Growing Base

Constructing the Growth Base

The growing base consists of 4 2" pvc tubes connected and then funneled into a 27 gallon tote. The 4 tubes are set on a secondary framework made of 3/4" pvc pipe connected together in order to hold it up. Each one of the 2" tubes will have 5 holes drilled into them in order to allow for a total of 20 plants. This setup is currently small scale do to the size of the office as well as for testing purposes. The tubes will be fed from the tote which is acting as our basin using a submersible pump. This will push the water into a small reservoir that will then individually feed the tubes in order to ensure equal flow.

Here you can see the pvc stand that is supporting the actually growing tubes. This could be done with anything sturdy enough to hold up the pipes. In the future I may look into a wooden rack that is separate from the basin. However this setup allows us to keep all of the water above the basin in case of any leaks.

This section shows the step down from 2" to 3/4" pvc that will drain into our basin while the lid is on.

The water distribution system is a floraflex quick disconnect pipe system that has 8 feed tubes. we have 2 tubes running into each growing pipe. The floraflex is piped directly to the pump in the basin and the flow sensor is integrated into the pipe so we can monitor exactly how much water is flowing into the grow pipes. Currently we are using 4 pipes to grow but this system has capacity for 8 separate outputs.

An addition framework of pvc pipes was used to create a framework for us to elevate the growing lights. These two lights are seedling lights, one is running on an internal timer to turn it on and off, the other is being controlled by a simple electrical time. Ideally the lights would be replaced with a more comprehensive grow light that it run in conjunction with smart power strip that we can control with thingspeak or another IoT management system.

The sensors and pi systems required to run everything are placed inside of 2 water resistant boxes that can be easily relocated.