Working on a hydroponic system for tropicals.

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.

I never even dreamed you could do that, love the idea and now I am going to have to try it for myself.

Brian, Experiment with different plants. Here in Florida, with our droughts, the normal growing season has been very tricky. I've been trying all sorts of plants in water only, with a few tadpoles. (Nothing as large as yours)
So far, all colocasias have grown in water only....all hostas(which normally don't grow here in Central Florida at all) all bananas....most crinum......mexican petunia....mother-in-law tongue....quite a few coleus and impatien(as long as the tadpoles are in there to pick away any rotting debri)...most heliconia....

I have another thread showing my current project were the water is pumped from the bottom trough at the end of a table and back to the top of the other end of the table. I plan to add chemicals to the water to get faster growth but I have seen similar systems were fish were in the trough area collecting debri and producing nitrogen for the plants. It's about like having a pond that your pumping out of and running over the table and then recycling the water. Very interesting and from what I understand you can have more fish than normal if the area your are using for plants is larger it can take out more nitrogen.

newest tables. The water will flow from one end down to a trough and then pumped back up to the top again.

Looks like a lot less walking around to water, for your Dad! Canna's and EE's will love it, too. What else are you going to put in them? I didn't know impatients would grow in water. I'm wondering how often you'll have to add water during hot summer... 1 or 2X/day?

I plan to have another 50 feet of table added to this section. The one thing I don't understand is why no one else has tried something like this. It seems easy and cheep and from the way I think it should work really well. I don't think I will have to add water to often maybe every couple weeks or so. The trough at the end is fairly large 3 feet deep and 3 X 5 used for watering live stock.

I plan to have Cannas, Bananas, Alocasia, Colocasia and other tropical plants for this system. I have another system which is a bit different it is in the shape of a U and the water is circulated from one end to the other which is only a few feet away rather than the tables I have shown here. On that table I will have more liners and trays of tropical. This year should be interesting and hopefully the plants I grow will be really healthy with good root systems. I enjoy it when they are grower ready to bust the pots.

Very interesting and clever! I see with the large trough... poor Merl, you won't need him anymore... lol (get him working on those huge bloomed brugs;) We buyers LOVE "bust the pot" plants!

I am fascinated by this. I would like to come up with a miny version, about 8-10 feet long for the plants on my pool deck. We travel a lot in the summer & this could be very helpful. Do you see problems with it being smaller scale? Thanks.

I don't believe it would be any problem at all. I have seen similar smaller systems. I have also looked into building a larger form on the ground. You save a bit more money but you have to dig a pit for the trough and you have to bend over to get the plants. It still is a good way to grow just about anything.

I like the heighth you have, Brian. (no digging or bending..) I am keen to terichris's mini idea, for us home growers.. and also in seeing how this works out, too . . (won't it be grand when you can put plants on them)... when do you start moving stuff outside, Brian? (we're SO tired of winter up here).

I should be fine in late March early May. The second week of May is our official last week for any chances of frost. I usually can start a few weeks early

I was just noticing where you two are from. My parents live outside of & have a garden shop in Kansas City & my brother is a landscape designer in Louisville. They are both ready for Spring!!! I am going to give this some thought. It seems like I could do this myself....

That's what I'm thinking, terichris...That's funny, what is the name of their shop? My DD lives in KC, I go up to visit and find myself magnetized to plant related places. Brian may have sold plants to your brother..... I thought your frost time would be earlier, Brian. My Mom has finally taught me the earliest to set stuff out here, is May 1st. I've set stuff out sooner, and always have to pull it back in...

Any updates? :-D

or are you still digging out from the snow?

The table is up and running and the other table which is a bit larger is halfway done. Here are the current pics.

We are cleaniing up the place daily it seems. But the table has ran now for 2 day no problems and now I just need to clean out the area for the new plants.

Here is a pic of the working parts. Just a catch trough and a pump. I think it should work nicely but I have never seen anyone do this before and usually all the hydroponic systems I have seen are expensive and not home made like mine.

What is the white covering part? Does it cut down on Evaporation?

The white cover is capulary matting. I use it in most of my greenhouse tables. It stays damp all the time and keeps up the humidity and can water plants from the bottom. Here I used it to protect the liner as well as to make sure all parts of the table are kept wet. At times some slight areas of the table will not get water and this will wick the water up and stay damp even on the slightly uneven areas.

Newest table in the works. I would have gotten done with this one today had I not ran out of pond liner. The table is in the shape of a U. Each table flows into the other until the water is returned back to the same area. This makes it so the pump only has to push the water a few feet away gravity does the rest.

Jeremy- I just saw your post from last year when I was searching for info about growing watercress. Have you tried it on one of your tables? If so, was it successful? I am wondering if I can do something small scale on my patio. I was thinking of doing the watercress around the other plants, but I guess that won't work since I intend to eat the watercress. I guess I need two systems. I think these tables are brilliant!

I would think these table would work with most any plant other than cactus or succulents. I am sure water crest would do very well in them. From what I have read on the system it is one of the easiest and most inexpensive hydroponic system to make. I had no idea when I was building it that this was an already tested and known hydroponic system. It just made sense in my head that it should work. The other system I have seen usually use gutters to channel water I find that I usually need much more space than most people and gutter systems and others just looked like a waste of time for what I need. My main concern with the system is not how well it will grow the plants but how well the plants will grow once out of the system. I am sure the plants will become adapted to the high about of water and food once removed they can wilt fast. From what I have noticed most plants usually do well if planted soon after and watered heavily. They will no do as well if they are kept in the same pots or if they are moved into other pots and then water much less.
If you are interested in building the table let me know all the items are easy to get and can easly be adjusted to just about any size. The tables here are all 4 feet wide and 130 feet long if you add them together.

Just started putting a few plants into the system. The pots seem to make the current more even and faster sense the water is pushed around the pots. Petasite plants are rooting in the system and seem to be doing great. Of course petasites would probably grow on top of the ground right now.