Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Working on a hydroponic system for tropicals. , 0 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
I have been working on a few ways to grow tropicals faster and healthier. I believe this new system I am working on should really help. The idea is fairly simple you take a bench cover it in pond liner put a lip around the edges so the water does not spill over. Give the table a slight tilt down hill. At the bottom put a trough to catch the water and a pump to recycle the water back to the other end of the bench.
The photos below are of my older tables I still have that use a simple method of just holding 1 inch of water. The plants sit in the water and soak up the root hormones or fertilizers. This works well on some plants though other plants can rot very fast in this system. It does however keep the humidity very high and plants like bananas cannas and colocasias seem to love it. I am wondering if anyone else has worked or made similar systems? Usually the hydroponic systems look extremely expensive and difficult to use. These systems I have made cost fairly cheep usally for a table 100 feet long and 4 foot wide after lumber liner pump and other materials is usually around 700.00 to 1300.00. Fairly cheep for a system that will constantly feed your plants and water them.
The currect bench I am working on now will be ready by spring. I will have it up and running before spring but sense this one is outside it will not have plants on it till the weather has warmed up more.