I tried googling local providers with no luck, it seems hydroponics is not yet popular in SA. Any info that you guys can provide me with will be highly appreciated.
Before you invest megabucks, I suggest a pilot project. Read around the subject. Hydroponic equipment houses are there to rip you off. Once you understand the basic principles, you will realise this. Some thinking - don’t be weirded-out by the length. It’s from previous posts edited to suit. I’m not a cyber-stalker.
Tomato’s are too much shlep. You need frames ‘n stuff. The plant is too weak to support the tomato unaided. Rather go for something that grows quickly so that you can see results. I think radishes take +-30 days.
Pilot Project
Given the potential for food shortages, hydroponics is a viable aid (and it’s simple). A cheapo pilot project, to test viability, is as follows.
Information is essential. Google as much as you can. Subscribe to some appropriate magazines – because marijuana growing often takes place under clandestine conditions, a strong case can be made for the ‘Homegrown’ type of magazine being world leaders in hydroponics. Check-out UV gro-lamps. They look the same as those purple lights they had in discothèques. I don’t know if they are. Plants get terribly spindly as they reach for the light. Don’t have too few.
Fix your crop baskets (wire) to a wall in a closed environment (a spare room?) in tiers. Fix a holding tank above with a length of pipe that will drip continuously on the top row. The dripping moisture reaches the bottom of the wire basket and drips onto the plants in the next tier – and so on (gravity feed). The last tier (bottom) exhausts the liquid into another tank. A car windscreen washer water pump (12V in case of power failure – besides, mains voltages and water don’t mix well) continuously pumps the liquid back up to the holding tank. Process repeats. Some adjustment to the flow may be necessary here to get the quantity right. The growth medium can be anything neutral from polystyrene balls to sawdust (avoid beach sand – too saline).
Try-out genetically engineered crops from Monsanto, the jury is still out regarding negative effects and the yields are higher. A big argument of the anti crowd is the contamination of neighbouring fields with regular crops. Hydroponics is a closed system thus there is no contamination.
The nutrient for the pilot project could be one of the many standard pot-plant muti’s available, with one teaspoon to umpteen litres of water. For specialised crops, you would have to have your own home brew nutrient. Look out for hydroponic interest groups on the Internet – lots of info. and tips.
I don’t know much about the nutrients required. However, there are hydroponic interest groups who have their secret homebrew blend of ’11 herbs & spices’ for all common vegetables. They will break their necks passing-on ‘their superior’ recipe to you.
Marijuana Growing (Yes, I know you didn’t want this wink, wink)
One of the people I shared a squat with in the UK was an Australian fellow who used to grow his dagga under a table with gro-lamps fixed to the underside of the table and the plants in disposable paper cups. This was quite handy as the project could be concealed from the occasional visitor by simply allowing the tablecloth to droop over the side of the table and it was kept from being underfoot of the residents. The only problem was that his plants were terribly spindly as they reached for the light. I became good friends with him and we resolved to tackle his problem together. We subscribed to some appropriate magazines – because marijuana growing often take place under clandestine conditions, a strong case can be made for the ‘Homegrown’ type of magazine being world leaders in hydroponics. We finally solved the problem by sacrificing a beanbag (for the polystyrene balls as a growth medium) and cobbling together an arrangement using a cut-up corrugated, fibreglass roofing sheet and a fish-tank pump. The nutrient was one of the many standard pot-plant (no pun) muti’s available, with one teaspoon to umpteen litres of water. It worked very well and was more portable (for when we moved) than the old arrangement. When we finally parted he was working on an ‘uber’ strain by crossing prime Thai and Jamaican. I wonder what happened?
