About the service
I build small hydroponic racks for kitchens, and I build them to the wall you actually have. You measure the free strip next to the fridge or under the window, send me the width, depth and ceiling height, and I come back with a two or three tier frame that fits it without turning the room into a greenhouse. The frame is welded or bolted metal with adjustable feet, because a floor is never level and a channel that runs downhill in the wrong direction floods the shelf below it. On the lower level sits the tank, the pump and the timer; the growing channels go above, at a height where you can actually reach in and cut a head of lettuce without kneeling.
The method depends on what you want to grow and how often you travel. Nutrient film keeps a thin stream running under the roots and suits lettuce, pak choi and herbs that like a constant drink. Ebb and flow floods the tray four to eight times a day and drains it back, which forgives a short power cut much better. Either way the solution lives in one covered tank, the pump is sized to the lift, and the timer is a plain mechanical or digital one that you can reset yourself after an outage. Seedlings start in plug trays or rockwool cubes, move into the channel at the second true leaf, and from there a salad shelf gives you cut leaf in weeks, not months.
Water and mains power stand next to each other in this build, so the electrical side is not optional. Every socket that feeds the rack goes through a residual current device. The LED driver and every power brick sit on the top shelf, above the water line, never on the floor beside the tank. Every cable leaves its device downward in a drip loop, so water running along the insulation falls off the low point instead of entering the plug. The whole rack stands in a tray with a raised lip and a drain path, because a leak in a flat does not stop at your floor, it ends up on the ceiling of the neighbour below, and that is the expensive part. I stay in touch through the first twenty four hours after filling, and I ask you to check the tray, the joints and the pump fittings that first day and evening. These racks grow food greens and salad only, nothing else, and I will not set one up for any other crop. Nutrient salts are chemicals: they are stored closed, labelled and out of reach of children and pets, and nobody drinks the solution or fills a glass from the tank.
What I do:
— Measure the space, agree the shelf count, channel length and reach height, and confirm the load your wall or floor takes.
— Assemble the frame, channels, tank, pump, return line and drip tray, with the tray lip and drain checked by pouring water in on purpose.
— Fit a full spectrum LED fixture per shelf, set hanging height for the crop, and wire everything through a residual current protected socket with drip loops and drivers above water level.
— Set the photoperiod and the pump timer, and show you the real monthly electricity figure for the schedule we chose, measured, not guessed.
— Sow plug trays or rockwool cubes, mix the first batch of solution, and set the acidity and conductivity with a simple pen meter you keep afterwards.
— Teach you the weekly routine: top up, check readings, rinse the channels so algae never gets a start, and full solution change on schedule.
— Leave a one page care sheet with the safety points, the mixing table and what to do if the pump stops while you are away.
— Optional monthly servicing: solution change, pump and filter clean, light check and a fresh sowing so the harvest never gaps.
The method depends on what you want to grow and how often you travel. Nutrient film keeps a thin stream running under the roots and suits lettuce, pak choi and herbs that like a constant drink. Ebb and flow floods the tray four to eight times a day and drains it back, which forgives a short power cut much better. Either way the solution lives in one covered tank, the pump is sized to the lift, and the timer is a plain mechanical or digital one that you can reset yourself after an outage. Seedlings start in plug trays or rockwool cubes, move into the channel at the second true leaf, and from there a salad shelf gives you cut leaf in weeks, not months.
Water and mains power stand next to each other in this build, so the electrical side is not optional. Every socket that feeds the rack goes through a residual current device. The LED driver and every power brick sit on the top shelf, above the water line, never on the floor beside the tank. Every cable leaves its device downward in a drip loop, so water running along the insulation falls off the low point instead of entering the plug. The whole rack stands in a tray with a raised lip and a drain path, because a leak in a flat does not stop at your floor, it ends up on the ceiling of the neighbour below, and that is the expensive part. I stay in touch through the first twenty four hours after filling, and I ask you to check the tray, the joints and the pump fittings that first day and evening. These racks grow food greens and salad only, nothing else, and I will not set one up for any other crop. Nutrient salts are chemicals: they are stored closed, labelled and out of reach of children and pets, and nobody drinks the solution or fills a glass from the tank.
What I do:
— Measure the space, agree the shelf count, channel length and reach height, and confirm the load your wall or floor takes.
— Assemble the frame, channels, tank, pump, return line and drip tray, with the tray lip and drain checked by pouring water in on purpose.
— Fit a full spectrum LED fixture per shelf, set hanging height for the crop, and wire everything through a residual current protected socket with drip loops and drivers above water level.
— Set the photoperiod and the pump timer, and show you the real monthly electricity figure for the schedule we chose, measured, not guessed.
— Sow plug trays or rockwool cubes, mix the first batch of solution, and set the acidity and conductivity with a simple pen meter you keep afterwards.
— Teach you the weekly routine: top up, check readings, rinse the channels so algae never gets a start, and full solution change on schedule.
— Leave a one page care sheet with the safety points, the mixing table and what to do if the pump stops while you are away.
— Optional monthly servicing: solution change, pump and filter clean, light check and a fresh sowing so the harvest never gaps.
