r/Hydroponics • u/realkingrono • 3d ago
Discussion đŁď¸ Is this setup more space efficient?
I recently came across this setup on Instagram (not my setup) and I've been curious if this layout is more space efficient, if you have tried something like this, kindly let me know your opinions on this compared to the standard tower setup
3
0
3
u/Financial-Skill3198 1d ago
Why not jus drip one pipe in to the next pipe and eliminate all the excess
2
u/lemonlinck 1d ago
This is bad practice as far as i know. Main reasons being salt buildup and disease spreading.
1
u/Financial-Skill3198 1d ago
Itâs basically all one set up. Just drip one end into the next one below.
1
u/lemonlinck 1d ago
I understood, but you dont do this because the runoff of one plant contains things (salt, root diseases) you dont want in your water for the next plant
1
u/Financial-Skill3198 1d ago
It is basically already one system
3
16
u/Additional_Engine_45 2d ago
No, the layers receive different amount of light. This will impact yield
7
u/Hedgerowlabs 2d ago
it make easy it to get each row while maintain the same grow area or near enough
10
u/Shammyhealz 2d ago
âSpace efficiencyâ isnât really a thing as far as Iâm aware. Youâre basically always more bound by light than space. Outdoor grows get finite sun, so the goal is using all of that (which is very sparse relative to maximum density).
Indoor grows can start to have air quality issues at high densities. Lights put off heat, so enough lights will start heating the room. All that water will start raising the humidity; your plants probably wonât like it, but your building and landlord will _hate_ the building having an indoor humidity of 96% year round. You can work around it, but a lot of the time itâs cheaper to get more space than to deal with all that.
Maximally dense is probably cubes like this, though. A flat plane of these pipes, but stacked into cubes with artificial lighting. Iâve got a system like that but small. I wouldnât recommend it. Itâs a pain to get into the middle tiers, adjusting light heights is a bit because of that. Iâm nowhere near maxed on space either.
22
u/Zacken0815 3d ago
I believe the advantage of such a setup is not the reduced space requirement, but that it is easy to harvest.
9
u/DrMaceFace 3d ago
With a flat tray system they can always pull a tray out, empty it, and clean it before putting it back into circulation. With these fixed pipe systems like this I always wonder how they clean it.
This is an honest question because my one experience with a circulating system like this is my water developed a gross film to it and I had no idea how to fix it.
19
u/Igot2GreenThumbs 3d ago
I grow hydro lettuce. Tip burn is from burning via the fertilizer you add. You
Can burn the leaves via the sun. Esp when you plant the newly sprouted in the channels. I spray calcium Nitrate once a week to help bolster the cells with the Ca.
That way is efficient for space saving. Usually only works great indoors with lighting. The lower levels will stretch for the light when the sun moves in the sky. And they bottoms will only get 4 hours maybe. They will get more if the greenhouse is facing south. But not much more.
We grow ours on channels all laying flat thru the 40x100ft greenhouses. We have around 210 channels per greenhouse and we have 4 filled. Each channel has approx 16 plants? Or I think so. lol. We grow Leaf, Bib, Romaine and Red leaf.
5
u/Annual_Award1260 3d ago
Ive only seen the V setups with lighting for indoor. Dont think it makes any sense in a greenhouse.
4
u/Most-Storage6696 3d ago
Who care about space efficiency. It doesnât matter. The sun efficiency is the most valuable metric. You harvest will always be equal to amount of sunlight you provide for plants, not volume of space you have. This designee as good as nft. But it cost much more in labor per plant.
1
12
u/STUPIDCAPSLOCK 3d ago
this is a good seup for anything labeled "6 to 8 hours of sunlight," anything needing full sun would get stunted. its only efficient if the crop can stay vigorous
6
u/meflahblah 3d ago
The lower tiers get less light if it stays at the same height LEDs or otherwise. On a flat plain with a completely unobstructed sun arc you might be able to get away with it and just harvest the lower levels when they finish later but I would be worried about the lowest tiers stretching. You could maybe experiment with keeping your leds in a V fixture instead of flattening then out.
1
u/realkingrono 3d ago
That's actually a neat observation & conclusion, wonder how they get around it
2
u/Aurum555 3d ago
Lettuce you are far more likely to give it more light than it wants than too little, that's why things like tipburn are such a concern with hydroponic lettuce, that is due to excess light typically
0
u/TrumpHasCovid 3d ago
You grow lettuce, as seen, which is perfectly fine with these light levels.
Also this is a greenhouse, not indoors. Very few situations where its worth adding LEDs in a greenhouse
5
u/Impossible_Term_9463 1d ago
It looks like you have a fixed walkway in between each rack. With horizontal rolling tables there would only be one walkway space and the light would be more even. Youâd have to do the math.