If it was in my home it would need to be in the kitchen to make sense so that I could grow herbs so nice to look at, easy to use and the biggest issue for me would be is rotating something I need or would a simple wall mounted one make more sense.As for the systems working that is your assignment so get on with it.

Good grief, Patricia! Were you drinking when you wrote that post and decided to actually send it?

HU, you'd probably never convince me that this is a good idea for the growing of culinary herbs, which need so much light and grow so fast. They are typically rather short-lived inside.

Such a system might be interesting for mixed salad greens, though. I cannot imagine anything of a useful size finding a place in my kitchen, though. Real estate is scarce in the kitchen.

"If you were to have something like this in your home, what features would you like it to have?"

Easy to clean, dishwasher safe parts. Auto fertigation. I want one bottle to screw into the machine for nutrient solution, another reservoir for clean water, and a couple bottles for pH adjustment reagents. It needs a little LCD display screen with buttons where you set the fertilizer rate: "Mix X tsp per gallon" or "Maintain X ppm" and another option to adjust the pH, ventilation, and light duration setting. Most efficient grow lights (LED). Best would be an option for a built in reverse osmosis filter and a water and drain line hook up, with reusable growing media- think calcined clay like Turface or hydroton, calcined shale (ie Sunleaves brand "Rocks"), growstone, zeolite, screened lava rock etc, OR no grow medium (aeroponic or water culture). I too would rather have a system for salad greens over culinary herbs. Least amount of consumables.

"What would you like it to look like?"

A dishwasher, microwave, or minifridge.

"What are some advantages and disadvantages to having something like this?

What is needed in the system to work correctly?"

These sound like your homework questions.

What kind of rotary system are you talking about? Why does it have to rotate?

Thank you all for answering. It has given me and my team some valuable input. Maybe I didn't make my last few questions clear enough, or my over all assignment. What I was attempting to do was get "customer needs." The purpose is to work through the design process and part of designing a product is knowing what people want. Currently we are trying to get an idea of what features someone would want if they were to buy a product like this, or what they would "need" it to do/have for them to want it. I was also attempting to get any insights on how you would make the hydroponics work in this system.

This is the research portion and we are supposed to learn as much as we can in what ever way that we can. We are doing a lot of research ourselves on all of this, I was just looking for your insights, whether that was in what you would want or in the workings of hydroponics.

To put anyones mind at ease, there is nothing that you could tell me that would be cheating, or telling me what to do that would take away from my assignment. Anything we get from the forums that we have posted or surveys we have done will be researched anyway.

Again, thank you for your help and I hope this didn't come off rude in anyway because I meant no offence by anything that I said.

Derek

Well to make it work it would need the following: the rotor capable of holding the medium and plants in place, it would need to be leak proof as you would have jets spraying the roots. Another easier option i haven't seen before would to have the rotor constantly spinning with a film of your water and nutrients at the bottom for the roots to periodically rub against.

Second, a light source, this is placed in the middle of the rotor so it simultaneously reaches all plants at once. LED would be the best option for power consumption, heat and overall beauty.

For the hydroponic system, aside from what i mentioned above, you will need a solution tank. This is for your water with nutrients mixed in, ready to be pumped to your rotor and sprayed on your roots. Since it is for the kitchen, i would recommend this being the base and stand of your rotor. Done well enough and people might not even know it is where the nutrient tank is.

If you want anymore ideas, instead of a nutrient tank, a lot of people already have a fish tank in their kitchen. Aquaponics is the art of using water filtered and contaminated from fish, no nutrients needed. so maybe just create a small fish tank on the side and pump your water from that.

What i would want it too look like would be hard to explain but i would not want a plastic finish. Aluminum or even wood if you had the time.

If you have any more questions contact me, hydroponics and aquaponics are my specialties.

I think it will be too big unless you have a really massive kitchen ;) You are pretty vague about the design goal. Will it be a horizontal rotary system like the Omega or Gi Grow or a vertical rotary system like the Green Diamond? None of these would fit on a kitchen countertop ;)

I don’t understand the advantage of having it be rotary since that would require more space, and as others have said, space tends to be at a premium in most kitchens. To my mind, compactness and no leaks, along with easy care and attractive appearance would be what I would be more likely to use.

In my home, it would need to be in the kitchen to make sense so that I could grow herbs so nice to look at, easy to use and the biggest issue for me would be is rotating something.