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Compact towers are installed in banks of 4

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Comment by Kobus Jooste on September 28, 2011 at 3:09am: Two Jay, we have been having a very mild spring to date with low average temps, thus I have not seen the towers at the "hottest" that the surface can get. There has been no wind or heat damage associated with the edges or sides of the pvc yet, but it is still relatively cool. The towers are a bit shaded though so that might help. I have noticed a lot of root development inside the media, but to date water is not flowing out of any part of the structure apart froom the drain, even though the water supply is more than what I would have going to each tower when all the structures are installed. There is not enough nutrients to go around so I'm not breaking my neck making the remaining towers just yet.

Comment by Two Jay on September 28, 2011 at 1:36am: Hello Kobus, do you have any problems when the plant leaves end up touching the tower walls?

Comment by Kobus Jooste on September 8, 2011 at 6:41am: DJ - you are correct about the bacteria issue if the towers were the only media or an important part of it. I do not even count them into my ratios as I wanted to be able to work with them in "cleanable" mode. That said, if you are not going to bleach the whole thing but merely open it up, take the root balls out and assemble again, you will not cause 100% loss of beneficial organisms in the media. I put filtered water through them thus the only issue will be roots. If, as you say, I stagger harvests I think you could clean these out once every 6 - 8 weeks and not harm your system. It then boils down to whether you want the work or not! It is OK for a home system with 10 - 20 of these, cleaning perhaps 1 or 2 a week, but I do not picture people doing 100's of these type of towers.

Comment by DJ Bisson Jr on September 8, 2011 at 6:15am: Hey, Thanks for everything Kobus. If your able to clean everything out then it might not be that bad, if you don't mind the work. The only bad thing is what if you were using the towers as of filtration? Cleaning it would mess with the bacteria growth that you have established , right? I guess if you did not clean them all at the same time then it would give the bacteria time to be reestablished. Just thoughts, Thanks again for everything.

Comment by Kobus Jooste on September 7, 2011 at 9:55pm: Sorry for the time zone lag DJ - In the tall tower the plants are in a gravel-filled net pot, but in the compact towers, I have done away with that and put the plant straight into the media. I expect to develop root issues but the design is really meant for shorter rotation crops, and the towers are not glued together. The whole thing can come apart and my idea at the moment is to be able to take it apart between crops to clean out and re-stock. I have planted some strawberries in one just to see how long it takes before it packs up.

Comment by DJ Bisson Jr on September 7, 2011 at 5:38pm: Hey Kobus, I read in one of your recent blogs that you use media in your towers. Now do you think that the bottom plants will clog the water from flowing down the return lines?

Comment by DJ Bisson Jr on September 7, 2011 at 3:04pm: Hey Kobus are you filling the tower up with media or are you using some sort of net pot? Thanks again

Comment by Kobus Jooste on September 7, 2011 at 2:02pm: Only a pleasure. I still need to see if the spacing is alright though. These are 110 mm pipe, and in my currency the low pressure end caps are under R3 each. Going to 160 mm results in each end cap coming in at R40. The pipe itself is also much more expensive thus I will mess with plant spacing rather than increase the diameter of the tower.

Comment by DJ Bisson Jr on September 7, 2011 at 1:44pm: Thanks Kobus. I'll check your blogs out. Looks awesome!

Comment by Kobus Jooste on September 7, 2011 at 1:13pm: DJ - I build most of my components myself (I buy tanks and beds, thats about it). I posted a blog about the procedure for making these towers here in the forum if you are interested. I'm trying out a new spray head inside these towers, thus I did not describe them in too much detail as I may change them. The idea is to crease a spray of water above the first plant in order to try and disperse the water as much as possible. One drawback of the design so far is that water tries to trickle out the sides of the plant holes, but it is easy to fix by adjusting the media. Not sure if that is an issue with all designs. Hydroton is too expensive, thus I am experimenting here with a mix of pvc and vermiculite. So far it is working. I think I described the media I made somewhere in a forum too - perhaps the mixed aquaponic design page.

So far the plants are doing fine - crisp lettuce and strawberries. Planting up a third tower tommorow with butter lettuce.