As promised an update on my previous post. A bit later as planned because I got ill from the food or weather for a short time
Budget:
Max. $5000, we prefer that items used in our test setup can also be extended to a final production location.
Location:
Our first try at hydroponics will be located around our house. If it works out well we will look for a bigger and more suitable location.
Anyway here are the dimensions that can be used for testing:
A - Length 12.5 meter, Width 5 meter
B - Length 9 meter, width 2.5 meter (2 rows)
C - Length 15 meter, Width 2.5 meter (2 rows)
D - Indoor room 2.5 x 2.5 meter for testing temp. controlled growing of lettuce and cauliflower
Plants:
The past week I have gone through the vegetable order list of our restaurant which lists all locally available vegetables and their use in the restaurant. After filtering it out for items suitable for hydronics I compiled the following list (listing is in order of profitability) high to low. Price can change a bit depending on the season. I have yet to find out all specific plant requirements regarding PH,
nutrient mix, planting distances, etc.
Vegetables for Dutch Bucket / Drip / Ebb & flow:
- Herbs: Mint, Lemon Grass, Thai Basil: Horapa + Kapao, Coriander
- Others: Bird Eye Chili/Prik Kii Nuu, Bell Pepper, Tomato, Short Green Bean, Long Green Bean, Short Eggplant, Asian Cucumber, Long Egg Plant, Bitter Gourd
Deep Pond Floating Raft:
- Scallion, Green Lettuce, Chinese Cabbage, Kale, White Cabbage, Cantonese, Bok Choy, Morning Glory
NFT or Deep Pond indoor temp. controlled
- Lettuce: butterhead, red/green oak, romaine. Salanova type (Dutch seed)
- Cauliflower
For most deep pond vegetables our restaurant uses about 2 KG a day.
Herbs around 0.5 to 1 KG a day.
System:
The systems would be setup within a protected environment, aphid nets for the sides and plastic as rain cover + shade clothes for plants that require it.
For my setup I would like to use
2 main systems, depending on the type of vegetable we grow:
- DIY Dutch Bucket System for plants that either grow tall or are bushy and as such not suitable for deep pond. Small setup, mainly used to produce the listed herbs. Other plants only for testing purpose.
- DIY Deep Pond or NFT system as our main production units.
I am not sure which system to choose as both have advantages and disadvantages.
Deep Pond has a large water buffer, this is important as in rare occasions the power still will be cut sometimes. However it need a way to add enough oxygen in it. Bubblers might get clogged up from salts of the nutrient solution.
NFT in a non-temp controlled environment might result in too high rootzone temp. Furthermore if pumps fail due to a power outage, the crop will be lost pretty quick.
Nutrient mix:
I do have some imported nutrient solution but it might become too expensive if we grow commercially. I am looking into nutrient recipes and the ingredients of those. Most are available here but ph up / down might be a problem.
Questions:
- What design would you propose given all this input, GPS Frontier?
- How would you exactly design the Dutch bucket system when build by yourself?
- What would be the most (cost) effective way to get enough oxygen in the deep pond system?
- PH Up/Down: Some people did suggest using lemon juice for ph down and baking soda for ph up. Should this be used or is it better to import PH up/down if it is really nowhere to be found in here?
- Could I use 1 nutrient recipe or do I need to create multiple? Since most vegetables I are about to grow are greens. Not much flower/blossom. Except maybe Cauliflower.
- Is it possible to control humidity when the sides of the structure are aphid nets? What is the best way to control it?