新车间 [Xinchejian]

Finally, the seedlings are ready to be transplanted and time to get the hydroponic planter ready.

The planter is ordered from Taobao. Good size and come with the drainage screen at the bottom.

Fix the aquarium air stone strip to the bottom of the drainage screen. Thanks to Rocket’s suggestion with his background in water processing, the air stone is mounted upside down. This is really clever one. It avoids deposit on top of the stone to make the strips last longer. Cool idea!

A small piece of PVC pipe with holes is used to tell water level and fixed on to the screen with cable tie.

PVC pipe is used to protect the air pipe from be squeezed by the ceramic ball.

All done and ready to fill in the ceramic balls.

Big ones at the bottom with 2 cm deep of small one covering the top. While filling in the nutrient solution, make sure only up to the big ones’ height and keep the small one dry. The small one is mainly used to insulate the lights and heat of the Sun from reaching the solution to prevent algae growth and heating up the solution.

Transplanted some cucumbers, sun flowers, and other seedlings started in the past few weeks.

Some words of advice, soak the ceramic ball in the water a few days before setting up the system so they will sink into the water. At the last picture, the big ball float to the top while I was planting the seedling.

Tagged hydroponic, planter, urban farm