[GpsFrontier]

First I should say I am just saying what I would do, and what my preferences are. Other peoples opinions may vary.

One question tho, Why drip system for broccoli and a ebbflow or DWC for greenbeans? i know broccoli is a large plant, but so is the variety of green been i grow, which is bush beans. its just for clarification.

Basically in one word "maintenance." From my experience broccoli is such a large plant that there are two main problems using a DWC, that a drip system wont have. One is plant support. It's such a heavy plant, A DWC system would need to be designed to support a lot of weight above the water without caving in, cracking etc.. Second is such a large plant will drink up something like 1-2 gallons of water every day. That poses 2 problems, replacing the water, and needing a sufficient amount of water volume (nutrient solution) so your not constantly fighting nutrient imbalances, and/or pH swings. That means a large DWC system for just one plant. Instead of one larger reservoir to feed multiple plants.

Yes beans are a large plant, but are easy to support the plants weight with a trellis. If using a ebb & flow (flood and drain) system for broccoli, the plants can become so top heavy that the system just tips over (depending on your design). Again it depends on how you design the system, and tying a broccoli plant to a trellis, well I just cant see that working out well. Here is a thread I started showing the simple flood and drain system I built for growing peas, and green beans. It wound up being too cold for the green beans (the 4 in the center of the tube) at the time I got it running. And by the time it got warmer, the peas had already taken over. But this is the type of flood and drain system I would build for the green beans. http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...rd-system.html It would never work for broccoli, again for multiple reasons (including the root mass). But you could build a bucket flood and drain system for broccoli, however a drip system would still be simpler and more efficient to me.

i guess the last thing, should i build a system or buy my first one? i saw a build thread for a dwc and it looked easy, storage tote, airline,areation rock,aquarium pump. my question is, how big of a air pump do you need to feed multiple buckets say 4 buckets. do you need multiple air pumps, or just a larger size?

I always opt to build my own systems, again my choice and preference. If your interested, send me a privet message with an e-mail address I can send a pdf file to. I have complete directions on building the same drip system that I grew my broccoli plants in. And I built the whole thing for about $80 (including the pump). This is the one I'm talking about http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...w-systems.html

I don't have the complete directions in pdf. yet for these, but here are a couple that I have built in the past, and if you need any help building anything don't hesitate to ask. Again here is the thread of the flood and drain I built for peas and green beans: http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...rd-system.html.

The only difference between a DWC (deep water culture) and a regular water culture system is just how deep the water is. Typically if the water is more than about 8 inches deep people refer to it as a deep water culture. I just refer to them all as a water culture. Here is a water culture system I built for growing lettuce: http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...th-system.html. I also attached a few images I created of this system that I plan to use in the pdf. of the design plans (when I get around to writing it). It's very easy to expand to as many growing chambers you need/want. I used a single (duel output) air pump (for fish tanks up to 30-60 gallons), for 1 growing chamber. Although only one output was working, and I'm not sure it was working well. But it still grew my lettuce, though the more air output the better.

Depending on what you ultimately decide to build, say you decided on building four of these growing chambers I built, I would probably go with a minimum of 2 duel output air pumps (for 30-60 gallon fish tanks). But again the more air output the better. If I had a bit more money I would probably decide to get a high volume aquarium air pump (with multiple outputs) like was discuses in this thread: http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for....html#post3451

Im sure i could figure out a drip ring system, they seam pretty straight forward, tho id have to figure out how to recirculate it.

Again if you want I can e-mail you the directions for building the drip system I built for my broccoli. It covers recirculating the nutrient solution. aeroponics is a good design, however there is a true aeroponics system, and there is what most people consider a areoponics system (including me). But there is a difference, the difference has to do with the water pressure, and ultimately the water droplet size. It's not what I would exactly consider the wave of the future, but aeroponics definitely has it's advantages and disadvantages like anything else.