I was planning on re-designing it for the smaller amount of space I'm working with using 10 gallon buckets. Here's the idea I have at the moment. Let me know what you think -
I would use one bucket per plant, arranged like this.
X X X
X X R X
That's for 6 plants and a "reservoir" bucket. This bucket would contain the pump and be a control bucket. It would be connected to all of the other buckets in two place. At the very bottom of each bucket I would drill a hole (probably 7/8" to use 1/2" PVC, possibly bigger). I would then use rubber grommets to create a tight seal, connecting the buckets so they become a shared reservoir (easily maintaining a good level of water at 30 gallons or so total, 5 per bucket. Perhaps less if I decide to have less buckets).
X---X -- X
X---X-R-X
I would use the lids of the buckets to hang net pots. Inside the buckets would be sprayers at the right level. Probably 3-4 per bucket on a ring of some sort made from 1/2" PVC. This ring would be connected through pvc to other similar rings in other buckets so that they can all run off one pump/reservoir.
The most important part of this that I see is that I can walk around the buckets inside the closet. Second is that the buckets have a huge amount of space for root support that still enables me to move plants around. The current design in PVC tubes makes it difficult to free roots in order to move plants if desired.
Such a bucket system also seems to reduce the stress the plants put on the entire unit. If you look at the picture of the whole plant you can see that the back tube has turned somewhat. It turns out that we didn't seal it well enough. Because of space constraints, now, we aren't really able to move it - it's been difficult to seal back up. We eventually got it worked out but *shrug*. Something to be aware of. |