Lost Cost Hydroponics:

What is hydroponics? Hydroponics is the cultivation of plants in extremely controlled enviroments. Many times even the richest soil is useless to plants unless nutrients are dissolved in water so they can be absorbed by roots. That's the basis behind hydroponics, the science of growing plants without soil. Keeping cuttings of philodendron or pothos in a jar of water is a simple hydroponic system. However, today's techno-attitude towards growing has increased the complexity of systems as well as yield and quality of crops, and of course costs. Most vegetables and houseplants thrive in hydroponic systems. Light, humidity, and temperature are all closely regulated . An inert growing medium of pea-sized gravel or rockwool supports root growth. Nutrients are pumped into the medium and then drained for reuse. Below is more information provided by one of the staff members of the Institute. - MrGrow

Have you ever wanted to have you own hydroponic garden but thought it would be too expensive to pull off. Why purchase an expensive setup when you can build a professional, full featured hydroponics system at home at minimal cost. Here is a system that will get you started.

Bucket System: Designed for an individual plant and to be most cost effective as possible.

Parts Required:

(2) Five Gallon Buckets: Bucket A is inserted into Bucket B.
Small Pump (Aquarium Powerhead will work while Little
Giant or similar completely submergible pump preferred)
(2) .5 gph drip emitters
(2) drip emitter spikes (to secure emitter & hose in medium)
1 Drip Emitter T connector
4 feet of black drip emitter hose
1 cubic ft bag of Rockwool (Absorbent type)
6-8 cups of Geolite, lava rock or stone pebbles.
(about 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter)

Assembly Instructions: Clean buckets of any debris, especially if they were used as paint buckets. Drill many drainage holes in bucket A with a 3/8" drill bit. Make sure they are evenly spaced to allow for proper drainage but not so much that the weight wet medium can break the bottom of the bucket.

Cut drip emitter hose into 3 sections. One 3' long and the other two sections about 6" inch long. Push 3' long hose through one of the holes you made in bucket A (If hole is too small use a larger bit or make multiple holes next to each other.) Suspend hose along side of bucket while you fill bucket with medium.

Pour geolite into bucket A, only a few inches are needed. Follow with rockwool up to 2 inches of lip of container. At this point trim emitter hose to ground level and use T Connector and smaller sections of hose to create two watering points. Attach drip emitters to each hose.

Attach pump to emitter hose. This can be tricky and depends on the pump you purchased. Make sure connection is watertight as it will be slightly pressurized. Fill the reservoir, lower bucket B, with 3 Inches of water and insert pump and Bucket A into bucket B. Pump's grounded/insulated cord will hang over edge of Bucket B and be held in place by Bucket A.

Nutrient Solutions:
A wide variety of hydroponics nutrients are available. I recommend visiting a local nursery to find a good nutrient to use. Beware, normal plant nutrients are not recommended. Noraml plant fertilizers will build-up salts incredibly quick in soil-less mix. Hydroponics media is inert and provides no nutrition to the plants. Because of this you must provide all nutrients to the plant but this allows for precise control of what the plants will receive. If a local nursery or plant store is unable to assist, visit Worm's Way online. They have a wide variety of supplies for the hydroponics grower, though sometimes at a hefty price.

Alternate watering solutions:
As an alternate option you can use a passive watering system (wick transfer) or an air pump. The passive system simply uses multiple water wicks hanging down into the reservoir bucket B. Water is carried up into the soil medium. The principle is basic and works; however, it is not as effective at cleansing the medium. If you chose the wick method, I recommend you occasionally rinse the medium with clean water (just pour a gallon of water over the medium surface and let it drain.)

The air pump method requires two hoses, no emitters and a simple aquarium air pump. One hose needs to be the diameter of common aquarium pump hoses (found at Pet stores). The second hose needs to be larger so that the smaller hose will fit into it very loosely. With the smaller hose pushed into the bigger hose a couple of inches push a pin through both hoses. This keeps the smaller hose inserted in the big hose with enough space to draw water around the small hose and into the big hose. The principle is that the air supply will suck a little water with the air and up to the plant's medium. Again, the control of water rate is not fixed and is subject to clogs and other various problems, but it is more inexpensive then a submersable pump.

For additional support or questions on designs feel free to contact the author by email at: