Deep Water Culture Hydroponics (raft system)

I tried this poor chicken version!! https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...fts_91094.html

Not sure on the difference between the various hydroponics systems but a fella I follow on YouTube who grows loads of chillis has a few videos of hydroponics set ups he's DIYd. He built s fairly big one on his greenhouse that basically floods a large container with the solution then drains it. Not sure if this is deep water culture or not though. Check his vids out anyways. Called chillichump.

Thank you for the link

I will checkout his videos, thank you.

Found something that might be suitable to use as the tray that can be purchased separately from a complete multi duct NFT system. The tank/tray is 210cm x 60cm x 24cm and has a volume of 250-l.

If you use a tray like the above I would suggest that you put drain tap into it which would allow you to refresh the water and nutrients as and when required, but why don't you make a wooden frame and line it with a sheet of polythene to make your tank, doing that means a lot cheaper and you get the dimensions you want

Thank you, a drain tap is a great idea.

I'm not really handy when it comes to DIY , but I do get your point as most setups seem to be based on a wooden construction with a liner.

Here's the video where Chillichump builds his ebb and flood system - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVAhSHe0Z1w

Hi there, just wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I've not built a raft system but I have made what could arguably come close to a DWT tank for some tomatoes and had some success.

Hydroponics got me into more traditional gardening in fact.

What are you hoping to grow? There are a bunch of specialist shops popping up around the country and it might also be worth going into one to ask for help in a build.

For my tomato and chili project, I bought an 18l plastic storage box in grey, from B and Q. I then bought a very cheap pump and airstone (golf ball size) to aerate the water.

I'm not a fan of fertilizers on my allotment because I'm trying no dig, but to feed my hungry hydro plants I just bought bog standard Tomorite and something called Chili Focus.

To anchor my plants, they had little net pots to sit in with vermiculite. I then covered this with foil until the plants covered it as I found this ended up growing algae quite quickly.

I found you could arguably get away with not turning on the pump some days if you needed to- so there's a benefit to this over an ebb and flow type system which depends on constant power.

My chili was more successful than tomato. Even though I selected Balconi for it's compact size, both red and yellow varieties really wanted to grow and turned into very sprawling monsters, with not a huge amount of fruit. My chili on the other hand was ridiculous and I had over 460 fruit from it before it sadly gave up before Christmas. I'm trying another one in a smaller pot now because I still have most of my produce frozen.

You might want to contact commercial farms to see if they'll share some of their secrets with you. I follow Farm One (In NYC) and remember looking at Grow Bristol. I almost emailled them myself to see if I could come and look around.

One thing I failed at growing was strawberries. They thrived from bare roots for about a week then would all die off.

Thank for the detailed response.

I plan on starting with Lettuce and Pak Choi, then experiment when I have gained more knowledge and have had some growing success.

I will checkout Farm One and Grow Bristol.

Ah, depending on volume of veg you'd like to grow, then I think you can get away with a not raft solution if you're willing to try a more Kratky/ DWC method. If however, you want loads then I can see what you're after.
If you're thinking small scale and really don't want to put any effort in to a build, I started with the Ikea hydroponics bar and grew basil, endive, chicory etc. I've done Pak Choi more recently however I don't know what it says about my kitchen, but they managed to get infected by spider mites seemingly out of nowhere. The weakened plants then got mildew. I guess, make sure the room you intend to grow in is well ventilated! The Pak Choi grew really quickly though, and until it became ill was tasty.