SPACE BUCKETS

Welcome to my Space Tote experiments! I had purchased three 27gal totes I wanted to use for a bucket. I wanted to go the hydroponics route to learn about it with hands on experience. After some research and advice from coworkers I decided to go with an NFT system, which turned out to be a very interesting journey. The bottom tote is the water reservoir that has a small water pump submerged in it. Also have air pump outside bucket on ground with airstone inside. Used some tubing and one rubber grommet and connecter to connect the first two totes together. I cut out a hole for the nft track to freely drain back into reservoir. For the track I used a small piece of plastic gutter and two 90degree elbows. I cut two holes in track for net pots and used panda film to cover holes. Also taped up (poorly) panda film in middle and top totes to help reflect light. I tried to make a strange little intake but didn't work the way I wanted it to. I exhaust out the top with another small duct fan. For lighting I tried using a 2ft 4 light t5 enclosure but it created to much heat and was too difficult to access the plants with it in there. Moved down to just two single 2ft t5s. I started with some blue cheese clones but had too many issues and killed them. Had some pumpkin sprouts and threw them in there after changing the lights. So far one pumpkin in having some issues but the other is thriving. I have a feeling I'll run into some more issues come this summer though. The main challenge with these kind of indoor gardening is training the plants to be the correct size for the container. For that I will resort to using plant trainigh techniques such as Low Stress Training, topping and supercropping.