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welcome back to huchos they on who chose
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I'm going to be taking you on an
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adventure through all of the different
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hydroponic system types and their best
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application for specific plant types
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we're going to be looking at nutrient
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film technique Dutch buckets rain gutter
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grows and wicking style systems as well
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as drain to waste flood and drain and
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the crackhead deep water culture Styles
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now one of the questions I get asked the
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most on the channel is what plant types
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for what hydroponic systems and I kind
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of want to steer you in a different
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direction when thinking about
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implementing hydroponic systems for
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plant types for example when I design a
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hydroponic system I'm not particularly
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thinking about whether the plant is a
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fruiting plant whether it's a leafy
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green or whether it's a herb I'm more
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considering factors like physical size
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whether it's annual biannual or
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perennial and what conditions it would
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traditionally be grown in for example
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here in my float box hydroponic system I
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have brussels sprouts and zucchini if
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you were to lump all the leafy greens
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together you would include brussels
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sprouts and if you were to lump all of
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the fruiting species together you would
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include zucchinis however I would not
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grow brussels sprouts in an nft for the
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exact same reason as I shouldn't have
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grown these broccolini in my nft they've
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just gotten too large and they're
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falling over causing the channels to
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topple and I would not grow zucchinis in
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a Dutch bucket now you could definitely
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grow zucchinis in a Dutch bucket but
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with the systems that I have available
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it wouldn't make sense
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and similarly I probably shouldn't have
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grown these brussels sprouts in this
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flood and drain hydroponic system I was
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just unaware of how large they become
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before they start to actually Sprout so
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please keep that in mind as I'm
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discussing all of these hydroponic
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systems that there are exceptions to the
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rules depending on the plant's lifespan
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as well as the plant's physical
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characteristics and nutrient
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requirements okay so let's have a look
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at all of the individual systems and the
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plant types and individual plants I
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think are appropriate for those systems
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and then we can look at their
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versatility as a single system as well
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as their implementation in a
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multi-system hydroponic ecosystem so
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that you can make the most out of the
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hydroponic technique of Gardening System
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number one and one of my favorite
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hydroponic systems it holds a place near
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and dear to my heart it was the first
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hydroponic system that I set up and I've
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never stopped using it the nutrient film
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technique hydroponic system and I will
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never stop using it either this is my
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answer for leafy greens yes you can grow
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leafy greens in other systems and if you
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only have the space for say a rain
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gutter grow system by all means go and
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grow them in that system but if you have
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a nutrient film technique hydroponic
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system this is the last word on leafy
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greens yes you can grow fruiting plants
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and there are exceptions like
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strawberries which you probably should
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grow in this system however this system
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is specifically geared towards
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leafy greens like bok choy spinach kale
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mustard greens whatever you like throw
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it in here and you're gonna have a
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fantastic time so the way that nutrient
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film technique works is that a pump from
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the reservoir at the end of the rail
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pumps water up a pipe and into the top
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of the rail the water then creates a
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nutrient film on the bottom of the rail
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that nutrient film which is literally
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just a film across the surface of the
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bottom of the pipe travels back down and
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into the reservoir the reason that I
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love this system is because the plants
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do not need to have any form of media it
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can literally just be bare roots on that
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film you just need to find a way of
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getting the plants through the seedling
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stage and to the stage where you can
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actually put them into a system like
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this now one method is using Jiffy Pete
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pellets like you can see has been done
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with these spring onions and this is
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another example of why I can't just say
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yes leafy greens or I can't just bulk a
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massive group of plants together because
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I am growing spring onions in nft and
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the spring onions are doing phenomenally
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another way of getting the plants
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through to a system like this is using
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the cotton wool method so this is cotton
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wool which I have raised these seedlings
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within and it is an extremely cheap way
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of raising seedlings as you can see here
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I have lettuce seedlings and they are
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all just grown within cotton wool I've
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stepped away from using heat pellets as
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I have done here with these Tomatoes
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purely for the fact that these these are
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about 16 cents each and the cotton buds
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are about I think they're one cent each
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or something ridiculous so four plants
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like
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these lettuce or these bok choy it is
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way more cost effective to raise them in
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propagation media like this okay so I
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actually don't have any crack key or
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deep water culture systems running at
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the moment this is a floating raft
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system it's kind of a bastardization of
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the crack key technique it relies on the
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water itself to give the oxygen to the
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plants so coming into the Queensland
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summer it's probably not going to be as
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effective because when water is colder
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it has a higher oxygen content it has a
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greater Affinity poor oxygen and allows
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the gas to dissolve more readily into it
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so I probably wouldn't use a floating
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raft system like this in the Queensland
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summer now the way that the crack key
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system works is the plants are held in
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place above a nutrient source and as
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they utilize the water the plant
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Advanced Roots grow down as the water
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level drops and oxygen is supplied to
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the roots in the air gap above the
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nutrient solution deep water culture is
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slightly different this is where the
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oxygen is provided by saturating the
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water with oxygen using air stones and
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requires a little bit more maintenance
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than the Kraken method when it comes to
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the crack key and deep water culture
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methods of growing you can grow large
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fruiting plants in those systems
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especially the active ones however the
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maintenance on those systems is fairly
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High the active ones and the crackhead
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technique can be used for tomatoes and
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fruiting plants however I found that
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other passive techniques are a lot more
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forgiving and personally I'd recommend
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those and we'll get to those however
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circumstances may actually make these
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techniques be perfect for your
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application for example the crack key
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technique is powerless and passive it's
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the only hydroponic system that can
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boasts that you do not need grow media
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as well as you do not need electricity
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the crack key deep water culture methods
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can literally be used to grow anything
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and utilizing crat key as a method of
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growing your leafy greens in conjunction
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with other more active methods is a
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combination we'll be looking at in a
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little bit and now we get to the working
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system specifically here the rain gutter
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grow system
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the way that this system works is that
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nutrient is stored in a reservoir the
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reservoir gravity feeds down to a float
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valve which creates a water level in the
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channel and Wicks up supplying nutrients
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to the plants now the method of wicking
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depends on the implementation of the
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system it can utilize neck cups spikes
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with wicks in them there are a variety
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of different Avenues you can take the
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nutrients and water Wick up into grow
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media now usually the grow media is a
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cocoa perlite substrate although you can
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also use soil amended with cocoa or peat
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moss there are other mixtures of wicking
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substrates that you can go with as well
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in this system classification I'm going
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to be including my wicking pot Auto
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refill source of float valve designs
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similarly with the larger float box
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wicking pot designs because they're
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basically the same method of hydroponic
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nutrient delivery it's just that the
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physical dimensions are really the only
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change in these systems now that being
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said I actually think that that's one of
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the most important considerations when
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you're tailoring a hydroponic system to
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a type of plant if it's an annual plant
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if it's a bi-annual plant or if it's a
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perennial because you don't want to be
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introducing a plant into a hydroponic
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system that is essentially temporary
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when the plant is a perennial with the
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rain gutter growth systems I wouldn't be
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introducing a fruiting perennial Citrus
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into a plastic bag pot because I want
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that Citrus to last years and years
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within its pot and I want the method of
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hydroponic nutrient delivery to be
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consistent over those years as well I
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don't have to continually move the plant
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and I also need the the structure of the
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plant to be supported and I've taken
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that into consideration with these
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pickling cucumbers the pots there in
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aren't perennial pots they're annual
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pots however the structure I've got them
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underneath is able to take the size that
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I expect the plants to get to and the
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method of nutrient delivery is reliable
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and after that I don't have to worry
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about pumps failing or the root size
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clogging up small pipes which is
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especially true for cucurbits and that
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is why all of my cucurbits have always
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gone in my float box hydroponic system
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because even though I have had them in
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rain gutter grow systems with pipe
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reservoirs The Roots get into those
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reservoirs and absolutely wreak havoc so
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having a large Reservoir base underneath
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cucurbit install plans has meant that
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I've been able to escape the intrusion
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of roots into the hydroponic system
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because they have to get through first
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fabric pot and then they have so much
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media to explore with the Rocks
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underneath this system that they rarely
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ever get in and mess with the float
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valve and on the odd occasion that they
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have I've been able to get in with my
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hands and well there's a frog in there
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you still there buddy and remove the
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roots if I need to and this is actually
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probably one of the most hands-off
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systems that I've ever made I have never
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changed the flow valve or any part of
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this system all I've done is introduce
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new plants now it is a high effort
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system to set up but once it's set up it
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is incredibly set and forget I am still
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blown away by this system you can even
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see it's created its own ecosystem it's
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incredible now it would be really hard
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for me to recommend a plant type for
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this system as I think that you can grow
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literally any type of plant within this
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rain gutter grow system and it will
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Thrive here I have pineapples which is a
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bromeliad on my right here I have garlic
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growing in the foreground and I have
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onions two types of onions in the back
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there will be Ginger and turmeric this
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is the old Ginger and turmeric system
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the wick wedge hydroponic system and it
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was incredibly productive in fact I just
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did a video on my second Channel
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utilizing five kilograms of Ginger to
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make ginger beer and I've been reaping
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the rewards of this system ever since
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quite happily actually
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so specific plants that I think you
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can't go wrong with in this system
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tomatoes and capsicums really any
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fruiting plant that has the same
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physical characteristics as this
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cucumbers if you had structure eggplants
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Etc this system is perfect for all of
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the above and it is actually one of the
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only systems that I would recommend for
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rooting rhizome tuba or bulbing plants
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because of its handling of media and
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nutrients you can do them in other
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systems but if you're in love with the
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Simplicity and hands-off approach that
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the hydroponic technique my
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recommendation for growing these crops
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soillously is to use the rain gutter
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grow system and this is what I'm going
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to be heavily experimenting with this
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year as you can see behind me I've got
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multiple different styles of bag and in
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front of me I've got multiple different
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styles of potato I'm just working with
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the new bagging system so that I can
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find out and deliver results to you
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about how is best to utilize this
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hands-off approach to gardening another
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fantastic use for the rain gutter grow
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system is herbs now you can definitely
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grow herbs in an nft my experience with
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herbs is they tend to like the system a
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little bit too much and because in
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general they're a perennial ignore the
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basil they will be more suited to a more
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permanent hydroponic system setup if you
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introduce them into the nft you're going
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to love that they're there they're going
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to love that they're there and then
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they're going to take over the entire
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system essentially unless you've got a
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production line where you're growing
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herbs to a certain size and then selling
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them to a supermarket if you're using it
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as a home Garden you're probably better
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off having herbs in a rain gutter grow
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system a Dutch bucket hydroponic system
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or a flood and drain now one of the only
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caveats with the rain gutter grow system
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is the expense of that media cocoa and
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perlite tend to be more expensive
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especially when put up in comparison
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against some of the medialist systems
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and this is why I will not grow my leafy
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greens in the rain gutter grow systems
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it's not because the rain gutter grow
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system isn't capable so much as it would
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be a mismanagement of my resources to
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grow them in such a way now this isn't
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to say that you shouldn't do it it's
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just that I've streamlined my systems
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because of the systems available to me
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if you only had rain gutter grow systems
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you shouldn't omit growing greens from
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them you just need to assess your
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situation and implement the correct
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growing strategies four alright so the
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next system I want to talk to you about
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is
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Dutch buckets okay so Dutch buckets are
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either a recirculating or drain to waste
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hydroponic system the bucket itself
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allows you to supply nutrients top fed
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into a bucket that then collects the
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nutrients and feeds it back into a pipe
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either disposing of the nutrient or
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recirculating the nutrients so the pipe
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will then deliver the nutrient back down
00:16:59
and into a reservoir where the pump will
00:17:04
then feed again on a timer or
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continuously Dutch buckets are hard to
00:17:09
talk about because they're extremely
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versatile you can have no media with a
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lid and a net cup you can have multiple
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different styles of media cocoa perlite
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perlite on its own or you can have
00:17:21
hydrogen clay balls now I've packed up
00:17:24
my Dutch buckets at the moment but we
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will be revisiting them in the future
00:17:28
where we use hydrogen clay balls as the
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media in the Dutch buckets because I
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wasn't particularly happy with the shelf
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life I was getting out of the perlite
00:17:39
that I had in these Dutch buckets and
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when I'm implementing a system I want it
00:17:43
to be as cheap deep and reusable as
00:17:47
possible so for the Dodge bucket
00:17:49
hydroponic systems my recommendation
00:17:51
would be to have them in companionship
00:17:53
with something like an nft where you've
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got all of your greens handled and then
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utilize your Dutch buckets because you
00:18:02
are going to have a limited amount of
00:18:04
Dodge buckets for your fruiting plants
00:18:06
so your Tomatoes your cucumbers your
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eggplants and your high value crops like
00:18:13
that now the next hydroponic system I
00:18:15
want to cover is whoops
00:18:18
flood and drain now this flood and drain
00:18:21
bed is being rested at the moment until
00:18:24
I come up with a plan for a large scale
00:18:27
flood and drain system that I'll be
00:18:29
implementing very soon I have grown
00:18:32
pretty much every plant type in this
00:18:35
system and once they're set up they're
00:18:38
so easy to manage especially when
00:18:40
they're run with a bell siphon that
00:18:42
you'll find yourself just shoving all
00:18:44
your extra plants into them because
00:18:46
they're such a convenient low effort
00:18:49
planting Arrangement you can literally
00:18:51
just shove a plant in here at any point
00:18:54
now there are multiple different styles
00:18:57
of flood and drain system and you can
00:18:59
grow a variety of plants in them as the
00:19:03
aquaponics people know this system is
00:19:06
pretty much limited by your imagination
00:19:07
however large perennials like fruit
00:19:10
trees I would probably stick away from
00:19:13
introducing into systems like these not
00:19:16
to say that you can't you can literally
00:19:17
do whatever you like like these beds are
00:19:20
really really good all-rounders they
00:19:23
manage Roots really well because there
00:19:25
is so much root space for the plants and
00:19:27
they do a really good job of supplying
00:19:30
nutrients and water to the plants at the
00:19:34
same time as delivering oxygen because
00:19:36
of the method of delivery which is the
00:19:39
flooding and draining of the bed
00:19:42
utilizing a pump from a reservoir the
00:19:46
flooding and draining action allows the
00:19:48
water to flood in and drain out as the
00:19:52
water and nutrients drain out they leave
00:19:55
the roots moistened with the water and
00:19:57
nutrients firstly but they also pull
00:20:00
oxygen into the gaps between the media
00:20:04
and oxygenate the air around the roots
00:20:08
as well so they are a very productive
00:20:11
style of hydroponic systems this style
00:20:14
of hydroponic system is particularly
00:20:16
good for plants that require structure
00:20:18
to their Roots so if you are not
00:20:21
planning on supporting a plant flood and
00:20:23
drain can be a really nice way of giving
00:20:26
our plants structure so that it can hold
00:20:28
itself up it's an extremely versatile
00:20:31
system however the effort involved in
00:20:35
creating such a system and The Limited
00:20:39
space that you get means that usually
00:20:41
you'll be putting higher value plants in
00:20:44
flood and drain systems either that or
00:20:46
the flood and drain media will have a
00:20:49
dual purpose for instance as a bio
00:20:52
filter for aquaponics to convert wire
00:20:56
products into more nutrients for the
00:20:58
plants now this is the point where I
00:21:00
tell you which hydroponic system I like
00:21:03
best however it's just not that simple I
00:21:07
actually think that the best approach to
00:21:11
planning and maintaining a source of
00:21:13
nutrition for your family is a
00:21:17
multi-system approach yeah yes I love
00:21:19
nft it is like my favorite system
00:21:22
however on its own it has some major
00:21:26
downsides there's no way that I could
00:21:28
properly grow fruiting plants in it I've
00:21:32
tried before and I've failed many times
00:21:35
and it's not to say that you can't you
00:21:37
definitely can I've just found that it
00:21:39
is more ergonomical to grow them in
00:21:42
other systems ergonomical that's
00:21:44
probably not the right word they are
00:21:46
easier to manage in other systems so the
00:21:49
way that I'd like you to think about
00:21:51
what hydroponic systems are best for
00:21:54
your situation is Media cost is
00:21:58
recurring media cost going to be a
00:22:00
problem power is passive something that
00:22:02
you require and therefore media cost
00:22:05
isn't as much of an issue maintenance
00:22:07
are you around all the time these are
00:22:11
the factors that you need to take into
00:22:12
consideration and then you need to look
00:22:15
at the systems that apply to your
00:22:17
situation that you you can then
00:22:19
Implement for the plants you want to
00:22:21
grow a multi-system approach for me
00:22:24
would be if you have power that is
00:22:29
uninterrupted and want the most
00:22:31
productive system approach I would
00:22:34
Implement a nutrient film technique
00:22:37
because it does not require any media
00:22:40
other than like cotton balls or some
00:22:42
other small amount of media to start the
00:22:44
seeds in conjunction with either a Dutch
00:22:48
bucket system or a rain gutter grow
00:22:50
system that allows you to grow your
00:22:51
larger fruiting plants that require
00:22:53
structure and whatnot in your Dutch
00:22:56
bucket or rain gutter grow system and
00:22:58
then also have your nutrient film
00:23:01
technique hydroponic system as well as
00:23:03
with the rain gutter grow systems you
00:23:05
can grow your rhizomes tubers roots and
00:23:09
bulbs in bags for me the ideal layer in
00:23:13
that scenario where you have power would
00:23:15
be Dutch buckets with tomatoes capsicums
00:23:18
whatnot your rain gutter growth systems
00:23:20
with all of your tubers your herbs and
00:23:24
your perennials and your nutrient film
00:23:27
technique with all of your greens and
00:23:30
really fast turnover crops if you do not
00:23:33
have any power you are going to be
00:23:35
looking at something like a crack key or
00:23:38
raft style hydroponic system for your
00:23:42
leafy greens where you can utilize the
00:23:44
cotton wool method or the Jiffy peep
00:23:46
method for propagation and then
00:23:49
introduce them into a raft or a
00:23:52
crackhead style for your passive
00:23:55
hydroponic requirements you will then
00:23:58
have your rain gutter grow system
00:24:00
growing all of your fruiting plants as
00:24:03
well as your bulbs your roots your
00:24:06
rhizomes and your perennials the media
00:24:09
costs Within These systems is relatively
00:24:13
more than the rest because you are
00:24:16
replenishing them every few years I've
00:24:18
actually utilized cocoa and perlite for
00:24:22
three years in a row and it starts to
00:24:24
get a bit iffy on the third year if
00:24:27
you're in a no power scenario you may
00:24:29
well actually already use this system in
00:24:32
a more traditional way where you amend
00:24:35
soil or compost utilize the hydroponic
00:24:40
nutrient as somewhat of an amendment to
00:24:43
the soil that's in these pots and bags
00:24:47
so more of a fertigation of your bagged
00:24:51
media rather than going all out and just
00:24:54
buying hydroponic grade everything the
00:24:56
hydroponic method frees us to grow at
00:24:59
any time of the year anywhere in the
00:25:02
world and whatever we like the only
00:25:05
question we're left to ask is which
00:25:08
system is for you
00:25:11
indoor or outdoor power or no power we
00:25:15
all have the ability to grow and using
00:25:18
these systems and applying those systems
00:25:22
to your growing situation
00:25:24
you'll be able to I hope you've enjoyed
00:25:26
this episode of who chose
00:25:28
happy hydroponicing and I'll see you
00:25:31
next time
00:25:33
on hutchos
