umbrellaponics?

Never seen anyone build one but im sure some people have thought about it.
What I did was took a large rubbermaid and placed a centrifugal pump in the bottom. I then made a fitting and placed a large umbrella fountain fitting on it.
cut the holes for the netcups in the cover of the rubbermaid and placed netcups in the top. I placed 2 squares of foam block into the netcup.

I then cut a slit in the top foam block and inserted a clone.
and on top of the foam block I added a circle of foam filter media.
The water runs from the umbrella into the cup which does not hold the water much so it leaks out pretty fast. That is why I chose this media. The rest of the water that doesnt hit the cup hits the water and adds oxygen to the res. so overall it looks like this.

I built small for now to test with 2 plants. So far they are loving it.
anyone else try this idea?

never heard of this but looks every coll!!!!!!!! keep the pictures coming!

i wonder how long it would take for roots to get sucked up into the pump? that would be the only problem i would see with it. looks pretty cool. it might make a little more noise though

Interesting idea. Just today actually I was looking at the Sunleave Garden/Planter of Ease and I couldnt figure out how it worked. The best idea on its inner workings i came up with was this umbrella effect...except maybe a bit opposite, shooting the water straight up and splashing off the 'roof' onto the net cups....

havent heard of anyone using this system. if its any good, would probably make for a nice mini-perpetual sog setup, if you have 4 of these under maybe a 400w or 600w

check out the pictures.

Sunleaves :: Sunleaves Garden of Ease

Its still working pretty well. I had a problem with one of the clones looking droopy about a half hour ago so I removed the bottom foam cube and placed him straight on the bottom for now and hes looking better. The other clone has had massive root growth just today alone. I am not so worried about roots in the pump I capped the pump feed and I could just screen it and not have a problem. For noise its not a big deal if you raise the water level to about 4-5 inches under the cups, sounds more like a light drip or a small fountain.

Looks like a poorly designed NFT system too me . . . Can you post some pictures?

NewGrowth said:

Looks like a poorly designed NFT system too me . . . Can you post some pictures?

Click to expand...

I would but camera is being a piece, its very much like nft just much cheaper and easier to use.