What is Hydroponics?
The definition of :
Hydroponics is the science of growing plants in specially prepared solutions instead of soil.
Hydroponics has been around for a very long time. The earliest work ever published growing terrestrial plants without soil was in the year 1627 in a book called Sylva Sylvarum by Francis Bacon. Throughout the year's many publications have been written by many different researchers, on water culture. Today hydroponics is becoming more popular in all areas of the world. This book will give you easy step, by step instructions on how you can build your own hydroponic system for little or no money. I have built many systems over the years, and I have had many successes with every single one of them.
Lets Get Started!
Tools You Will Need!
Electric or cordless drill.
1/4” drill bit
3 1/2” Hole cutter
Scissor or knife
List of Materials
The first thing you will need is a bucket with a lid. The size of the bucket is up to you. I recommend a bucket with a lid that will hold at least 1 gallon of water. You can buy one from your local hardware store or find one for free from a local donut shop, Chinese food place, local convince store, restaurant, or fast-food place. I get mine for free from a local convince store. I have bought them for $1.00 from the local donut shop. The bucket usually holds the frosting for the donuts.
You will also need an aquarium air pump
I bought this air pump
From a local retail store for
Amazon has one on special!
for $5.06
Fish Aquarium air tubing
You can get this
Online for $1.99
Air Stone
You can get a
Two packs of Air Stones
for less than
$3.49 at a local pet
store
3.75” Net Pot
I buy these 3” net pots
Online for less than
$0.75 cents
Let’s Start Building
First, get your drill and attach your 3 1/2” hole cutter.
You want to find the center of your bucket’s lid.
Drill your hole as close to the center as you can of your bucket’s lid.
Drill your hole, but be careful and drill with some pressure on the lid because the hole cutter can go crazy and bounce around, and then you will have a chewed up lid, and then you will have to go get another lid.
Now it is time to drill the hole for your air tubing. Load your drill with a 1/4” drill bit and drill a hole towards the back part of your lid.
Now insert your air tubing through the 1/4” hole that you just drilled.
Attach your air stone to the end of the air tubing that you thread through the 1/4” hole that you just drilled. Make sure the stone is on the inside part of the lid.
Attach your other end of the air tubing to your air pump. The length of the tubing is to be up to you and the size of your bucket and where you want to place the air pump.
Now go to the plant store and pick out a nice plant that you want to put into your system. I have chosen a cauliflower plant. Place your plant into your net pot and make sure it is centered in the net pot.
Now you need to choose what kind of growing medium you want to use. The growing medium is what your plant will grow in and what will support your plant when the roots start to grow. I will be using just plain old stones from my driveway.
Center your plant in the net pot and carefully fill the net pot with the growing medium of your choice.
Now it is time to add water to your bucket along with the nutrients.
I use general hydroponics nutrients. It is a 3 step process. You can choose whatever type of nutrients you like but you do have to follow the directions on the bottle.
Plug in your air pump into an electrical outlet and watch all of the
bubbles.
Snap on your lid and insert you plant.
Stand back and observe your work of Beauty.
Find a sunny location and enjoy watching you plant grow.
About every two weeks or so change your water and nutrients. As your plant gets bigger you may need to check the water level more often.
Ok, let's see how much it cost to build this system at the time that I wrote this guide.
The Bucket and lid cost $0.00 it was free.
Air pump from Department Store $6.67
Airstone from Department Store 4 pack for $3.49 $0.87ea.
3.75” Net Pot from Online Hydroponic Store $8.99 for 12 packs that equal $0.75ea.
Air tubing from Department Store $1.99
Growing Medium $0.00 Free from my driveway.
Everything total was $21.24 because I had to buy parts in bulk. If you break down the cost to build one system:
Grand Total To Build one system was $10.28
The total time to build this system was less than 30 minutes.
This same system would easily cost you anywhere between $30.00 to $70.00 if you bought it from a store. Even if you bought it on an Auction site it would run you $25.00 or More and that is not even
including shipping.
Pictures of my plants in my homemade systems.
This system was made the same way but with a storage box painted black to keep out the light. “Important note” you need to block out the light from
the water in your bucket or container or you will get algae in your water. “Not good!”
Here is a picture of one of my systems that I used to sell on ebay. I sold a few of these systems for a nice low price.
Here is the finished system that I showed you how to build in this guide. I painted it and added a label to make it look more professional. This used to be available for purchase on ebay. This system was easy for me to build and you can build this system and sell them on ebay too!
Thank you for reading my ebook!
I hoped that you have enjoyed reading my ebook and enjoy building my
System!
This book is a starter guide on how you can build a hydroponic system for little money. All rights are reserved! You can not copy, sell or alter this ebook in any way!
Copyright 2021