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backyardhydro

Outdoor Hydro Photos

backyardhydro
14 years ago

Hi all,

Just wanted to post a photo of my outdoor NFT system. Channels are American Hydroponics. Table frame built using fence top rail and cross connectors. Nutrient tank is 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank with pond pump though 1" pvc pipe with grommets and tubing at each channel. Growing various lettuces, basil, peppers, cucumbers, parsley, chives, chinese cabbage... Hand mixing nutrients using Howard Resh lettuce formula.

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Post pictures of your outdoor systems in full "bloom"...

Comments (8)

  • chinamon
    14 years ago

    that is awesome! i wish i could have a big system like that.

  • grizzman
    14 years ago

    how do you get to the plants in the middle of the runs?

  • backyardhydro
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    The channels are 12' long so with my 6' arms I can reach the middle... ;-) seriously.... To harvest lettuce/basil from the center I can lift the whole channel up and take it off the system OR slide the channel towards me to reach plants in the center of the channel. While harvesting I just pull the two feed tubes from the channel and place them in the adjacent channels. It's the reverse for planting a channel. I take the channel off the table, place the seedlings in Oasis cubes into the holes and then carry the whole channel and slide it into place.

    For the peppers I have in the middle I need to go under the system and reach up to cut the peppers off the plants. I did have the pepper plants on the end of the system so I could reach over and harvest but I have too much shade there so I moved them to the middle of the system. I will be cutting a few tree branches back at the end of the season to get full sunlight to the whole table.

    I have been a very popular guy lately...I've taken buckets of basil to work. My wife and daughter have as well...my daughter was called the "basil fairy!" Pesto anyone?

    Notes: System is 12' by 20'. I have 4 nursery channels which have holes at 2" centers(72 plant sites each) and around 34 finish channels with holes at 8" centers(18 plant sites each).
    I mixed up two 30 gallon nutrient stock solutions (A+B) at the beginning of the season. I add nutrient concentrate soutions 1:100 into my nutrient tank. Running EC around 1.5-1.7. PH has been stable around 6.0.

  • joe.jr317
    14 years ago

    I don't want to post pics of my outdoor system. I'm feeling inadequate now. At least in the aesthetics department. Mine are mostly in 5 gallon buckets. Yours look, well, like an ad. Great job.

  • backyardhydro
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Beleive it or not I had a groundhog problem. You can't see in the picture but I had a deer netting around the system thinking that my big "pest" may be the deer. Well anyway the groundhogs found a way under the netting and climbed up onto the channels that were over the nutrient tank and started chomping away at the lettuce. So I added an inner netting around the base of the table and also smoke bombed a groundhog hole. A couple days later another groundhog found it's way in. Luckily he could not figure out how to get through the 2nd netting, but he did get some of my lettuce and parsley seedlings that were sitting on a picnic table. So, I found another possible groundhog den and smoke bombed that one. I also put two strands of electric fence around the perimiter. So far, so good.

    System update. The summer heat finally arrived. Some of the lettuce has started to bolt, so we have been eating lots of lettuce. Basil is huge and really needs to be harvested or cut back. I am going to make some big batches of pesto and freeze meal sized portions next week. Peppers have been really tasty. European cucumbers and beit alpha cucumbers (both thin skinned and with very few seeds) have been great in salads.

  • grizzman
    14 years ago

    Since we're sharing. this is from "my summer systems" thread.


    15 pepper plants, two egg plants, three empty holes.
    runs are 60" long with 2" net pots at 8" centers.
    next year I'm going to convert to NFT so I can do away with the timers.

  • freemangreens
    14 years ago

    I'm not even sure what a "groundhog" is, but if it's anything like a gopher, I know a neat trick to get rid of them:

    Remove the gas hose from any portable propane bar-b-q and run propane gas down their hole for a few seconds. Propane is heaver than air and displaces all the oxygen in the holes. By the time Mr. Gopher figures out what he's breathing is not air, he's a gonner. Best part is he dies underground so there's no muss, fuss or odor!

    By the way, don't even THINK of lighting it. You'll blow your yard all over the neighborhood as propane is a very power-dense gas!!!!!

  • backyardhydro
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Getting ready to start up the system. Last year did not set up until Memorial Day. Basil was a great success. I gave away tons of basil and ended up making lots of pesto for the freezer. Still have a few batches left. All the lettuce varieties grew great. Family loves the butterhead.

    Planning on starting some tomatoes and cucumbers in bato buckets too.