Apartment Vegetable/Herb Garden: Equipment

In part 1, we investigated some inspiration for the design of this system. Now it is time to build our own. I used some amazon rewards points to amass this collection of equipment:

What do you see here?:
Black aquarium air tubing
PVC pipe cutter
hole saw kit
2" hydroponics net baskets
2 medium air stones
air pump
air pump check valves
clay growing media
rockwool starter plugs
pH test strips

What a haul! I also went and bought some seeds (for later) and a big 12 gallon tub. Lets begin!

I wasn't sure if I wanted a 3x3 or a 4x4 layout...

4x4 would let me grow so many more vegetables!!! 4x4 wins.

So I marked out a grid and used the 2" hole saw attachment to drill the openings for my new hydoponics net baskets.

And here is what the final grid looks like:

I am going to need to get air into the tub...so I drilled some 3/8" holes for some 1/4" tubing. Right below the lip of the lid.

Here is me testing the air pump and an air stone in a favorite pint glass. Look at those bubbles!

Time to fill the tub...water looks innocent enough, but it is deadly actually...time to test the pH.

My water has too high a pH and I need to treat the water to lower the pH to around 6.

So go grab that vinegar and add it to the water...a little bit goes a long way. Eventually we'll want to add nutrients as well, but that will be covered in part 3.

 

Add those air-stones back to the tub. Sooo many bubbles!

Here is a shot of what I've got going on now. I built a pvc frame to support the lighting system and rigged up a cardboard shield

As you can see...overhead light system...I still want to refine this, but I am not sure the best way to implement a variable height lighting scheme.

With the lights on!

I cover the whole thing with the cardboard shield and a top portion as well. It keeps the light in...this thing is difficult to look at..very pure wavelengths...everything looks black under these lights...it's awesome.

You see those plants there? Yeah...that's in part 3.