System set up

Deep water culture is the hydroponic set up that requires less pieces of equipment and it is more simple to set up. However, because the roots are constantly under water, not every plant is suitable for it. The prototype made during this project uses this type of configuration.

The set up consists basically on one water tank with a lid, and this lid will hold the netpots and provide space for the plants to grow. The lid should also have a small hole to allow the passage of the air hose. Also, the container and lid should not be transparent, because the light promote algae growth.

Another thing to notice is that the use of an air pump and air stone is advisable, since the still water doesn’t not allow proper oxygenation. However, there are many home grow hydroponic kits commecially available that work well on a small scale without the pump, as long as the system is properly mixed with reasonable frequency and the water/nutrient solution mixture is replaced every few weeks.

In our system we used a 40L container. We drilled 8 holes in the lid, which was later covered with foil paper to prevent light passing through. The seedlings were transfered to the system when they had two layers of true seeds, and than the bokashi was added mixed in water at a proportion of 1:200.