My System Plans (multiple system ideas)

[jamromhem]

I have a few plans for my hydroponic systems.

I am going to be doing systems for different types of plants. They have a few constraints that are important, due to living in an apartment.

I will be doing systems for:

Tomatoes
Lettuces
Herbs
Garlic/carrots (test systems to see if I can make it work, I have a few ideas on these)

My tomato setup ideas are as that I will have a system that is a DWC recirculating system.

It will have a "stand" for each plant. These stands will all be the growing base for the plant and will have either and X made from 5x5 vinyl post covers or will be more of an H from 4" PVC. There will be a "pole" coming up from the center to hold the plant and allow the roots to grow down about 2ft in length.

The 5x5 PVC will hold more liquid with less length of material. It holds about 1 gallon per 10 inches of 5x5. So if made from those it will allow for about 6-7 gallons of nutrients in the base and with it being recirculated with a larger res would probably be more than adequate to house the plant..

My questions on this is, I will be using indeterminate plants to allow me less "cycling" of plants and more sustained growth from a single plant. I will be keeping the plant well pruned, and will not allow suckers to grow out. As the plant grows I will be stripping the foliage from the lower parts of the vine and wrapping it around this base to let the plant grow up, without growing up. lol Will the bases I have described be able to hold the root mass for a tomato plant without clogging the pipe to the point that the nutrients would not circulate?


The lettuce will be a bit simpler... I will probably be growing Romain lettuce. It will be an NFT/aeroponic system... made from 4x4 vinyl post cover with a line tied to the inside corner with holes to spray the cup while the roots are waiting to hit the film. Simple. Not to original, but I think would be effective and take up little space.

The herb system will probably be similar to the lettuce setup, but most likely gravity fed, with a "fermenting pump" powered by a small air pump to push the water back up to the gravity feed. I will explain the "fermenting pump" in more detail later and will post pictures as I get it made. They are ingenious little designs, but not very well known.

The garlic system will probably be a perlite/vermiculite mix that wicks the nutrients up from the res below it with some PVC tubing filled with the same mix. It will just be a simple bed system to let the garlic decide what they want to do.. I will probably be playing with this one for a while to get it right.

The carrots are going to be similar, but different. They will be 4" PVC tubing filled with perlite/vermiculite let to dip a couple inches into the res, and wick up. the tubing is to keep the carrots from crowding and letting them have their own space. More of a thought on how it might work, than a sure thing.

I will be working on my first system this august, and getting more together as materials arrive. I still have to order the nutrients so I am still far from growing yet, :P

Let me know what you think. I know it is a long read, but I am eager to have some feedback on my ideas.