Archive:Hydroponics
You are visiting an old member project. The information found on "Hydroponics" might be out of date.| Hydroponics Gardens Release status: experimental [box doku] | |
|---|---|
| Description | Growing plants in water, indoors |
| Author(s) | tiefpunkt |
We have a small hydroponic garden in our space, currently consisting of one deep water culture box with 4 plants.
Hydroponic system
The plants are set in a deep water culture, build from a 22l IKEA Samla box. We are using the black version to discourage algae growth. The box is completely filled with water (and some nutrition solution). For air supply, it has a 30cm air stone on the bottom, which is supplied by a 165 l/h air pump. We are using 8cm net cups for the plants.
Plants
There are currently 4 plants:
- Bell pepper
- Mini cucumber
- Zucchini
- Jalapeño chilli
All 4 were not grown from seeds, but bought when they were ~10-15cm tall, and replanted from soil to hydroton.
Nutrition, Pest Control
Normal fertilizer won't be enough for hydroponic systems, as we have to replace the minerals that are in the soil as well. There's special fertilizer for hydroponic systems, which is unfortunately fairly hard to find in Germany, especially in "normal" gardening stores. We chose Scotts Substral Pflanzen Nahrung, 500 ml, which can also be used for hydrocultures.
Unfortunately, we had some probems with greenflies on our plants. We assume that this was due to the use of potted plants, which might have brought them along. As we are inside, there are no beneficial organisms such as other flies to take care of that, so we had to spay some insecticides. After consultation at the local gardening center, I went with Neudorff Neudosan Obst- & Gemüse-Schädlingsfrei, which is some natural soap-based stuff that can be used on veggies and leaves no traces in the produce of our plants. We sprayed it on a few times, and it worked like a charm.
Lights
The plants are under a 40W CFL daylight lamp, which is on a timer to be lit for 12 hours a day.
Sensors
There are currently 3 sensors in and around the system, monitoring 4 values:
- Outside temperature (Sensor: DHT22)
- Water temperature (Sensor: DS18B20)
- Humidity (Sensor: DHT22)
- Water level (Sensor: HC-SR04)
Values from these sensors are posted to MQTT (MuMaBus), and then pushed to our ThingStore [1].
In addition, there is a webcam in front of the plants: http://data.tiefpunkt.com/hydroponics/image.jpg
Costs
| Item | Price | Amount | Bought where? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ausströmer 30cm | 3.61 € | 1 | Amazon Marketplace | (+ 3.18€ shipping) |
| Tageslichtlampe 40W (200W) | 17.75 € | 2 | tageslichtlampen24.de | only need one (+3.57€ shipping) |
| Membranpumpe 165 l/h (Luft) + Schlauch | 12,98 € | 1 | Amazon | |
| SAMLA Box, 22l, Black | 2,99 € | 1 | IKEA | black one to stop algae growth |
| SAMLA Box COer, Black | 1,00 € | 1 | IKEA | |
| FOTO (38cm) | 19,99 € | 1 | IKEA | For the grow lamp. Basically, almost any open light fixture will do. We just happened to have a few of these on hand. |
| Blähton (Hydroton) | 6,99 € | 1 pack | Dehner | |
| Electric Timer | 3,99 | 1 | Dehner | for the lamp |
| 10 x Netztopf schwarz ø 5 cm | 1,99 € | 1 pack | eBay | not used currently |
| 10 x Netztopf schwarz ø 8 cm | 4,00 € | 1 pack | eBay | used 4 of them in the current setup |
Plants
| Item | Price | Amount | Bought where? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peperoni | 1,99 € | 1 | Dehner | Potted plant |
| Spitzpaprika Toskana | 2,99 € | 1 | Dehner | Potted plant |
| Minigurke | 4,29 € | 1 | Dehner | Potted plant |
| Zuchini | 2,79 € | 1 | Dehner | Potted plant |
Nutrition, etc.
| Item | Price | Amount | Bought where? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotts Substral Pflanzen Nahrung, 500 ml | 4,99€ | 1 | Dehner | |
| Neudorff Neudosan Obst- & Gemüse-Schädlingsfrei, 250 ml | 8,99 € | 1 | Dehner |
See also
Other Projects
- http://lacool.co/ (seen at MF Berlin 2015)
