Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliver_McGyver
WoW -- that's some collection - I am guessing all ebb and flow.
Do you induce oxygen into the solution with H2O2 --?
How do the units drain completely?
How does one stop the rain from contaminating the solution?
If that's the weather where you are you are very fortunate - we have a foot of snow left on the ground from last weekends snow storm. We cant plant outside till the end of may. <-----<<<<< that sucks...
I am building some units for out side and will get some photos as soon it is in a reasonably advanced state. |
Yes they are ebb and flow although I plan to convert the strawberry's to an
aeroponics system after these strawberry's are done for better efficacy. It takes both trashcans of
nutrient solution to fill the system without running the
pump dry.
I have one air pump I got at wa-mart in the pet department for fish tanks (it is the black thing on the table between the peppers) that feeds both reservoirs right now but hope to get one for each (electric bill permitting).
Both systems drain back into the reservoir through the pump when it shuts off. Because the holding tanks are below the systems and water seeks its own level it siphon's right back into the reservoir. I cut an 8ft section off the garden hose as a siphon hose to go between both trash cans because one trash can didn't hold enough water to fill it and a 60 gal tank would cost an arm and leg. But I got an extra 32gal trash can at wal-mart for 10 bucks.
We don't get much rain here in Lake Havasu city AZ. but it can pour when it does. You can see a wooden frame in the background of some of the pictures. Is going to be covered with shade cloth to keep birds from getting to the strawberry's as well as giving them some shade from the hot sun here and also a wind break. When it rains I will just cover it with plastic. For the peppers I will take the covers from the plastic margarine containers and cut a slit through it and a hole for the plant stem so it will sit on top of the two letter bottles that should keep most of the rain out. But if it rains hard I guess I will just change the
nutrients.
Well there is another side to that weather thing. Yes the weather is in the high 80s right now and even 90-92 four or five times in the last two weeks. I don't suppose most of the country gets summer temps in the 125-130 degree range. By late early June the temp will be well over 100 degrees every day and I am trying to work out a way to keep the nutrient cooled down but other than shade cloth I am not sure what I am going to do to keep the plants cooled down. A greenhouse would just concentrate the heat and would take a lot of electricity to run swamp coolers and or AC full time and I would hate to bring the hole thing inside and use all that electricity to run
lights when we get all that free sunlight. So I am not sure what I will do.