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Outdoor Hydro Herbs and Leafy Greens

starke

Well-known member
Last Update

Last Update

I'm going to call this experiment complete at this point until I have time to make a few changes to the system and mother nature becomes more hospitable. 99 day before yesterday, 100 yesterday 99 today. Looking at the next 10 days no temps below 94. Crazy heat for May, even for Florida. I'm afraid to see what the Dog Days of August will be like this year.

The plants have done amazingly well under the shade cloth and even the lettuce has grown out again to the point it will produce another bowl full when chopped the final time. The basil has grown like mad and will produce a fine mess of pesto. The two spinach plants have bolted without producing any usable leaves so they are for sure a fall crop. Going to transplant the parsley and oregano to dirt with the rest of our herbs.

Changes to be made:

The half inch pvc feed tubes work OK but leak when the system shuts off. Water drops run down the outside of the tubes and splash on the frame and deck causing algae and evaporated salts. The two drilled holes to feed each cup work OK but it was impossible to drill them in a perfectly straight line so the angles going into the cups differ and some spray almost outside the cup, again causing a mess. Even with the adjustments I built into the feed tubes I cannot adjust out all the spray/drips etc. Probably going to have to break down and just buy some regular drippers.

I have an idea floating around in the back of my mind using half inch rigid copper and various copper fittings for kind of a steampunk meets caribbean soul solution. :biggrin:

Be back in a bit when I fix the bugs and the weather cools off.

Peace,
starke

This morning:

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GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Holy crap! The basil is out of hand!

You're going to need a metric ton of pine nuts for the Pesto. :woohoo:
 

starke

Well-known member
Thanks. Actually the misses and I like walnut pesto better than pine nut. Fortunately I can buy them in bulk at Sams Club. Going to be freezing a bunch for sure.
 

Pumpkin

Active member
Veteran
Love this project. Thanks for sharing. If you drilled a hole in your pvc, and got a small paintbrush, you could pvc cement in some 4mm fittings by cutting the barb off one side. A lot of fiddly work though and probably not worth the effort. Just a though though.
 

starke

Well-known member
Love this project. Thanks for sharing. If you drilled a hole in your pvc, and got a small paintbrush, you could pvc cement in some 4mm fittings by cutting the barb off one side. A lot of fiddly work though and probably not worth the effort. Just a though though.

Thanks for the idea.
 

starke

Well-known member
Outdoor Hydro Herbs and Leafy Greens...Part Deux

Outdoor Hydro Herbs and Leafy Greens...Part Deux

About a year ago I started this thread and about 13 months ago shut it down because of design flaws and shitty weather.

The original hydro garden looked like this:

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The origin story and materials can be read here.

Problems identified early on included:

--Feeding tubes leaked drips in numerous places due to the drilled tube design.

--More grow sites than needed.

--Frame was cobbled together from untreated 1x4 lumber and held together with finish nails so was wobbly and would not last long in the Florida environment.

--Top row was too tall to reach without a stool or ladder.

--Unit was too wide for the space and extended under the porch roof, keeping some sites in perpetual shade.

Although I had hoped to redo everything in time to plant leafy greens in the fall, that did not happen. The misses and I finished planting our spring garden about a week ago and she proceeded to tell me now might be a good time for me to get off my lazy ass and and figure out what I was going to do with the pile of stuff that used to be the hydro garden.

So here is the new and improved model. Shorter and narrower. 28 plant sites instead of 45 and a frame made of recycled treated 2x8s held together with SS screws. The feed system is a homemade hybrid conglomeration of PVC, RO push connect fittings and 1/4 inch drip irrigation fittings. Kind of weird looking but seems to work well in initial testing and most importantly it does not leak or drip.

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I have basil started from seed that will be big enough to transplant in about a week. That will take care of half the sites. The remaining 14 sites are up in the air at this point but will get filled with something. Stay tuned.

Peace,
starke
 

starke

Well-known member
Love this project. Thanks for sharing. If you drilled a hole in your pvc, and got a small paintbrush, you could pvc cement in some 4mm fittings by cutting the barb off one side. A lot of fiddly work though and probably not worth the effort. Just a though though.

I almost forgot. Big thanks to member Pumpkin for the PVC glue suggestion back in June. Turns out that is what I ended up doing. The fittings I bought for the PVC were 10/32 thread on one end and 1/4" barb on the other. I drilled and tapped the PVC pipe and screwed the fittings in. Testing found that seven of the 28 lines would slowly seep around the fitting resulting in a drip. So I backed out all 28 fittings and used a Q Tip to put PVC glue on the 10/32 threads. Screwed "em back in and presto, no more leaks. Thanks again.
 

starke

Well-known member
Another almost forgotten important point. The initial impetus for this project was to avoid putting lumber and perfectly good PVC pipe into the landfill. Especially since the PVC falls into the category of "450 to 1000 years" when it comes to being biodegradable.

The one 9 site tube and the four, two site, cutoff pieces from the remaining four tubes were given to my son who has assembled his own smaller version for herbs.

The five, half inch, PVC feed tubes drilled full of holes were cut up and re-purposed into an abstract pond aerator at a friend's house.

The well used 1x4 lumber received an honorable cremation in my burn pile.

So far, nothing in the landfill. Neither me nor the misses are tree huggers but as we've gotten older and hopefully wiser we have found ourselves adopting more of a use it up, wear it out, re-purpose and recycle lifestyle. And it feels pretty good.

OK, I'm done editorializing.

Peace,
starke
 

St. Phatty

Active member
Got 24 pots set up with holes, watered etc. ready for Tomato seeds.

Then got another 20 pots for watermelon or corn.

Then will go collect more pots !!!
 

starke

Well-known member
Got 24 pots set up with holes, watered etc. ready for Tomato seeds.

Then got another 20 pots for watermelon or corn.

Then will go collect more pots !!!

I'm lucky that I have enough room to plant in the ground. The misses and I just finished planting slicing and canning tomatoes, two kinds of green beans, slicing and pickling cukes, three kinds of squash, corn and four different varieties of peppers.
 

starke

Well-known member
Weekly Update

Weekly Update

So it begins. Twenty one basil plants, two celery, one chive and one parsley. The parsley and chives are holdovers from last spring that I put in soil when I tore the old garden down. They have not been happy all winter so I rinsed the roots and stuck them back in the hydro. Still have three sites empty.

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Peace,
starke
 

starke

Well-known member
Weekly Update

Weekly Update

This past week saw the demise of the celery, chives and parsley. I'm not heartbroken though, I just plugged in seven more basil seedlings.

The plants have all grown during the past week although I don't think the pictures reflect the growth as well as an in person view.

Running Jacks and Calnit equal parts at 1.0ec and 5.8ph. The plants seem happy with that so far.

So far the Hydro Garden version 2.0 seems to be doing everything I could ask for. Next update in a week.

Peace,
starke

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starke

Well-known member
Just a note to keep things straight. Changed the rez today although ph was at 6.0 and ec still at .8. Had sediment in the bottom from the clay balls and figured it couldn't hurt. Back to 1.0 ec and 5.7ph.

Lost very little solution in the past 10 days which is a pleasant surprise. The leaks in the old system necessitated changing the rez every four days due to lost solution.

Happy so far.
 

starke

Well-known member
Weekly Update

Weekly Update

The basil has been in the hydro garden about two weeks now and are coming along nicely. They seem happy enough with the Jacks and Calnit at about 1.0ec and 5.8ph. If they continue growing at their current rate, I figure in about three weeks I'm going to be making a whole bunch of pesto.

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Peace,
starke
 

starke

Well-known member
Weekly Update

Weekly Update

The basil has been loving life this past week and have almost doubled in size. If everything holds together it should be pesto time in about two weeks.

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Peace,
starke
 

St. Phatty

Active member
I'm lucky that I have enough room to plant in the ground. The misses and I just finished planting slicing and canning tomatoes, two kinds of green beans, slicing and pickling cukes, three kinds of squash, corn and four different varieties of peppers.


i have to start everything in a protected area, or the seedlings get eaten by pets wild animals etc.
 
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