Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am having to move my grow beds about 8 meters from my fish tank. This means that I will have a long return line from my auto siphon on the GB to the fish tank. I was thinking why not use a big pipe and make holes to install netpots for lettuce or spinach.

Question. For spinach and lettuce, what size netpots are appropriate and what size PVC would I put them in 6"? Seems I would/should be able to fit in 12 to 15 plants in the return line

dth - in commercial hydro lettuce netpots are tiny, only a couple of inches across. Most of the roots end up outside of the pot. The question for you is whether you will be relying on the dedium in the net pots to house bacteria. If so you would want to go for larger ones.

Cool idea. Gravels in the GB right?

Sorry - looked at the post again and see where you are coming from. The real small pots would work - but I'd go for something bigger cause you would want a larger hole in the pipe anyway so you can remove the plant and roots at harvest time. I'd base the pot size on this issue.

So are we talking 50 mm or bigger or smaller. Basically this portion of the system would be just roots in water. the medium would simply be to hold the seed through germination. The growbeds have lava rock in them. Would probably use that or pumice in the net pots.

It could be done that way.
In my system have done something similar but no net pots, the plants are just sitting in the water.

If i was ta do it again i would go for net pots ta give the roots stability

DT, normal size for lettuce, herbs etc would be 75mm... their only real purpose is to hold the plant in the pipe and the roots (oxygenating ones) up out of the nutrient. And to provide a degree of stability

There's also 90mm, 100mm, 150mm etc.... depends as suggested what plant you're growing and what size root ball it develops.

Because most plants grow so much more quickly as compared to soil, and because the plants are constantly supplied with water/nutrients the plants don't "spread" their rootball outward as much as a soil based plant because they don't need to develope huge amounts of capillary roots to seek out water and oxygen, it's supplied in abundance.

Most root growth will be downward in comparison.

As you're thinking of placing these on your return line then I don't think you really need any media at all, unless you think you require additional bacterial filtration....

To do so you'd have to flood/drain the medium in some way, by either drippers or having the level in the return pipe such that the media was wetted for a period of time... like Steve and Ange, as you will be doing if you're using a timer or siphons at the moment....

IMHO, just use it like NFT, the media in the net pot will only be there to hold the plant... or get some neoprene collars like CG uses

S & A's system has the gravel in the net pots primarily to hold plant. bio filtration is done by the large bucket filled with gravel that supplies the NFT PVC.

having said that the extra media provided in the net posts is always welcome!

here is what I have in mind. Excuse my poor Sketchup skills.

Grow Bed #2 was moved away from the house about 10 meters to put it in an area with more sun light as will Grow bed #1 when I see that the plan is working.

I will add two more 660 liter Grow beds later once I know this will work. There is enough sulnight in the area two support the 4 Grow Beds and the NFT plus maybe even some vertical tubes. BUT I am proceeding with caution for the moment.

Lots of expenses, few results.

While i was at garden world jim far had net pots at a good price the red one 32 c the other 23 c the large one uses a 2 to 3 in hole

Up here those smaller ones come in groups of four that you tear apart. They are very cheap - can't remember exact price. I love the red one, they call them strawberry pots up here - would love to try some nft strawbs using them - yum.

F&F did you see his bigger black netpots? I bought them on impulse ( and laziness) for $1:10.which is a rip i know but they looked alot stronger than those in the pic, they felt fragile actually, is why i went the bigger ones

From experiance i have found the pots only last 1 or2 crops thats why i go for the cheap ones i want to try just holding the stems with sponge rubber or those rock wool blocks when you finish gut dig them in to the dirt garden

You should have seen what was left of the net pot that I put the Paw Paw in

cool.........this is the first time i have used em....well, about to use i mean lol, thanks for the advise F&F