self sufficient life

Aeroponics barrel

The weather was beautiful yesterday, so I decided to go outside and make a new hydroponics system. Well, actually its an aeroponics system, because the plants roots will not be growing in water, but they will be hanging down from the mesh pots and misted with a nutrient solution. This method of growing gives the roots better access to oxygen, which has a positive effect on the plant growth.

I didn’t want to go out and buy anything, so I went looking for usable items in the garage and basement. I found a rainwater barrel, that I wasn’t really using. I cut the barrel in half, because it was too big. One rainwater barrel lid has been glued to the bottom of the half that I cut of. Another lid is used to hold the plants.

I bought some microdrip system parts, by Gardena, a while ago. Their system uses flexible tubing and they have a whole range of different drippers and spray nozzles that are installed into the tubing simply by screwing them in. Since I had these parts laying around, I used them for my aeroponics barrel. You can see the black Gardena tubing in the picture.

I made 8, evenly spaced, holes in the top lid to hold the mesh pots for the plants. The tubing is glued to the inside of the lid with some hot glue. A spray nozzle is installed in the tubing right beside each mesh pot, so each plant will have access to the nutrients.
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Here’s a close-up of one of the mesh pots and a spray nozzle. (You can click on the pictures for a bigger view)

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With all of the mesh pots installed the top of the lid looks nice and clean. The hole in the middle is used for the pump to suck the water out of the barrel. I’m using an external aquarium filter pump, but if you would use a submersible pump the whole thing would look even cleaner, with only one power cord coming out of the barrel, instead of two pieces of garden hose. Like I said: I’m only using parts that I had laying around and the external aquarium pump was what I had to work with and it does the job!

With everything hooked up the spray nozzles started spraying a fine mist of water drops onto the mesh pots. Looks like my aeroponics system is working nicely! I’ve planted some seeds in a germination tray. When they get big enough I will put them into the aeroponics system and then we’ll see if it really works as good as others say!