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Your year round greenhouse
Given the cost of heating, lack of winter sunlight, and accessibility to your garden all say your year round should be in your living room.
This page describes a simple hydroponic system that will fit into a south facing window providing greens and herbs all year long.
Materials: I have used 3"PVC piping, a small cooler, an aquarium pump and aerator, some PVC fittings, some plant cages, a rock wool tray, hydroponic nutrients and pH strips for the setup. The total cost was about $100 and it has been relatively maintained free over a 6 month period. We have been harvesting regularly over this time. Clipping parsley, bits of chives and thyme in a salad, buc choy in a stir fry and salad greens regularly have been a winter delight. I plan to move to more herbs over the summer simply because they are at hand when I cook. I can simply put some of the plants in the garden making sure the root mat is kept in place.
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Your year round greenhouse
Given the cost of heating, lack of winter sunlight, and accessibility to your garden all say your year round should be in your living room.
This page describes a simple hydroponic system that will fit into a south facing window providing greens and herbs all year long.
Materials: I have used 3"PVC piping, a small cooler, an aquarium pump and aerator, some PVC fittings, some plant cages, a rock wool tray, hydroponic nutrients and pH strips for the setup. The total cost was about $100 and it has been relatively maintained free over a 6 month period. We have been harvesting regularly over this time. Clipping parsley, bits of chives and thyme in a salad, buc choy in a stir fry and salad greens regularly have been a winter delight. I plan to move to more herbs over the summer simply because they are at hand when I cook. I can simply put some of the plants in the garden making sure the root mat is kept in place.
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Setup: Measure the width of your window sill (make sure that it a window that does not frost up. If it does, move the pipes away from the window so that plants do not freeze).
Cut the PVC pipe about 3" less than the window width.
Use a hole saw to cut a trough the pipe can fit in so that it holds the pipe about 2" above the window sill at the high end. The water will need to drain along the pipe so you need a slope of about 1/2 " every four feet. The second trough will be cut so that the pipe is 1 1/2 " above the window sill at 4' along.
A return pipe will also need supports at a similar slope.
Reducing caps and will need to be glued onto the ends of the pipes and two at 90 degree elbows along with some 1 1/2 inch PVC pipes will provide for the return flow
Cut the PVC pipe about 3" less than the window width.
Use a hole saw to cut a trough the pipe can fit in so that it holds the pipe about 2" above the window sill at the high end. The water will need to drain along the pipe so you need a slope of about 1/2 " every four feet. The second trough will be cut so that the pipe is 1 1/2 " above the window sill at 4' along.
A return pipe will also need supports at a similar slope.
Reducing caps and will need to be glued onto the ends of the pipes and two at 90 degree elbows along with some 1 1/2 inch PVC pipes will provide for the return flow
I picked up some water supply hoses and a drain hose from a washing machine in our dump and used these to hook up the pump ( an aquarium pump that cost about $12) so that the water would flow down the 3" PVC pipes and back into the reservoir.
I put about 20 liters into the reservoir and added the nutrients (purchased at Canadian Tire) according to the instructions, turned on the pump, watched for leaks, (none) and put the plants I had started in the rock wool cubes into the baskets so that the bottom of the cubes touched the water. Sat back and watched them grow. Some have now been growing for about four months with periodic harvests. I found that lettuce was good for about three harvests before it got a little bitter, Cut it down and replanted.
I have kept caps over the open holes and the reservoir covered to reduce evaporation and keep the mix out of sunlight to minimize algae growth.
I put about 20 liters into the reservoir and added the nutrients (purchased at Canadian Tire) according to the instructions, turned on the pump, watched for leaks, (none) and put the plants I had started in the rock wool cubes into the baskets so that the bottom of the cubes touched the water. Sat back and watched them grow. Some have now been growing for about four months with periodic harvests. I found that lettuce was good for about three harvests before it got a little bitter, Cut it down and replanted.
I have kept caps over the open holes and the reservoir covered to reduce evaporation and keep the mix out of sunlight to minimize algae growth.