Rooting for more

So today as we were doing another clean out of our hydroponics system. When we pulled up the top lid we were amazed out how big the root structure was on our plants. To think that that would all be under the dirt and not seen but in hydroponics it can be seen. It is just cool to see what you normally can't see.

Beans

So we finally have some growth of beans. We have a lot of small ones growing but one big one that is also growing. It is good to finally see the beans growing. Hopefully by harvest day we will have a couple more to give to everyone!

Rotation

After we moved the plants to their new location growth continued to boom. Several plants go bigger. Still the plants that had been scorched by the light have not recovered from their traumatic experience but we hope with time that they get better and become healthier. Also we rotated the plants that were more scorched then the others to hopefully give them a better chance of coming back to life.   

How it works

So we forgot to put up a blog about how our system actually works. In this blog we will hopefully explain what our system is and what the components due. Also below are a couple pictures of the growth of our system.

For our hydroponics system we decided to go with an Ebb and Flow design. This is what we found was the best for the beans that we were growing. In Ebb and Flow or Flood and Drain what happens is water from a reservoir is pumped to your growing area. Once the level of the water that is being pumped reaches a certain height there is some sort of tubing or piping that allows for the growing area to drain. In our system our reservoir that olds the nutrient and water solution is on the bottom in the grey 5 gallon bucket and on top is our growing area which is a 3.5 gallon bucket. In the top bucket we have four solo cups that holds our growing medium that is perlite and clay pellets. We chose two different growing mediums because we wanted to do an experiment to see which medium grew better. 

Also in our top bucket, which is kind of hard to see but may be in another photo, is PVC pipe. That PVC pipe is what is called a Bell Syphon. For our Bell Syphon we have a 2 in outer pipe with a cap on the top and on the inside is our stand pipe that is 3/4 in. This then goes to a 90 degree elbow and then to a 45 degree elbow. This is all to drain the water out of our growing area. 

Now how the Bell Syphon works is a pretty simple concept. At the bottom of the 2 in PVC pipe we have several holes cut into it this is where when all of the water is drained out it will stop. So basically what happens is the water from the reservoir fills up the top bucket. Once the water reaches the opening on the 3/4 in pipe ,that has a 1 in expander on it, the water begins to flow down the stand pipe. The bends in the pipe create back pressure like a vacuum to help the water flow. When the last air bubble is sucked down the stand pipe the water is sucked down the tube and drains the growing area. Once the water level drops below our holes at the bottom of the 2 in pipe air is sucked back in and stops the syphon. Then from there the process repeats it self about every 7 minutes. The ideal is that we would have the syphon go about every 30 minutes but the way we have it set up is working great.  

Growth wise the plants are growing great. There are a couple of browning leaves we believe this is because our plant got to close to the light. We are finding that at first the clay pellets were the best growing medium because the plants shot up through that the quickest. But now looking at the perlite it is growing straighter and looks a tad bit healthier then what is in the clay pellets. We are also beginning to see some of the flowers open up and hopefully soon there will be beans growing out of them. 

Thanks for checking out the blog! Check back soon to see what the progress looks like.

Kohl Orner

R&K Hydroponics

Booming

So we have not posted anything for a while. We replanted a couple of the plants because some were not growing very well. We also moved our system because the plants were being scorched by the light. The system is still running great had a few problems with our siphon not working correctly but it is working great now. Below are a couple images of growth.

Growing Rapidly

After we came back from spring break we noticed a huge amount of growth from our plants. This week we are noticing even more. Although our syphon gets stuck every so often and does not syphon when it is supposed to the plants are looking great. There are a few of them that are getting pretty close to the light so we are going to raise the light during the next class. We are also planning to do a clean out shortly to hopefully get any gunk that could be stuck in the tube from the pump out. Hopefully with these couple of adjustments the growth with continue.

Growth

To our amazement when we got back from break our plants we growing. They grew a lot faster then we expected them to grow. We are happy that the Ebb and Flow system seems to be working great. It looks like there is either algae or just a build up of nutrient in our growing bucket. Below is a picture of the growth!

Kohl Orner

R & K Hydroponics