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Hello fellow eBayers!
This guide is for the newbie in the Hydroponics world. Lets start with a few basic descriptions of the variety of systems you can purchase of build.
Aeroponics, high pressure water with plant food mixed in is pumped into sprayers, ever seen the water system over the produce section of your local Walmart, that rain forest mist is whats happening in the root section of an Aero system.
Ebb & Flow, just like it sounds, you have a container such as a plastic flower box with plastic pots inside full of fired clay pebbles. The flower box is piped so that there is an entrance for the pumped water, and over flow valve to keep the water from overflowing, and a slow drain for the remainder of the water that would otherwise puddle in the system. The unit is set on a digital timer for 2 minutes, every couple of hours to Ebb & Flow.
Drip systems are neat, but they tend to fail a lot due to the very small parts that the water travels in. If you have any issues of hard water from your taps, don't build or buy a drip system, the emitters tend to clog quickly. Basicly, you have a pot of some media that won't leach anything into your nutrient sollution, and a pump running into small tubes with emitters on the ends that rest in the cente of eachpot and drip the water into the pot, the sollution trickles down the inside of the pot and back into the sump.
Lighting is always an issue when useing hydroponics inside, it would take a lot more time than you would want to read, so here it is in a nut shell.
If you want the most robust plants possible, use the unit outside. If indoors, a combination of Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium lamps in the 1000 watt range each will be the next best thing. However, this is expensive. If you are on a budget of say 100 dollars, get a set of Flourex 85 watt lamps from your local Lowes, or Home Depot, a plug, some high grade electrical wire and wire up the lamps over your system. These lamps are great for produceing a near perfect spectrum at a tenth of the cost. I have grown more peppers with Florex lamps than I knew what to do with.
If you are intrested in looking at a system like I have described here, click on my eBay name to view the systems we use.
Have a great day and Happy Growing,
Shawn
This guide is for the newbie in the Hydroponics world. Lets start with a few basic descriptions of the variety of systems you can purchase of build.
Aeroponics, high pressure water with plant food mixed in is pumped into sprayers, ever seen the water system over the produce section of your local Walmart, that rain forest mist is whats happening in the root section of an Aero system.
Ebb & Flow, just like it sounds, you have a container such as a plastic flower box with plastic pots inside full of fired clay pebbles. The flower box is piped so that there is an entrance for the pumped water, and over flow valve to keep the water from overflowing, and a slow drain for the remainder of the water that would otherwise puddle in the system. The unit is set on a digital timer for 2 minutes, every couple of hours to Ebb & Flow.
Drip systems are neat, but they tend to fail a lot due to the very small parts that the water travels in. If you have any issues of hard water from your taps, don't build or buy a drip system, the emitters tend to clog quickly. Basicly, you have a pot of some media that won't leach anything into your nutrient sollution, and a pump running into small tubes with emitters on the ends that rest in the cente of eachpot and drip the water into the pot, the sollution trickles down the inside of the pot and back into the sump.
Lighting is always an issue when useing hydroponics inside, it would take a lot more time than you would want to read, so here it is in a nut shell.
If you want the most robust plants possible, use the unit outside. If indoors, a combination of Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium lamps in the 1000 watt range each will be the next best thing. However, this is expensive. If you are on a budget of say 100 dollars, get a set of Flourex 85 watt lamps from your local Lowes, or Home Depot, a plug, some high grade electrical wire and wire up the lamps over your system. These lamps are great for produceing a near perfect spectrum at a tenth of the cost. I have grown more peppers with Florex lamps than I knew what to do with.
If you are intrested in looking at a system like I have described here, click on my eBay name to view the systems we use.
Have a great day and Happy Growing,
Shawn
Guide created: 05/21/06 (updated 09/05/08)
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