Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 6.9
The American Hydroponics Vegi-Table is an ebb and flow system
that floods the plant roots from below and then drains back to a nutrient reservoir.
(Courtesy of American Hydroponics, Arcata, California.)
It nests inside the 3 × 3 foot tray. A drip system can be added to irrigate
the pots of substrate or rockwool blocks inserted in the Gro Well option
cover. Another insert, a Net Well, can be placed on top of the tray to house
twenty-four 5½-inch diameter net pots. This lid also prevents light from
entering the plant roots so that algae will not grow in the nutrient solution
below. These inserts are adequate for growing lettuce and herbs or seed-
lings of other crops.
Botanicare, formerly American Agritech, has an ebb and flow unit
called Econojet. It consists of a flood tray available in several sizes that is
attached to a covered 20-gallon reservoir (Figure 6.11). The trays will hold
either rockwool slabs or 6-inch square pots using expanded clay pebbles.
Ridges in the flood trays raise the growing pots to keep the growing sub-
strate of the pots out of the nutrient solution providing good aeration to
the plant roots. The solution level can be adjusted by a modular fitting as
shown in Figure 6.12 for the Micro Garden. Their line of hydrogardens
include several different sizes and configurations from a 2 × 2 to a 4 × 8
foot growing space ranging in price from $230 to $1340.
