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Deep Water Culture Hydroponics System - No power tools required!

by alskent on September 3, 2014

Table of Contents
Deep Water Culture Hydroponics System - No power tools required! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Intro: Deep Water Culture Hydroponics System - No power tools required! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 1: Creating the holes for the net pots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 3: The setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Deep-Water-Culture-Hydroponics-System-No-power-too/

Intro: Deep Water Culture Hydroponics System - No power tools required!

I'd quickly like to say I've entered this into the 'Hand tools only' contest so if you enjoy the Instructable it would be much appreciated if you could vote!
I'm a keen gardener and a few weeks ago accidentally stumbled across the concept of hydroponics; basically growing plants without soil by providing them with water
with all the correct nutrients in. There are many different hydroponic types but for the purpose of this Instructable I'm going to be focusing on Deep Water Culture (DWC).
DWC is suspending the plant roots over/in nutrient laden water. The water is also oxygenated with an air pump through air stones, without this oxygenation the roots
wouldn't thrive. There are many benefits to DWC but the most appealing one to me is the reduced time it takes for the plant to grow and flourish.
Having read a little around the topic I decided to make my own small DWC system as cheaply and easily as possible. Unfortunately I don't have access to many tools
and certainly not any power tools so I had to be a little creative at times to finish this system.
The items you'll need to purchase to build this system are:
An opaque storage box (3 from Poundstretcher)
A length of aquarium tubing (3 from Pets at Home)
2 six inch air stones (1.50ea from Pets at Home)
2 way valve (2.50 from Pets at Home)
An air pump (13.84 from Amazon)
6 7.5cm net plant pots (15p each from Growell)
You will need to purchase other items to set up the system, but I've not covered this in this Instructable:
A pH water tester (you want the pH to be between 6 - 6.3 from vegetative growth, not flowering)
Hydroponic nutrient solution

Step 1: Creating the holes for the net pots

First of all grab your net plant pot (you'll notice that mine aren't net ones but I know I can grab the same size net ones later) and draw around the base of the pot in the
locations that you'd like your plant pots to sit. As you can see I've gone for two rows of 3 plant pots. Once you've drawn around the base get your trusty craft knife (I'm
hoping you've got a proper Stanley Knife, not like me) and slowly cut out the hole. It's not easy and it takes a bit of time but we've got no other tools to do the job!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Deep-Water-Culture-Hydroponics-System-No-power-too/

Step 3: The setup

Now that you've plumbed the system and the holes are filled with plant pots you can begin to fill the system in preparation to give it a good clean. Fill with water and add
about 20ml of bleach, turn on your pump and give it half an hour to thoroughly clean itself. After that time empty out the water and leave to dry.
Now your're ready to fill it up for real! As I'm planning on germinating seeds in Root Riot cubes I'm going to fill mine to just below the plant pots. The will keep the cubes
damp,but not soaked, as the bubbles on the surface of the water pop. At this point in time I've been told I don't require a nutrient solution, however once germinated and
roots start forming it's time to sort out the nutrients!
The nutrient solution used is down to your discretion but it's important to have measured how much water you've poured into your system as this will become crucially
important in calculating how much solution to add. Also bear in mind that the entire solution/water reservoir will require changing every 2-3 weeks.

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Deep-Water-Culture-Hydroponics-System-No-power-too/

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Comments
9 comments

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Watergunz says:

Oct 13, 2014. 5:53 AM REPLY

Beautiful build, thank you very much for sharing!

markt2 says:

Sep 4, 2014. 3:43 PM REPLY

this looks like a smashing way to get into hydroponics, a nice clean and well built system! before I commit to designing a wall size system! my idea is to set
up a wall sized system in my dispensary growing things like Zingiber officniale (ginger), Curcuma longa (tumeric), plus a lot of others I've a 6ft wall to have
crack at and will be able to dry the herbs then make my own tinctures ready for my patients.
I've been looking around (well on amazon prime) for the best nutrient solution, but I'm curious which do you use?
do you find that you've needed a grow light rig ? (I've read led's in the 430 nm and 662 nanometer range are the best as alpha and beta chlorophyll absorb
light in this range better) (oh and I'll be informing my local police in case the chopper picks up any unusual light / heat signatures lol)

alskent says:

Sep 9, 2014. 1:54 AM REPLY

Hi, thanks for your lovely comment!

This is my first ever hydroponic set up so I'd feel a little uncomfortable advising about nutrients and grow lights.
I can tell you I've been using B'Cuzz A+B from Atami (http://www.atami.eu/en/Atami/bcuzz-hydro-a-b-en) - I'm not going to lie, mainly because it was one
of the cheaper options in my local hydroponics shop and the guy working there said it would be good for new starters. If anyone reads this and has had
awful experiences then please let me know!
I've not even considered a grow light at the minute, I just want to experiment around with it first and check that I can do all the other things like look after
the pH etc. first.
Best of luck with your hydroponic project!

markt2 says:

Sep 9, 2014. 2:36 AM REPLY

well after looking around I settled on Cana coco A&B and Canna coco pro plus as I'm germinating the seeds in the same medium.
how are you plants coming along?
cheers

alskent says:

Sep 9, 2014. 3:23 AM REPLY

Awesome! Mine are doing OK (I think). This is a picture of them from this morning. You can see I've now got the net pots and clay pebbles to add
a bit of support.

bergs says:

Sep 8, 2014. 8:41 PM REPLY

Very clean and without tools is impessive ( I would have cheated.) I would maybe add a drain (with a drill of course) at the bottom to ease with water
changes which can be weekly.

alskent says:

Sep 9, 2014. 1:55 AM REPLY

Thanks! Though I would have cheated if I owned a drill!

A drain sounds like a great idea and would certainly help with the upcoming water change. If I'm lucky enough to place in this contest and win a drill it's
the first thing I'll do.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Deep-Water-Culture-Hydroponics-System-No-power-too/

seamster says:

Sep 4, 2014. 8:58 AM REPLY

Very nice!

alskent says:
Thank you!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Deep-Water-Culture-Hydroponics-System-No-power-too/

Sep 4, 2014. 9:03 AM REPLY