My Hydroponic Greenhouse - setup, dimensions and start of year 2 growing

I'll be doing weekly updates this year again to see why grows best, and to also see what doesn't work...

Hi Dave,

Enjoyed your video and really like your setup. You put a lot of thought and work into it.

I never heard of using vinegar with the hydroton. I used to boil mine when I had a Kratky system. Do you find it difficult to flush out the vinegar?

Also, like how you set up your rails/system. Makes it so easy to clean everything when needed. I have a small setup in my cellar that I just started a few months ago. I built my rails after this guy's model (https://simplegreenshydroponic...), but it makes cleaning a PITA. It's a combination of NFT and DWC systems. Did you design all this yourself?

I've thought of converting my greenhouse to hydroponics, but one thing that keeps me from doing it (in addition to taking on a new project) is space considerations. e.g. I grow my peppers in 2 gallon pots with a potting soil I make myself. If I had to convert each plant to 5 gallon buckets, it seems I could only plant one where I can plant two or three now.

What made you go with a hydroponic greenhouse as opposed to a more traditional greenhouse.

Looking forward to your weekly updates.

Jim

MoonShadows said:Hi Dave,

Enjoyed your video and really like your setup. You put a lot of thought and work into it.

I never heard of using vinegar with the hydroton. I used to boil mine when I had a Kratky system. Do you find it difficult to flush out the vinegar?

Also, like how you set up your rails/system. Makes it so easy to clean everything when needed. I have a small setup in my cellar that I just started a few months ago. I built my rails after this guy's model (https://simplegreenshydroponic...), but it makes cleaning a PITA. It's a combination of NFT and DWC systems. Did you design all this yourself?

I've thought of converting my greenhouse to hydroponics, but one thing that keeps me from doing it (in addition to taking on a new project) is space considerations. e.g. I grow my peppers in 2 gallon pots with a potting soil I make myself. If I had to convert each plant to 5 gallon buckets, it seems I could only plant one where I can plant two or three now.

What made you go with a hydroponic greenhouse as opposed to a more traditional greenhouse.

Looking forward to your weekly updates.

Jim

Hi Jim, thanks for the good words. I found the vinegar worked perfectly. Just dumped all of last years in a tub and poured about a cup of vinegar in there and hosed it till they were all covered. (It bubbles up a bit) I then let it sit covered for a couple days, then rinsed a bunch of times in the tub. Then put them back in the newt cup lids so they could drain completely. Rinsed again for a couple days to make sure all the vinegar was off. They were much cleaner, no algae... so yeah, chalk that up as a success.

I had built my greenhouse after I finished chemo and just wanted a project and a way to make my own food. I fell down a rabbit hole one day seeing a hydroponics system. Ended up checking out all the different types, then decided on this one. Fun to put it all together, and over the moon that it worked so well. (There's a couple dozen videos from last years growth, tomatoes and cucumbers were at least 12 feet tall)

You could use smaller pots, but my greenhouse filled up pretty much last year.

Let me know if I forgot to answer anything.

Cheers!