How to Build an Indoor Vertical Hydroponic System for Lettuce

Hoocho Shows Us How to Build an Indoor Vertical Hydroponic System for Lettuce

The SF600 can be found here:
Apply code HOOCHO for 3% discount.

Hoochos explores the worlds of Hydroponics, Aquaponics, Permaculture, Homesteading, Fermentation, Technology and DIY Builds to look at the world through a larger lens that can incorporate the best of everything into a rich and rewarding lifestyle.
Through self sufficiency we can reduce consumption and increase our hyperlocal household production.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

STL Files are Available on the Hoocho Patreon:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contributions to the Channel:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equipment I Recommend:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Quality Combo PH & EC Meter:
HI9813-6 Portable pH / EC /TDS /Temperature Meter-

EC Meters:
Bluelab Truncheon EC Meter-

PH Meters:
Bluelab PH Pen:

3D Printer:
Creality Ender-3 Pro-

Wyze Cams for Plant Time-lapsing:
Wyze Cam V3-
Wyze Cam Outdoor-

Physical Rain Gutter Grow System Ends:

Float Valves for RGGS:

Cheap Printer Filament AUS-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grow Light Discount Codes:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vipar Spectra Website-
10% discount for the XS1000: yt10Hoocho
5% discount for the XS1500/XS2000/XS4000: ytHoocho
8% off Coupon Code: HOOCHO

SpiderFarmer Lights:
Apply code HOOCHO for 3% discount.

Mars Hydro Lights:
Apply code HOOCHO for 3% discount.

Groplanner Website - 6% off Promo code:HOOCHO618
US Amazon - 5% off Promo code:HOOCHO618

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merch:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social Media & Contact
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have personal queries about hydroponics or other matters please join me on Patreon for limited individual support or post in the Hoocho Reddit community or on the Hoocho’s facebook group and there are a lot of friendly helpful likeminded people that may have answers for you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Hydroponicing!

[davedave]

Excellent tutorial. I’m happy that you left the part in where you had to modify your design for the pump tube because you needed that space for the light fixtures. That’ll help people because they may need to modify the design to fit the shelf/components they have. And I hope you’re feeling good as well.

[dennisshoemaker]

Another excellent tutorial! It still makes me smile when you are unexpectedly impressed with your designs. Thanks for sharing all of the mistakes and corrections with us.

[WoodcliffCommunity]

One of the best hydroponic resource channels on the net, hands down! Thanks for all you do and share with us!

[belleomalley]

Oh my god I quite literally have been trying to figure this out on my own

[christinesmith]

Great tutorial! We just finished our hydroponics setup thanks to your video and can't wait to watch our greens grow :) No more pulling grass and weeds from the veggie gardens. Thanks Hoocho. A big fan in Brisbane

[leannekenyoung]

FANTASTIC BUILD!! Is VERY similar to mine although I have my reservoir at the end of the rack and my shelving unit has one additional shelf with a light above which I use for germinating new seedlings. I absolutely can’t wait to see your time lapse with this system! I’ve been growing in one very similar for over 4 years now and my family absolutely LOVES it!! I grow so many different kinds of lettuce and white stem tat-soi and basil. I use it to give my tomato seedlings a start until they get to be a certain size and then I transition them to their own larger tote box to continue growing with of course stronger nutrients. This is absolutely fab! And anyone can do this without the need of any special 3D printing. The only thing I’m wondering about is the 6 manifold split, how easy it is to get and how prone to clogging would it be? What you could have done instead was to start at the top of the first channel and have the water run zig zag between the first pipe to the second pipe on the same shelf and then instead of it returning to the reservoir have it flow next into the pipes below and tilt them in the opposite direction and the tilt can be very slight hardly any at all and water will continue to flow through the path of least resistance. And then at the end of the second shelf pipe have it flow into the third shelf of piping and then that last pipe has the return into the reservoir. There are enough nutrients in the water that when it starts at the top and flow through each pipe each plant will still get what it needs to thrive. It doesn’t require that each pipe has fresh from the reservoir because it’s a recirculating system anyway. Make sense? Also I know you prefer those lights but you can also purchase lights that have one power source and are daisy chained together and that way it’s a lot less power boxes to worry about just one for three lights or even four lights. Monios T5 or T8 warm white lights are perfect and come in 4Ft or 2ft lengths depending on the size of your shelving unit. My unit is 3 ft wide so they stick out 6 inches on each end which is fine because I keep my reservoir off to one end of the shelving unit it makes it accessible for replacing the bottom of the tote with a clean whole new bottom and the only thing I need to do is to stop the pump and pull it out and give it a good scrub and clean the filter area and then pop it back in and the system continues running beautifully. I keep the extra bottom tote box for that and then I can clean it out at my leisure without feeling rushed to get everything back up and running. I live in Canada and I am growing lettuce 365 days a year with my DIY NFT system and it’s absolutely amazing how easy this is to do! I encourage everyone who lives in an apartment to setup a system like this it requires such a small amount of your time or energy and such a small space to grow a lot of food! Each of my pipes have 9 holes and I have the 6 pipes as well so 54 heads of lettuce I can grow at one time but instead of doing that I tend to grow tat-soi in a couple of pipes and I stagger my lettuce growing so I always have new plants entering when one is finished. The hardest part is not germinating too many seedlings at once and then having no where to put them! Lol! So we are building a second entire rack because lettuce in Canada is absurdly expensive right now and we will be able to help out our family and friends! We tend to take cuttings every 7-10 days all around the outside of the plant and leave the Center need growth so nothing gets overly large and that way the lettuce continues to produce for at least two months and as long as it doesn’t get too hot or too much light it doesn’t bolt. It’s been sensational and I absolutely am in love with growing like this. Thank you for your design I sure hope it encourages many others to give it a try! It’s ridiculously easy!! I will be using your video of an example of what can be done. The only change I may make is adding some reducers at the ends of each pipe before it turns into the next pipe and in that way each pipe will always have a certain amount of water in its pipe in case of a power failure. That’s what we’ve done and it’s worked well. It also means that the pipes you use to connect between each reducer is significantly smaller. So not as bulky and it doesn’t require the use of the small black tubing which could be prone to plugging with debris. One way around that would be to put cheesecloth or a paint bag around your pump and then it won’t allow any debris into the pump.

[kimberleykanous]

Love the 'learn as you go' of this video

[deannaschroeder]

Thank you for explaining and showing how you build your projects. I am new to Hydroponic and getting ready to set up a system to grow tomatoes and cucumbers this summer. I am located in the state of Oklahoma USA. By the time I watch all your videos I should be able to convert your metric measurements to inches and feet. Until the next video!!

[Teampierrellc]

Hands down the best diy system I’ve seen and I been looking for a good while.

[josiahspackman]

That size works perfectly, just rotate the Res 90 degrees and then it'll fit underneath, while still being able to be removed and cleaned 👍

[KeanuV]

Great work :) I'd be curious to see the difference between growing the plants in this system vs the nft in the greenhouse to see if the grow differs in any way.

[harmonicliving]

Nice set up. The lamps look great for veg.

[danboutdoors]

Super keen to see how this goes longer term mate with a full grow. I wish we had all the same end piece options for the 100x50 downpipe as that in this setup would but the ultimate indoor setup!

Once I see the outcome of your grow I may make one of these to give it a go anyway

[Scrambles]

Truly sorry, I've been sick and haven't been able to see my number 1 online. This was great mate, great job BIG DOG!!

[havardmoen]

I realy love your dwc system!! I am a inndoor grower!! And i follow you on YouTube all the time!!

[bradrich]

Absolutely awesome. Once again a great idea, excellently presented and explained.

[Goodellsam]

I love that you show your fabrication on the fly.

[richs]

I love this channel! I just did some lettuce in a Kratky under an SF600

[latriciacagle]

Great video. I could make an NFT system but I don’t wanna😏. To save myself time and frustration, I’m just going to buy one and use your great cotton ball method.

[Apexxshock]

I’m not sure if it matters but you’ll have water backed up in that very bottom 90 going into your rez until it pushes back that original slope of 1 inch every 3 feet so you’ll likely have one inch of water in that 90 degree elbow all the time.