Is anyone else doing hydroponics in the South?

[Major Nikon]

I thought I would try hydroponics this year and I'm putting together a simple flood and drain system based on a 55 gal barrel as a reservoir and around 8-12 3.5 gal buckets with 10" media inserts. I probably won't be filling my reservoir up to capacity. This type of system is often used indoors, but I'll be doing this on my back patio, which is covered. My concern is that daily temperatures often average about 87F here in the hottest part of the summer. From what I've been reading, water temps above 75F are problematic for disease and nutrient absorption. Burying my water reservoir is not an option. I'm just wondering if anyone else is doing this in hot climates and what problems you have encountered.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. That's somewhere I've not gone yet - I always have an excess of projects...

finishing up the Dwarf tomato breeding project, working on some new eggplant, hot and sweet peppers....and downsizing/simplifying this summer!

Hydroponics do interest me...some day, perhaps! Keep us informed of how it goes.

[Major Nikon]

2. You can actually keep it very small and simple

You can do it with a couple of buckets, media as simple as gravel or perlite, and water by hand 3-4 times per day. You can recover the water/nutrients and reuse it for 7-10 days. I'm going with a little more elaborate system with timers and pumps to automate the watering by flooding and recovering a few times per day.

If it works out someday when I retire I'd like to have a greenhouse and perhaps do it year round, perhaps with acquaponics.

[Sentath]

3. I have a fairly simple aquaponic setup out back

Here outside Phoenix.

We can compare notes this summer.

I have it in a spot that will get sun from 11:30 to 4ish. Maybe a bad idea, but it's about the only limited sun I can offer them, otherwise it would be full sun full day.

[Major Nikon]

4. The spot I have is good for growing potted plants

It gets morning sun till about 3pm in the afternoon so I can avoid full sunlight in the hottest part of the day.

I've heard that bio-filters are good for higher water temps and should work well in an acquaponic environment, but I'm thinking that in a flood and drain environment there should be plenty of beneficial bio growth anyway so I'm not sure if there's much benefit to adding one. I've also heard that enzyme additives work well for preventing root rot, but I'm not sure how well those would play with the fish.

[Major Nikon]

6. I found something in which you might be interested

It's called the Kratky method for hydroponics and it's ridiculously simple. The video below explains how it works. Lots of people are doing this with 1 gal coffee containers drilled out with a 2" net pot. From what I've seen it seems to work best with leafy greens like lettuce. I've already got some lettuce seedlings started in some rockwool squares I picked up at my local hydroponics store. When they get a little bigger I'll transfer them to a 2" net pot with some Hydroton as my grow media. At work we have a surplus of 1 gal coffee cans, so I'll drill those out and use them. I've already picked up some liquid hydroponics fertilizer which I'll mix up per the manufacturer's recommendations for lettuce. If you have them outside you have to be careful if it rains because you want the water level to remain at the same level before it rained.

[Aerows]

5. It's not really hydroponics

but I've been growing alfalfa sprouts for salads and as a lettuce substitute in mason jars for years. Yeah, I know that isn't helpful. Best of luck to you!

[Major Nikon]

7. I've done a lot of container gardening of various types myself

The great thing about hydroponics is the yields you get are much greater than growing in soil, so it's really the ultimate container gardening. I'm finding out there's all sorts of methods you can use and I'm going to experiment with a few of them this year and see how it goes. I have a covered porch which faces south and gets a lot of morning and early afternoon light, but is shaded from the afternoon sun. It's covered which keeps the rain out, which is a good thing for growing hydroponically that is best suited for a greenhouse or indoors.