New here; wanted to say hi.
 

Hi, I'm smurf.

I am new here, and to the world of hydroponics/aeroponics. I am a Chef at a up scale Restaurant. I am not new to gardening however. I have had many large gardens all most to the point of small farms. I am getting out of the fish hobby because ... well its a long story. I used to build large fish tanks (300-500 gallon tanks) and build huge custom filter systems. So going into hydroponics should be easy as far as equipment goes.

So just wanted to say hi and thanks, great site ive learned a lot so far and keep learning more.
Once i get started I will post lots of photos!
smurf

Sounds like hydroponics will be right up your ally because you already know how to grow the plants, just changing over to doing it without soil. Also knowing a few things like how big the plants get, root space needed, do the plants grow like a vine or a bush as well as other things go a long way to designing the best system for your crops. Also with your experience in building fish tanks I'm sure you have had to do some problem solving, and some needing to find different materials to use for your custom setups that will come in handy when building hydroponic systems. Not that designing and building your own hydroponic systems is hard to do by any means, but there is always a learning curve to doing anything and just knowing how to think outside the box is a plus.

There was a question in this forum about using a compressor versus air pumps that with your experience in building fish tanks you may have a better answer to the question than I did. This is the thread just wondered if anyone uses air compressor I found a few links with high volume air pumps but you may have a better solution.

P.S. What crops are you wanting to grow? How much space do you have to grow in? Are you wanting to grow both inside (artificial lighting) and outside (natural lighting)? Are you wanting to have large gardens and/or small farm? What part of the country do you live (I assume you live in the US because of who you drove for)?

I live on a half acre and I would say I have about a 1/4 acre to grow on. I live in the country however its a packed community in the middle of no where. I think there is about 1000 homes here with me, and then nothing for 15 miles in both directions. I drive 40 miles each way to get to my job.

I plan on learning more about hydroponics this spring by planting a few different gardens in my back yard in the spring time. I will take what I learn and do it again next year both indoors and out doors.

I am going to build a aeroponic tower about 12' tall for strawberries, and put a net cage around it to keep birds out.
I am thinking of building two of them - the other for peppers. but maybe not.
On the side of the house, I am going to build a ebb & flow system with fog for tomatoes and Lettuce because the ph range is the same, well close.
On my deck that I am building now around my pool. On the top of the railing system i am going to have a Cucumber system. Already growing on the walls of the deck are grapes, in the soil.

I cant think of any thing else that I like to eat. Fresh peas and egg plant out bomb, but I dont want to over do it for the first growing season trying some thing different. I used to live on 4 acres and I had a small farm before I grow up and moved out of my parents house. I do own this house so I can do as I want. (wife permitting)

I plan on building "up" more then out. I plan on growing a ton of food and maybe selling it at the local farmers market. or at my restaurant (I am a chef now) There are no building codes regarding what I am doing, and I live in the farm lands Marysville ca. Behind me is a sun flower farm, and then mostly nut farmers.

I plan to build one also, but probably not that tall for the first ones. I drew one up on a 3D drawing program a while back (pictures attached). The side tubes will be glued to the sides instead of going all the way through. The small center tube will be for the misters/emitters. I don't plan to use it for strawberry's because I have another design I want to use for them. Using a tower for peppers, that would be interesting. I guess the type of peppers will play a factor. I would think there probably wouldn't be enough root support to hold them up. Though you could build a trellis around the tower to tie them too, and create a tree of peppers.
I'm not sure what you mean by "with fog."
I want to sell produce at our local farmers market also, its not exactly a farmers market but they want all the produce they can get. They call it Market on Main. I have a list of 20 crops I want to do but plan to start with:

1. Strawberry's...................................... ............(in one ebb & flow system)
2. Raspberry's, Blackberry's and Boysenberry's.........(in one drip system)
3. Snow peas, Peas and probably Green beans.........(in one ebb & flow system)
4. Bell peppers and Hatch peppers.........................(in one ebb & flow system)
5. Tomato's.......................................... .............(in one Drop system)
6. Green onions and Butter Lettuce........................(in one water culture system)
7. Honeydew Melons and small watermelons.............(in one drip system)

That will be quite ambitious for me (because of money), but I want to have a full hydroponics farm in the future. I need to scrounge up $1,500 to $2,000 to get it all going and I don't expect to make it all back in the first season, but I want to get established and some word of mouth customers, then expand.
North of Sacramento I see, you probably know where the swift yard is in Williams (one exit south of the Walmart off I5) as well as the Lathrop yard (by Stockton)? I ran the 11 western states mostly. You will probably have good weather for growing outdoors most of the year, even in winter with a few adjustments.

Ya I really do.

I drove the northen states and Canada only. I-80 I8-84 I-90 and I-94 and the C1. i loved the snow and driving in the snow. I ran about 800 miles a day.

Fog? oh, I plan on getting a few nutramist systems.

That's interesting, I did a search for "nutramist systems" and found a website:
www.nutramist.com

And on the left under products clicked on Nutramist Foggers, I presume these are what you are referring too. These are new to me but I have often thought about trying to create a fog type mist but only using high pressure pumps, these apparently use ultrasonic technology. I will need to look into these some more although I wont be using them soon because the least expensive one I saw was $369, but most defiantly something to consider for the future and my planed hydroponic farm.

P.S. I never got to go to Canada but wanted too, closest I got was about 40 miles from the border 5 or 6 times.

YouTube Fogger, been meaning to give it a try as well.

Thanks for the Youtube link, I really want to try it now. Never thought I could build my own foger. I just need to find those nubulisers (don't know how t spell it).

I have had some time to do some checking and found that just doing a search for "ultrasonic foggers" brings up many places to buy these. They seem to resemble the foggers that you can get around Halloween time although I am not sure if those are actually ultrasonic or not, and/or the difference, but the ones that say they are ultrasonic are not bad in price. Thanks for the leads, and if anyone is using them let us know how they work (pro's and con's etc).

I may buy one of these and use it to add humidity to the room.

make sure you get the ones with the Teflon disks. It might cost a little more but its very worth it. With the nutrients that we use, can clog the non Teflon disks.

Yes that is the nutramist system i am going to buy, costs a lot but has many better things about it then the cheaper systems or foggers out there.

here is a side by side of a fog system and a aero system. The fog is on the left aero on the right. YouTube - Fogponic VS Aeroponic Day 63

Here is a list of seeds (fresh ones) that I am able to plant this year.
My wife wants me to build a green house, so I think I will build one. I got some plans drawn up and I have some great ideas for a cheap way of doing it. Size will be 10'w x 20'l x 10'h

Here is the list.
Peppers

Purple Jalapeno
Big bomb hybrid
White Habanero
Early Wonder
Bolivian Rainbow
Bell Peppers

Tomatoes

Custralee - Heirloom
Hugh’s - Heirloom
Church – Heirloom
Stupice (Czechoslovakia)
Anna Russian
Mexico (one pound)
Super Italian Paste
Marvel Stripe – Heirloom
Cherokee Purple – Heirloom

Others

Waltham Butternut
Black Beauty Eggplant
Artichoke
Zucchini
Cucumber (pickling)
Caesar Romaine Lettuce
Vivian Romaine
Cantaloupe
Leeks

Now i am not saying i am going to plant all of these this year, but I do have the seeds to try different things if i so want to.
I hope to do most of these in hydroponics, only time will tell.

I just placed an order for my net cups. I ordered 2" cups, and i am going to run 2" for most the system. I ordered 1,000 of them. Total cost was 189.00 shipped. Not bad. Cant wait to get started soon.
once again, its raining ... I don't fucking understand, all it dose it rain all the time now. what the hell.

That's not a bad price at all. I paid about (if I remember correctly) $25 for 100 3 inch pots in Las Vegas, but have not found those quantity's online yet. Do you have a link, I am looking for about 700 3 inch pots myself.

I found some for you, I will send you a PM

New Here
 

Hello! New to this site and not very familiar with bulletin boards so I hope I am posting this in the correct topic area.

Looking forward to learning more as the days go.