Building a DIY organic growing bed:
FEEL FREE TO USE THIS DESIGN AND PROCEDURE FOR NON COMMERCIAL USE
Scissors
Hacksaw blade
Hammer
Sand paper [ to rub off the PVC powder along the cut lines ]
Measuring Tape
Item List:
PVC Pipe: Big - 4 inch diameter | Small -2 inch diameter
9 pieces of 2 inch T joint
6 pieces of 4 inch to 2 inch reducer
Base Dimension:
48 in x 20 in
Grow Bed Height:
12 in including reducer
 |
| click for larger picture |
Working Principle:
The ideal growing bed height for most of the vegetables are 12 inches [ 1 foot ] so there are 6 six growing beds each of 12 inch height and 4 inch diameter. A 2 inch vertical pipe parallel to the growing beds help check the water level in the system.
I have not used PVC solvent for the joints keeping it as simple as possible to construct. If done properly there wont be any leak in the system even without the use of the solvent. What you see in the above snap as dried leaves and branches will form our growing medium.These are chopped of tomato bushes from my earlier batch....I thought this would be an ideal way to cycle the system and what you grow forms your growing bed. Minimum waste of resources.
Before you start cutting the PVC here are a few tips. Use the measuring tape to measure the required length. Mark the point to be cut with the permanent marker. Cut the PVC pipes and this will leave you with powdery PVC at the ends, rub this off with the sand paper.
Cut the 4 inch pipe to 6 pieces of 12 inches each for our growing bed. Press the 4 inch to 2 inch reducer on to the 4 inch pipe and hammer in.Next step is to join the T to the 2 inch side of the reducer ; for this cut a small piece of the 2 inch pipe and hammer it into the reducer. Take the T and hammer it in. Do this for all the six 12 x 4 [ht x dia] pipes.
Now proceed to measure, mark and cut pieces of 2 inch pipe to form the horizontal run. Here is how to do it. Lay two 12 inch pipes side by side with a gap of 2 inches between them, measure the inner distance between the two T's ; this is the size of the 2 inch that you should cut. If you don't do this step properly you will end up not having a proper gap between the 12 inch beds. Cut, push in and hammer as you go along.
Measure the height from the top of the 12 inch pipe to the top of the horizontal 2 inch pipe at the bottom. Cut a 2 inch pipe to this length. This will form the check pipe to view the water level in the system and also to pour the required nutrients from the OWL [ click for info on constructing the OWL ]. This completes the growing bed side of our project.
For the base do the same measuring, marking and cutting and hammer in and attach an end cap at either end. Please ensure that the end caps fit in securely. I have use a length of 20 inches, end cap to end cap. I have designed the base in such a way that, when we pour water in, it flows to the base of the stand and adds weight increasing stability. The entire lower half of the system will have water in it making the whole system stand upright with a more uniform weight distribution.
I have used an oversized end cap at the top of the vertical 2 inch pipe to act as a lid that can easily be taken off for inspection. Our unit is now ready and the next step is to fill it with the growing medium.
In the first six beds I used chopped up bits of my dried tomato bushes. I compressed each bed with another PVC pipe to pack the pieces in as tight as possible. For the last one I am experimenting with polyurethane foam that I mixed up. The foam is very light and is easy to produce in large quantities and so thought I might as well try it out. I made some for this test, will cover this in another post. The foam was cut into small pieces and this forms the mass of the last bed.
Now pour water over any of the growing beds and watch the water rise in the check pipe. Stop when it is half full say to about 6 inches.The next stage is to let the system sit soaked for 3 days out in the bright sun.
After three days its time to add the top layers for planting the plant or directly putting the seed in for germination. One advantage of this system is that you don't need to germinate the seeds separately and replant it in here. The seeds can be directly sown into the growing bed.
The majority of the growing area is our chopped up bush comprising of shredded leaves and stem. Over which I add a thin layer of home made calcium manure [<<click] and finally the top layer of coco peat. Keep it like this for another three days.
On the third day pour or spray water on the top layer to make it wet and carefully plant your plant or seed without disturbing the layers drastically. Siphon out excess water from the check tube and bring the water level down to the level shown above. Check the top layer for dryness, if you find the top layer dry, wet the layer. The system will take a while to develop enough capillary action for the water from the bottom layer to reach the top, so initial wetting might be required for a few days depending on how you have packed the lower layer of the growing bed. A denser packing will yield better capillary action. Keep checking the check pipe for water level and maintain the correct level. We are all set now.....happy farming.
No comments:
Post a Comment