System Setup


Interested in setting up your very own system at home and you want to build it yourself? Then let us take a closer look and go through all steps.

The following section developed as part of the master thesis and hence not derived from any expert book or research literature. Therefore, it is in development and going to be improved in the future – I would appreciate, if you could give me your feedback here.

Unfortunately, there is no free survey-like implementation available, to guide you through. Hence, the following chapters are divided into small key aspects explained in some detail and walk through bulled points, in order to make this planning process as convenient as possible.


Step 1: Space Availability and desired location

Walk Through Step 1

  • Where do you want to place your future hydroponic system?
    • If this spot can't provide (enough) sunlight, you will have to include artificial lighting.
    • If you can't provide a breeze of fresh air in this spot once a day, you should also include ventilators.
    • If this spot can't provide the temperature ranges your plants require, you will have to include air conditioning.
  • How much space (length x depth x height) is available?
    • Each varieties have their own growing patterns and you want to avoid the plants to touch in order to prevent easy pest and disease communication. Normally, you can expect minimal volumes for each of the different crop classes' upper plant:
      • herbs (20 x 20 x 30, in cm)
      • greens (30 x 30 x 40, in cm)
      • fruiting crops (50 x 50 x 50, in cm)

This may help you in sizing your hydroponic garden and deciding on how many levels you want to grow.

(notes: the depth is only important when adding several rows successively; rooting space adds at least another 10 cm in height; installation of artificial lighting adds at least 5 cm in height)

  • Is there a max weight your system should not overshoot?
    • This mainly affects the size of the nutrient solution reservoir you are able to take. A smaller reservoir leads to more frequent top offs, while a bigger one leads to more responsibility in sustaining optimal growing conditions over time without wasting big amounts of the nutrient solution.

Description Step 1

First, you should think about where to place your hydroponic system at home, because this will have significant affects on the decisions that follow. E.g., it makes a difference, if your hydroponic garden will:

...not receive sufficient or any sunlight – you will have to include artificial lighting;

...has a lot of available height – you will be able to apply a multi-level structure;

...has a lot of available depth – you will be able to grow in multiple rows successively;

...has to be as silent as possible because it shall be placed in a quiet environment – louder air pumps will not be a good fit and your system design has to aim for a silent nutrient distribution;

...has to be lighter than a certain threshold because it is going to be placed on something not being able to support a lot of weight – your reservoir and the number of plants you are able to grow will be limited.

 



Step 2: Crops you desire to grow

Walk Through Step 2

  • What plant classes (herbs, greens and/or fruiting crops) do you desire to grow in your hydroponic system?
    • Each plant class requires you to look for specific substrate characteristics: herbs are easier to grow with fine-grained or sponge-/ foam-like substrates but do not need high nutrient or oxygen levels, whereas fruiting crops require high nutrient and oxygen levels accompanied with enough support to carry their weight; greens range somewhere in the middle of these two.
    • Especially if growing fruiting crops but also with the other plant classes: make sure to pick smaller varieties to correspond with the sizes mentioned above. Otherwise plan your system accordingly.

Description Step 2

Theoretically, you could grow any plant when designing your system accordingly to the plant's very physics and required growing conditions. Nonetheless, it may be useful (especially when designing your first hydroponic system) to think about what crop classes (or ornamental plant classes – you do not need to produce food) you want to grow: do you want to focus on herbs / greens / fruiting crops only? Or is it definitely a mixture? Or do you not know yet?

To create a system for one class only simplifies the decision on which hydroponic technique to use and how to implement each component. Growing different classes at the same time requires more planning or even separated areas for each class, in order to provide them the best growing conditions.



Step 3: Determining Factors of system techniques

Walk Through Step 3

  • Do you desire a beginner friendly hydroponic technique?
    • If you do, you should not go for a classic Aeroponic or Fogponic system, as they are very sensitive and hence recommended for experienced growers.
  • Do you have power failures frequently (at least once a month)?
    • If you do, you definitely want to use a substrate with a good water retention capacity in order to avoid your plants dying after only a few minutes of power outage.
    • Plan your system to withstand power failures and current peaks and include the capability to automatically restart as soon as the power returned.
  • Shall your hydroponic garden be as silent as possible or is some water splashing (like with an aquarium) fine for you?
    • If an aquarium-like water splashing sound is fine for you, you are able to use any hydroponic technique regarding this aspect. If not, you should avoid air pumps and plan your nutrient solution distribution cycle carefully in order to guaranty a flow without turbulences.

Description Step 3

While there are actually many more differentiations of hydroponic techniques than explained on this website, the ones here are sufficient to explain the main characteristics of all techniques. Each structure has its advantageous and disadvantageous. E.g., it makes a difference in recommending a hydroponic technique, if your garden shall be:

...beginner friendly regarding construction, maintenance or if you are also happy with more advanced system designs – some system techniques are more advanced and recommended for experienced growers;

...resistent to power failures, which occur at your location from time to time (at least once a month) – some system techniques are very susceptible to power failures;

...as silent as possible – the loudest systems are not louder than a bigger aquarium, still you might desire a (close to) noise-free system.

 



Step 4: Details to consider

You have answered the questions above? Very well, then let us start with specification details you want to implement for your hydroponic system!

Water Reservoir

  • Your water reservoir should be protected from light in order to prevent algae bloom.
  • You want to have a clean design with sleek surfaces and without a lot of corners and edges, to ease the cleaning and to prevent the plants' roots to hold on somewhere you do not want them to.
  • If you use a pump, sensors or other electronic devices which have to stay clean, you want to make sure the plants' roots do not hinder their purpose and that deposits rather build up somewhere else.
  • If you use a pump to increase the oxygen level, you also want to make sure to distribute it as evenly as possible.
  • If possible, avoid a too cold or too hot nutrient solution – the optimal range for plant growth and inhibition of negative side effects are temperatures between 17 - 25 °C.

Nutrient solution dsitribution

  • You want to distribute the nutrient solution to the plants as even as possible.
  • You also want to circulate the whole nutrient solution reservoir throughout your system several times a day.
  • You want to use reliable tubing, valves and misters, connectors and reductions, that do not directly clog with the first deposits. In most cases you enable this by taking equipment with at least 1 cm in diameter, better more.
  • If using pumps for distribution, you want to rather slightly oversize them than the opposite. It prolongs lifetime and guaranties sufficient flow rates over time. Also pay attention to the reduced flow rates with increasing delivery height, increasing number of misters/valves or increasing tubing diameter.
  • If you want to hide your irrigation system as good as possible, make sure you still can clean and even exchange it easily in case of emergency.
  • If using an Aeroponic or NFT system, you want to keep your flow rates (at least 50 liter per hour and plant) and timings (at least one irrigation every 15 minutes to prevent roots drying out) as constant as possible.

Plant Support

  • Some herbs are grown best on fine-grained, sponge- or foam-like substrates, whereas greens are pretty flexible and whereas fruiting crops require high levels of nutrients and oxygen accompanied with a structure to support them not topple over.
  • You want not to overwater your plants, as some substrates are able to soak and secure a huge amount of nutrient solution. On the contrary, you also do not want to let the roots dry out, as they might die within a few hours or even minutes. When touching, the substrate should feel moistures but not wet.
  • Not required but simplifying the maintenance: cover your growing area and substrate from light and leaves falling down. This way you reduce living space for pests and diseases and ease the removal of dead organic matter.
  • If you grow larger fruiting crops or other bigger plants, make sure to provide an additional support for the shoots to prevent them of toppling over.

Maintainance Possibilities

  • You want to be able to clean your hydroponic system without jeopardizing your plants' health. Hence, you have to include the possibility to pull out each component in order to clean it or the other way around, remove all plants in order to clean the whole system all together.
  • If you know your tab water to be very hard water (meaning you normally have to use a lot of descaling agents for washing machine etc.), you may consider to take distilled water instead, because your tab water might interfere with the fertilizer solution causing certain nutrients to not be available for your plants anymore.
  • If you use multi-part fertilizers, it is advisable to dilute them separately beforehand (e.g., by diluting 10 ml of fertilizer each in 1 l of tab water/distilled water total, to further on use the 100-fold quantity prescribed). This eases  the initial mixing of the nutrient solution and further adjustments.
  • If you have electric or electronic components included, you either need to frequently monitor their state manually or you install some kind of checking and warning system alarming you in case of malfunctioning.
  • Not required but very recommended: keep an extra set of each electric and electronic component in reserve in case of emergency. This is especially important for components which are vital for your system to work and without which you cannot keep your plants alive very long.

Artificial Lighting

  • If you want to match your very plants' desires regarding light intensity and quality, you will have to search for expert books of this topic. Otherwise you are probably fine making sure your plants receive a light intensity of at least 200 Wh/m2/d, but not more than around 500 Wh/m2/d and a light quality providing a broad spectrum between 350 - 1000 nm.
  • Some plants require to pass a certain threshold (upwards or downwards) of lighting hours per day in order to trigger certain metabolic processes including germination, flowering or fruiting. Hence, you should take a look to also provide the right amount of lighting hours to your plants – they range between 8 to 16 hours per day.

Monitoring AND CONTROLLINg

  • If you are new to programming and micro controllers, you want to look through some project descriptions here in order to find out what you really want and what you dare to implement. As good rule of thumb: it is around as difficult to get your monitoring running as it is to set up the controlling elements or automation, respectively.
  • The easier methods include using calibration-free sensors whenever possible and ready to use services which provide a good documentation on how to set it up for the very micro controllers you are planning to use. Check out Blynk and Thingspeak.
  • If you want to be flexible regarding maybe extending your systems' monitoring and controlling capabilities, it is definitely wise to pick micro controllers offering a good amount of memory, allowing you to extent your code significantly.
  • If you experienced in programming and plan something more advanced, you may want to look into setting up your own program or app – the possibilities are endless.

Link to References