Geodome greenhouse with hydroponic towers

I did cut a to wide tape using a table saw. Now twice the length and the width I needed. :wink:
Of course make a kind of box to get the tape straight and safe, then cut not too deep at once.

1 Like

The first plants moved in today…

To be able to tie up plants, I stretched two steel cables in a circle above the raised beds, so there is a way of fastening them everywhere.

13 Likes

into a sketchup circle you mean, a circle with vertices and sides :clown_face:

2 Likes

Nice, hydroponics. Do you have secondary postings somewhere about your experience with hydroponics?

Currently not yet. So far I’ve only printed the few towers to see if the principle is suitable. Until now they have only been in the living room and many of the plants have certainly received too little light. If the move to the dome leads to better growth (which I assume it will), I can experiment a little more and report back.

The last raised bed for the Dome is in progress …

A whole lot of planting soil fits into the beds, so that several trailer journeys are necessary.

The seating area and paths are covered with bark mulch to keep feet clean and prevent weeds from growing.

To prevent the wind from cooling us down quickly at night, I have installed a temporary “roller door” until I have designed and built a proper door.

In order to have a little work surface for transplanting, I built a table from small pieces of old stone slab from an old table, which has the same shape and size as the raised beds.

8 Likes

Just a tip, if you use fittings make 1000% sure that they will not leak. If they do, and I know from experience, that it will harm your plants, in my case tomatoes and leeks. Good luck.

fittings at which point do you mean?

I guess you know, there are various types of hydroponic systems — such as NFT (Nutrient Film Technique), Deep Water Culture (DWC), Kratky, ebb and flow, aeroponics, and drip systems — most of those require fittings and float valves to circulate nutrient-rich water effectively.

If a fitting or float valve develops a leak, the water level can drop much faster than expected. If you don’t check the system for a couple of days, like during warm weather, your plants can quickly go bad due to dehydration. Also if you don’t have a low level sensor yet the pomp can go…

Beside leaking of a fitting I did have, I once had a situation where a cord ( to lead tomatoes ) was hanging over the edge of a DWC container, and it ended up acting as a wick, if that is the right word, draining water out. That happened a few years ago, but it was lesson: especially in the early stages of growth, when plants haven’t yet developed long roots, sudden water loss can be devastating to their development and fruit production. I could save the leeks, but I had to replace the young tomatoes.

2 Likes

The plants seem to find the climate in the dome much better than in the dark living room and are growing nicely…

10 Likes

The green is taking over…

12 Likes

It looks like you may need a bigger greenhouse soon!

2 Likes

Does the ventilation work adequately? The media here in Finland is full of stories about how hot it is in Central and Southern Europe at the moment.

My little weather station and thermometer registered:

38.4 C

in the shade this afternoon at ~5 p.m.

In fact, the fan can no longer be started, but I am in contact with the manufacturer, who has also promised help. Of course, this comes at an unfavourable time, so there are currently around 43°C in the Geodome during the day.

:face_exhaling:

Last weekend, I planted 60 strawberry plants that had been stored in the fridge. They’re now growing in four horizontal pipes, each 125 mm in diameter and 4 m long. During the yesterday sunny weather, the top side of the pipes heated up to 65 °C, while the circulating water and the tank reached arround 40°C. I started to worry about root rot at those temperatures. I need to paint it white. But the Rolling Stones :smiling_face: did give me an idea to build another one but then ‘paint it black’, to heat the water in my swimming pool.

Even though the tank is partly buried and shaded, it still got quite warm. Fortunately, it started raining this afternoon, which helped a bit — the water temperature is now down to around 26 °C.

After taking measurements yesterday, I put up a large wind screen, which provided a bit of relief. But clearly, I’ll need to build a temperature controller that activates a water cooler to keep the system in check during hot days.

2 Likes

I was finally able to build the final door. It is held open or closed by magnets, details in the 3D printing topic:

Closed:

Opened:

11 Likes

When I have visitors, we often talk about the green hell, as the plants are taking up more and more space…

14 Likes

Isn’t that the point?

Im very envious of this space. Enjoy.

1 Like

I’m waiting for the Triffids to start moving about.

2 Likes