Fog Culture

The first type of hydroponics that I was ever really introduced to was the AeroGarden.  I never had one, but someone mentioned it to me somewhere along the lines, and that was the first time I started looking into hydroponics.  I didn't want to spend the money on an AeroGarden though, and couldn't think of a way to self-engineer one easily, and so shelved it altogether.  Time passed, I was turned onto Windowfarms, look back for the rest of that story, and now in my reading, and regained interest and aeroponics are again in the forefront of my mind for methods.  Though I have since learned A LOT more about things, and know that the spray nozzles used clog up very quickly, and are relatively expensive, and kind of a pain to set up.  So I started thinking about a similar but different way of doing the 'grow in air' method.  Eventually, I stumbled on a video that used a decorative pond nebulizer to create a nutrient fog.  Then a couple weeks ago when I was ordering books for the semester, I got side-tracked looking at these nebulizers, and finding them relatively inexpensive, I ordered one.  The only problems with it are: the thing used to float it at the right depth is plastic and styrofoam (but I am dealing because it is at least a plastic that shouldn't break down easily), and it has a bunch of blue LED lights on it (blue is the most useful color of the spectrum for plant and ALGAE growth, and roots are used to the dark).
So I had this thing, but the two problems kept me from using it, trying to wait until I came up with solutions to the problems.  Then my portable tower, which I had recently transplanted a cucumber and lettuce into, stopped pumping unexpectedly in the night.  So in the five minutes I had the next morning, I dropped the plants into the fogger, extremely wilted, on the edge of oblivion.  When I got home from school, hours later, the plants seemed like they had even grown a little bit!  So I said screw it for the time being, and decided to plant in my new Fog Culture set-up.  It has been running for a day now with four plants from my seedlings in it, and they look great.
So here are some pictures:

I used a paper bag to catch the copper debris, 

and a saw blade to push against.  This was a pain,

copper doesn't like saws because of it's malleability.

Traced a net pot with dry erase marker for the guide.

3" hole saw = much easier and faster than a hand saw.

 Clockwise from back center: eggplant (3), cantaloupe (2),

butternut squash (1), watermelon (3), and we had a mango 

last night, so I am trying to germinate the pit in #5.

The ominous glow from the side of the basin, oOoOoOOo

Thick, thick fog, hard to do justice with it open, and via photo.

You can see how bright that sucker is though!

So that is that, a new water culturing technique to think about and play with.  The plants seem to love it, I just added nutrients today, hopefully they will love it even more now!

The Penta-Tower is also now functioning in full swing.  I moved the Tri-Towers from my parents' house here, so they are ready to plant, or refurbish at any point.  With those came the pump that I had been using, which is a rather heavy duty fishtank pump, with a five outlet splitter with nice metal valves.  I was able to easily use that to pump the water as best as I have yet seen in the new tower, and it pumps down to 4 gallons (~1/2 capacity).  I also have the portable tower, and the diffuser running on the same pump.  Once I reintroduce the Tri-Towers, I hope to run them on that pump as well.  And I have begun transplanting into the Penta, I have the whole bottom tier full, but ran out of cheesecloth (instead of netpots), and figure I will wait until it is full of life to put up pictures.