Growing 40 large veggie plants in under 2 sq/ft

This covers my experiment last summer. In an effort to grow veggies year round in the Frozen North, Im designing and constructing "Areoponic" grow towers. Instead of growing in soil, the roots will be growing in air with regular applications of a liquid, nutrient solution that is automatically sprayed at them. This will allow me to grow 40 to 50 plants in just a 16 inch x 16 inch footprint and to do it indoors.

All Ive read tells me that Aeroponic grown veggies grow 3 times faster and use 90% less water.

Im using 5 gallon buckets and parts I make on my 3D printers (the part that holds the plants during growth) Here are some pictures of the set up and early, outdoor results. When I grow indoors, I will have to include grow lights.
































The seedlings start as seed placed in a cube of either rock wool or foam or even a cotton ball. Here I used foam. The seedlings and foam blocks float on the nutrient solution until its time to move them to the tower.[/font]

This is the nutrient solution im using.















[font size="4"]Fast forward just 28 days.[/font]










We have harvested and eaten the lettuce (just trimming it and it grows back for more harvests) and it was outstanding.

This is an ongoing experiment. More towers are already in progress but I can say with certainty that these veggies grow far faster and larger than the same seedlings (leftovers) I planted in the soil and I do use 90% less water since its a recycling loop.

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Day 55









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Nov. 8th. Harvest time for Kohlrabi and cabbage.

What is there to say . . . that's just magic.  Thinks. . . I have some 10 litre buckets loitering in the laundry.  

That's a great build, Ron -- and I've missed your posts.

It's probably beyond the home-experimenter to figure out, but I'd love to see a comparative analysis of nutrient density, with a particular emphasis on exotic phytonutrients. I grow herbs and chiles all winter hydroponically, but I remain deeply skeptical that I'm getting equivalent value produce from nutes that I get from an active soil biosphere in the summer. And I select against yield when I think it's compromising quality.

I'd say that experiment was successful. This is a great idea for people with limited space to supplement their vegetable consumption. I have seen similar systems for sale online that use the perforated buckets with soil to grow various produce. The most recent one I have seen is for mushrooms at North Spore. They certainly do not have the soil-less option and do not stack that tall. You can probably turn this into a nice online business.

The submersible pump is a perfect solution to achieve the water distribution, and it may just solve a challenge I am facing with my green/hoop house build. (https://permies.com/t/278734/green-hoop-house-thingy-build)
I had planned to add a gutter system to it and collect the rainwater for transfer into the beds. Collecting it into barrels or buckets and then pumping it out through the perforated Pex pipe would make a perfect sprinkler system inside the house.
Now I need to find those little pumps. You wouldn't be willing to share a link to where you purchased them, would you?

Joshua States wrote:
Now I need to find those little pumps. You wouldn't be willing to share a link to where you purchased them, would you?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L54HB83?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title