I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. This is at no extra cost to you and helps support my site and YouTube channel.
I set this up recently for growing my Holy Basil that I started in the water bottle, germinating/sprouting chambers.
Most people use a controller bucket between the reservoir and growing containers. This is what contains the float valve to maintain a static level of the nutrient solution.
In my design, I used a 10-gallon shallow tote and installed the float valve on one side of it. I hot-glued a plastic canvas barrier to keep the roots from interfering with the float valve. The hot glue is not holding very well. One of my viewers wisely suggested using silicone instead. So I might redo that at some point.
I filled the tote so the bottoms of the net cups are submerged by about 1/4″. The roots will grow downward and eventually drain the tote until it gets near the bottom. From that point, the float valve will maintain the solution level about 2.5 inches in depth.
Here’s the video. I’ll post updates on the progress.
Parts used:
Float valve: https://goo.gl/79NbT3
Masterblend nutrients: https://goo.gl/dstJ1v
5-gallon bucket for the reservoir
shallow 10-gallon tote – I got this one from Lowes
Kingbo50W: https://goo.gl/VCBo6X
Light hanger: https://goo.gl/LNFZwA
2×2 grow tent: https://goo.gl/AmgqqF