are drowning your plants.
It is also difficult to check the plants roots, pH, and nutrient strength. You have to take the lid off to check all of these things. If you have a giant tomato plant for example, that has tomatoes on it, it can be pretty rough lifting up the bucket lid by yourself.

Aeroponics

2014-11-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

Aeroponics - Hydroponics

Aeroponics is a specific style in which the nutrients/water is applied to your garden. There is not one cut and dry way to grow your hydroponic garden. You have many different options for growing your indoor garden. One of these options is Aeroponics.

Aeroponics is essentially where the roots will typically be suspended, and you have a device that spritzes the roots with a fine liquid solution that consists of a pH balanced water, nutrient combination. A benefit of Aeroponics that typically goes unspoken is that it is one of the few that allows the roots to grow openly and freely into the air. This is a natural purifier for plants, as they no longer have as much susceptibility to disease when grown in this fashion. You can also introduce CO2 to the roots of the plants to assist in photosynthesis. You can do this over top of the plants in many other forms of Hydroponics, however, this is one of the few that you can add CO2 to the roots, and not just the top of the plant.

Aeroponics also limits disease to occur since the plants should be far enough apart that their roots never touch. Also, the pH balanced water/nutrient combination is not touching several plants prior to going back to the reservoir. This makes a world of difference with disease.

Aeroponics advantages are as follows:

The plants grown typically grow faster. This is because more O2, and CO2 to the roots assist in the plants growing faster. Also, the nutrients are easier for the plants to absorb.
You use less nutrients and water in an Aeroponics setup, since you are misting the plants, and not diluting them in the solution.
Not very much space is needed, if the Aeroponics setup is completed correctly.
Great learning experience. This method has a lot of things that help you learn more about Hydroponics in general.
This is semi-mobile. Depending on how it is built, it could be very mobile, if you move you growing space around. (Maybe your wife likes to change the look of you basement a lot.)

Aeroponics Disadvantages are as follows:

Dependency on all of the parts working 100% of the time. If anything fails such as a pump, sprinkler, timer, or gets clogged, your plants will suffer, and fast.
Regular cleaning and sanitation is required. You have a dark, moist, air prevalent environment, what do you think will happen? Bacterial growth! You must also note, that you have to make sure that your sprinklers are going to need regular cleaning so they do not build up with mineral deposits, and stop working properly.
High introductory cost. You can cut down on costs by building it completely yourself, but it still costs a nice chunk of change to get started. This can lead to another downfall, time consumption if you build it yourself.

Fogponics

2014-11-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

Fogponics - Hydoponics

Fogponics is a form of Aeroponics. It is basically the same concept, except you are using vaporized nutrient solution in the 5-30µm particle size range. This form of Hydroponics is not as popular as Aeroponics, but that is only because this is a relatively newer form of Hydroponics. These systems are typically made up of an ultrasonic fogger, a pump, water, and the system to hold the roots above the fog. One thing to note is your plants do not actually have to have their roots touching the fog you see since it is actually sucking it up. There are a lot of people who have messed up perfectly good systems by adding a fan because the roots were not touching the fog.

Fogponics Advantages:

The plants grown typically grow faster. This is because more O2, and CO2 to the roots assist in the plants growing faster. Also, the nutrients are easier for the plants to absorb.
You use less nutrients and water in an Fogponics setup, since you are misting the plants, and not diluting them in the solution.
Not very much space is needed, if the Fogponics setup is completed correctly.
Great learning experience. This method has a lot of things that help you learn more about Hydroponics in general.
This is semi-mobile. Depending on how it is built, it could be very mobile, if you move you growing space around. (Maybe your wife likes to change the look of you basement a lot.)
Fairly cheap to build.
Depending on setup, disease is cut down from other forms of Hydroponics.
Saves a significant amount of resources such as water/nutrients.

Fogponics Disadvantages:

Dependency on all of the parts working 100% of the time. If anything fails such as a pump, sprinkler, timer, or gets clogged, your plants will suffer, and fast.
Regular cleaning and sanitation is required. You have a dark, moist, air prevalent environment, what do you think will happen? Bacterial growth! You must also note, that you have to make sure that your sprinklers are going to need regular cleaning so they do not build up with mineral deposits, and stop working properly.
High maintenance. These systems need almost constant attention. If a fogger fails, well you have mere, few hours to get something in place to resolve the issue. Plants die very quickly when something wrong happens in a Fogponics system.
This system needs to be cleaned often. Since the foggers are creating such sized nutrient solution vapors, you have to make sure that the foggers are clean. Salt buildup is common, and it can stop a system from functioning properly.
Roots develop over time smaller, thinner, and weaker than Aeroponics.

Suggestions for best use: Cloning. Fogponics is very cheap to build, plants grow very fast, they are getting vapors at almost the size of what they need to absorb them. This means that the plant has to work less. You can build a quick easy setup from a rubbermaid storage box, pump, and vaporizer from Ebay as a beginning DIY on the super cheap.

Keep posted, we will be posting some of our DIY stuff soon. We will outline an entire Fogponics build.

Different Styles of Hydroponics

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There are many different styles of Hydroponics growing. Here are some of the most basic:

Aquaponics - Aquaponics / Fishpoonics Overview
DWC (Deep Water Culture) - Deep Water Culture Overview
TFDWC(Top-fed Deep Water Culture) / Bubbleponics
Static Solution Culture
Continuous-flow Solution Culture
Aeroponics - Aeroponics Overview
Passive Sub-Irrigation
Ebb and Flow / Flood and Drain - Ebb and Flow Overview
Run to Waste
Fogponics - Fogponics Overview
Rotary

As you can see from above, these are the foundation of how the water/nutrient solution is getting to the plants roots systems. There are many different ways to grow plants Hydroponically. There is not necessarily a cut and dry answer for what you should use for your scenario. You will more than likely want to choose a combination that fits what you are growing.

For example Lettuce works well with almost all of the above styles, but there are some that are better than others. One solution may take up more space than another, or waste a lot of water in comparison to another.

You will want to weigh the Pros, and Cons of each one prior to making your decision. There are some of these methods more for specific plants than others. For example, bubbleponics is really good for larger plants such as tomatoes, or lemon trees, where as Fogponics is really well suited for cloning purposes.

Each one of these could have a book written on them separately.

We will be reviewing each method in more depth here shortly.

Keep an eye out for our later posts explaining each one in more detail.

Hydroponics, What is it?

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First off, we should define what Hydroponics is:
Hydroponics is simply put, growing plants in some sort of "medium" with added nutrients. A "medium" is just that. It can be clay, coconut coir, or Perilite. There are more mediums than this basic start, but these is the foundation to understanding Hydroponics.

The most well known "medium" is dirt.

Essentially what we are doing is removing dirt from the horticulture experience, then creating a liquid solution that has all of the nutrients that the plants need. Finally, you will be feeding those plants that solution via their roots.

What are the advantages of Hydroponics? Well that can be as simple, or complex as you want it to be. The basic advantage is you are saving on water and nutrients. Dirt absorbs water like a giant sponge. This in turn then only allows the plant to get a portion of that water.

Here is an example: You are watering a flower in a vase with holes in the bottom. You add water. The next thing you know you have water coming out of the bottom of the vase. Well, that water may be lost(depending on your vase). It may spill all over your sidewalk. Well with hydroponics, instead of pouring water on your plants ever so often you re-use the existing water over and over again. You recirculate the water back through the plants which are grabbing nutrients out of it. If properly done, you really should not have to add water. You just make sure that the pH of the water is in touch, and you have the correct amount of nutrients in the water.

This is an introduction to the basics of Hydroponics. This term is more of an umbrella statement for many different styles of growing plants.

I will not overwhelm you in this post with all of the more specific forms of Hydroponics, that is for another post. :-)

Update: Here is the next post for more information on Hydroponics in a general sense versus dirt.

Welcome!

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Welcome to my corner of the interwebs.

This blog will be dedicated to assisting in sustainable living. Mostly farming techniques both indoors and outside.

Hydroponics are commonly associated with indoor growing, in which is great, but this technique can be used outside, or in a green house just as easy.

We will review equipment, and put up plenty of DIY posts on how to get your feet wet.