Little tip. If you are doing a liner, before dogging the corners and trimming, fill the bed with water. The weight will cause the liner to lay tight to the bed frame making it easier to get that nice tight corner.
staples are generally not made of stainless steel and they can rust out pretty fast. Timber laths attached with galvanized nails is a good alternative that will also protect the exposed liner from direct sun. The liner can easily top 60 deg C after an hour or two in the sun which wont do it much good :)
That float valve box reminds me of the cheap plastic ammo boxes Harbor Freight sells. Would probably work great with the appropriate holes drilled into it.
8:18 "Whenever I add nutrient". I had a big issues with my reservoir drifting down to ph4.5. Disappointingly I did not think out of the box and it took a while till I tracked down the issue, including assuming my meter was broken. It was the nutrient. Out of the container, the nutrient was ph3.5. I discarded it, went with a different brand, and everything came right.
I love love love your channel so much. I’ve been growing in my hydroponic garden for a few yrs before I discovered your channel. This yr half of my garden has been transformed with things I’ve watched in your videos from the propagation system to the pucks and finally the wicking bed. I found a food gradeliner and followed your video. I printed the float box and got it all hooked up this week. I love it and so do the plants which are growing amazing in it. I’m definitely making a few more of these beds. They are the easiest thing yet and no electricity. Can’t wait for your next video!!!
Auqa valve came out with the same system. And I'm using a similar set up to run a fog ponics system. Works like a charm. Thanks for all the videos. I have benefitted from them
Welcome back, In my opinion the hose at the floating valve should be turned together with the elbow to the right or left so that it rests against the frame, this will reduce the possibility of tripping and reduce the stress on the elbow. Cheers
I dig it, a simple overflow tube through the side just above the nutrient level would work good for the rain. I like and use rain gutter systems but this seems way more adaptable to different applications. Great video
This gives me ideas for my aquaponics systems. I want to put fabric pots on my grow beds with the bottoms in the water and see how it works. Tomatoes and peppers don't like the gravel grow beds but with soil in fabric pots it should work like your hydroponics.
Hoocho, Another great video. Regarding your rain water pH: when it rains, the rain absorbs carbon dioxide as it falls through the air. Co2 is acidic, and hence your pH falls. Over time, much of this Co2 will dissipate back into the air. You notice the pH drop mostly when your tank has little water in it and you then get rain as the fresh rain comes out of your outlet at the bottom of the tank. Also, if the rain is gentle it tends to sit on top of the existing water in the tank.
Much love to you and your pupper doing you a medical at 20mins in, awesome content, been binging you the last few days, signed up to the Patreon, thankyou for the masterclass!
Had float valve on my fish aquarium worked great . Could run air hose out window for slow all day water change. Down side no overflow snail got stuck on lever jamming valve on flooding floor
You Beauti! I’ve been wanting a system that will work in a rental with grow bags. A smaller version with star poles at either end for the climbers and I’m laughin’. Even this old nana can do this one 😊
you can also use that float valve design to help top off your fogponic idea. im trying to come up with a fogger to apply a foliar feed, or ipm. thinking of a small tackle box, float valve in side, with 4" fan to push the fog out a black hose. all fed through by 5 gal rezevoir connect by 8mil line. cheaper than buying the backpack fogger for sure.
If you run into an issue with rainwater dilution you might want to consider getting a bilge pump. They usually run on 12v dc so a car battery will work fine, it will pump right down and you can pump into a drum or whatever, adjust and reuse.
Great idea 💪🏼 Just a heads up with the butternut pumpkin you planted first. Pumpkins grow in the direction opposite to the first true leaf. By the looks of it it's going to grow away from your chicken pen over the rest of your system. Looking forward to seeing the results of this system 🍻 Cheers 🇿🇦
I love this idea. I have a similar set up on a recirculating indoor flood and drain using boot trays. I wonder how loss to evaporation compares to letting it overflow to another less hungry bed. I’d bet your rocks help to buffer nutes(salts).
Hey Hoocho, I'd love to see some colored "mulch" experiments with growing hydroponics. I know red plastic is supposed to increase tomato yield while shortening ripening time. I hear red and yellow are good for lettuce. The best way to test may be spray painting tote lids but either way it would be a good test. Just an idea. Stay safe down there.
Thank you! I was just trying to plan a similar setup for myself, and this is exactly the example I needed. :-) Btw, when I use too tall fabric pots I just fold down the edge, but that's indoors in the Pacific Northwest of the US - who knows what might set up housekeeping in the fold in Australia ;-)
Outstanding! (But you need a cement mixer to clean all that gravel I reckon.) So cheap compared to other large plant hydroponic systems I would imagine. Looking forward to seeing how this develops over time. :-)
How is the windblown weed seed situation where you are? Because I look at this and just think of endless weeding the stoney area.. and evaporation, although I know you said on another comment you aren't concerned due to the rocks. I live in a very windy area though, so I might just be over concerned because of the lens I'm viewing through :) It's a nice system idea though! Will be interesting to see how it does, look forward to seeing it.
Pardon the necro, but for people in the future like me, you perhaps could drape weed matting over the top of the rock layer possibly, allow for airflow, but keep the flying jerks out... I live in a windy neck of the woods too, they suck.
For coco block you have to rinse coco with 3x the volume of water, then you have to make a solution with a lot of calmag or amend it with a complete nutrition.
Cheers mate 🍻. When are you going to stop surprising us? 😉 what a cool design. Good on you mate like your work. I can not wait to see the results thanks for sharing your experiments with us. Keep up your good ideas. You are onto something big mate.
Do you think the refill water will disperse nutrient evenly in this system or will it tend to be more nutrient rich at the fill end and more diluted at the far end?
Diffusion will generally equalise nutrient throughout a solution in an area. Unsure how the rocks will inhibit that. But I’ll test it and let you know.
I wouldn't worry about the seedlings, I try and start at least 3/4 of mine, but will always top up with nursery ones. It happens. Is that growth on the dragonfruit lol, my cuttings should be here tomorrow.
@hoocho would this style of hydroponics work well for potatoes and other root crops? I just bought a bunch of fabric pots and came across this video. Never thought about using them in a hydroponic setup. that would be PERFECT for my garden!!! We don't have power back there. Thanks!
Pucking hell, you've pucking done it again. This is pucking awesome. Instead of getting some pucking ducks this time though, im going to pucking get myself a pucking 🍺 pump. Pucking legend.
Good thing your better at hydroponics than pulling beer ;) ..got a bigger head on it than Frankenstein's monster :D Float valve box is a great idea. Last year I threw a watermelon into a 20 litre kratky 'just to see'. To get it to flowers over 5 weeks'ish, it drank 20 litres of nutes. The thought of the nutes demand during watermelon fruiting is scary :) I would be interested for an end of season nutes used totaling.
Thanks for the video Hoocho. I'm keen to try this system. The system feeds nutrient through the float valve positioned at the far end. Would there be better nutrient distribution if the float valve was placed in the middle of the system?
HAve you had any issues with temps and sun evaporating the hydro nutrient water in the beds leading to high EC in the solution? Nute burn? (unlikely since you said the plants are heavy feeders)
At 6:30 you said you were concerned about the possibility of roots possibly growing into your float box. You don't need to worry about that because those fabric pots are what they call 'self pruning'. The plant roots will not grow outside the pots.
Great channel but as all good things, too many commercials. Do you present you videos in other formats ( free or pay ) that doesn’t have rude, interrupting channel inserted commercials ? Thanks for your info and help !
Of course it's an issue, he'll have to flush that whole system every week. Edit... Also without flushing from the top of the pots there will be a salt barrier build up at the water line. You can't plan on rain solving this problem. The pots need to be completely covered all the way up the sides with p Stone for it to be a trouble-free system... And at that point the cost goes up tremendously.
Interesting what you said about block coir, unfortunately I can’t get anything else in Malaysia at a reasonable cost. What would you need to do to amend the coir
heya mate just found this channle love the work were i am in s.a we have been using dwc setups and was thinking them float boxes u make would go really well with air pumps keeping them from elements ;)
Hydroponic grade coco is not available for me so How to treat compressed coco blocks so that its suitable for hydroponics? Will a simple wash with warm/hot water is enough?
Not crazy about perlite. It takes a lot of energy to make, puffed gypsum with high heat, not very environmental friendly. They also float and gather. A 2:1 ratio of pumice and rice hulls are my choice for drainage.
Look up Auto Hempy’s. You made the same system, yours a tad bit more efficient though from the looks of it. Im looking for a good sub irrigation method myself im gonna run this experiment on my next grow
Heya mate, great content!!! Have you got a link to the grow bags, or even some you would recommend? And hows the wasabi going? Would love an update on that!
What about evaporation? Theres plenty of surface area to dry out and with your weather it might evaporate quickly, can it make the nutrient solution too concentrated?
@@TehMorph cheers mate, think of the rocks as the ground and the nutrient as groundwater, the rocks on top take the heat of the sun and keep the groundwater cool, preventing evaporation. They also reduce the surface area of the water by taking up most of the space.
If you place/ hoist your water storage tank up in a tree and or platform and cover in IR blocker sheeting and drape with 80% shade cloth it will prolong the life of your storage container immensely
Little tip. If you are doing a liner, before dogging the corners and trimming, fill the bed with water. The weight will cause the liner to lay tight to the bed frame making it easier to get that nice tight corner.
staples are generally not made of stainless steel and they can rust out pretty fast. Timber laths attached with galvanized nails is a good alternative that will also protect the exposed liner from direct sun. The liner can easily top 60 deg C after an hour or two in the sun which wont do it much good :)
This is what the comment section for! love the idea John
@Tommy Yuckguts Not pool work, but I have installed liners in storage tanks. Just a trick I learned.
That float valve box reminds me of the cheap plastic ammo boxes Harbor Freight sells. Would probably work great with the appropriate holes drilled into it.
It’s so good, that this is the channel that combines all of my interests: gardening, hydroponics and 3D printing! 😁🤙🏻
And Beer
Of course, AND beer.
8:18 "Whenever I add nutrient". I had a big issues with my reservoir drifting down to ph4.5.
Disappointingly I did not think out of the box and it took a while till I tracked down the issue, including assuming my meter was broken.
It was the nutrient. Out of the container, the nutrient was ph3.5.
I discarded it, went with a different brand, and everything came right.
Awww Hoocho! That rooster wasn't really, "attacking", that hen. (So cute.)
I love love love your channel so much. I’ve been growing in my hydroponic garden for a few yrs before I discovered your channel. This yr half of my garden has been transformed with things I’ve watched in your videos from the propagation system to the pucks and finally the wicking bed. I found a food gradeliner and followed your video. I printed the float box and got it all hooked up this week. I love it and so do the plants which are growing amazing in it. I’m definitely making a few more of these beds. They are the easiest thing yet and no electricity. Can’t wait for your next video!!!
Auqa valve came out with the same system. And I'm using a similar set up to run a fog ponics system. Works like a charm. Thanks for all the videos. I have benefitted from them
Welcome back, In my opinion the hose at the floating valve should be turned together with the elbow to the right or left so that it rests against the frame, this will reduce the possibility of tripping and reduce the stress on the elbow. Cheers
I agree, I didn’t have any elbows within arms reach and was lazy at the time hahah!
I dig it, a simple overflow tube through the side just above the nutrient level would work good for the rain. I like and use rain gutter systems but this seems way more adaptable to different applications. Great video
Just finished printing a hydro grow Tower. Love your channel dude. Will always tune in
This gives me ideas for my aquaponics systems. I want to put fabric pots on my grow beds with the bottoms in the water and see how it works. Tomatoes and peppers don't like the gravel grow beds but with soil in fabric pots it should work like your hydroponics.
Hoocho, Another great video. Regarding your rain water pH: when it rains, the rain absorbs carbon dioxide as it falls through the air. Co2 is acidic, and hence your pH falls. Over time, much of this Co2 will dissipate back into the air. You notice the pH drop mostly when your tank has little water in it and you then get rain as the fresh rain comes out of your outlet at the bottom of the tank. Also, if the rain is gentle it tends to sit on top of the existing water in the tank.
Much love to you and your pupper doing you a medical at 20mins in, awesome content, been binging you the last few days, signed up to the Patreon, thankyou for the masterclass!
Most if it done with a beer in hand. Skills!! Sweet videos. Thanks for sharing your passion.
Had float valve on my fish aquarium worked great .
Could run air hose out window for slow all day water change.
Down side no overflow snail got stuck on lever jamming valve on flooding floor
Loving the 3D print of the float valve box.
You Beauti! I’ve been wanting a system that will work in a rental with grow bags. A smaller version with star poles at either end for the climbers and I’m laughin’. Even this old nana can do this one 😊
This gave me an idea for a set up for crayfish aquaponics.
Nice set up dude
This setup is definitely going to be called a Hooch Pit
This already has a name. "Modified kiddie pool grow system"
Is that because you'll be able to drink the stagnant fermented roots and call it hooch?
You cool man!
You're farm is awesome!!!
Thanks!!! you made my day. I really needed this information. Greetings from Venezuela.
More awesome garden 3D printing…. Makes me feel like I should reallly fix my printer :p
you can also use that float valve design to help top off your fogponic idea. im trying to come up with a fogger to apply a foliar feed, or ipm. thinking of a small tackle box, float valve in side, with 4" fan to push the fog out a black hose. all fed through by 5 gal rezevoir connect by 8mil line. cheaper than buying the backpack fogger for sure.
If you run into an issue with rainwater dilution you might want to consider getting a bilge pump. They usually run on 12v dc so a car battery will work fine, it will pump right down and you can pump into a drum or whatever, adjust and reuse.
Great idea 💪🏼
Just a heads up with the butternut pumpkin you planted first. Pumpkins grow in the direction opposite to the first true leaf. By the looks of it it's going to grow away from your chicken pen over the rest of your system.
Looking forward to seeing the results of this system 🍻
Cheers 🇿🇦
Perfect! You've outdone yourself this time 👍🍻
I like this set up
Excellent simple build Hoocho, sweet.
Another great video! Thanks
I love this idea. I have a similar set up on a recirculating indoor flood and drain using boot trays. I wonder how loss to evaporation compares to letting it overflow to another less hungry bed. I’d bet your rocks help to buffer nutes(salts).
Great video...I just got a 3D printer so the box is something I might try after building a tower.
Question: Would this style of bed cause any mosquito problems? Also, is there an update video as to how this system worked?
I love this design but one question, in the middle summer would u have problems with root rot because of the heat?
Hey Hoocho, I'd love to see some colored "mulch" experiments with growing hydroponics. I know red plastic is supposed to increase tomato yield while shortening ripening time. I hear red and yellow are good for lettuce. The best way to test may be spray painting tote lids but either way it would be a good test. Just an idea. Stay safe down there.
Great content as usual Hoocho
Thank you! I was just trying to plan a similar setup for myself, and this is exactly the example I needed. :-)
Btw, when I use too tall fabric pots I just fold down the edge, but that's indoors in the Pacific Northwest of the US - who knows what might set up housekeeping in the fold in Australia ;-)
BROTHER YOUR A GUN!!! Subbed
Outstanding! (But you need a cement mixer to clean all that gravel I reckon.)
So cheap compared to other large plant hydroponic systems I would imagine.
Looking forward to seeing how this develops over time. :-)
Genius idea.
Is this system cheaper than the rain gutter grow system?
How is the windblown weed seed situation where you are? Because I look at this and just think of endless weeding the stoney area.. and evaporation, although I know you said on another comment you aren't concerned due to the rocks.
I live in a very windy area though, so I might just be over concerned because of the lens I'm viewing through :)
It's a nice system idea though! Will be interesting to see how it does, look forward to seeing it.
I’d be more worried about weeds in the coco, but the plants will outcompete them.
I’m not afraid of pulling a few weeds either hahah
Pardon the necro, but for people in the future like me, you perhaps could drape weed matting over the top of the rock layer possibly, allow for airflow, but keep the flying jerks out... I live in a windy neck of the woods too, they suck.
Hi there Hoocho, do you use the same nutriant for all your differant plants. many thanks Garry Keep the good work up, you have a great site thank you
Looks like I am going to have to fire up the prusa, I like it :)
For coco block you have to rinse coco with 3x the volume of water, then you have to make a solution with a lot of calmag or amend it with a complete nutrition.
Cheers mate 🍻. When are you going to stop surprising us? 😉 what a cool design. Good on you mate like your work. I can not wait to see the results thanks for sharing your experiments with us. Keep up your good ideas. You are onto something big mate.
Dinosaur Colorado USA saying hello and stay safe out there.
O m g u genius. Amazing.
G'day mate..
Enjoy watching your stuff.. Where do I buy the flout values from...
If that nutrient solution is kept open to sunlight, the Algae growth will be high naa? What do you do to avoid that?
Do you think the refill water will disperse nutrient evenly in this system or will it tend to be more nutrient rich at the fill end and more diluted at the far end?
Jep al the nutrient sinking to the bottem . A smal 12v circulation pump with a solar panel is the solution.
Diffusion will generally equalise nutrient throughout a solution in an area.
Unsure how the rocks will inhibit that. But I’ll test it and let you know.
I wouldn't worry about the seedlings, I try and start at least 3/4 of mine, but will always top up with nursery ones. It happens.
Is that growth on the dragonfruit lol, my cuttings should be here tomorrow.
Will the fabric bags begin to mould if they are constantly in water??
Why not cut the top half of a five gallon bucket off? Drill some holes in the side and plumb for the float valve.
I use black lava cinder rock in my aquaponics system. It may work here as a cheap alternative?
Does this allow the water to drain almost completely for any duration, or as soon as the water gets below a certain level, it let's water back in?
@hoocho would this style of hydroponics work well for potatoes and other root crops? I just bought a bunch of fabric pots and came across this video. Never thought about using them in a hydroponic setup. that would be PERFECT for my garden!!! We don't have power back there. Thanks!
I have family who live in the same catchment area as you! Small world!
Pucking hell, you've pucking done it again. This is pucking awesome. Instead of getting some pucking ducks this time though, im going to pucking get myself a pucking 🍺 pump. Pucking legend.
Good thing your better at hydroponics than pulling beer ;) ..got a bigger head on it than Frankenstein's monster :D
Float valve box is a great idea.
Last year I threw a watermelon into a 20 litre kratky 'just to see'. To get it to flowers over 5 weeks'ish, it drank 20 litres of nutes. The thought of the nutes demand during watermelon fruiting is scary :) I would be interested for an end of season nutes used totaling.
Love me some head retention.
Could you use sand in the reservoir?
PETG ok for outdoor use?
I would look into ASA as it has excellent uv stability.
Excellent
You mention that you haven’t tested the gravel, how would you do that?
Is natural evaporation an issue in hot weather climates?
I need to get me a 3d printer and make one of those, but I'm here in the US. Thanks
Looks great 👍
if you do not put enough of pebbles/stones, you think there'll be mosquito breeding?
Where did you get those grow bags so cheap?
Thanks for the video Hoocho. I'm keen to try this system. The system feeds nutrient through the float valve positioned at the far end. Would there be better nutrient distribution if the float valve was placed in the middle of the system?
HAve you had any issues with temps and sun evaporating the hydro nutrient water in the beds leading to high EC in the solution? Nute burn? (unlikely since you said the plants are heavy feeders)
At 6:30 you said you were concerned about the possibility of roots possibly growing into your float box. You don't need to worry about that because those fabric pots are what they call 'self pruning'. The plant roots will not grow outside the pots.
Trust me, they’ll find a way out.
Adding ph adjustments b4 the nutrients???
Im sure that was beer he was holding during the start of the video. subscribed cause that has to be cool, wouldn't ya say?
What about the stagnant pool of water getting hot and rotting the roots?
That is amazing.
Great channel but as all good things, too many commercials. Do you present you videos in other formats ( free or pay ) that doesn’t have rude, interrupting channel inserted commercials ? Thanks for your info and help !
A TH-cam Premium subscription eliminates the TH-cam commercials while still supporting the people you watch to create more content.
Hi there hoocho.. u should get some rain shortly..
Thanks for addressing the rain issues - I also wonder about evaporative losses leading to high EC - has that been an issue?
Of course it's an issue, he'll have to flush that whole system every week.
Edit...
Also without flushing from the top of the pots there will be a salt barrier build up at the water line. You can't plan on rain solving this problem. The pots need to be completely covered all the way up the sides with p Stone for it to be a trouble-free system... And at that point the cost goes up tremendously.
The system would work great if you didn't need to use salt based nutrients.
I think I might try that system super soil in the pots. With only pH water feeding the bed, it would pretty much be a no maintenance system. Nice.
Not to mention the roots that grow out into the stone are going to be in a stagnant pool of hot water. I see all kinds of problems waiting to happen.
I would love to buy seeds for the plants except there is a seed shortage!
Wait, so what do the wings on the side of the float box do again?
Interesting what you said about block coir, unfortunately I can’t get anything else in Malaysia at a reasonable cost. What would you need to do to amend the coir
Wash with water and then was with CalMag/nutrient solution. Websearch for "Buffering Coco Coir".
heya mate just found this channle love the work were i am in s.a we have been using dwc setups and was thinking them float boxes u make would go really well with air pumps keeping them from elements ;)
Make a video on mosquito larava infestation in hydrophonic reservoir .love your work got me into hydrophonics 😍😍😍😍
Why not fill with water before stapling???
Hydroponic grade coco is not available for me so How to treat compressed coco blocks so that its suitable for hydroponics? Will a simple wash with warm/hot water is enough?
www.botanicare.com/hydro-101/when-to-rinse-or-buffer-coco-coir/
Good
Good..
#myhydroponics
Not crazy about perlite. It takes a lot of energy to make, puffed gypsum with high heat, not very environmental friendly. They also float and gather. A 2:1 ratio of pumice and rice hulls are my choice for drainage.
Great ! But I think's "rain gutter" was cheeper ...
do u just sell the box? I dont have a 3D printer
Do you have an update?
Love the idea, concerned the water would attract snakes?
The water is covered so I can’t see a problem. Also I have dams around the property they can access.
Look up Auto Hempy’s. You made the same system, yours a tad bit more efficient though from the looks of it. Im looking for a good sub irrigation method myself im gonna run this experiment on my next grow
Unless you control the temperature of the pool there will be catastrophic problems.
Heya mate, great content!!!
Have you got a link to the grow bags, or even some you would recommend?
And hows the wasabi going? Would love an update on that!
I got these on clearance at Bunnings, hydro shops tend to have good quality ones with Velcro seams.
Wasabi is powering, spot of powdery mildew though.
They’re potato bags.
amazing setup why ph at 6.4 tho? i thought coco was 5.8-6.2? i notice you ph befor the neuts also?
"Grain of salt."
What about evaporation? Theres plenty of surface area to dry out and with your weather it might evaporate quickly, can it make the nutrient solution too concentrated?
What surface area? The nutrient is completely covered with rocks.
@@Hoocho I'm thinking it would still evaporate through the rocks 🤔, anyways very nice setup you got going on!
@@TehMorph cheers mate, think of the rocks as the ground and the nutrient as groundwater, the rocks on top take the heat of the sun and keep the groundwater cool, preventing evaporation. They also reduce the surface area of the water by taking up most of the space.
@@Hoocho waiting on the updates on this one! Cheers
Where do i find the slt files?
Doesnt ammonium saturation in grow medium, create a problem in wicking system?
Boom!!!
Hoocho!
As long as the pots dont' float rain is no problem at all.
If you place/ hoist your water storage tank up in a tree and or platform and cover in IR blocker sheeting and drape with 80% shade cloth it will prolong the life of your storage container immensely
Why raise it?