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My 1st DIY, Rooftop, Out Door, Vert & Economical Hydro Plan.

12 years ago

Hi there!

Dear Friends,

Today I take this opportunity to show you My 1st DIY, Rooftop, Out Door, Vertical & Economical Hydroponics Setup.

Description: (For MisterK Especially).

The setup is build up as follows:

Sown vegetable is Bitter Gourd.

1: A 1600 LPH capacity submersible pump, that pumps up the nutrients from the reservoir through (green pipe visible on the left). Pump is operated only for 15 seconds after each 50 minutes intervals.

2: Nutrients are drained through the iron pipe which has 34 drain outlets/holes (size 1/8").

3: There is 0.5 inch thick sheet of Oasis Floral Foam that covers the fruit crate from top & helps pressing Styrofoam beads in place under it.

4: Gravel helps in furtherance to place the Oasis Floral Foam cuttings at the desired level.

5: Moreover, Oasis Floral Foam plays a key role for lateral irrigation over the Styrofoam beads.

6: Since the Styrofoam beads are also connected with each other, they form excellent air pockets that aerate the roots as soon as the nutrients are drained back to the reservoir (after irrigation) as all the five crates piled up vertically.

7: Same material with same proportion is used for each crate.

8: Blue colored Nylon Mesh visible here, is also used at the bottom of each crate that plays a key role to restraint Styrofoam Beads to clog the drain holes that leads to smooth drainage.

9: 6/8" Iron Angle visible is used to support the structure in place by fixing it to the wall at the back.

10: Iron Mesh Trellis Frame is used to train the plants upwards. Hence no other support is needed.

11: On June 8, 2010. the pictured plants were directly sown into the system (No Transplants). Those are 27 Days Old Plants from Direct Seeding.

Cheers

Happy Gardening.

Azee.

NOTE: It is my old setup hence no more pics are available.

More details are under each picture here.

1 Top View Of Roof Top, Out Door Vertical Type Hydroponic Setup.

2 A = Nylon Mesh Stays At Bottom. B = Fully Filled With Styrofoam Beads. C = Top Layered By 0.5 Inch Thick Oasis Floral Foam Sheet. D = Top Most Layer Of Gravel.

3 Whole Structure = Setup Facing East

4 Whole Structure = Setup Facing East Close-Up

5 Whole Setup Cross Section View

6 Underneath Drain Collector Sheet With Reservoir.

7 Direct Sowing. 27 Days Old Plants From Direct Seeding.

8 Already A Few Small Female Flowers Have Developed So Far But Unfortunately Not Figuring At Pics.

Best regards.

Cheers.

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Comments (5)

grizzman
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That's a pretty neat looking system.
Does the water only dump onto the uppermost crate and then trickle down to the bottom?
Seems like an awful lot of styrofoam balls. Are they just for the roots to grow in?
azee_2009
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for the comment Grizzmen!
Yes the water just gets dump over the upper most carte & then gravity takes it back to reservior through each crate.
Yes, the each crate is filled with styrofoam beads to ankur the roots. It retains moiture very well & never interrupt with PH values.
I also must mention that when i decided to finally finish grow tenor of the plants i stopped irrigation so plants may dry & can easily be pulled off but i wounder they were still surviving after 15 days after stopping irrigation. It was so astonishing.

ONWARD PLAN:

Next time my plan is to use Nylon Mesh Bags to hold & easily manage styrofoam beads then these bags will be laid / kept in each crate.

Moreover i will use Praforated Styrofoam or Silicon Sheet or some thing like that for maintaining lateral irrigation instead of Oasis Floral Foam. Hence the use of rectangular iron pipe frame can also be avoided which was a part of lateral irrigation.
See picture below:

Happy gardening.
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homehydro
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
azee_2009
I've seen your setup before (a while back). Did you post pics of it before in this forum, or another forum? I know I've seen that setup before. I think it's a cool idea. If you've grown in it before, I'm wondering how it was affected by heat being on the roof (water temps, root zone temps etc.) if you used it during summer. Also I'm not sure what Bitter Gourd is. Is it a type of squash or melon (just guessing by the clinging vines)? They look similar to the melons I grew last spring/summer.
azee_2009
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dear Homehydro,
Yes i had uploded these pics at other forum. I think its name was Inter Hydroponic Forum. It was a Thai forum & Mr. Jean Luc was associated with it. I uploaded these pics there. I think you was also associated with that forum.
You would have read above that the structure is facing EAST & it was installed where the back of the structure was covered by a room adjacent to it. Hence it received Direct Full Sun Light till 12:30 PM & Indirect Sun light during remaining day time. It does not ceases photosynthesis process in this way.
Underneath tub the Reservior was just shaded to avoid algae growth in reservior. It was shaded with 1 inch thick Styrofoam Sheet. Hence temp in reservoir or root zone was quite OK.
I also must mention that when i decided to finally finish grow tenor of the plants i stopped irrigation so plants may dry & can easily be pulled off but i wounder they were still surviving after 15 days after stopping irrigation. It was so astonishing & proves its temp beig normal at root zone too.
Yes it was peak summer at that time.
Here under is the link to the vegetable species that was sown:
It is Momordica charantia.
Further inquiries are wellcome.
Thanks & best regards.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bitter Gourd
homehydro
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
azee_2009
I know Mr. Jean Luc, and we don't get along to say the least. I know he started a forum (I'm not associated with it in any way), and I did join it using a fake name and generic user name. The reason I did was not to reply to anything, but to see if he treated people on his forum the same way he does in other forums. And as I fully expected, he treated them nicely on his forum. He does knows how to be civil (despite his claims). He does know how to be civil, just refuses to do so unless he is getting something out of it. That's exactly the problem with dealing with him. I just cant accept being treated like dirt, and simply refuse to be treated that way. I also know that forum dosen't exist anymore. After a few months he just didn't get the fallowing he was looking for, and that was the end of it (not enough people kissing his butt/ego) to bother.

It's entirely possible I saw your pictures on that forum. I do remember not replying for a reason. If it was on that forum the reason was because I refused to reply to anything on his forum. As I mentioned the only reason I joined it was for one reason, and one reason only. That was to see how he treated people, and if he wold still disrespect them at every turn like he does on other forums when the success of his forum depended on how he treated people. But I know I saw pictures of that setup before.

Thanks for the link. I have never tried it. It seems it is a type of melon, just not one that I'm familiar with. But from everything I have read, it's quite bitter. In witch case I wonder if it is one of those things that you need to acquire a taste for, or are there ways to prepare it that make it taste good? I hope you post updates, because I think it's an innovative, and interesting system design.

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