Love the mod. Always love doing stuff like this! It would be easier to use a heat gun and a board to level the plastic down to a flat surface. On low, use the heat gun to make the area you want flat. A board will make it look really good. Securing the pipe first with wood the correct height on either side of it will make sure it looks professional. If the gun is on high, could burn the plastic. After flat, use a spray bottle to harden it quickly. Then use the hole saw to cut the pot hole. Perfect fit on top and into the pipe. Once done, it's done for the life of the pipe. Don't want to steal your thunder, but just thought I'd add some thoughts in case you're looking for options. All the best.
Hi HG&MwB - That's a really good idea - I wish I'd have thought of it back when I first put the rails together... I did have a play around with softening the plastic with a blowtorch at the time, but it was too easy to burn it... I don't actually own a heat gun, but you're totally right... NFT would work better with a flat bottom on the rail. I just subbed to your channel as it looks interesting. Cheers!!
Love the bunny footage! The variety and variations of net pots with perlite reminds me of why I started trying hanging root pouches. The pouch holds the perlite, nutrients and roots without spoiling the rez. I'm thinking that any type of hydroponics really has only two delimiters, sunlight and temperature. If the nutrients provided in any hydroponic form, fills the plant requirements, then it is only sun, temp. and "bugs" that stop max production. Patrick talked about fooling nature and we all seem to try a lot of it with different degrees of success. I'm thinking about a screen house for bugs, covered by a poly house for rain, covered by a blanket house for the cold, that are raised as needed. Thanks for sharing with all the you tube crazies like me. BTW, I did find some cape gooseberry seeds, germinated and growing in my root pouches.
Thanks APH - I don't see hydroponics as 'fooling nature' at all. I consider it more as the art of giving nature exactly what it wants to thrive. If you sort out the nutrients and lighting perfectly then all you have left to worry about are plumbing and pests (which provide quite enough problems for me). I added a HEPA air filter into my greenhouse yesterday after I made this video to try and capture any fungal spores and stop them spreading from plant to plant (the greenhouse needed more air circulation anyway and the HEPA filter had been sitting in the garage for a decade). Nice to hear you're growing cape goosberries - I hope you like them as much as I do. Cheers!!
Did you ever get a chance to do a follow up video to this to see how you liked this? Have you ever considered designing a custom net pot and 3d print it? Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks Keith - Maybe it's a good idea... maybe my plants will rot from the continuous dampness around their roots... only time will tell. Hope you're keeping well. Cheers!!
Hi Jim doing great except I keep injuring myself lol I dislocated my shoulder last weekend playing golf so again I haven't been able to do any gardening. Maybe this weekend since I am starting to get better. I need to wrap myself in bubble wrap. LOL I am living vicariously through you and gardening right now ha ha Have an awesome weekend!
I just tied a bit of cotton to dangle and wick up some water till the root can grow. also I filled it with puffed glass pellets... if you ever need to buy more growing medium, its better than the strip mined pellets or rock...
cotton is not a best choice either but it was the only thing I had handy... but its ok I recycled my old underpants. now I will buy puffed glass underpants...?
Jim, I have the first flowers on my golden berry. I use an electric tooth brush on my tomatoes. Do I need to do the same with the golden berry? Thanks in advance for the help. Google search says self-pollinating but... Kirk
Hi APH - I've never taken any steps to fertilise the golden berry plants... They seem to manage it by themselves without any assistance.... though I do tend to leave the greenhouse windows open so that pollinators can fly in if they want to. Cheers!!
Thanks HW1099 - We were specifically aiming for this tune to be used for 'hurry-up' segments of video, so glad to hear you thought it went well. Cheers!!
Were they printed in PLA? Do you think printing the whole pot would work (if you didn't have any existing ones to modify for example)? I just finished moving and restoring a greenhouse last year and was thinking about getting started with a small hydroponic system to begin with.
Hi Robert - They were indeed printed in PLA - Either PLA or PET are both food-safe plastics, but ABS is best avoided. I'm sure that you could print the whole net pot out, but standard net pots are so cheap that it's not really worth the time and effort to have the printer working away for days on end. If you're only just getting started with hydroponics, I'd recommend deep-water-culture (DWC) as the best choice to begin with. NFT has a lot of possibilites for going wrong and killing all of your plants, whereas DWC tends to fail-safe (i.e. if your air pumps and water pumps stop running, the plants still have a reservoir of several litres to keep them alive until you notice the problems). The classic combination of a storage tote with a bunch of holes drilled in the top for the net pots to sit in is a very good starter solution. Cheers!!
Any 3D printer would print these. A lot of people like the Monoprice Maker Select as an entry-level machine (I have one). Find it at Monoprice.com or Amazon.
Pushing your luck with the weather, we see! That's about average whenever you try to take advantage of a sunny day in March. ;-D Question: What does NFT stand for? Google has not beenmy friend here, ant the acronym has been bugging me for weeks. Thanks Jim.
Love the videos, keep it up. One suggestion is to dial the music down just a bit, it's a little hard to hear you clearly (especially towards the end). Thanks!
Thanks Aaroun - I keep getting caught out by the audio levels time and again because it sounds fine when I'm editing it all together, but then at the final stage where it gets rendered to an MP4 video for uploading to youtube, it changes the levels and my voice gets drowned out... I expect it's something to do with downmixing from 5.1 audio to stereo... I'll try to remember in teh future (though I'll undoubtedly forget again in a few months time, so reminders are always welcome). Cheers!!
Hi Alex - Nowhere near fully automated I'm afraid... I did have a go at automating the filling of the reservoirs over the weekend, but the hose popped off it's fitting and sprayed water all over the circuit board I'd made... it didn't work after that... Ah well.. maybe next weekend. Cheers!!
That iponic 624 is a very nice looking controller... I wish I had one.. but it sure ain't cheap... I think I'll just carry on doing things manually until I get my own DIY solution going (if that ever happens). Cheers!!
i use root riot cubes in dwc. u must have the water just touch the cube... or rockwool or whatever u use. it wont choke the plant. the plant will get air. maybe start your plants un a dwc where its easy to control water level? i had this problem before and i solved it by having 2 10 liter buckets for seedlings where i have the water level just touch the root riot cube. this wick thing may work as well. now i get great roots instead of dead seedlings. it works.
Hi Jungle Bones - I've been starting my plants in rockwool cubes for the last few years, but the problem with the NFT rail was that the roots aren't usually quite long enough (or there's not enough of them) to be able to transplant into NFT without shocking the plant. For my larger DWC buckets, it's never a problem as there's airstones under the plants bubbling the water up and keeping the roots moist. We'll see in a few week's time how well the wicking idea works. Cheers!!
Enjoy how you've made great use of the 3d printer to solve problems. Really cool. Always enjoy your videos Jim.
Thanks Marc . Cheers!!
Love the mod. Always love doing stuff like this! It would be easier to use a heat gun and a board to level the plastic down to a flat surface. On low, use the heat gun to make the area you want flat. A board will make it look really good. Securing the pipe first with wood the correct height on either side of it will make sure it looks professional. If the gun is on high, could burn the plastic. After flat, use a spray bottle to harden it quickly. Then use the hole saw to cut the pot hole. Perfect fit on top and into the pipe. Once done, it's done for the life of the pipe. Don't want to steal your thunder, but just thought I'd add some thoughts in case you're looking for options. All the best.
Hi HG&MwB - That's a really good idea - I wish I'd have thought of it back when I first put the rails together... I did have a play around with softening the plastic with a blowtorch at the time, but it was too easy to burn it... I don't actually own a heat gun, but you're totally right... NFT would work better with a flat bottom on the rail. I just subbed to your channel as it looks interesting. Cheers!!
Love the bunny footage! The variety and variations of net pots with perlite reminds me of why I started trying hanging root pouches. The pouch holds the perlite, nutrients and roots without spoiling the rez. I'm thinking that any type of hydroponics really has only two delimiters, sunlight and temperature. If the nutrients provided in any hydroponic form, fills the plant requirements, then it is only sun, temp. and "bugs" that stop max production.
Patrick talked about fooling nature and we all seem to try a lot of it with different degrees of success.
I'm thinking about a screen house for bugs, covered by a poly house for rain, covered by a blanket house for the cold, that are raised as needed.
Thanks for sharing with all the you tube crazies like me.
BTW, I did find some cape gooseberry seeds, germinated and growing in my root pouches.
Thanks APH - I don't see hydroponics as 'fooling nature' at all. I consider it more as the art of giving nature exactly what it wants to thrive. If you sort out the nutrients and lighting perfectly then all you have left to worry about are plumbing and pests (which provide quite enough problems for me). I added a HEPA air filter into my greenhouse yesterday after I made this video to try and capture any fungal spores and stop them spreading from plant to plant (the greenhouse needed more air circulation anyway and the HEPA filter had been sitting in the garage for a decade). Nice to hear you're growing cape goosberries - I hope you like them as much as I do. Cheers!!
Did you ever get a chance to do a follow up video to this to see how you liked this? Have you ever considered designing a custom net pot and 3d print it? Thanks for sharing :)
Great to see a new video Jim! You take great care of those bunnies. Cheers Sir
Thanks Eric - More videos on their way. Cheers!!
Good Idea jim...nice you did your own 3D printed buckets
The mad scientist is at it again ; ) Some cool ideas there, Jim!
Thanks Keith - Maybe it's a good idea... maybe my plants will rot from the continuous dampness around their roots... only time will tell. Hope you're keeping well. Cheers!!
Great idea can't wait to see how it does. Have a great week!
Thanks Faye - Hope you're well. Cheers!!
Hi Jim doing great except I keep injuring myself lol I dislocated my shoulder last weekend playing golf so again I haven't been able to do any gardening. Maybe this weekend since I am starting to get better. I need to wrap myself in bubble wrap. LOL I am living vicariously through you and gardening right now ha ha Have an awesome weekend!
I just tied a bit of cotton to dangle and wick up some water till the root can grow. also I filled it with puffed glass pellets... if you ever need to buy more growing medium, its better than the strip mined pellets or rock...
cotton is not a best choice either but it was the only thing I had handy... but its ok I recycled my old underpants. now I will buy puffed glass underpants...?
Jim, I have the first flowers on my golden berry. I use an electric tooth brush on my tomatoes. Do I need to do the same with the golden berry? Thanks in advance for the help. Google search says self-pollinating but...
Kirk
Hi APH - I've never taken any steps to fertilise the golden berry plants... They seem to manage it by themselves without any assistance.... though I do tend to leave the greenhouse windows open so that pollinators can fly in if they want to. Cheers!!
I liked the bunny footage!
Really like the new tune, it fits perfectly :)
Thanks HW1099 - We were specifically aiming for this tune to be used for 'hurry-up' segments of video, so glad to hear you thought it went well. Cheers!!
Were they printed in PLA? Do you think printing the whole pot would work (if you didn't have any existing ones to modify for example)? I just finished moving and restoring a greenhouse last year and was thinking about getting started with a small hydroponic system to begin with.
Hi Robert - They were indeed printed in PLA - Either PLA or PET are both food-safe plastics, but ABS is best avoided. I'm sure that you could print the whole net pot out, but standard net pots are so cheap that it's not really worth the time and effort to have the printer working away for days on end. If you're only just getting started with hydroponics, I'd recommend deep-water-culture (DWC) as the best choice to begin with. NFT has a lot of possibilites for going wrong and killing all of your plants, whereas DWC tends to fail-safe (i.e. if your air pumps and water pumps stop running, the plants still have a reservoir of several litres to keep them alive until you notice the problems). The classic combination of a storage tote with a bunch of holes drilled in the top for the net pots to sit in is a very good starter solution. Cheers!!
what type of 3d printer does this require? very interesting
Any 3D printer would print these. A lot of people like the Monoprice Maker Select as an entry-level machine (I have one). Find it at Monoprice.com or Amazon.
Pushing your luck with the weather, we see! That's about average whenever you try to take advantage of a sunny day in March. ;-D
Question: What does NFT stand for? Google has not beenmy friend here, ant the acronym has been bugging me for weeks. Thanks Jim.
NFT = Nutrient Film Technique
Love the videos, keep it up. One suggestion is to dial the music down just a bit, it's a little hard to hear you clearly (especially towards the end). Thanks!
Thanks Aaroun - I keep getting caught out by the audio levels time and again because it sounds fine when I'm editing it all together, but then at the final stage where it gets rendered to an MP4 video for uploading to youtube, it changes the levels and my voice gets drowned out... I expect it's something to do with downmixing from 5.1 audio to stereo... I'll try to remember in teh future (though I'll undoubtedly forget again in a few months time, so reminders are always welcome). Cheers!!
Hi jim have you got a fully automated grow now ?
Hi Alex - Nowhere near fully automated I'm afraid... I did have a go at automating the filling of the reservoirs over the weekend, but the hose popped off it's fitting and sprayed water all over the circuit board I'd made... it didn't work after that... Ah well.. maybe next weekend. Cheers!!
Jim Conner watched a medical grow he used a iponic 624 to control everything
That iponic 624 is a very nice looking controller... I wish I had one.. but it sure ain't cheap... I think I'll just carry on doing things manually until I get my own DIY solution going (if that ever happens). Cheers!!
i use root riot cubes in dwc.
u must have the water just touch the cube... or rockwool or whatever u use.
it wont choke the plant. the plant will get air.
maybe start your plants un a dwc where its easy to control water level?
i had this problem before and i solved it by having 2 10 liter buckets for seedlings where i have the water level just touch the root riot cube.
this wick thing may work as well.
now i get great roots instead of dead seedlings. it works.
Hi Jungle Bones - I've been starting my plants in rockwool cubes for the last few years, but the problem with the NFT rail was that the roots aren't usually quite long enough (or there's not enough of them) to be able to transplant into NFT without shocking the plant. For my larger DWC buckets, it's never a problem as there's airstones under the plants bubbling the water up and keeping the roots moist. We'll see in a few week's time how well the wicking idea works. Cheers!!
a piece of unwanted cloth will be able to help to bring the water to the plant.s
Ah yes... that would have been a simpler solution. Cheers a14266.
Awesome video! :-)
cheaper option would be to just use piece of thin fabric or rope extended from the bottom to the pipe base.