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Step 8Misc. Information
Now that I've covered building the system, I'm going to go ahead and give some information on using it. (I'm just putting things down in the order that I think of them.)
At this point I should mention that I am by no means an expert. I'm just a hobbyist who is relaying his experiences. (Maybe I should have said that at the beginning. : )
Setting the Timer
Here is the schedule for my digital timer. It turns the pump on for 3 minutes every two hours between 7:00AM and 7:00PM. From what I've read, this schedule might be a little excessive, meaning that the plant containers are filled and drained more often than they need to be. However, my plastic containers are on the shallow side, and the plants suck up a lot of water. In 3 days, they will go through about 5 gallons, even more when it's hot outside.
I would experiment with the schedule some, but the timer is such a pain to program that I leave it alone. : )
////[ON]/////////[Off]/////
| 7:00AM | 7:03AM |
| 9:00AM | 9:03AM |
| 11:00AM | 11:03AM |
| 1:00PM | 1:03PM |
| 3:00PM | 3:03PM |
| 5:00PM | 5:03PM |
| 7:00PM | 7:03PM |
Float Valve
Like I mentioned above, the plants go through a lot of water, and the reservoir needs to be topped off regularly. I need to add a float valve sometime, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll have to try the "Hydroponic Float Valve" instructable when I do.
Nutrient Solution
When the plants are first starting out, I use a hydroponic solution that has (10-8-14) N-P-K. Once they start to flower, I use (3-35-10) N-P-K. This supposedly increases fruit production while slowing leaf growth. If you're growing plants like lettuce though, you'll want good leaf growth, so stick with the (10-8-14).
For this reason, you might want to have two separate systems. One where leaf growth is encouraged, and another where fruit growth is encouraged.
Over Planting
As a test, I once put 1 zucchini plant and 4 cherry tomato plants all inside one container. It had its own 15 gallon reservoir, but I thought that the plants would eventually show some signs of stress. Surprisingly though, they did quite well. I wish I had the pictures still, but they were among the few that weren't backed up when my hard drive decided to fail.
At this point I should mention that I am by no means an expert. I'm just a hobbyist who is relaying his experiences. (Maybe I should have said that at the beginning. : )
Setting the Timer
Here is the schedule for my digital timer. It turns the pump on for 3 minutes every two hours between 7:00AM and 7:00PM. From what I've read, this schedule might be a little excessive, meaning that the plant containers are filled and drained more often than they need to be. However, my plastic containers are on the shallow side, and the plants suck up a lot of water. In 3 days, they will go through about 5 gallons, even more when it's hot outside.
I would experiment with the schedule some, but the timer is such a pain to program that I leave it alone. : )
////[ON]/////////[Off]/////
| 7:00AM | 7:03AM |
| 9:00AM | 9:03AM |
| 11:00AM | 11:03AM |
| 1:00PM | 1:03PM |
| 3:00PM | 3:03PM |
| 5:00PM | 5:03PM |
| 7:00PM | 7:03PM |
Float Valve
Like I mentioned above, the plants go through a lot of water, and the reservoir needs to be topped off regularly. I need to add a float valve sometime, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll have to try the "Hydroponic Float Valve" instructable when I do.
Nutrient Solution
When the plants are first starting out, I use a hydroponic solution that has (10-8-14) N-P-K. Once they start to flower, I use (3-35-10) N-P-K. This supposedly increases fruit production while slowing leaf growth. If you're growing plants like lettuce though, you'll want good leaf growth, so stick with the (10-8-14).
For this reason, you might want to have two separate systems. One where leaf growth is encouraged, and another where fruit growth is encouraged.
Over Planting
As a test, I once put 1 zucchini plant and 4 cherry tomato plants all inside one container. It had its own 15 gallon reservoir, but I thought that the plants would eventually show some signs of stress. Surprisingly though, they did quite well. I wish I had the pictures still, but they were among the few that weren't backed up when my hard drive decided to fail.
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