In Hydroponic systems, you use liquid solutions that provide the essential minerals and nutrients which are needed for plants to grow and thrive instead of using soil. There are some types of hydroponic system you can adopt to grow the plants. As beginner you may build a simple wick hydroponic system at home. This wick hydroponic system can be made / build at home using common materials such as plastic bottles, cheap and no need electricity to operate. Other advanced hydroponic systems such as NFT are often expensive and need electricity to operate. So in below article I will share step by step and things you will need to build wick hydroponic system using plastic bottle. It is very simple, cheap and you may ask your kids to join.
Things You Will Need to Build Wick Hydroponic System Using Plastic Bottle
- Plastic bottles ex water bottles or soft drink bottles (any size)
- Cutting tool such as knife and razor blade
- Marker
- Drill or awl
- Wicking material such as cotton yarn
- Hydroponic nutrient solution, water
- Growing medium such as perlite
 |
| You may use any size of plastic bottle to build wick hydroponic system |
How to Build Wick Hydroponic System Using Plastic Bottle
Below are step by step how to build wick hydroponic system using plastic bottle:1. Cut off the top of the plastic bottle with a knife or razor blade at the point where the curve of the top bottle meets the straight sides. Be careful when cutting the top of the plastic bottle and avoid cutting your fingers. Once the bottom and top part of the plastic bottle are separated, be careful when handling them, the cut has left sharp plastic edges and may hurt your hand.
2. Turn the top portion of the plastic bottle over and insert it into the bottom so that the lid is inside of the plastic bottle. Mark the plastic bottle at the point where the lid is, it will give you a point of reference for adding nutrient solution.
3. Drill a hole in the lid that is large enough for a piece of wick material to pass through.
4. Thread wick material through the hole in the lid, making sure the wick material is long enough to reach the bottom of the plastic bottle with at least 1-2 inches remaining in the top portion. This wick will deliver the nutrient from bottom bottle to the plant on the top.
5. Remove the top of the plastic bottle from the bottom and fill hydroponic nutrient solution into the bottom. Just use the mark that you made previously as a guide and make sure that you don't fill it too much so it will not touch the top portion once the entire system is assembled.
6. Reinsert the top portion of the plastic bottle into the bottom, allowing the wick material to fall into the nutrient solution. Now your wick hydroponic system using plastic bottle is ready and next step is planting.
7. Moisten some growing medium such as perlite with the nutrient solution. Place the growing medium into the top portion of the plastic bottle. Thread the wick through the growing medium so that it will deliver nutrients from the bottom of the plastic bottle into the growing medium-filled top section.
8. Place a small seedling in the growing medium and make sure that all of its roots are covered. The seedling will get nutrients from the dampened growing medium.
Building wick hydroponic system using plastic bottle has been completed. What you need for next step is take care your plant and its wick hydroponic system and you may follow below tips on building wick hydroponic system using plastic bottle.
Tips on Building Wick Hydroponic System Using Plastic Bottles
• You can start seedling using wick hydroponic system above also. The construction of wick hydroponic system is same, but just use water instead of nutrient solution and wait until the seed has sprouted. After the seed has sprouted you may replace water in wick hydroponic system with the nutrient solution.• Nutrient solution in wick hydroponic system using transparent plastic bottle will attract algae to come in. This algae will disturb on delivery of nutrient solution to the plant. To get rid from algae, you can clean the bottle regularly and change your nutrient solution or you can place your wick hydroponic system in pot / container or you can paint the plastic bottle so the sunlight cannot penetrate into the nutrient solution.
photo credit: sites.google.com, www.alaurang.com