I work 40h a week and have never been interested in plants. But I like the idea about being selfsustainable. I heard about hydroponic on youtube a couple off years back and thought it sounded interesting. To have the ability to grow your own food with minimal work. After building our greenhouse I started to put together a system that fitted my needs. We are using our greenhouse for more then growing so it had to be a discrete build.
I started with digging a hole under the greenhouse for the 200 l tank.
I fitted the pump, hoses and airstone.
I have two hoses. One for supply from the pump and one for drainage. I first tried to do an bell siphon. But I discovered by chance that it worked simply putting the pump on a timer and adjusting the slack of the drainage hose. The farther down the slack is, the slower the water drains.
I run the pump every third hour for 10 min.
I put a small stone in the drainage holes so that the clay pebbles won’t drain out to the tank.
I run small hoses from the supply hose in to each container.
Important to wash the clay pebbles before putting them in the system.
I start my plants inside in rockwool. When the temperature is above freezing outside I move them out to the greenhouse. Sadly my greenhouse is raised on a porch. This means that it gets very chilly as soon the sun goes down. If I had it on the ground the sun would have heated the ground and the greenhouse have had more heat accumulated.
What I soon discovered is how important it is to have en EC meeter. I burned my first plants because I added to much nutrient. I bought it really cheep and I works fine. I have not done any research into different nutrients yet. I bought the first one that I could find. But my plants grow, so I am happy for now.
Now this has become a big interested of mine. I am starting to look into conventional growing. I am planning to grow potato, union, radish and much more.
The plan is also to get chickens and other animals that can supply food for the family.