-=my method to poor mans hydroponics=-

you will need a bucket 2-5 gal (Home Depot)[$2]

you will need pea gravel aka all purpose gravel (Home depot)[$3]

you will need compact flourescent lights (Home Depot)[$1-$15]

You will need an air pump (Petsmart)[$5]

You will need airline tubing (Petsmart)[$2]

You will need an Airstone (petsmart)[$1]

YOu may use PVC Pipe (optional)(Home Depot)[$1]


its very efficient and only slightly more expensive than your basic soil set up. many of these ingredients can be improvised too.

the set up is also very simple, you put the airstone at the bottom of the bucket, with the airline tubing connected to it and running out of the bucket, connected to the pump. now wash all your gravel as the stuff from home depot in the bags is usually pretty dirty still. once its clean carefully dump it all in the bucket (dont break the airstone). you can also at this point if you want to be able to check your water level and not have to guess, add the pvc pipe (drill holes up and down it to alow the water to pass through) stand it vertically anywhere in the bucket off to the side, and dump in your gravel.

now you just treat the gravel as if its dirt and make a little crator in the center for your seedling/cutting. i use jiffy pellets since they just decintigrate eventually and the seedling/cutting just grows directly into he gravel. you water it with your favorite nutrient solution, and thats it. you want to keep your water level at about 2 inches below the surface, except for the begining when its taking root, then i usually raise the water level almsot to the top.

so thats it, our hydroponic setup brings us to a grand total of...around 20 bucks. this of course will vary, and the lighting is too variable but for a seedling you can get away with just a few small 92 cent cfl's for a while. home depot also carries a 68watt 2700k cfl for 15 bucks that u might want to look at down the road for blooming, i didnt include nutrient cost since its not really part of the setup, but that should run at most 10 bucks.

you can re-use almost all this stuff again, except maybe the airstone, but then again ive done it...depends on the brand/kind i guess.

and i did this my first time with much much success. i dont care what anybody says it blows soil out the water. well well well worth the extra bit of effort/cost.

hope it helps!