Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Guys,

I've been doing a fair amount of reading, and most folks say between 2 - 3 inches of net pot should be more than enough for tomato/large ball plants, so I'm thinking it's *way* more than enough for something like lettuce, or basil. In my NFT system I've used 4" PVC, and now I'm about to start building out the tubes, but was wondering what everyone suggested in regards to NetPot Sizing. I've a 3.75, and 3.0 in hand for testing purposes, but can go grab a 2, or even 2.5 if need be (colorado has a *lot* of hydroponics stores...).

Basically, as I'm not going to be spraying hydroponic solution into the base of the netpot, but rather running it through the PVC, I'm trying to work out how high it has to be suspended to be effective, or how low... I played around and drilled a 4" hole in the PVC and the 3.75 sort of falls into the hole, but stays there, however it's pretty low, and I'm not sure if it's too low, or too big.

In addition, I've read that you should space plants around 6", which I can't seem to work out if that's from edge of hole, or from center of plant, or even edge of plant. Any suggestions? If they're from the center, that's perfect fro my 5' tubes, any different, and I'll have some interesting math to do

Thanks guys!!

A 2" net pot.. is often called a lettuce pot.... for tomatoes... you'd probably need more like a 6" pot...

And growing tomatoes in tubes.... will present both a weight... and stringing problem... unless you tubes are basically at ground level...

Traditional spacing between holes (centre to centre)... is 200-300mm... 8-12"... and that's for salad greens, asian greens and herbs.... tomatoes/peppers... probabably more like twice that.... minimum

Here's mature green oak lettuce in 200mm (8") NFT spacings...

Wow, thanks for the quick response. I'm not planning on doing tomatoes in the NFT, although I did consider peppers, or eggplant, but I'll skip those for the time being. 9" (with an offset from the ends) is probably best and where I'll land with spacing as that works with my 60" tubes, giving me 6 plants per tube, and having 10 tubes, giving me 60 plants total in my system. Not bad for around 50 - 60 square feet of space.

Would 2" be best, or 3", keeping in mind that I'd be buying either, so it's not really a big deal to use one or the other for me... still have to drill the holes, and then buy the net pots. I'm also planning on using some string, or something along those lines for wicking material.

Anyone have a list of plants that play well in NFT, haven't been able to find one?

Most people growing in "tubes" rather than NFt channels... tend to use 4" pots.... mainly so that they reach to the bottom, or close to, the tubes...

NFt is best suited to greens and herbs... but it can grow other stuff...

Neat, thanks!! For interest sake, I see a lot of folks doing NFT + hydroponics with tomatoes, how do they manage that, given the issues that would be caused by root balls and what have you. Are you saying 4" pots in 4" tubes? or 4" in 6"?

I used PVC aswell . Make sure to silicon up the sides of the pot holes before you put the eater through it and put plants in , as the plants will tip over when they mature

Sent from my HTC Explorer A310b using Tapatalk 2

I'd you put some drawings up , we will be able to give u some advise before you build . Like having a solids filter ect...

Sent from my HTC Explorer A310b using Tapatalk 2

I also had some questions along the same lines. How far should the bottom of the net pot be from the bottom of the pipe if i were to grow lettuce or other greens? Also what is everyones opinion on using rain gutters for NFT? I heard you should stay away from metals bc you can have issues with it getting into your system.

Would 2" be best, or 3", keeping in mind that I'd be buying either, so it's not really a big deal to use one or the other for me... still have to drill the holes, and then buy the net pots. I'm also planning on using some string, or something along those lines for wicking material.????