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When reading up on how to actually plant plants in the hydroponic system… I couldn’t find anything hard and fast. Many people said that you should start seeds in rockwool, and leave them in a darkish area until they are hearty enough to be tossed in amongst the hydro system.

So I hunted down some rockwool (I actually had to find a hydroponics store… Lowes didn’t have it), and started some plants in there. The whole idea of starting plants in rockwool struck me as silly though - so I decided to try a few just in the pea gravel with the system turned on. Its a little early to declare complete victory, but putting the seeds directly in the operating system (no rockwool) seems to work just fine for all of the larger seeds.

Well, its not exactly aesthetic or at all sturdy (and it is certainly against many many OSHA regulations), but the thing is functional and it holds the weight of the girlfriend, the hydroponics system, and myself.

Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures of the process, but basically I made a frame from 2×4’s and put a sheet of plywood on top. We cut and drilled some holes through the top for power cords, hydroponic tubing, and for air flow (we covered the space heater that serves our room - which could be bad). We covered the whole thing with carpet which we are currently letting drape over the front to the floor to serve as a curtain.

Now that we’re done I’d like to remove the crummy venetian blinds by the window and put in a curtain that will separate our room from the loft. That will allow us to have a sunny little nook to hang out in, and we also won’t have to worry about opening the blinds every day for the plants.

Update: I never put up a picture of the system. This picture was taken later, but they show what I did. You can kind of see how I just made a rectangle out of PVC and filled it with pea gravel. The grey thing that the system is sitting on is the loft that we built. You can’t see the tube near the back corner where water is pumped up through. There is also a drain on the far side that allows the system to slowly leak water back into the tank. The loft itself hides the five gallon buckets and acts as a neat way to add a lot of storage to our apartment and a comfy place to sit in the sun.

Last night I finally finished the bare bones of my loft thing. After I get it padded and carpeted tonight, I can finally get back to the business of hydroponicing. (click the image for larger view)

My pump and timer have arrived. I’m going to grab some five gallon buckets on the way home. I’ll be able to run the system without plants or growing medium to flush out any remaining PVC and whatnot. Also I’ll make sure there are no leaks, and I’ll be able to see how long it takes my drain to empty flush the system.

I’ve been trying to find some rockwool for the past few days at local garden centers and the like. I really need to get some seeds germinating. I almost broke down and used peat moss, but I’ve heard such good things about the rockwool. I didn’t want to order the junk online, but I may have to. Anyway, germinating seeds are priority: next.

As detailed in my last post, I painted myself in a corner by making a system larger than the current largest shelf in my bedroom. Luckily, girlfriend is cool and our room is large enough to comfortably hold a “loft”. It is really just a glorified shelf, but it will pull triple duty in that it will hold the hydroponics system, be a window seat/nap area, and it will be a place where we can store our random crap!

Off to Lowes! We bought 10 2″x4″x8′ pine boards (which were only $2 each), a cordless drill (18volt Black and Decker for $70), $15 in screws, $10 in drill bits, $15 on 3/4″ plywood and $60 on a piece of remnant carpet.

OK. I’m embarking on a worthless voluntary voyage towards what will probably end up being a fruitless money pit. But I’ve managed to maintained a positive outlook.

I’ve decided to make a hydroponics system. It will be cute and easily maintained and run hardly noticed in the corner of my bedroom. It will provide fruits and vegetables and cut carbon emissions in Arlington by up to 1%.
In case you don’t already know the gist of hydroponics systems… they are a means of growing plants in “artificial conditions”. The idea is that you can create ideal growing conditions if you grow your plants in dry gravel, and a few times a day you flood the roots with nutrient enriched water. Growing plants this way allows many benefits. In my view the best benefit is a hobby that isn’t a complete waste of time (you get food at least, and may accidentally learn something about botany AND engineering).

See the drawing for a general idea of the plan. You have a growing bed positioned above a container of nutrient water. A few times per day the water in the bottom container gets pumped to the grow bed, then gravity does its trick and pulls the water back to where it started. Simple, right?

I spent $12 on a 185 gpm submersible pump, $24 on a digital timer, $12 on a 10 foot section of 4 inch PVC, and $16 on four 90 degree 4 inch pvc joints. I have assembled the PVC into a rectangle, cut the top portion of the PVC out (where the plants will go), and installed a drain at one end. I need to get some silicone caulking (apparently they weren’t kidding about the PVC primer) to seal the drain and fittings, river rock (to hold the plants), a five gallon bucket (for the solution), and some rubber tubing. This whole system is going to end up costing me $100. Hopefully it works as well as one of the commercial ones I could have bought for the same price (or less).

Last year I planted a small garden in “my” backyard. It worked out pretty well. Lettuce and spinache were easy. A few peppers came up. The tomatoes went absolutely nutty. What fun. That was when I lived in a house though. As you may well know, I recently moved to DC and into a backyardless apartment. Now that spring is coming I’m starting to get an itch to plant something. I put some herbs in little 4 inch planters and thought that might suffice. No dice. So I’ve decided I’m going to put a hydroponic system in my bedroom. I’ve decided to use an ebb/flow (flood/drain) system in 4 in PVC pipe.

I’ll keep track of my progress on this blog.