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Concept compact tower

I have got some lighting issues in my stacked system, and decided to play around a bit with a concept for a compact tower. I have limited light as the greenhouse is positioned against a garden wall, thus the light entering the greenhouse comes from one side only. This feature, together with my desire to mess around with ideas, have given rise to a concept tower with two planting positions per "station". There are obvious issues to test, such as plant root competition and clogging risk, but with the two plant "cups" angled slightly closer together on the light side of the tower, I have the potential of turning the tower in such a way as to allow morning and mid day sun exposure for the one plant, and mid day and afternoon sun for the other side. I will try short rotation crops as there is not a lot of space left in the pipe (110 mm PVC).

I have to clean up the front of the plant holes a bit, and intend to fill the towers with media. I placed some indentations at the back to force the water closer to the plant's position, and to prevent the media from escaping.

The tower here is roughly where it will be positioned (suspended above the tank with a drainage line).Light enters the greenhouse from the side where I was standing, thus the cups on the left will get half day sun and the ones to the right roughly the same. The intention is also to establish the plants in pots first, and then transfer to the tower still inside the pots, with roots and the base of the pot inside the tower and the rest outside to conserve space.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Harold Sukhbir on May 11, 2011 at 3:47pm

Hi Kobus

Mr. Fabricator As usual "how to squeeze more space". I like them very much, so, I'm not going to read anymore until you share the construction method and design in detail!!!! Thank you very much!

Permalink Reply by Kobus Jooste on May 11, 2011 at 9:46pm

Morning Harold. These were made by hand (the hands were inside welding gloves). I believe I made them pretty much in the same way all towers are shaped. The cut is made with an angle grinder, the pipe is heated with a heat gun, and the shape is pressed into the pipe using a jig - my jig was a ceramic coffee mug.......

Refinements to the shape was done by hand, as was the bottom lip. It is the bottom lip that is giving problems though, as I have some trickles escaping the edges. I will clean those up a bit and then see how it goes.

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi Kobus

Mr. Fabricator As usual "how to squeeze more space". I like them very much, so, I'm not going to read anymore until you share the construction method and design in detail!!!! Thank you very much!

Permalink Reply by Harold Sukhbir on May 11, 2011 at 9:53pm

Hi Kobus,

Goodnight Kobus. Thanks for sharing design as new people will undoubtedly be reading this lesson. But, it really looks like some plant growing in the AP.....very cool Well done sir!