Researching the Hydroponics

Good morning world.  So in continuing to catch up to recent activities, after selecting the spot in my yard to experiment I started doing some research.  It was mostly on YouTube I will admit, since I like to not only hear but see things in action.  I found one guy in particular that I really enjoyed watching hpgardener.  In a few of his videos he demonstrates a particular type of hydroponics known as the Kratky hydroponics method.  Basically it is a self sufficient system that requires no maintenance after set up.  All you do is build the box, put in the liquid plant food, insert plants and one month later you will have some amazing veggies.  Also the cost is very low because it is made out of low grade lumber, some plastic and styrofoam.

Building New Boxes for Hydroponic Growing

I also found another cool system that could work in tandem with my boxes but although it is very spatially effiecient it is not as economically efficient.  The Kratky boxes cost about $50 for 3 if you buy the material from the store.  The towers would cost around $300 each! 

The plans call for 10' long 4 inch PVC pipe which at the local lumber store are $20-25 each.  Each system requires 7 strait pipes and also rounded pipe at the ends which are pricey as well.  I am still interested but looking at craigslist everyday for people giving out free pipe....giggity...Also if I'm driving around and see some pipe laying around I would try to use it for this purpose.  But I was thinking or building two of these tower systems for each fish pond I am going to dig so for now unless I find free pipe or win the powerball it's just not going to happen.  There are other pipe methods out there but what I love about this one is that it is gravity fed.  Meaning you just pump water to one place at the very top and it trickles down through the system without assistance.  There are other systems where the pipes are level and it requires additional hardware to get the water from one level to another.

Once again nothing wrong with this A frame system, it just makes more sense in my mind to let nature aka gravity do the work.  Less moving parts means less chance that things break or need repair.