The Start of the journey.

I have started a new project. I am learning about hydroponics plant life and in general new ways to make sure I can feed myself and my loved ones regardless of whether or not the trucks and trains are moving.

On 1/11/08 I started seed some in jiffy peat pellets some in paper towels kept moist to start them sprouting. I have started:

chives

plain parsley

basil

rosemary

sage

tomato ( early bird hybrid)

leeks

I’ll add more later once I get some of the kinks worked out. For now as of 1/16/08 my basil and leeks in the jiffy peat have sprouted I’m going to hold off on my large ebb and flow system for now and build a small air powered ebb and flow system. Here is ver 0.1

For tools I used:

• A box cutter
• Electric tape

• A bit of coat hanger (I bent one end to make it easier to hold)

For build supply’s I have:

• A small soda bottle
• A large apple juce bottle
• A water bottle (not shown in pic because I found it after I started)
• 25′of standard air line(about$3 at mega-box store)
• A air pump (about$10 at mega-box store) it came with 2 check valves

To Start I used the knife to drill 2 holes in the soda cap

You could also use a drill it would take 2 seconds instead of 20 but I’m using what I have. The best way I found to start and drill the holes is to put the cap on a covered table (I just used my Idea/hard copy log book) hole the knife firmly point straight down on one side of the cap and twist the cap. You are not tying to stab straight through the cap just keep enough pressure to keep the curls of plastic comin. Use a new (at least newish) blade, the sharper the blade the less likely it is to slip and cut you. Pick up the cap and clean up the other side, just leave it a little small not much but the tighter you do this the less likely its going to leak

For the first test I just need 2 lines one for the air in and one for the water outlet. I put the cap on a bottle

Heres it all set just plug it in and it works great the box says it will pump 6 airstones in ver 0.1 I only have 3 pods each filled with 2 lines one high one low so it both fills the pod and drips right to the roots one the pump stops the water drains back down to the resevoir in this case a apple juice container heres the lid

here

Now for the pods. I used a pen so that it would show up better in the pics but the first line is just bairly in the hole the second goes up to the roots

its gettin hard to hold I’m not planning on useing this version for more than morking out the prototype so I just need a way to hang up the pods, I decide to ziptie them to a coat hanger so i can hang it up

now its rigged time to hang it up fill the resevoir plug it in and pray

well its reither pretty or efficient or even water tight yet but ver 0.1 is in the bag. For ver 0.2 I’ll be using a six pack of soda bottles I’ll have one ebb/flow line for each and I’ll use the plastic ring they come with and some string or wire to add stability. I’ll also have in each cap a second drain line with a shut off valve. I’ll use a 2 part epoxy to seal the lines.

Well thanks for reading I’ll have ver 0.2 in the next post please feel free to leave comments, criticisms, or questions.