Vertical gardens and living walls add a whole new dimension to hydroponics gardening. Apart from space constraint, vertical gardening gives an attractive alternative for unwanted views, adds interest to boring walls, and produces the same amount or even more fresh vegetables as a regular garden. Most of the fruits and veggies like tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, herbs, pepper, pumpkin etc. can be grown in your vertical garden.
While contemplating a vertical garden, keep the following things in mind:
- Location: Make sure your plants get enough sunlight; and if you have seasonal winds, ensure the plants are well protected. If you have a balcony or patio with limited sun exposure, choose plants accordingly. Leafy vegetables like lettuce and cabbage do well in shaded areas.
- Choice of vegetables: Nearly any vegetable grown in the ground will work well as a container-grown plant in your vertical garden. Shelves work best for vertical gardening, as it gives you plenty of space for numerous types of vegetables. The best type of shelving is the kind with slats - this allows better circulation and excess water will trickle down from top to bottom. Trellises are ideal for growing trailing or vine crops, or you can also use fences, hanging baskets, tiers, or ladders.
With minimum available space you can easily prepare a vertical hydroponics system that is quite functional. It's simple to maintain a vertical hydroponics system but the construction part requires little bit of skills.
Tools needed to prepare your own vertical hydroponics garden:
- Screw gun
- 4 wood screws of size 3-inch
- Plywood of size •½-inch and 2-by-6 feet
- 3 rockwool plastic slabs, of 4-by-6-by-48 inches
- 12 eye hooks, •¼-inch
- 8 feet long nylon string
- Water pump
- 18-gallon tote
- Box cutter
- Black vinyl tubing •¼-inch, 8 feet
- 2 "T" fittings, 1/4-inch
- 12 rockwool plugs
- 2 eye hooks, 3-inch
- Chain, 4 feet
- HPS bulb, 600-watt along with the cooling unit
- Ballast, 600-watt
Simple method to build your own vertical hydroponics garden with simple hydroponics supplies:
- Fix your plywood in a vertical position onto the wall where you have decided to set your vertical hydroponics system. Fix the 2-foot side of the bottom on the ground.
- Set the rockwool slabs opposite the plywood with equal space between them. See to it that there is 2 feet of clearance between the top of the slabs. Fix the eye hooks at the distance of 6 inches from above the slabs so that they are equally spaced and 18 inches from the edge of the plywood. Repeat this process by maintaining a distance of 18 inches from the plywood bottom and support the slabs with the help of nylon string.
- Now divide the vinyl tubing into two sections of about 4-inch each. The plastic that is placed on the top side of the slabs. Fix tubing of two inches and insert into the holes that are drilled to the left and middle of the slabs. Now fix one "T" fitting on each section. And connect tubing that travels between them. Now connect the 8-inch tubing to the middle "T"-fitting and connect the end to the last slab. Connect the remaining T-fitting to the left and run it towards the lower end of the slab.
- Set your 18-gallon tote underneath the slabs and cut the plastic at the bottom of every slab. The excess nutrient solution is drained in to the tote by the slabs. Now connect the water pump into the tote with connected •¼-inch tubing.
- Now your vertical hydroponics system is ready to use and you can commence gardening by adding seedling in the plugs that are further placed in the rockwool. Cut a 3-inch slice over the plastic slab to provide some space for the plug. Ad nutrient solution into the tote, and start your water pump.
- You can hang your HPS unit by hanging it on the 3-inch eye hook. The unit should be placed as such that the bulb is parallel with the vertical slabs and 4 •½ feet distance away. With the help of a chain you can position the cooling unit in proper angle so that the light covers all the slabs without much waste.
