Easy Homemade Kitchen Hydroponics System

If you are looking for an easy homemade kitchen hydroponics system rest assured that a hydroponics system does not have to be complex, difficult to build or require an array of pipes and pumps. It can also be small enough to fit easily into a kitchen.

Here is a free plan for a simple but effective and easy-to-build ebb and flow, or flood and drain, kitchen hydroponics system. It requires no electricity except for lights if you don’t have enough natural light in your kitchen.

Requirements for this easy homemade kitchen hydroponics flood and drain system are minimal. You need:

• Two large buckets, about five gallons each
• A few feet of flexible half inch tubing
• Some clean gravel
• Some fine mesh plastic screen, like window screen
• Grow medium of your choice
• A platform for the apparatus to stand on

One bucket will hold your kitchen hydroponics garden, the other your nutrient solution. Make sure both buckets are clean and then cut a hole in each one about half an inch from the bottom. A drill and bit works well for this.

Connect the two buckets with the tubing. Be sure you have enough tubing so that you can lower your nutrient bucket to the floor while leaving your plant bucket on the top of the platform. Check for leaks around the tubing. If the connection is not tight enough apply some silicone caulking. If you want to get a bit more sophisticated you can use a plastic hose coupling here.

Next put about two or three inches of gravel in your grow bucket – the bucket that will hold your kitchen hydroponics garden. Lay your screen on top of the gravel. The purpose of the screen is to keep any debris from your grow media from clogging the tubing so it should fit tightly against the sides of the bucket.

Now add your grow medium to the grow bucket. Perlite will work well here but there are many other types of grow media such as coconut fiber available – the choice is yours. Now you are ready get growing with your kitchen hydroponics system – plant your seeds or seedlings.

At this point your grow bucket should be on the top of the platform and your hydroponics nutrient bucket should be on the floor beneath the platform. Fill your nutrient bucket and then lift it onto the platform. The nutrient solution will flow through the tube and flood your plants. After the grow medium is well soaked place the nutrient bucket back on the floor and the solution will flow out of the grow bucket, draining your plants.

You will need to flood your kitchen hydroponics garden several times a day, depending on the type of grow medium you have chosen and environmental conditions. (See our article on flood and drain times.)

You should keep the nutrient bucket covered to keep foreign matter out and be sure to give it a good stir occasionally to keep it aerated. Alternatively you could aerate the nutrient solution with an air stone and aquarium pump.

This easy homemade kitchen hydroponics system can be located in a roomy kitchen so you can harvest your herbs or vegetables as needed.