Hydroponic float system

Step 5 Finally put it alltogether

pour the nutrient solution into your container, place the foam in the solution, place the cups in the holes in the foam and drop the long forgotten peat pellets in the cups, wait an hour or so for the pellets to swell up and sprinkle your seed on top of them and you're done.

Yield can be improved by the addition of an airstone and pump, but then you lose the convienience of a purley passive system.

Comments

[gijoes2000]

I have an inground spa that I am not using as such and was wondering if I could apply a Hydroponics usage to it? I would like to grow some vegetables but really do not know if it will work by doing it in a spa - I do have a filtration system and blower but no heater. Any advice would be welcome!! Thank You!

[Ceefa]

Hi gijoes2000, If I had an inground spa that I wasn't using I'd be looking at aquaponics - keep fish in the spa and recycle the fish water through the hydroponics beds to provide the nutrients for the plant growth and at the same time clean and aerate the water for the fish. Google aquaponics and have a look at it. This instructable is awesome and my suggestion is not to steer you away from doing it but rather to open up the possibility to you of a greater use for your redundant spa. Ceefa

[pellefson]

I've been looking into Aquaponics also, and that's a great idea!!! You can get free spa's on craigs list all day long if you have the means to pick one up and move it.... hell, you could build a nice landscape of rocks and plants around the spa, fish in the spa, and beds of plants all around it... a perfect circle!!! i love it!!!!!!

[VicinSea]

I have seen this system used in a child's wading pool($6.00 at WalMart). I don't see any reason your spa wouldn't work except you will need to run it on low pressure with no filters. That would keep the fluid nicely aerated. I imagine that just running the pumps would be fairly cheap. In the winter you could run the heat too, at the lowest level. Tomatoes, especially would love that. Eggplants and peppers would also.
Wading Pools

[Geronima B Angeles]

I wonder why containers used in simple hydroponic system are always plastics and not transparent glass. Can I possible used transparent glass for me to view the growth of the roots?

[lcotta]

Yep, roots don't like light, and also lots of nice, warm, and nutrients-filled tap water, if exposed to light, is the perfect algae growing medium.

[ja.dzado]

From the reading I have done I have found that plant roots do not like the light and the plant will not be healthy if the roots are subjected to lots of light.

[SelcSilverhand]

From what I understand most people use solid containers vs transparent ones because it hinders algae growth. The algae needs sunlight to grow and if you have a solid colored container it keeps the light out. You could use a transparent container if you had a way to cover it up when you aren't looking at the roots. If you used an old fish tank for example, just find some black paper and tape it up on all sides. Then pull the front sheet off when you want to look at it.

[capra_mcg]

I am very interested in hydroponics on a scale that would feed my family. Can think of many problems having to do with plants whose root systems are much smaller than then visible parts of plants. Weight imbalances for things like tomatoes or any plants that have large/heavy fruits. I have tried germinating in a soil-less environment with great results. I used two pieces of interfacing (sewing material that keeps collars stiff) and placed the seeds between the layers. Then I supported the layers on a piece of styro but allowed the edges to hang down below the styro. The styro is placed in a seed-starting tray with about a 1/2 of water. A dome lid is placed over it and the whole thing set in the sun. The interfacing wicks up the water as needed to keep the seeds moist, and the dome seals the moist/warm air needed for quick germination. Once the seeds have sprouted and have a true set of leaves, you can cut the interfacing and place the whole thing into soil or whatever medium you chose to grow in. It was fun and satified my need to 'know if it could be done'. You can find stuff to do similar germination on the net, BUT it is way expensive (10 germination pods for $8 + s/h). I got a piece of 45" x 36" interfacing for $1 at Wal-Mart. I love the savings and the results. FYI - searching net sites for 'Canabus' and 'hydroponic' will usually give you lots of interesting things to try. Great tips too. Saw a tip about rinsing plants prior to harvest to remove excess salts. They flushed the nutrient solution to just plain water a day or two (I think) prior to harvest. Sounds like what I need for my lettuce which seems to always have an overly salty taste (I use reclaimed water which has some chemical that burns certain plants). Maybe because I spray the lettuce from above (grown in soil right now), it absorbs too much of this chemical. Maybe using hydroponics would eliminate the problem if I water from the roots and then flush prior to harvest. Any comments would be welcome.

[monkeyweather]

You might try using water from your fish tank if you have one. Save doing all that mizing of formulas. Let the roots go into the water. When you want to refresh the water, dump what's "used" into the garden, and clean your fish tank again. Plants love fish wastes, and they'll actually clean the water nicely enough that your fish can tolerate that same water again. Saw one example on the web of plants growing right OVER the fish tank to save a step.