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July 25, 2007

A Few Simple Steps To Help Build Your Own Hydroponics


hydroebbflow.jpgBefore you set out and build your own hydroponics, you need to be aware of the fact that there is some hydroponics that does not lend them to self building; especially those that include using drip or spray heads and those that are so prohibitively expensive as to exclude them from being conducive for building your own hydroponics. And, another aspect to building your own hydroponics is that you may not always succeed at your first attempt and that it is a slow learning process in which you will hopefully learn from your mistakes.

Using Ebb And Flow System

One of the options worth considering when you wish to build your own hydroponics is the one that is an ebb and flow system for which you won’t have to spend a lot of money and for which you can buy a couple of inexpensive plastic storage totes, aquarium air and water pumps as well as a timer and flood and drain fitting sets plus a little bit of plastic tubing.

At the very outset, when you are building your own hydroponics you would need one tote that will act as a nutrient reservoir and dark colored one would help in keeping light from affecting nutrient solutions and thus prevent algae from growing. You should also ensure that your air pump should bubble within nutrient reservoir and so it should go up to two or three air stones along with the water pump which must be able to pump hundred gallons per hour up to three feet.

When you build your own hydroponics, make sure that the second tote is placed above nutrient reservoirs and should grip plant containers that have clay pellets, and at its bottom and not in the way of the plants, you will need to drill small holes of about three quarters of an inch, and into one of these you can place the flood as well as drain fitting while you can use the other for overflow fitting. Finally, you need to put not very long tubing that goes from water pump to flood and drain fitting.

Once you have built your own hydroponics, you can plug your water pump into a timer which will be set for the flooding and draining cycle, and makes sure to keep the nutrient reservoir well filled with enough solution to feed your plants. After this, you need to simply ensure that the plant container is flooded about four times in a day for half an hour each time and make sure that the lights are switched on at these times.

Another important aspect besides building your own hydroponics is that you need to keep the environment under control which should suit the needs of the plants that you are growing. Along with this, you should also are aware what the plants require in terms of their nutrients so that you feed them the exact required nutrients and nothing else to ensure that they will grow healthily, and you will also need to keep the proper nutrient solution within reservoir if you want your efforts to build your own hydroponics to succeed.

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