My hydro system starts with the planter in the picture. 5 gallon buckets with river rock in the bottom to about a 1/2" above the drain. Drain is 1/2" pvc with a rubber gasket. The bucket is lined with a paint strainer/filter and filled with perlite. Plants are planted in the perlite and lid closed to stop algae formation. All of the 1/2" drain lines gravity feed into a 2" pipe that returns to the reservoir.
I use one of those black tubs from lowes/homedepot with the yellow lid. I think about 25 gallon or so. In my last setup, I buried the reservoir, but since on rock this time, its packed with sandbags to help maintain water temps. I feed the reservoir from a 55 gallon drum on the deck piped in with 1" pvc and a float valve in the reservoir.
I use an 800+gpm submersible pump in order to move the water to the top of the planter (head height is the primary issue). I use 1/2" tubing from the pump for my main water feed lines, which run above and behind each row of buckets. Off the 1/2" lines are 1/4" flexible tubing connected to staked free flow emitters in each bucket.
Under the planter, I have a second reservoir fed by a 5 gallon bucket for my greens. I use a similar size pump and 1/2" lines to feed each plant. I've used pvc fence post covers with 2" holes for my plant cups. this area will probably get redesigned in spring as it didn't survive shipping well. A lot of people put their pumps on times, but they don't draw that much electricity so I just run them all the time.
I have two 4'X12' and one 4'X20' beds.
Here's a link to the
mittleider gardening method. I had horrible soil in VA and couldn't get anything to grow and what I found was this was a good method for building soil. After 3 years of using this method and adding organic matter to my beds I had developed a really rich loamy soil. So after that, I maintained it with OMRI products with equal or better results from the previous years.
I have not had this soil tested yet, but will in spring and adjust based upon the findings. To me, the soil science remains a bit of voodoo so I'll provide the test results to the Fertrell folks and amend as they recommend, after double checking with my extension agent. I couldn't handle the freight for good fertilizer last year, but when I order my feed products, I'll include the fertilizers on the same pallet. It costs me $200 to get the pallet shipped to my co-op or if I can have it sent to a dealer, it's like $50.
Sorry for so many words....
