Visit Us On Our Other Channels

Category: hydroponics

Converting IBC Totes Into Hydroponic Beds

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

This week Ron is converting IBC totes into hydroponic beds. It is very exciting because I can actually see the physical part of the structure up. See the totes being cut into the different sections of the hydroponic beds. How they are going to be placed in the structure and how to get the garden section ready for the brassicas that are growing in the grow room right now. I’m not good at visualizing things so just seeing how the totes are being separated and then set up for the hydroponic system is exciting.

You can see how Ron does it by clicking here.

IBC Tote Conversion

These IBC totes are not hard to find. We found ours at Facebook marketplace and I think we paid $60 a piece for them. It is important to ask what was in them to begin with. You only want food grade totes. That way it is an easy scrub and wash out getting them ready for the hydroponic system. You also want to make sure you have the top and bottom of the tote. You will need both ends to make the water container and the garden patch.

Using the IBC totes the way we plan to has a couple of benefits to it. Once the bottom of the toe gets filled up with water it is a closed loop system so we don’t have to worry about watering the garden. It does it automatically. And when the hot summer North Texas sun hits that will be a benefit! Also, we haven’t talked a lot about it but it will be an easy way to turn our hydroponic system into an aquaponic system by adding fish. Which as you know we only add one new animal a year and I’m hoping this is the year for fish.

Next Steps

The next steps for the hydroponic systems is to get the totes cleaned out and then the plumbing put in so the water travels from the bottom of the tote to the top. Ron will shoot a video so you can watch him put that together.

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

 

Outside Hydroponic Set Up

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

With the weather finally breaking out of the freezing range it was time for Ron to work on our outside hydroponic set up! He put the frame together and put the chicken wire around it last time he worked on it. Today, he decided to put down some fabric cloth and cover it with wood chips. There were two reasons for doing this. One – to help suppress weeds inside of the system. Two – to help with leveling things out.

If you want to watch how Ron did this you can follow along on the video here.

Weeds & Leveling

Suppressing the weeds is pretty easy to understand. Here in North Texas the weeds can grow up as tall as your head or no grass or weeds at all. Just depends on the season. The leveling need is understandable as well. Since we don’t plan on scraping the ground down to be level the wood chips will be used for that. There will be totes inside that will need to have corners raised or lowered. Chips will work great for that. You can see what the end goal will look like by checking out this blog.

There aren’t that many steps to getting this set up and ready for seedlings. But, Ron is working a full time job and the bad weather we are having at this time. However, the next step will be getting the totes in the enclosure. Getting them cut to hold the water and setting up the grow tanks.

What to Grow in Our Outside Hydroponic System

I’m so excited about getting this up and going. I’ve already got some plants ready for the system. But, tell me what would you plant in a hydroponic system? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. How, to use the space to it’s full potential. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

Time to Start Veggies for Hydroponic System

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start veggies for the hydroponic system. After all, I’m in North Texas and we are getting hit with so much cold, snowy weather. Which makes it difficult to get the hydroponic system set up outside. And I know my northern friends have an even longer wait. I am still going to go forward with the belief that there will be a place to put these veggies when it’s time for them to be planted.

You can watch how I start the hydroponic seeds by clicking here.

A Veggie Is A Veggie

You might wonder if there is a difference between a veggie seed for a hydroponic system versus a veggie seed planted in a dirt garden. The answer is no, the difference is the planting material. Most of us are use to starting seeds in a planting mix which I do for most of our garden. However, the veggies seeds I start for our hydroponic systems I use a material called “rock wool”. The seed grows roots in this medium very well. It also protects the hydroponic system from dirt which can contribute to clogging the system.

Watering System

The thing that keeps me drawn to a hydroponic system is how water is used to grow the veggies. The main water source for the system might be an upfront heavy use of water. In our case we will be filling a 275 gallon tote full of water. That is a lot of water! However, it’s all the water we will need for a season of growing plants. A hydroponic system is a closed loop of circulating water so except for some evaporation the same water is used over and over again.

Here is a blog I wrote about starting our first hydroponic system

In North Texas this is important and very helpful because there are always water restrictions in the summer which makes it very difficult to keep the veggie plants alive in the heat of the season when watering the garden is very restricted. These totes are easily found and relatively inexpensive, we found ours on Facebook Marketplace.

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

Adding a Hydroponic Garden

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

This week we are adding a hydroponic garden in the grow room. I’m excited about it for several reasons! Fresh garden salad veggies in the middle of winter. Knowing were the end product comes from is becoming more important with the outbreak of the different diseases being reported. Affordability of my salad fixings; lettuce, herbs, tomatoes aren’t going to break my bank this winter. I plan on growing them all in my hydroponic system. Come with me and I’ll show you what I’ve been up to.

Hydroponic Gardening and Food Security

hydroponic system

Having security with my food system is one of the main reasons I started hydroponic gardening. The vegetables are grown in a medium that allows nutrient water to wash over the roots without anything touching the vegetable itself. Also having the option of moving the system inside or out makes it easy to manage and keeps it out of harms way. I talk about that more in this article.

Affordability of Hydroponic Gardening

lettuce from hydroponics

Affordability is one of my favorite things about hydroponic gardening! Upfront, only a system which can be as easy as a bucket is needed; you will need some nutrients for your system. Water is needed and then a seed for each veggie you want to grow. Put it altogether and I will bet that it will still be less then a trip to your favorite grocery store produce isle. Plus, it will taste so much better as well! Do I have you convinced? I plan on keeping my hydroponic gardening updated for you. We will be talking about what kind of nutrients and how to add them to the system and show you how my salad fixings are growing.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I promised in the video, plans to build a hydroponic system. Here is how to build your very first hydroponic system. Simple prints for a simple system that can save you time and money when it comes to your salad fixings.

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

Hydroponics – Our Pet Project

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

It might seem as if we were quiet on the blog this past week but I assure you that while you might not have seen much from us we were very busy behind the scenes. We were writing content, shooting videos and if you watch carefully you will even see our little Chihuahua, Chi made a cameo. Here is a look at the video. What were we so busy working on you might ask? Well, we have had a pet project that we have been learning about and working on for the last year. We have enjoyed it so much that we really wanted to share it with you!

Hydroponics – Our Pet Project

Our pet project is hydroponics. There are a couple of systems set up around the house and out on the porches. We have enjoyed homegrown lettuce and herb mixes during dreary winter months and all year long. We planted brassica plants such as broccoli; cauliflower and cabbage late last fall to grow during the winter months and again this spring all using hydroponics. Hydroponics it is a soilless way of growing plants using the nutrients in water to make them grow.

There are many different types of systems for the water and plants to be in. We use mainly the NFT system and then a variation of the Kratky system. If it sounds like a foreign language the hydroponic world does take a little time to crack the code in understanding in what is being said. We have really enjoyed learning about it and would love to share what we have learned with you.

We have a free guide that we wanted to share with you called, “Your First Hydroponic System Set Up Guide with Plans”. It talks about the benefits of a hydroponic system. The different types of systems, nutrients and lighting for your hydroponic system and planting materials for the system. Ron has created plans for how to build a hydroponic system inexpensively and using some material from around the house. It comes with a video that walks you through the process of starting a seed and how to goes through the hydroponic system.

So, if you are interested in hydroponics we would love to share this free guide, plans for the system and a tutorial video with you. Click here to have instant access to it all.

Enjoy,

Ron and Shawn

Do You Keep A Garden Journal?

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

It’s a simple one subject notebook that sits on the end of a table I have in my grow room. Right now, it’s pretty bear in that room. I haven’t been in there lately because all of the plants are outside. Today, as I walked by I spied my garden journal and realized I hadn’t written in it for awhile. Not because my gardening dreams have waned but now they are not in this room.

As I picked up the journal and scanned through the pages I got excited all over again as I read through the notes I made in December and January. It made me sad when I realized I didn’t make any notes in May. So, I decided to use this first day of June to update my garden journal.

Want to take a peek of what has been happening in my garden?

Dear Journal,

The last several months have not been easy for me, the state, the United States and the world as we have all had to deal with Covid19. Thankfully, I have been oblivious to most of it because I have had my garden to keep me busy. Here is what is happening right now with the garden.

Hydroponic System

hydroponic lettuce

As you come onto the deck our hydroponic system is set up with different lettuce products. Because it’s getting hot the lettuce is starting to bolt and tasting a little bitter.

If you turn right off the deck the potatoes, onions and peppers are over there. The potatoes are about ready to come out. The peppers are being eaten by bugs but we have gotten some sweet peppers already. They taste yummy!

Herb Garden

herb bed

If you take a right off the deck you will see our new herb garden that we just started this Spring. We cut down two big trees and there are another two I’d like down. The herbs are all in pots so we can move them around as we need to. I have harvested and dehydrated lots of lemon balm, basil, greek oregano and a little chamomile.

Cantaloupe & Watermelon Patch

basil & lemon balm

The cantaloupe and watermelon patch is growing great. I haven’t seen any fruit from it yet but lots of blossoms.

cantaloupe & watermelon patch

Ron built an amazing ramp that takes me from the back deck down to the concrete slab that has 4 raised beds. At the bottom in front of the ramp is a zucchini bed with 4 plants in it. Big, green and lots of male blossoms just no fruit yet.

The Raised Beds

Cucumber bed

Raised bed #1: Has 4 cucumber plants with lots of fruit on them. We had one in our salad last night!

Beefsteak tomato bed

Raised bed #2: Full of beefsteak tomatoes. These are what we will eat on sandwiches all summer. I can’t wait. We have green tomatoes and lots of blossoms right now.

carrots, peas & radish bed

Raised bed #3: Probably my favorite bed this year. We call it our CPR bed. It had carrots, peas and radishes. We got a nice radish crop. We are picking peas right now and enjoying them in our salads. And I have carrots this year! I’ve pulled all the radishes out and planted some beans. They are up and flowering right now.

Roma tomato bed

Raised bed #4: This is a new bed and right up against the ramp coming down. I have about 26 Roma tomato plants in there right now. I’ve got some tomatoes and blossoms but not what I was hoping for.

Corn!

Corn

In the middle is probably my favorite thing because so many said it couldn’t be done. My corn plants, about 20 of them in a kiddy pool and they are tasseling and have corn cobs on them! Around the pool I have about 13 cherry tomato plants that are growing great with lots of little green tomatoes and blossoms.

Cherry tomatoes

So, there is what I have been up to. Hope you enjoyed a peek inside of my garden journal. If you don’t have one pick up a notebook and start one today. You will be glad you did.

Blessings,
Shawn

Our First Hydroponic System

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

We have been thinking about different ways to grow fruits and vegetables. Beside planting them in the dirt and were very interested in hydroponics which uses water. There are many benefits to growing using a hydroponic system.  You can literally grow anywhere you have space, a hydroponic system uses 20 time less water than if you had planted a traditional garden in the soil. The environment that the plants grow in is sterile because there are no pesticides. You use 20 percent less space for growing and there are so many more beneficial reasons to use hydroponics. The best thing, I believe is that we can reuse the water by recycling it thru the system allowing us to conserve water.

Recycle and Reuse

With all this information we decided to build our very first system. Now, we can let you know that we are big on recycling and reusing anything that we can get our hands on. Our first step was to find a place that we were wanting to use for our first setup. Once we figured that out it was time to see what we could come up with as a design for the system.  Awhile back we tore down a deck to make room for a strawberry patch that didn’t work out to. Anyway, we started digging thru a pile of treated lumber to figure out what we had for the structure that would hold the PVC pipes.

Building the System

Once we had that figured out, we built the frame and it ended up being 4 feet wide and 4 feet tall and about 14 inches deep with a slight angle between the bottom and the top. We figured that we wanted 4 rows with 6 spots in each row totaling 24 places to have vegetables growing.

Now it was time for the PVC pipes. We used 2 inch pipe and we drilled 1 ¾” diameter. holes to hold the 2” net pots. After we had the holes drilled and the pipes all deburred and cleaned out it was time to glue the end caps on. Before we did that though we drilled and tapped a ½” NPT hole in each end cap. Because we were going to use a plastic fitting and some hose to connect each row of PVC pipe. We had some plumbers tape left over, from when we built our chicken coop, that we used to hold the pipe to the frame.

Success

Now that everything was assembled it was time to hook the pump up that would circulate the water and do some testing. We had a 5-gallon bucket that we were going to use as a water reservoir. So, after filling the bucket up and hooking the pump up it was the moment of truth. After plugging the pump in the water started to flow up to the top pipe and then back and forth thru all the pipes and then returning to the bucket. SUCCESS everything was running like it should and with no leaks. After everything was said and done we spent less than $50 on the whole thing.

We have written about the first planting in our hydroponic system that you can read about by clicking here.

Onto the next system.

lettuce from hydroponics

Weather & Gardening

  • By - DiyGarden
  • Posted on

Weather Phenomenon…

If you have been paying attention to the weather over the last few years you are aware of the weather issues that the United States has endured. One coast floods and the other coast has forest fires with the Midwest farmers facing problems feeding their livestock and planting crops. You might ask yourself what any of this has to do with you. But I believe most of us can understand how these weather systems can and will touch our lives as we see food prices increase. The scariest situation is the food shortages that we are just starting to see in the states, it makes me wonder what is to come…

Ron and I were talking about the weather issues and how we believe it was going to affect the food system in the United States. We agreed that now would be the time to work towards having a food source year around not just at the end of summer. Gardening has always been a relaxing hobby for me. I love planting a seed and getting a crop at the end of the season. At best I’m an enthusiast but not necessarily an expert in gardening but I am willing to work towards our goal of growing food year around.

Trying New Ways of Gardening…

Fortunately, I’m married to a guy that can build just about anything that I can imagine in my mind. I have done a lot of reading about hydroponics and aquaponics. Hydroponics is growing plants without dirt, in a water system using nutrients for the roots. Aquaponics is the same system with fish in the system under the plants. Figuring it would be easier to start our journey with hydroponics I showed Ron some plans for the system and off he went to designing and building our first hydroponic system.

Hydroponic system 1
Hydroponic system

Our First Hydroponic System…

He built a wooden frame that holds four rows, each four feet long, of 2 inch PVC. Then he used an 1 ¾” hole saw to create six holes in each row. This was enough room for 2” net pots which is what we used to hold the plants so this system equals 24 spots. There is a 5 gallon bucket with a small pond pump which circulates the water through the system. We put a timer on the system that runs for one hour and then shuts off for one hour which helps the system from becoming stagnant.

seedlings in rockwool
seedlings in rockwool

The Planting Begins…

I knew that lettuce was an easy plant to grow in a hydroponic system so that is what I started with. I ordered a packet of different lettuce types to try out the system for the first time. The first 10 plants were New Zealand Spinach, Mizuna Mustard, Bloomsdale Spinach, Curled Peppercress Cress, Lucullus Swiss Chard, Green Oak leaf Lettuce, Dwarf Siberian Kale, Butter crunch Lettuce, Roquet Arugula, and Southern Giant Collard.

The seeds germinated in two days and in two weeks the root system was large enough to put into the hydroponic system. I was so excited! The system is almost two months old and we have trimmed enough off two times to help with salad for dinner.

lettuce from hydroponics
lettuce from hydroponics

Success…

So far our hydroponic system has been a success! The plants are doing well and I think that as long as we trim the plants the leaves will continue to grow back. One of the things we have learned is that the nutrients and PH are important to monitor to keep the plants well nourished.

What are your thoughts of hydroponics?