Breathe Easy with Aeroponic Growing:  When you make the decision to commit to growing your own organic food and herbs with a home aeroponics system that fits snugly in an unused corner of your apartment, you’re taking a first step toward independence and sustainability. The second step is to choose the aeroponic system that’s right for you. Consider the following factors as you start shopping for the perfect system.

Your Footprint:

Before you begin choosing the components of your aeroponics unit, think about the physical area available in your home. Many gardeners choose aeroponics because urban living limits their total available growing space. If the square footage of your home puts every inch at a premium, determine where your aeroponics unit will sit before you purchase or build it. Forgotten spaces, such as high closet shelves, dark corners, or on top of the refrigerator all make splendid grow spaces. Measure first! Remember, aeroponics systems come in many sizes and shapes, vertical and horizontal. Some growers may want to choose a system based primarily on size and space considerations.

Commercial Units:

At its most basic, your aeroponic system comprises a chamber where your plants’ roots can grow, expanding within a protected space that keeps the roots safe from pests and harmful bacteria. Some units also enclose the canopy—the stem and leaves—within a connected chamber. Typically, commercial aeroponic systems feature individual containers for each plant, fitted at perfect intervals within the larger unit.

Most commercial units come complete with pump, lights, and timer. The pump delivers the vaporized nutrient solution directly to the roots of your plants. Built-in lighting means you can keep your aerogarden in an otherwise dark area: no sunlight required! The timer will deliver nutrients at predetermined intervals, typically a few seconds of mist delivered at a time. A separate timer will create the optimal lighting schedule, and persuade your plants to provide maximum output.

There are literally hundreds of commercial systems from which to choose! Consider size, cost, and the opinions of other growers as you chose your aeroponics system.

Do It Yourself:

Any two-tiered containers that can hold your plants above an enclosed root chamber can become an aeroponics set, and you’ll find plans for many different systems online. If you’re building your own system, or have purchased a scaled down unit, you may need to purchase your own pumps, lights, sprayers, and timers.

Your timers must be dependable: you need to know they won’t fail to deliver lights and nutrition if you go out of town for the weekend. If you’re uncomfortable with digital technology, make sure you also get one that’s easily programmable! Timers are common components, and you’ll have plenty to choose from. Use consumer reviews as a guide and purchase a dependable one.

The sprayer is the system that will deliver nutrients from the reservoir to the root chamber. The biggest problem reported in building ones own unit is the sprayer clogging; do your research to ensure you don’t have this difficulty. In aeroponics, the finer your mist, the better. Tiny, nebulized droplets are easiest for your roots to absorb. You can still get good results with a spray nozzle, but foggers, misters, and nebulizers are best.

It’s possible to grow aeroponically without artificial lights. Your aeroponic system can live on a porch or windowsill, but you’ll get better results with grow lights on a timer. You can choose a fluorescent lamp for all growing stages. However, Metal Halide lights work best in the vegetative stage, as your seeds sprout and being to grow into seedlings. Then, for budding and flowering, you can switch to HPS (High Pressure Sodium) lights, which provide red spectral energy. HPS light are also a good supplement to natural sunlight. Conversion lamps let easily you switch between HPS and Metal Halide.

Pumps are usually categorized as high or low pressure; if you are just beginning in aeroponics, you may want to choose a low pressure system, which is gentler on young seedlings. Pumps can be as simple as modified fish tank pump, if you are handy and want to build your own, or can be purchased at various sizes, depending on the size of your system and how far you need to move the nutrient solution. You can determine your optimal pump size using a nomograph that plots pressure and flow, or a manufacturer’s chart for pressure drop. However, if this sounds complicated, you’re best off purchasing a system with a built-in pump.

Nutrients:

Here again, there are many solutions to choose from, and you’ll need to decide which types of plants you’ll be growing before you choose your nutrient solution: citrus trees will require different nutrients than an herb garden. Follow the manufacturer’s guidelines: every product should give a good indication of the type of plant it will best nourish. Your aeroponics system should be able to handle any nutrient solution you feed it.

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1. Hydroponic Systems Buyer’s Guide

Buyer’s Guide to Hydroponic Systems — A Walk through the Water Garden

The decision to invest in an indoor hydroponic growing system is a step toward food independence and sustainability. Whether you build your own hydroponics system or assemble a viable waterfarm from manufactured components, you’re about to embark on an enviable adventure. Will you choose static solution, or continuous flow? How will you select media and nutrients? Which cultivars will nourish your family?

For every space, every budget, and every need, there is a hydroponic gardening system. With very little money, you can cobble together your own custom grow system. If you’d prefer a high-end hydroponic grow system installed by an expert, you can purchase the garden of your dreams. And if you fall somewhere in between these two extremes, you’ll still find the right hydroponic setup.

The Nitty Gritty Dirtless Brand

Searching for simplicity? At its most basic, your hydroponics growing system consists of two pieces: containment for your plants, and containment for your nutrients. With these in place, you may choose to set up with some type of media in the first container (to hold the plants in place), and some type of nutrient in the second container (to nourish the plants). Most systems will also use a pump, which circulates the nutrients through the media.

If you’ll maintain your hydro system indoors, you have the happy option of controlling all the elements. You’ll need a good light source and enough ventilation. From there, the sky is the limit. You can begin growing right away, or you can expand your horizons with extras like cloning systems, environmental controls, air pumps, CO₂ regulators, and more. Hydroponics is a hotbed of innovation. The technology is always getting better!

Uncommonly Easy

Hydroponics systems may use one of two techniques. Medium culture, in which your plants are rooted in Rockwool, Perlite, vermiculate, expanded clay, coconut husks, or even sand, is more common. However, you can obtain wonderful results using solution culture, in which the roots of your plants are exposed directly to the liquid nutrient solution, without any solid media for the roots.

Drip Systems are among the most common set ups. A hydroponic drip system uses a pump to push the nutrients through the medium. You can control the rate of the drip, depending on how fast the medium drains.

Ebb and Flow Systems are also known as Flood and Drain Systems. Unlike the continuous slow supply of the Drip System, Ebb and Flow periodically floods the medium with nutrients, which then slowly drain out before the next flood.

Deep Water Cultures are even simpler, with the plants situated directly in the nutrients, and an air pump used to keep the water circulating and the plants from drowning.

Hand Watering Hydroponic Systems, as their name implies, require you to hydrate them regularly with a solution of nutrients dissolved in water.

But this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Beginning with the same theories and techniques, hydroponic enthusiasts have developed increasingly sophisticated methods for hydroponic growing: Nutrient Film Technique, Dutch Bucket Method, Ein Gedi System, Raft System, Vertical Gardening, Aeroponic Systems, Grow Boxes and Grow Machines, Propagations Systems, Passive Subirrigation, and Run to Waste, to name a few.

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Selecting the right type of lighting for your indoor gardening project is essential. Fluorescent grow lights can be very effective because they contain the blue light segment of the spectrum that is needed for seedlings, clones and vegetative growth. Typically, a single fixture will provide enough light for small plants, say 8-12 inches. However, 2-3 fixtures can be used together to broaden the area covered and foster vegetative growth up to 24 inches in height.

What’s great about fluorescent plant lights is that they give off very little heat. This means that you can let the plants grow within just a few inches of the bulbs without burning the plant.  Standard fluorescent grow lights produce double the amount of lumens per watt of energy as incandescent lights and have an average life span of up to 20,000 hours.

Standard fluorescent light bulbs come in three sizes, T5, T8 and T12. The “T” represents the shape of the bulb (tubular), and the number represents the diameter of the bulbs (in eights of an inch). The T5’s are the newest and most efficient of the group, and also have a “high output” version that is twice as efficient as the standard T5.

Types of Fluorescent Grow Lights

In the past, fluorescent growing lights were seen as oversized, low output and only good for seedlings. All of this has changed with the advent of the T5 full spectrum and compact fluorescent light (CFL) systems.

Standard Fluorescent Grow Lights

These “entry level” fluorescents are perfect for seedlings and veggies like spinach, lettuce and other herbs. Just make to keep the bulbs no more than 4 inches away from the tops of the plants. Standard fluorescents are twice as efficient and produce twice as many lumens as incandescent bulbs. Even more impressive, their life span is roughly 20,000 hours, more than 20 times that of incandescent!

High Output Fluorescent Grow Lights

Producing nearly twice as much light as their standard counterparts, high output fluorescents . For example, a 4-foot model with 8 tubes produces the same amount of lumens as a 400 watt metal halide grow light. The benefit of the fluorescent is that it gives off much less heat and spreads light more evenly over the coverage area. High Output fluorescent grow lighting delivers roughly 5,000 lumens per 54 watt 4 ft. tube and have an average life span of 10,000 hours.

T5 Fluorescent Grow Light Fixtures

They typical T5 setup contains 5 fluorescent high output bulbs with a curved reflector behind each bulb. Since these systems can get a bit pricey, you may want to use a standard fluorescent light for a small number of clones and seedlings. Save this powerhouse for growing big, hearty plants in their vegetative stages up to 2 feet tall. Also, while it is possible to use the T5 fluorescent growing lights for flowering, the typical yield is half as much as you would get using high pressure sodium lights. If yield isn’t your concern, than try out the T5 system for things like leafy vegetables, growing bedding plants, an herb garden, bonsai trees, succulents or even orchids!

Compact Fluorescent Plant Grow Light Systems

Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs provide the widest range of color spectrums and are extremely versatile because of their small size and low heat output. These bulbs last about 10,000 hours and are available in three different versions:

• Warm/Red (2,700k) – best for promoting flowering and budding
• Full Spectrum/Daylight (5,000k) – promotes overall plant growth
• Cool/Blue (6,500k) – promotes overall plant growth

*Note: The 125 watt fluorescent bulbs produce 8,500 lumens, while the 200 watt bulbs produce 12,800 lumens.

Many people are seeing great success using the Compact Fluorescent Grow Systems for shelf gardening because their low heat emission allows you to place the lights on rows of shelves that are stacked on top of each other. If you’ve never seen one of these grow lights in action, they pretty much look like the average energy saving light bulb you would use in your house.

It is important to mention that the big disadvantages of CFL grow lights are 1) poor light penetration, and 2) overall inefficiency as compared to other types of lighting. For these reasons, we recommend using a reflector and keeping the light close to the plants.

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New York indoor gardening store specializing in hydroponic grow systems, complete kits, nutrients and supplies. Choose from Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium (HPS) Fluorescent and LED grow light

Bronx Hydroponic Systems & Supplies
39 Bruckner Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10454-4413
(718) 993-3787‎

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1. Brooklyn Hydroponics & Indoor Garden Supply

Brooklyn, NY indoor gardening store specializing in hydroponic systems, complete grow kits, nutrients and supplies. Choose Fluorescent, High Press Sodium (HPS), Metal Halide and LED grow lights.

Brooklyn Hydroponics System & Supplies
316 McGuinness Boulevard
Brooklyn, NY 11222-1800
(718) 383-0095‎

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1. Bronx Hydroponic Systems & Supplies