Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
ictus

Considering outdoor Hydro or Aero experiment next year :)

Ictus
12 years ago

Hello!

I am new to hydro, but have experience with Saltwater Coral growth and propogation, so most of the concepts are familiar to me. I am currently doing some DWC habaneros under LED lights. There's a thread in the peppers forum if you are curious.

Next year I want to try a small-medium sized outdoor hydroponics experiment. Most likely would start with a few tomatoe varieties and lettuce, but might try something else if all goes well.

I either want to try outdoor Recirculating DWC, or Aeroponics. I know Aero requires a bit more attention and is a bit more expensive, but I just found out that the ReverseOsmosis pressure booster pump that I have (aquatec) is considered the ideal Aeroponics pump :D I am moving to a new house next month and will be dismantling and selling my SW tank so I don't need the RO or booster pump anymore for that.

Aeroponics is more attractive to me because there is less waste water, meaning you need to mix less nutrients especially with Drain-to-Waste that's very dialed in. I am only talking about "true" aero where there is NO water under the roots, just mist. Usually DIY aero is a sort of RDWC hybrid.

RDWC is attractive since it's a tad simpler in some aspects, others not so much. Would have to plumb several 5g buckets together to a common res. Instead of airstones, I would use my Sequence Dart pump as a DIY venturi, which has the power to turn a whole resevoir into a giant mass of superfine bubbles. Reeflo actually sells a version called the Orca that's already set up as a NW venturi, but tons of SW folks have modded Darts/Snappers into NW venturi and the results are simply amazing. I have no doubt there would still be microbubbles in all the individual tanks if there was enough flow rate between them and the res.

Now for some questions for anybody who happens to know:

Aeroponics:

In true aero, I hear roots grow MASSIVE. I see some setups using small 6" square plastic tubing to hold the plants. About like large NFT channel. I have to wonder, is that enough space? I doubt it. I've always though NFT type channels looked inadequate. But I'm not really interested at NFT at the moment.

Would a 5g bucket be enough for full size aeropnic roots?.

Both:

Do you think I would get any huge pest problems with outdoor hydro or aero? I know in RDWC I could add BTI bacteria which keeps skeeters from breeding, but I don't know how I would prevent pests from liking the moist roots of aero.

One idea I came across on some blog, was the guy built a waist-high handrail out of 2x6s and put his 5g buckets up on them. Makes it easier to inspect/harvest too, but I wonder does it really help reduce pests?


So a big thanks to anybody who read through my ramblings and has any advice at all to offer me :) I am most likely going to try aero since I have the pump already, but I like to get lots of info first.

Thanks!!!

Ictus

Comments (7)

  • tcharris32
    12 years ago

    Unfortunately I don't have much to offer currently but I am also looking to start an outdoor system with 10ish tomato plants and possibly a cucumber and pepper plant. I look forward to some info.

  • willardb3
    12 years ago

    Roots do get quite large in aero, but they can be pruned if they are causing problems.

    Roots on an aero chile:

    You will want to pay close attention to making anything that carries nutrient opaque or you will have lots of algae.

  • Ictus
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Wow!!! Did you name her Repunzel?! That's a massive bush and root structure.

    Was that all inside the 5g bucket?

    Yes I use mylar to lightproof my DWC res, but I don't want to use it outdoors (tacky). I am wondering if Black Buckets are a bad idea... would they absorb too much heat, maybe heating the air aroud the roots?

    I assume white is cooler, but also probably lets in light. Do you think white buckets are opaque enough?

    Thanks for the replies!

  • tcharris32
    12 years ago

    My guess is that that plant was in a 4-6" PVC pipe system. Those kinds of roots always amaze me.

    I'm also gonna guess that white buckets are not opaque enough. I had problems with my indoor system and algae in white buckets until I wrapped them in black plastic. That said, if you wrap buckets in black plastic for an outside system, I would assume that the water temps would be out of control hot. some solutions are wrapping the buckets in black and then white or wrapping in the foil tape or wrapping in an insulation such as Reflectix. Or you can make a recirculating dwc system and keep the reservoir in the shade and/or cooled. Adding ice, burying it, or using a chiller of some sort. I really really wanted to do a dwc system outdoors but I'm scared of having to fight algae and I think I have decided on a drip to waste system. But I'm not sure yet and I have several months to research and figure out what the hell I want to do. I read an article in maximum Yield a while back about a guy that did a pretty good size outdoors grow but I didn't see many details about the system. I do know that he used white buckets though. Maybe an additive such as aquashield or something was used and cut down on the algae. I rambled on and I'm aware. Hopefully some of that made sense.

  • tcharris32
    12 years ago

    Looking for something else today I stumbled upon that article from Maximum Yield. It had even more pictures than the magazine spread too!!! Here is a link to the article. http://www.hydroponics.com/howtoinfo/hydroponics%20articles/backyard_gardening.html

    Here is a link that might be useful: Outdoor hydro article

  • Ictus
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks for all the info tcharris32.

    That backyard hydro website is very cool! I'm always interested in seeing different setups and random household materials people use to make a hydro setup; it gets me thinking about ways I can set up my own system on the cheap. It's especially awesome when these slapped-together DIY systems actually end up looking attractive in the yard :)

  • ratherbboating
    12 years ago

    I am going to try and raise cucumbers in 5 gal buckets outside. A close system, so no rain water gets in. Raised cucumbers this year in greenhouse (flow and drain), but they took up LOTS of room that I didn't want to give up. But, I had tons of cucumbers from 2 plants. Trt about 3 or 4 plants.