Homemade Ebb & Flow DIY

Ebb and Flow - Homemade — A water container from a food factory is what you need.

How to make an ebb and flow hydro system — Click to see a large photo of the ebb and flow to get an idea of how it works.

Feeding Tray for a homemade ebb and flow hydro — This is the feeding Tray - filled up and working - ready for plants.

A look from the top — Keeping the plants in each their separate pot makes your garden more flexible.

How to make an easy hydro system. — Click to see illustration of ebb and flow fittings.

Feeding Seedlings in an Ebb and Flow hydroponics system — Seedlings Getting Nutrient Feeding in an Ebb & Flow system

Making a super ebb and flow hydroponic system for cheap is pretty easy if you are just a little bit of a handyman. The ebb and flow system can be made from stuff you find but this this article they have used the containers they in food factories. They have different stuff like molasses, syrup and stuff like that delivered in these beauties (that are perfect for rain water tanks also).
Go to a bread factory or similar and ask for it there - or surf the internet.

What Is a Hydroponic Garden?

Since "hydroponic" means "growing in water" we don't use soil in a hydroponic garden. Instead the plants grow in other kinds of mediums like clay pellets, rockwool - or even in some systems the roots grow straight into the water tank or grow freely in air with water spayers keeping them moist. When growing hydroponic style you have to add everything for the plant, that it usually gets from nature: air, water, nutrients, heat and lights.

How Does An Ebb & Flow System Work?

An ebb & flow system is a very simple hydroponic system. The princip is that you have two trays on top of each other. The bottom tray is a water/nutrient tank and on top of this you have a big flat tray for putting the plants in.
You have two connecting tubes between the plant tray and the water tank:
1: This is the tube for the pump to pump water up in the plant tray from the water tank.
2: A runoff so that you can have a timer on the pump and when plant tray is full of water the water just runs back through this runoff and back into water container until pump automatically turns of and the rest of the water runs back into the water containter.

Stuff Needed For Building The Ebb & Flow:

1 Big food grate container 1000 liter (around 1mx1mx1m)
From this you need to cut with a saw or something:
1 Tray for the plants/pots. Aprox. 5-7 inch (15 cm.) high.
1 Tray for water aprox 15-25 inch (if you can insulate this it will be cheaper to heat the water)

1 Pump - any small pump can be used. (you can get them for about $25 in hydro shops)
1 Timer for the pump - (it's like $10 or so in any hardware store)
1 Aquarium silicone unless you have real fittings that you can buy - they're pretty expensive and coke bottles and silicone goes a long way ;O))
+ some piping to make pump able to pump up water and ability to drain again.

List Of Important Info

1: The filling/draining hole needs to be in the bottom to be able for the water to run back through the pump when feeding is over. You want it in the lowest part of the tray to be able to empty tray almost completely.

2: The overflow drain can be in side of tray or in bottom. Doesn't really matter as long as the water runs back into the water tank preventing the water to run over the sides when pump is on.

So the first thing to do is cutting up the container into:
1: A feeding tray (where the plant pots stand)
2: A water tray situated below feeding tray - The bigger the water tank is the more stable the ph-value will be, but the more efford is needed to keep warm. You can use the alu frame to fit the trays to prevent the sides from collapsing.

So you want to fit the two trays on top of each other. You could either use a big board or something like that - or maybe the alu-frame that might were surrounding your container once could be cut to carry the tray.

So this is the step by step:

1: Placing The Water Tank/Tray

Place something on the floor to insulate the water tank from the possibly cold floor. Place the water tray/container on the insulation (styrofoam is great).

2: Something to Carry The Plant Tray

Place the plant tray on something and on top of the water tray. Make sure you have a bit open to check the water, so don't place the directly above each other. You should cover up as much as the water tank as possible to prevent vaporizing of the water and to insulate - the more the better. For instance use plastic and duct tape to cover everything but the last 5" or so - so that you can take a look at the water and check the pump etc.

3: Pump Inlet and Overflow Drain

a: Pump Inlet Hole/Drain
Now we want the inlet hole to be in the very lowest part of the plant tray to make sure as much water as possible runs out between waterings. The water will be pumped into the water tray and after timer shuts down the pump - water flows back through the pump.
b: Overflow Drain
This drain is to prevent the water from floating over the sides of the plant tray so that pump can just be on a timer for 15 minutes - when top tray is full the water just runs back through this drain until timer turns of pump again. 4-10" depending on the size of your plants you want to be the maximum water depth in tray - controlled by overflow drain. Adjust water hight by cutting the pibe as on photo.