Hi Cole, The above 1930 patent was a very early prototype which included automatic acid and nutrient addition in very creative ways. But the very first systems in the mid-1930's like we use were nothing that would be out of place at your backyard or mine ... they were just shallow "tanks" usually made from lumber and then sealed with blacktop (an asphalt product), or tarpaper (the same thing is common today where PE film/sheet is now used in place of the tar paper). The tanks were very shallow, usually 6 inches and the water level usually an inch below the top, and they were long, like you would expect for an agricultural row, but usually about 3 feet wide (hobby systems) or 6 feet wide (commercial) for convenience of reach. There were no net pots, but rather just multiple plant removable trays. Each tray was made by attaching the entire bottom of chicken wire on a simple wood rectangle of say, 1"x6"s and 1"x4"s --- by far the most common. You just lift them on and off the tank frame like picking up drawers. The media in each tray then covered the entire chicken wire for about 3-4" deep, they were cellulose products on top, like wood doll stuffing, wood shavings, and rice hulls. The trays fit snugly into to "tank" bottoms. in convenient sizes like a mosaic, usually one on each side of the width and anywhere from three (hobby size) along the length to more than a dozen (big and commercial) long. These were based on Gericke designs, and he did a lot of consulting through the 1930's and tended to credit enormously those who he consulted for allowing him to do practical hydroponics (imagine when he left the severely critical environment of the scientists at the university how he must have felt getting to tinker with tens of different variations of systems with people really enthusiastic to do it). Look at this, the only adjustments from Gericke's hobby design are the plastic film which replaces the asphalt paint, and that this talented Perth writer and Gardener used screws instead of brackets. Congratulations to George, you even got one of Gericke's favorites, potatoes! From that great country down under, here's a beautiful, productive "retro design". Concrete was one of three choices for the bottom half (the "shallow tank" a.k.a., "basin", but not the trays). Concrete was in a decent proportion of early commercial systems. Concrete though had to prepared something like we should do with rockwool. The thing about concrete is those systems lasted longer, so with the world going to war and people moving around, the numerous wooden systems that fell into disuse, just like today were not as durable so easily got mangled and tossed in the trash, like forgotten toys, lost without a trace. That gave an impression later on that early systems were concrete, because more of those survived. In addition to wood tanks and trays, and concrete (tanks), sheet metal was also used for tank making successfully after sealing in some of Gericke's designs. Sounds right, but we'll have to do more research to be sure when the plastic systems got popular. PVC pipe took off in the early to mid-1950's but as you note, the real thing to see is when the first plastics that were both economical were widely available were applied to hydro systems. This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Sun, Mar 9, 14 at 5:32

Update: There's an utterly gorgeous crop of lettuce growing in the system right now. Most other plants aren't as far along; the lettuce got an early start. Some lettuce roots stick out the bottom of the pot, but rather than those exploratory roots dying off like I expected, they still look white and healthy. I guess they're getting O2 somehow. Well, I'm not going to complain. :) Germination was poor in several pots, although almost all of my seeds are old. My spouse dropped our (non-waterproof) pH meter in a bin. It shorted out. She took the batteries out and let it dry out, then put them back in. It behaved very strangely -- not only was it off on the pH, but it still ran when the meter was turned off -- just with a dim screen! Thankfully, this latter symptom has gone away, so I think all we need to do is recalibrate it. Tip #1: When suspending the light fixture with a taut hitch, tie an additional half-hitch at the loose end of the rope. This will prevent the taut hitch from accidentally pulling undone over time. We lost a taut hitch and our light fixture fell down (thankfully, it didn't break any bulbs, since what it ran into was the floating trays, which absorbed the shock). Tip #2: Silicon gel should not be used to patch leaks. It seems to work at first, but it doesn't last; the leaks will just open back up in time. Instead, use "3M High-Strength 90". It's one of the only adhesives in the world that your average consumer can readily acquire in small quantities which can get a good polyethylene bond (I should have gone straight to it the first time, as I have dealt with polyethylene film before for different purposes and came to the exact same conclusion). And it's really convenient to use, since you can just spray it out in big swaths across the plastic, and it'll foam up a little and fill in the gaps. Tip #3: When making homemade nutrient mixes, a spare coffee grinder will work *wonders* for dealing with the pelleted nutrients. Tip #4: When dealing with calcium nitrate, never leave it exposed to air for more than a few minutes. It'll absorb moisture from the air until it liquefies itself! Tip #5: To get dilute mixes like lettuce to have a proper (read: very low) EC, you'll want to keep all of your cations down to the bottom end of their normal range except potassium, which you should have below the normal range (lettuce doesn't like it much). Try to hit the minimum sulfate (~60ppm), then make the rest of the anions nitrate, since lettuce loves nitrate. High-EC plants like tomatoes are easy, but tomatoes also don't like much nitrate (~80ppm); for the most part, use sulfate salts in a tomato formula composition. Remember that (from what we've read) seedlings like to start off with extra-diluted macros, but micros should always be at full strength. Also, to keep EC reasonable, we found we could only manage 30 ppm silicon in the dilute and semi-dilute mixes, but we were able to manage 100ppm silicon for the tomatoes. Apart from all of that, it's all pretty noneventful. :) Plants just sit over there growing.

50 bhut jolokia seeds arrive in the mail.Armed with a seedling heating pad and a small hothouse as well as a desire to burn my lips off,I plant the seeds in a seedling starter kit I bought at K-mart.During planting, a spot under my eye feels like it has batterey acid on it.I must have rubbed some capsacin on it.I think these seeds are the real deal! Feb 20 08 After 15 days in a small hothouse only 4 seeds have sprouted and I wonder if I got bunk seeds.My visions of a crop of the red hot peppers are not gone.After more research I discover that all chiles are slow to germinate.The tempature of the hothouse is kept beetween 70 and 90 deg.Fer. March 20 08 Now about 40 of the bhut jolokia seeds have sprouted to the height of 2-3".I learn of the process called 'hardening off'.Plants grown in greenhouses develop large thin walled cells.This makes the plant weak to outdoor elements.So out they go during the day in at night to acclimate them slowly to the elements.I kill 10 plants during the process. April 19 08 Down to 30 bhut jolokia plants to the height of 7",I figure I have enough to sell and list them on e-bay selling none.Continued research reveals that these red hot pepper plants are not for my zone(7).So I keep them in a small outdoor hothouse,hoping to create the climate of India in northern CA. May 08 to date. Without discoraging anyone from growing these fiery pods I share the following. Mid May brought a 'cold snap' to Northern ca.The tempature in the greenhouse fell to 45 deg.I lost another 10 plants. Thinking I would give them a boost I crushed up 10-10-10 slow release fertelizer and damaged another 10. I'm down to about 15 plants and 5 "trophy plants"(8" plants with deep green growth). So good luck to all and any feed-back is welcome! Here is a link that might be useful: Bhut Jolokia Garden

These forums are for people looking the learn. Looking for answers. You waste a lot of effort keeping tabs on me and you only further my cause. Every time you post you keep the thread active. The search engines monitor this activity and rank it even higher. Thank you Alice. Please keep after me. Maybe point out my poor grammar or sentence structure. Flood testing your showers is so important. Look at the shear number of threads in these pages with people in tough spots. Families grinding it out every day and then are faced to repair a "Crappy" job - when they where looking for "Turn Key" home and maxed out their lending to do so. It's not fair. No No No. I'm bring awareness to a code required inspection. Not a Water Test. But a 24 - 72 hour flood test that is inspected by the city. Code. Fact. Look it up. How many "Flood Tests" have you seen mentioned in these pages? It's not the fun stuff. It's not shinny? It does not come in "Off White" or "Bright White". It's boring. It holds up the job. It costs more. Things can go wrong and then cost more again. Why talk about it? BECAUSE IT IS A CODE REQUIRED STEP and one that protects not only you but the people you sell your home to. Kids bathe there. Think about it. I'm sorry if it is not "Cyber Space Friendly" but the system is broken and the proof is behind every black piece of Silicone... You might be breathing it right now. You baby might sleep up against that wall. Think about it. Do more. It's easy. Just work harder. My thoughts, John Whipple