I Built A Hydroponics Setup to Grow 30 Lettuce a Month in My Living Room!
I love to garden but I move around a lot and currently live in an apartment. Several times I've put tons of work into an outdoor garden, only to be called away for a work trip to find my veggies dried up, trampled, or choked out by weeds. The one time I successfully grew some strawberries and tomatoes, I had more than I could eat for a few weeks, and then nothing. I don't want to wait 9 months to have fresh organic food again! I decided to build this setup that you see pictured and I am proud to say that it is now growing it's first seven seedlings. :)
The whole design is my own but I did learn a lot from similar setups on Youtube and other blogs. I wanted it to look good enough to have in my living room and also have it run automatically. All I have to do is plant 7-8 seeds once a week and top off the tank with nutrient solution. The lights and pump timers are controlled with an app on my phone. I put red/blue LED grow lights on the top tier and a fluorescent shop light on the bottom to see which one grows lettuce the best. It also looks pretty cool. A few other innovations were using rain gutters for the tiers and the tank fitting contraption to adjust the water level. I'm sure someone out there has done similar things but it felt good to come up with these solutions on my own and have it actually work. :)
I filmed almost every step of the construction and am working on editing it all together. Right now, here is a summery video I made (before adding the lights and plants)about how it all works. STAY TUNED FOR THE FULL STEP BY STEP VIDEO!!!
This is awesome mate. Is it just for lettuce? What are the conditions for other vegs?
I should be able to grow a lot of different things but I thought lettuce would be the easiest so i'm starting with that.
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30 a month? That's a lotta lettuce lol Lots of salads! Nice to have home grown healthy food for sure though. My neighbors have a strawberry patch and a grape vine so they always have some extra for me in season :)
My girlfriend eats a ridiculous amount. Hoping to have leftovers to give away to friends or the food bank.
Awesome! Food banks always need fresh produce that'll be great if your GF and friends get tired of lettuce lol Love Steemit, feels great connecting with positivism and abundance again.
Now that is sweet.
This is too sick!!
Any form of temperature regulation/insulation? Will that need to be factored in for optimal lettuce growth at all?
Thanks. Lettuce grows fine at room temperatures. The lights aren't very hot and they are well ventilated.
Excellent!
Where have you found the system to buy? How long it took to install?
I custom built it. It took me a couple days.
Do you use any kind of lighting?
Yeah I have LED grow lights on the top and a shop light on the bottom.
Great. Ive been thinking of doing similar. Thsnks for posting