Comment

Comment by Leo White Bear on October 9, 2014 at 11:10am

Butch-

  The media indeed does support the tall plants, like corn, okra etc.  If you intend to do this outside and your area is fairly windy, just an external support structure would be necessary, kind of like you would do for tomatoes.  If you are still doing youe system in buckets, build a wooden framework around the bucket and as tall as you suspect you will need.

  I used tomato cages in my barrel-ponics system just to give my tomatoes a bit of extra support and it worked great.  Many people exclaimed that the galvanization on the metal would be bad for my fish as it would leach out.  They probably may have been right but for the one season I used them the fish grew and flourished.

Comment by Butch Pornebo on October 9, 2014 at 10:35am

and for my 1st system, I;m going to be using lava rock. I don't mind the harshness on the hands, I guess I've got thick skin ;)

anyway, do I need to top it off with a slightly heavier media for support on taller plants ?

Comment by Leo White Bear on October 6, 2014 at 7:38pm

You defiantly want to be just above the "sludge" zone so you don't suck any back into your FT.  even though the area around the bell will stay clean, just from the draining action, you don't want to put more back into your FT.

  This accumulation of sludge will take some time to build up so don't worry too much about the height of the water in the bottom of the grow bed.  Just concentrate on the basics and tweaking your system will come later.  Experiment with various heights of the slots in your bell and see which works best for you.

Comment by Butch Pornebo on October 6, 2014 at 4:54pm

"Just be sure that the water in the grow beds drains below the main root system and you are good."

So about the level of the sludge zone, bottom 2" of the grow media, as defined by Murray Hallam.

Comment by Leo White Bear on October 6, 2014 at 4:29pm

I concur with Jeff.  The slots or cutouts in the bell are what determine the lowest level of the water in the bottom of your grow beds.  In my systems, it is not that important to discuss the advantages of this water level.  All you really require for the water to drain is to bring oxygen to the roots of the plants.  This is the main problem in soil gardening in a clay (ish) soil.  When the water stands on the roots the plant actually suffocate and "drown", they can't breath so succumb to what we call water log.  Just be sure that the water in the grow beds drains below the main root system and you are good.

Comment by Jeff S on October 6, 2014 at 2:00pm

Usually about 1" on bottom either with slots or grooves in your bell.

Comment by Butch Pornebo on October 6, 2014 at 1:25pm

@ Leo Top water level 1/5" to 2" below the surface of the media. gotcha...

How about the bottom water level ? 

Comment by Leo White Bear on October 6, 2014 at 5:30am

Butch-

I use PVC pipe and fittings exclusively, never had a leak in any joint.  These fittings are meant to be glued but I never did, just good press fit seems to do the trick.  You don't want to cement any joint that doesn't have pressure from the pump.  If you need to cement the fitting from the pump be sure to use a union joint or fitting. these are made to be unscrewed and make changing out the pump easy.  When you need to clean out the pipe, a cemented joint is near impossible to separate without destroying something, either the pipe or fitting.

  If you must seal any leaks use aquarium silicone, use the clear stuff and be sure it says either marine or aquarium safe.

  It is the consensus that 1-1/2" to 2" below the surface of the media is the wet zone.  Try to keep this distance so there is limited evaporation and little algae growth.  There will be some algae where the water input is but it's not that bad unless you allow the water to splash onto the media

Comment by Butch Pornebo on October 5, 2014 at 9:18pm

folks thanks for the help and support. it was a relatively good day today. successfully tested my prototype, if you can call it that, dutch buckets using an external bucket to house the bell siphon. some tweaking is required but it was working like I wanted to.

obviously I'm no plumber so I got leaks all over the place on joints and connections.

what is the least expensive way to plug the leaks without permanently gluing the plumbing ?

Also, as far as high  water level is concern considering that it is just a 3.5 gallon 11" tall bucket only, what is ideal ? 1", 1.5" or 2" below the top of the grow media ?

regards

Comment by Butch Pornebo on October 5, 2014 at 12:44pm

I guess will get a GFCI . good point guys. thanks again

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