Air lift pump for hydroponics

 Air lift pump is an age old system used to pump water to a higher place. This system is a non effective system, but for hydroponics where we need to push water drop by drop and not in bulk, works best.

Planter to hydroponics

Converted this basic planter to a hydroponics system. The base plate is cut to hold the net pots. The drain holes have to be closed with m-seal. Plants grow happily in this SIP.

Deep water culture. Just had to add the water plus nutrients once in the whole lifetime of the plant (seed to harvest). As the roots grow the water goes down with it. This creates an air pocket which helps in air circulation.

Hydroponics in PVC pipe

Wanted to grow in PVC pipes. Got a 3inch diameter pipe. Cut holes, added end caps. For the water intake added a smaller hole (you can see that on the left). Added a C ring cut from the same PVC pipe to cover the hole so that it can slide for easy access and also save from algae growth in the nutrient. This pipe has 7 grow ports. Also holds a little more than 1.5 L of nutrient. Single set of nutrient runs for an average of 7 days.

Hydroponics poster

I had a workshop and sale for home hydroponics system. This happened in Pune at Tilak Smarak Mandir. Conducted this under the Maker's Market initiative. Here is the poster for that.