Coffee Can Hydroponics Experiment

I got this idea from a guy on youtube, I've been wanting to try hydroponics for awhile and I had most of the stuff I needed but I didnt want to build a full system until I have some experience.

So I built this mini hydro system from a plastic coffee can, air pump, air stone ,plastic cup and some hydroton clay pellets. total investment $1.50 for the airstone, I already had everything else laying around the house. I have about 150lbs of the clay balls that I bought from people who were renting a house to a guy who was also doing hydroponics, just not quite so legal (yet) if ya know what i mean.

the clay balls sell for about $60 per 50lb bag, I got all of it for about $30

I'll do my best to explain the system and how it works. This is known as a DWC system (Deep Water Culture) The growing media (hydroton) is used to hold the plant in place and the roots of the plant are submerged in a water/nutrient solution, I punched some holes in the sides and bottom of the cup to allow water in. air is then pumped into the water to oxygenate the root system.

sounds interesting definatly keep us posted on this works out

Interesting. What sort of nutrients do you have to add to the water and how often do you have to add it?

nutrients are complicated, the miracle grow plant food I added isnt really the right stuff to use because it doesnt have all of the trace elements and micro nutrients like calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc.

there are a few ways to test the nutrient content of the system, one is by measuring the EC (electrical conductivity) with a probe, The higher the conductivity, the more dissolved solids there are in the solution.

I'm not doing all of that for this little system, I'll play it by ear and add a few drops every week or two, that is unless the plant gets too big for the system.

You could probably do a bit of searching within the Beer Home Brewing world. They use several of those compounds and minerals for water additions in the wort. I have brewed beer at home for years and while I do not get as technical as some I have used calcium carbonate, magnesium sulfate, PH stabilizing salts, and servomices which is zinc yeast nutrients in my brewing before. They were all very cheap to buy in small quantities from my local brew supply shops. I think I got 2oz of calcium carbonate and magnesium sulfate for just a couple dollars.

Neat project for sure. I look forward to the updates.

They sell hydroponic specific nutrients, i just havent gone to the hydro store and picked any up. i figure this is a low budget test before jumping into a larger system.

I'll let the bush bean go for a little while and then try tomato and maybe lettuce.

hi bpbdrummer, that looks interesting, but be careful when you are using hydroponics nutrients. Only certain specific nutrients are suited for specific mediums, it is very necessary to cross verify all the ingredients that are used for the plants. There was a recent update about the inaccuracy of the hydroponics label information which may hamper the proper growth of the plants....
check out the article here for more details and you'll be surprised. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb5245164.htm

Brendon

Glad to have you join us. You may have noticed that the last post on this thread was 2010.
Do you SFG? Hope so, cause we love Square Foot Gardening.

Let us know how your SFG is going, and ask questions if you have them. We have a friendly group that likes to help. We aloo enjoy hearing how your garden is progressing.

Again, Welcome!

hi, furbalsmom.. thanks for the welcome.. I just skipped that part and wanted dpdrunner to know about the recent update regarding the hydroponic nutrients accuracy...

Foxfarm makes awesome nutrients. use grow formula, then switch to the bloom formula