Pictures of my Hydro systems

[GpsFrontier]

I just thought I would post a few pictures of my two different Hydroponic systems. The plants in the short flat containers are strawberry plants and at the point of the picture were in the Hydro for 5 days. The plants in the upside down two liter bottles are 7 peppers, 1 sage, 1 Basel and 1 small mint plant. Hope they all play well together. I look froward to the strawberry shortcake's.

[HydroACR]

wow, what a setup.... thanks for posting the pictures.... I really want to do strawberries as well.... the kids would love picking and eating them....

how about other berries? raspberries? blueberries?

[GpsFrontier]

I want to do raspberry's also they are one of my favorite fruits that I don't get much because there expensive and don't stay good for more than a couple of days. but when I do grow them I would need probably a 3-5 gal size growing container and would use the drain and fill or a drip system to keep the roots moist for better efficacy. Blueberry's are a bush also and I imagine I would grow the same as the raspberry's. But I will search the net and see how others are doing theme first to see what works for them. Goad you liked the pic's.

[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.

[GpsFrontier]

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.

[andy]

i burry my resivor (40gal trash cans) in the ground the earth keeps a cool constant temp, in my area it stays about 60 most of the year,cold or hot

[GpsFrontier]

Originally Posted by andy

i burry my resivor (40gal trash cans) in the ground the earth keeps a cool constant temp, in my area it stays about 60 most of the year,cold or hot

Thanks, the ground here in Lake Havasu is more rock than dirt and would make digging a whole the size I need just about imposable without a back hoe. I am thinking of running a line inside the house and keeping the reservoirs inside if I can do so without putting a hole in the wall or making the line run so high the pump can't lift the nutrients effectively. I am also thinking of using a larger container and filling it with insulation foam then placing the reservoir in it. Kind of like making a large ice chest.

[Cliver_McGyver]

Some people I know that are working on a biosphere, in Amarillo, discussed a cooling system, using a tall round tube of porous cloth and they dripped water from the top down and the principle of latent state of evaporation caused a chilling affect. I am thinking maybe some type of wind tunnel with recirculating pump soaking up the lack of Btu-s. Heat will alway jump to the cold side.

The system they talked about was in a town square in Europe some where.

I use to have a huge hedge in front of a house I rented. When it was real hot I would set the hose up in the hedge and the air coming through was very cold. In the yard ware a shirt and in front of the hedge you will melt...

[GpsFrontier]

Well it has been a month or so and I just thought I would post the new pictures of my plants. They have grown quite a bit despite some problems with the wind and heat.