Hydroponic Garden Setup - Drain Pipe Nutrient Film Method - Maker Challenge No.2 - Unofficial Entry

in #gardening6 years ago (edited)

This is my unofficial entry for the Meadows & Makers Challenge No.2 - Update: Maker Challenge No.2 - Aqua / Hydroponic Garden Maker Challenge - 45 STEEM in Rewards.

Nutrient Film Hydroponic Garden System

A few years ago I built a Nutrient Film Hydroponic garden system for growing lettuce heads - this post is a rebuild of that system. Instead of the lettuce growing on dirt, it is grown on baked clay pellets that are held in cups - with holes for the roots. Water rushes along the bottoms of the cups, the roots grow down into the water for hydration and nutrients. You can see in the picture below that the plant cups sit in 3" holes drilled into 20 feet of 4" drain pipe. A small pump continuously pumps the water from the reservoir to the top of the drain pipe that snakes downward back down to the water reservoir.

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With a constant supply of nutrients, plant growth is largely increased with a hydroponic growing system. Nutrients for the plants can be added to the water reservoir, or a larger reservoir with fish could make the system aquaponic - the fish would provide the nutrients for the plants.

Building the Nutrient Film Hydroponic System

In the picture below you can see the 4" PVC drain pipes reclaimed from my hydroponic setup. Each section of pipe is a little under 5 ft long. Each pipe has 13 x 3" wide cup holes drilled along the top. 8 x 4" PVC 90 degree elbows were used to complete the snaking pipe setup.

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Making the Drain Pipe Stand

Materials:

  • 8 x 8ft x 2x4s
  • 50 x 3" decking screws

In the picture below you can see the frame was started with the 4 x 4ft tall 2x4 posts. The lower short 2x4 spans are 2ft, the 2x4s used for the lower wide spans were 7ft long - see the pictures below.

I used 2 x 3 ft long 2x4s for the upper short spans, installing them 1 ft below the top of the post 2x4s with the front of the short spas slightly lower so there is a small downhill for the pipes to sit on. The long upper span 2x4s are 5ft long each. One more 7ft long 2x4 was added to the lower span as an extra shelf joist, then 2ft long 2x4s were added to the top of the lower shelf joists for the water reservoir to sit on.

Water Reservoir & Pump

In the water reservoir is a small submersible water pump. It runs continuously, but only uses 4 watts. It is rated to lift water up to 0.8 meters, and have a flow of 300 Liters per hour. The higher the water has to be lifted, the lower the actual flow rate will be. I am using a clear tube to pump the water up to the top of the start of the drain pipe, but black tubes would be better to prevent algae growth inside the tubes.

In the pictures below you can see where the pump tube enters the top of the drain pipes. The pump tube is pushed into the top of the drain pipe, up to the first cup hole. If the hose fell out and was not noticed it would pump the water reservoir empty. The depth of the water in the drain pipe can be controlled by adding small dams at the end of each length of drain pipe.

Baked Clay Pellets and Plastic Cups

In the first picture below you can see the plastic cups with many holes drilled into the bottom. They do sell proper basket cups for hydroponic systems, but these cups were easily available to me and worked well enough for my lettuce growing purposes. In the second picture below you can see the baked clay pellets in the cups that the plants will be grown on. The clay pellets don't turn to mush when wet, they stay hard and have many pores to retain water.

Other Growing Mediums

Other hydroponic growing mediums include Rockwool, Coco Fiber, Coco Chips, Perlite, Vermiculite, Rice Hull, Pine Shaving, River Rock, and more. Visit Growing Medium for Hydroponic for more information on hydroponic growing mediums.

Starting Seedlings from Seeds

When starting a seedling I fold the seed in a small and damp piece of paper towel and place it top of the damp growing medium in the cup. I'll place a re-usable plastic sandwich bag over the top of the cup to help retain moisture - each day the bag is removed and put back on to exchange the air. Shortly after the seed has sprouted the bag is removed. The seedlings enjoy indirect light, then slowly given stronger and stronger light as they take root. I'll spray the medium with water as needed until the plant cup is moved to the hydroponic system.

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Remaining Details before Spring

This hydroponic garden system I will put to use this upcoming spring. Will be adding a small greenhouse to the south side of the cabin for the setup. I will most likely purchase a 25 watt 5 gallon submersible heater to condition the temperature of the water in the reservoir. I will be increasing the size of the water reservoir and adding goldfish to provide nutrients to the plants. They will eat mosquito larvae and fish food. I want to look into growing duckweed on top of the water to further reduce the amount of fish food required.

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Food Potential

I'll be growing lettuce heads in this hydroponic system. Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, and other annual herbs and vegetables would grow well with hydroponic systems. Hydroponic systems are very water conservative. The pump and water heater will be powered with solar power from the cabin. Winter is almost starting here, i'm already looking forward to spring to fully test the new setup.

Have a great day!

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This looks brilliant! Did you come up with the idea yourself, or adapt it from other hydroponic systems? I'm seriously impressed with your work.
We don't really need hydroponics where I live in Scotland, as we get more than enough rain, though it can be useful for growing under glass, which we really need to do here in order to protect crops like tomatoes from the elements. If I adopt this system, I'll definitely add the fish too.

Thanks - nutrient film is one of the 6 main types of hydroponic systems. I've seen it done with rain pipes, but when I saw these 4 inch PVC pipes at the hardware store, I had to have them :) When I built the system a few years ago, i designed it to fit in the sun room of the house. I wanted a lot of growing capacity, only wanted to use 1 pump, and wanted it on a stand so I wouldn't have to bend over too tend the plants - the basic design was born. I'll be using this in a greenhouse - less worry about greenhouse bugs with no dirt as well :)

Sounds like it was meticulously planned! Inspiring.

That is pretty awesome. I remember when I was a little kid we went to Epcot when it had first opened down at Disney World and they had a whole area that was all hydroponic gardens. It was really fascinating to see as a kid. This reminded me of that. Thanks for sharing!

Nice set up bro! I bet you can grow some dank bud great lettuce if you are that good with hydroponics ;) LoL

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Thanks for sharing this awesome post!

You're welcome, many ways to do hydroponics :)

I don't know anything about any of them, but I like your idea a lot.

Very cool ! I am always amazed with people who can garden well, and hydroponic seems to be really tricky to get right... I will look forward to your lettuce heads produce :D :D :D

Looks like a great system. Good job man.

Thanks man, i cant wait to get it back up and running - the plants grow so well with so much hydration :)

This is really cool. All of these posts are making me want to do some kind of hydro or Aquaponics system again. We will see how the weather turns out this summer and how the wicking beds go and see if I can talk my van into yet another project.

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I really like the way you have this system set up. I've been tempted to do something like this myself using the 4 inch thin wall drain pipe. It wouldn't be difficult at all to hook this system up to an aquaponics tank, but you probably would want to have a prefilter in the system so that you don't pump too much junk into the tubes. Goldfish make a lot of solids if there's a lot of them in the tank. I'm guessing that Tilapia or other fish would also make a lot of solids. If conditions allow you to keep the water warm enough, tilapia are the way to go, you can eat them.
One suggestion that I would have for you, if you're concerned that the delivery hose might come out of the big pipe, you could use a fitting on the elbow to hook the hose onto and clamp it in place. The hydroponics fitting would go through the elbow where ever you drill the hole, and then you know that the hose won't fall out of the system and pump the water onto the ground.

Thanks :) I'll definitely be strapping down the tube after everything is in position this spring. Pre filter for sure, will make a false wall with holes and screen/filter to keep the large particles and fish away from it :) I've heard talapia are a good food source and decently resiliant - i dont eat meat, but the cats will enjoy them :)

If you're not interested in eating the fish, or giving the meat to people who eat it, I think goldfish are the better fish to use. They're more hardy and you don't have to control the water temperature.

Wow incredible post and really cool set up. I love the idea of incorporating the fish. Impressive carpentry work. My projects like this would include lots of shims and trial and error lol

Thanks - I usually start out with a box form, then go from there. I usually build for structure strength, but there is a certain beauty in strength. I'd say 2x4s are my favorite building supply, with a stack of them on hand, it's a matter of imagination :)

Wonderful I am very keen to get a system like this implemented at home and at my place of work as a therapy tool. Just been waiting for some direction thanks for this spot on. We have the winter to plan it haha.

So just to be clear its best not to use soil to plant in use these clay instead? Getting the fish in there to will be brilliant 💯🐒

Thanks, you'll have a very relaxing setup at your home and work, even just the trickling water is relaxing :) Definitely dont want to use soil, it would muddy up the water, the soil would eventually leave the cups, and might be hard on the pump.

Great i'm on it hope to get a setup dreckly 💯🐒

This looks quite a lot of work and I wish you all the best in your project!

Currently I have a very tiny space so such technology will not be feasible. However I am thinking of ways to make my tiny balcony practical for produce for my dad to be part of his new life staying with me to keep him busy.

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(@littlenewthings)