hydroguy
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Outdoor Hydroponics

Planning on trying some type of hydroponic system outside this summer and hoped we could bounce ideas off of each other in this thread.

The system I'm thinking about is NFT based on a black 55gl. drum as my resv. Starting with this because it's sitting in my shop, remnants from an old Ebb & Grow system I ran back in the day. The next piece of the puzzle is what to use as the channels? Looked at Lowes last night to get some ideas. They carry some sewer/drain (thin wall) PVC that would work, $11 for a 10' x 4" joint and $36 for a 10' x 6" joint. There were also some 4" sqaure PVC posts in the fencing section that might work, can't remember the price for those. Any suggestions?

What are you guys thinking about trying? This is an open thread so posts whatever worked for you or your thinking about doing.

hydroguy

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Halfway
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Looking at a bucket system. Probably re-circulating as opposed to "bubble bucket" because of concern over the nutrient temp.

I would like to have about 3 5-gallon pails on the front porch next to a few other soil filled buckets I normally have. Tomatoes or peppers as a comparison and for heavier production is my plan.

Still working through options as I want to keep this DIY, cheap, and somewhat economical with my time. Summer gets busy.

malkore
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I've seen PVC pipe, and vinyl gutters used as the trays/channels.

hydroguy
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malkore wrote:I've seen PVC pipe, and vinyl gutters used as the trays/channels.
I'm leaning towards the PVC pipe myself but the costs are a bit on the high side. What would a person use for the top on the vinyl gutters? Sounds like a good option.

hydroguy

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hydroguy wrote:
malkore wrote:I've seen PVC pipe, and vinyl gutters used as the trays/channels.
I'm leaning towards the PVC pipe myself but the costs are a bit on the high side. What would a person use for the top on the vinyl gutters? Sounds like a good option.

hydroguy
Boy, the long, sliding door sized vertical blinds are the first thing to come to mind. Stumbling across a set that is being thrown out would be perfect.

wordwiz
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Here's an outdoor hydro grow (lettuce) I think is neat! It's NFT.

[img]https://valleycat.net/garden/ted.jpg[/img]

Mike

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applestar
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Wow! That looks REALLY great!
Coconut shells and timber bamboo.... 8) :D

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Halfway
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Yeah, that wins the "Gilligan" look for sure. Very cool.

Now where did I leave my pina colada?

8)

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applestar
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:lol: That's what I was thinking -- post-island theme frat party would be the place to get them! 8)
.... I still have a couple of coconut shells that I'd turned into hanging baskets/knickknack holders somewhere.... :wink:

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Hydroponics
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Hello,

This is my kind of thread. I want to start by saying, the coconut garden is very creative, I really liked that idea.

What about a more Aero based the NFT system. Have you ever built a modular Aero System? Instead of PVC I opted for food grade HDPE clear plastic containers with screw tops. They were 1/2 gal.

I made three rows of 6 connected with 1/2 inch tubing. The tubing went through the sides of the containers near the bottom. I cut 1/2 inch holes and used rubber grommets to get the tube through the hole. Wrapping the containers in mylar is a must.

[url=https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=74494&catid=750]Here[/url] is an example of the type of bottle.


I punched holes in the 1/2 inch tubing for EZ Clone Misters. I used the same neoprene discs as the EZ clone for the the plant support. The plants use no medium.

Each container also has a drain hole at the bottom, that could empty into a flood and drain table and back into the res.

This system is designed for start to harvest growing.

I would be really interested to see what it did outside. I think all water loving vegetative plants would flourish in it. I think it can handle fruits too such as strawberries, if they are handled properly. I think you could even pull off tomatoes if you made the system low to the ground and stakes the plants normally.

TCHarris32
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I am looking to do an outdoor system in the springtime here in Indy. I am wanting to run approximately 10 of the rectangular buckets (similar to kitty litter buckets) in some sort of drip system or possibly a RDWC. I'm leaning towards a drip system that drips to wasteto hopefully keep algae growth to a minimum and keep the nutes and ph a little more stable. I'm really having trouble finding plans or a whole lot of info regarding this type of outdoor system. I read an article in a Maximum Yield magazine I picked up at my local hydro shop about a similar setup but it didn't go into a lot of the specifics. They did use white buckets to keep the solution temps down. This boggles me as I would think this would promote heavy algae growth. Is that not as much of a concern in the drip systems? Do I cut a hole in the lid for a net pot and fill with hydroton just like in an indoors setup or do I just fill the bucket with media? I've got about 471 questions about the setup and plans and I will chime in as I remember them.

Thanks in advance.

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fintuckyfarms
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So hydroguy, what did you end up deciding? I grew mostly outside last year except for some lettuce in a DWC system in the house. I had a pumpkin plant in a DWC Tote outside, a 4" pvc pipe NFT system and a flood and drain system in 1/2 55 gal barrels. In the NFT system I grew tomatoes (never again in such a small pipe), sugar peas, bush beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach and celerly. In the barrels I grew zucchinis and cantalope. My favorite system due to maintenance and crop yeild was the barrels.



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