Hydroponics has always been....

Hydroponics has always been one of those ideas that I have been interested in.  Even as far back as my college days I had found a book called "Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills" that was published by Reader's Digest back in 1981.  This is probably one of the classics for showing "How it is made" back before the internet or even cable TV.  This book is an interesting look at techniques for rustic living, including a section on farming/gardening techniques using Aquaponics.

If you can find a copy of this book I can highly recommend it as a idea generator for DIY projects that can be fun and productive.

When my wife and I bought our first house there was already a nice sized garden area with borders made from old railroad ties.  Probably not a recommended material these days with there creosote impregnation and all.  But I had my first garden.  The lot had flood irrigation so there was little need to think much about a watering system.  We got a foot of water every month, twice a month in the summer.  This was actually a fairly good system that has been in use here in Phoenix since the days of the Hohokam Indians.  In fact some of the same irrigation ditches are still in use today.

This garden was very productive for the 10 years we lived in that house.

Our second house didn't have a garden when we moved in but there was an old scraggly climbing rose hedge along the north wall.  While cutting it down I found that it too was inside a railroad tie border.  This area was a bit smaller than my previous garden, but it was 4 foot wide by 50 foot long.  There was no flood irrigation for this yard so I installed a new drip irrigation system for that area.  The only problem now was a big tree in the neighbors yard that overhung into my yard quite a bit.  But then again it probably helped in the summer by shading the garden from the hot sun.  I also started to do some container gardening on the patio,  also hooking these pots into the drip system.  So life was good.

Until the economic downturn that is.  My work got slower and slower till they finally had to dissolve the department I was in.  We ended up doing a short sale on our house and rented a smaller house in a cheaper neighborhood in Phoenix.  Though I have a backyard I have never felt I could dig it up and put in a garden.  I guess I could go with a container garden but I just haven't felt that spark to get it going either.

My Stepfather who passed away a couple of years ago had been working on designing and building an Aquaponics system before he died.  He was using 55 gal food grade barrels to make up the components for his system.  I was intrigued but did not really have the room to do something that elaborate in my old yard.  And the landlord probably wouldn't approve here either (lol).

But then I saw a Ted Talk from a lady that is making something called WindowFarms.

Here Britta Riley is using plastic water bottles to make a vertical garden.  Wow this system is so simple it is amazing.  Being a do it yourself type person this got my creative juices flowing again. 

For my engineering prototype I decided to use 2 liter bottles instead of the smaller water bottles.  I cut the top cone off and a 3in section of the body.  I used the 3 in section as sort of a cup holder to hold the cone inverted to hold the plants.  I used packing tape to tape the holder to a piece of wire reinforcement for building block walls.  I punched a hole into each of the lids so the water could drain out into the next plant.  with the bottom lid I pushed a 1/4in barb into it so I could attach a short piece of hose to direct the water into the water reservoir.

I had some 5/16in food grade tubing that I used when making homebrew beer.  I punched a hole into it and pushed another 1/4in barb into it a few inches up from the bottom to make the water lift system.

Note: If your air pump is lower than the level of water in your reservoir then you should also add a check valve in the air supply line to keep water from syphoning out into your pump.


The only two things I bought specifically for this project was the air pump at PetsMart for $27 and the reinforcement wire at Home Depot for $1.77.  Everything else I had on hand.

In retrospect it would have been a lot cheaper to have waited and ordered the Air Pump from Amazon.

It may not be the prettiest but it does work :-)

Have any questions or comments use the comments section below.

Also if I have helped or inspired you in anyway you can help me by  buying  your planting needs through my Amazon Store.