In this type of system, the pump runs all of the time and provides a continuous trickle of water up to the plants above. The low flow rate of the miniature fountain pump used on this first system was ideal for a continuous flow system. This design, however, could easily be implemented with a standard nutrient solution. Despite the slipshod manner in which it was thrown together, it succeeded in producing several salads for me through the winter with little additional input other than feeding the fish.Īs the effluents from fish were used to provide fertility, this type of system is technically termed “aquaponics,” which many readers are probably familiar with. The entire system was literally thrown together with a beer in hand, from whatever I had lying around my condo at the time. I happened to have a small pump scavenged from a broken water sculpture which I used to pump the dirty water from the fish up through the gravel bed.Īt the time, I was actually trying to filter the water for the benefit of some goldfish I had gotten rather than trying to grow food. ![]() The first and most basic system I ever constructed was simply a clay pot filled with gravel placed over a fish tank and seeded with some old lettuce seeds. ![]() These are systems that can be put together by almost anyone with basic do-it-yourself skills. I will outline several simple systems that I have built and go over what worked and what did not, along with some ideas for improvements. While the history of hydroponics is fascinating in and of itself, this article is about practical applications which you can implement at home. The science of growing plants without soil is actually several hundred years old, though the term hydroponics was first used at the beginning of the 20th century when commercial applications began to appear. ![]() This is done by using a water-based nutrient solution to deliver the necessary nutrients that plants need for development. As most people are already aware, hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil.
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