Teaching children about gardening and plant life is easy when they have had a little hands on experience with watching plants grow. Hydroponics is a great way to teach children about plant biology as the plants grow more quickly than when planted in soil. What’s more to actually build hydroponics system with children is both simple and fun.

A bucket system that uses an automated system is an easy teaching tool to use. If you home school your children then this could be a great project to embark on as it incorporates more than one subject. It should be noted that this is not the best option for indoor hydroponic systems.

Building From Scratch

This system is easy for children to put together as it is very similar to traditional gardening. The only difference is that it incorporates an automated watering system that requires a little parental guidance. This easy to build hydroponics system uses two five gallon buckets.

The first bucket needs to have several holes drilled into the sides of the bucket. These holes should go around the bucket, and measure more than three eights of an inch. They should also be about an inch and a half away from the bottom of the bucket. This bucket needs to be filled up with growing medium before seedlings, or rooted cuttings are planted.

The second bucket that will be used when you are about to build the hydroponics system serves as the reservoir for the plants. This is where the adult supervision is needed when you are about to build the hydroponics system. Mix water and whatever nutrient solution you choose and add to the reservoir bucket.

Attach a drip line to a submersible pump and place the submersible pump into the water. You will also need to have an air pump; the air pump should be outside the reservoir. The air pump needs to be connected to an airline that is put inside the reservoir and attached to an air stone.

The submersible pump needs to be attached to a timer; you can use a digital timer without any problems. The timer should be set to go off once or twice a day for about a minute. The drip line should reach the base of the plants you are growing in the first bucket. This easy to build hydroponics system can be a starting point for hydroponics. It is a good system for large plants such as tomatoes, and peppers.