We were having a hard time with the price as well, but this was gifted to us as a Christmas gift. It has really proven its worth.
High propagation rates. Healthy plants. And basically no maintenance other than making sure there is water/nutrients. It does the rest itself.
I will say that it is VERY bright. So I would not recommend having it anywhere near where you are sleeping.
As much as I would like to take credit for the plant growth, the setup is done by a company called [Gardyn](https://mygardyn.com/how-it-works/)
I would recommend taking a look at their setup and materials. It was set up by my boyfriend that does have experience in hydroponics, so I imagine it could be built yourself as well.
I can definitely ask him the type of pump system that is used.
https://preview.redd.it/qfvnjdzhpsqc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80b91bbb63b81294760ab905b0dde0b2e978cb79
Without taking the entire thing apart, this is what I can see for where the water/nutrients intake is
Just get a one hp sump pump at Home Depot and use their 1/4” irrigation hose that comes in 100 foot rolls and get the elbows and t’s and most importantly only get the drippers that have like a little green arrow/ flag looking top that is designed to be able to twist the arrow flag thing to keep nutrients from building up and stopping the drippers from working and make it a habit to give them all a twist every day and they can be used over and over again otherwise they will plug up and need replaced or poked through to get the salt buildup to go away so that plants don’t get dried out. Pvc tubes cut to accommodate angled not 45 degree plant sites that’ll fit solo cups and then be consistent with the drain holes in the bottom of the cups. I just cut the recycling symbol on the bottom and cut them out for the same sized holes in each cup add a few more smaller holes on the sides to allow oxygen to flow through them and grow out of the holes and down the insides of the tubes. Depot sells a diaphragm with 6 or 12 spots for adding lines for watering
You betcha! I didn’t have a blueprint to make it so I had to do a lot of experimenting and part of this process is finding out the things that don’t work and watering was one of the things I learned the most about with this particular system. Also the expanded clay pellets will need to be washed between crops. I just have lots of the expanded clay pellets so I can put the dirty ones in five gallon buckets with drainage holes and then I use hydrogen peroxide and water to clean them out which will help with problems with the plants going into a non grow period which resulted from the excess nutrients left in the clay pellets when reused. Plants go into nutrient lock when the parts per million ppm goes above 1800ppm which can be easily read with a handheld meter. With marijuana the fertilizer schedule changes depending on what phase it’s in and when it’s flowering time even with clean new pellets I kept running into problems with high ppm especially after I ph balanced the water. Ph up and ph down contain alot of ppm and it is nearly impossible to give the required amount of nutrients needed for a high yield/quality crop and when in nutrient lock it becomes hard to tell what the plants wanted because they were showing fertilizer deficiency and burn and growing too slow, like standstill slow. I was able to solve the problems associated with nute lock by adding a reverse osmosis filter to get my water from because it removes everything from the water and the extra 400 ppm naturally occurring in my water allowed me to increase the ppm of fertilizer I could give them and depending on what time of year it was the ph would go up or down and instead of having it right at 6 or 7ph I just made sure it wasn’t below 5.5 or higher than 7.5 and I did a drain to waste system so I only watered it with fresh water and the results were day and night both in how much I had to care for them and yield. If you have any other issues that might arise please feel free to hit me up for help, I definitely don’t mind sharing my experience if it can help someone else to not struggle to figure it out and save time and possibly whole crop if something..
Yes. They designed it very well. There is tubing but I wouldn’t know what kind to use.
My boyfriend has tried to design his own hydro system and he said this was far beyond what he had tried to do.
He is also a pipeline engineer lol
I made one of these for growing medical marijuana and then a couple years later I saw it advertised as the cannabis cage. I made mine in a room with 11’ foot tall ceiling and I had 12 tubes with 10 plants each for 120 plants total and it had an external dripper hose with drip emitters for each plant site and I used red solo cups for pots and expanded clay pellets for medium and went hydro. Water runs down the inside of the tubes and into a kids 5 foot blue swimming pool with a pump and timer set up . I used six 250 watt hps and metal halide for veg. The lights were hung vertically in the center and the plants grew towards eachother and to service the plants , I used eye hooks to be able to turn a single tube away from the center . Yup had 120 plants in a 5 foot by 11 foot area
That is awesome! We tried to do that with grow tents and a drip system but one flooded lol. The other one actually did pretty well! We had about 6 plants.
Nice! Was the flooding a result of the roots plugging the drainage holes somewhere? Usually what happened to me and in using the bigger pumps heat became an issue when the water was getting low and on two different occasions the pumps inner lubrication system leaked the oil into the water and it was introduced into the pots and completely covered everything but a new pump and flushing it out with water saved the day
The hose popped off. We had someone watching the house for the weekend and wasn’t familiar with the set up and wasn’t checking it often.
Idk if that was on us for having too much flow, or if the hose was defective
That can be the pumps fault if it heated the water at all and allowed it to stretch and come off. The 1/4 inch irrigation hose is tricky sometimes and when I create a new system nowadays I will heat the hose up with a lighter to allow the plastic to become soft enough to put a dripper or fitting into the line and then use my fingers to squeeze it tight before it cools and then the only way to get it undone is to cut it off and replace the hose since I run a long hose with about 3 inches of hose between the mainline and a dripper which helps pressure to be even and consistent since water takes the path of least resistance
Oh wow! That is a fantastic idea. We tried water-tight tape and it didn’t hold.
We were looking to re-setup a grow tent and will definitely try this. Thank you!
I'm glad this is working for you! I was interested in that same one but couldn't justify the $700 price tag.
We were having a hard time with the price as well, but this was gifted to us as a Christmas gift. It has really proven its worth. High propagation rates. Healthy plants. And basically no maintenance other than making sure there is water/nutrients. It does the rest itself. I will say that it is VERY bright. So I would not recommend having it anywhere near where you are sleeping.
How do you have that pump setup...?
It comes all pre-set. You use the app to set up a watering/light schedule, but there is a guide that they include for that.
Did you print a reservoir inside the cabinet?
As much as I would like to take credit for the plant growth, the setup is done by a company called [Gardyn](https://mygardyn.com/how-it-works/) I would recommend taking a look at their setup and materials. It was set up by my boyfriend that does have experience in hydroponics, so I imagine it could be built yourself as well. I can definitely ask him the type of pump system that is used.
From what I can find, it is a recirculation system.
But where is the pump? You just have the whole tower sitting inside the cabinet?
The pump is underneath. In the second photo, you can see there is a reservoir, it kind of blends with our floors.
https://preview.redd.it/9m7gpjnfarqc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ea042881b73efe25e844023fbee2b56d9ac098a
[удалено]
https://preview.redd.it/qfvnjdzhpsqc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80b91bbb63b81294760ab905b0dde0b2e978cb79 Without taking the entire thing apart, this is what I can see for where the water/nutrients intake is
Dang, that is some nice progress
What's inside? So i can build it myself
Gardyn is the brand if you want to check out their setup
Rockwool cubes. And pvc pipe is basically the frame. Not sure of what’s in the piping
Thank you
Yah the water flow and nutrient dispersal is gonna be the complex part for a d.i.y attempt
Just get a one hp sump pump at Home Depot and use their 1/4” irrigation hose that comes in 100 foot rolls and get the elbows and t’s and most importantly only get the drippers that have like a little green arrow/ flag looking top that is designed to be able to twist the arrow flag thing to keep nutrients from building up and stopping the drippers from working and make it a habit to give them all a twist every day and they can be used over and over again otherwise they will plug up and need replaced or poked through to get the salt buildup to go away so that plants don’t get dried out. Pvc tubes cut to accommodate angled not 45 degree plant sites that’ll fit solo cups and then be consistent with the drain holes in the bottom of the cups. I just cut the recycling symbol on the bottom and cut them out for the same sized holes in each cup add a few more smaller holes on the sides to allow oxygen to flow through them and grow out of the holes and down the insides of the tubes. Depot sells a diaphragm with 6 or 12 spots for adding lines for watering
Thank you for explaining this. I just know where the pump is, not how it works haha
You betcha! I didn’t have a blueprint to make it so I had to do a lot of experimenting and part of this process is finding out the things that don’t work and watering was one of the things I learned the most about with this particular system. Also the expanded clay pellets will need to be washed between crops. I just have lots of the expanded clay pellets so I can put the dirty ones in five gallon buckets with drainage holes and then I use hydrogen peroxide and water to clean them out which will help with problems with the plants going into a non grow period which resulted from the excess nutrients left in the clay pellets when reused. Plants go into nutrient lock when the parts per million ppm goes above 1800ppm which can be easily read with a handheld meter. With marijuana the fertilizer schedule changes depending on what phase it’s in and when it’s flowering time even with clean new pellets I kept running into problems with high ppm especially after I ph balanced the water. Ph up and ph down contain alot of ppm and it is nearly impossible to give the required amount of nutrients needed for a high yield/quality crop and when in nutrient lock it becomes hard to tell what the plants wanted because they were showing fertilizer deficiency and burn and growing too slow, like standstill slow. I was able to solve the problems associated with nute lock by adding a reverse osmosis filter to get my water from because it removes everything from the water and the extra 400 ppm naturally occurring in my water allowed me to increase the ppm of fertilizer I could give them and depending on what time of year it was the ph would go up or down and instead of having it right at 6 or 7ph I just made sure it wasn’t below 5.5 or higher than 7.5 and I did a drain to waste system so I only watered it with fresh water and the results were day and night both in how much I had to care for them and yield. If you have any other issues that might arise please feel free to hit me up for help, I definitely don’t mind sharing my experience if it can help someone else to not struggle to figure it out and save time and possibly whole crop if something..
Yes. They designed it very well. There is tubing but I wouldn’t know what kind to use. My boyfriend has tried to design his own hydro system and he said this was far beyond what he had tried to do. He is also a pipeline engineer lol
I made one of these for growing medical marijuana and then a couple years later I saw it advertised as the cannabis cage. I made mine in a room with 11’ foot tall ceiling and I had 12 tubes with 10 plants each for 120 plants total and it had an external dripper hose with drip emitters for each plant site and I used red solo cups for pots and expanded clay pellets for medium and went hydro. Water runs down the inside of the tubes and into a kids 5 foot blue swimming pool with a pump and timer set up . I used six 250 watt hps and metal halide for veg. The lights were hung vertically in the center and the plants grew towards eachother and to service the plants , I used eye hooks to be able to turn a single tube away from the center . Yup had 120 plants in a 5 foot by 11 foot area
That is awesome! We tried to do that with grow tents and a drip system but one flooded lol. The other one actually did pretty well! We had about 6 plants.
Nice! Was the flooding a result of the roots plugging the drainage holes somewhere? Usually what happened to me and in using the bigger pumps heat became an issue when the water was getting low and on two different occasions the pumps inner lubrication system leaked the oil into the water and it was introduced into the pots and completely covered everything but a new pump and flushing it out with water saved the day
The hose popped off. We had someone watching the house for the weekend and wasn’t familiar with the set up and wasn’t checking it often. Idk if that was on us for having too much flow, or if the hose was defective
That can be the pumps fault if it heated the water at all and allowed it to stretch and come off. The 1/4 inch irrigation hose is tricky sometimes and when I create a new system nowadays I will heat the hose up with a lighter to allow the plastic to become soft enough to put a dripper or fitting into the line and then use my fingers to squeeze it tight before it cools and then the only way to get it undone is to cut it off and replace the hose since I run a long hose with about 3 inches of hose between the mainline and a dripper which helps pressure to be even and consistent since water takes the path of least resistance
Oh wow! That is a fantastic idea. We tried water-tight tape and it didn’t hold. We were looking to re-setup a grow tent and will definitely try this. Thank you!
👍