///M5

My kratke pots are doing super well atm also. Surprised how effective they are. Obviously all are lacking oxygen and I know that will be a boost, but if anyone wants to try on the cheap do that first!

If I stay with a flood system, I thought about using square fence posts. Advantage being that you don't have to guess as much for the overall height and flood relief. Being this is in a living space that is my other concern. Of course I can add a moisture sensor and shut off but that is added complexity that my dumb ass will spend time making sure works. I like the only pump water a few times a day better than continuous, but again I shouldn't look for the nth degree here as this is not to make me money but food.

Awesome coop. How much work are they? ie, how often do you have to do stuff. I know you grab eggs every other day, but the water, feed, clean?

The correct answer on size of the tank is I don't know. 20, 40, 60? I can figure it out, lol...but it is buried by plants right now. 20 gal + enough to cover the pump in the bottom (1/6 of the tank) is a lot. I need to research NFT vs flood/drain effectiveness. Probably not super relevant as I am only growing herbs and lettuce pretty much.

I feel like I need some context

I didn't choose NFT at first because I was worried about how I take care of seedlings. Had no idea the Kratke jar method worked so well. I'd prefer to not have a bunch of vertical due to the lighting and it is in a living space in our house. The pink light I have is also starting to wear on me. Maybe time for T5 LED's. There is some natural light in the room as it is our "sun room", but it is pretty minimal.

Ha, you did the same calc I did. 4" pvc creates the other problem that once you drill holes in it for the planting cups, it doesn't hold much water. I almost think 6" is necessary. I will never be able to fill a 6" reservoir wise. 6" and NFT is going to be easy though...I already have 6" PVC in the garage which doesn't hurt. The platform that the tank is in is about 6' long.

Country, lol. I am 20min from the Minneapolis airport. Not the "city" per se, but one could easily argue that we have the best school system in the complete metro and state of MN so not rural by any means. Just happen to live on a big ole lake.

I am after low maintenance and great food. The rest I am not so worried about.

Originally was going to fill every few hours and then drain 10min later. Obviously at this point I can't do that. Assume the tank, pump, aeroator that I have would transition to NFT the best. Haven't enough plants to need the transition yet, so it is a great time to spitball!

If I want meat though I can almost grab turkeys and tackle deer at my bil's house. They are fed better there too

I live in th city and a bow is considered a fire arm. Something that makes it fall in place however yields meat

Chickens are outlawed in our bylaws...but I have a bunch of neighbors who would like to see me bulid a coop

We also have probably 500 hostas so they come for those, perhaps it will save the other foods Only time of the year that hostas are truly edible btw.

Around here the wild berries grow like crazy in the woods as well. I've done a fair amount of gathering. Just hadn't thought about it in our yard. That changes this year. The asparagus is a great idea. Hell in Europe they cover it with plastic so that no chlorphyll develops. Leafy shit I wonder how fast the deer would decimate. If so, I guess I feed nature. I ahve a ton of lettuce seeds germinating. Guess I will plant them oustide and see!

At $50 a pound don't fuck them up

We also have deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, and owls living in our yard...or at least for part of each and every day. Anything in their domain gets eaten.

...so I am going to go nuts on outdoor mushrooms. They love the shade And yes, I have found morels right in my yard.

Just as a clarification, there are parts of my yard that get maybe 2 hours of sun. The rest...less. Hastas grow, but so slowly they take nearly 3 years to be big enough to split. In the sunniest spot we planted tomatoes once. Had them in the ground on April 30th. At first frost we had 2 medium sized green tomatoes. No sun.

Ha, I buy 8 gal at a time.

I know...but then 50gal of hydro fluid won't last for shit on flood & drain. The pvc will hold a crap ton of liquid. Obviously misting solves that concern as you point out but then NFT is pretty much a lazy mister. My water supply is laready a fish tank...

Dingleberries?

When you say berries, what do you mean. I love the idea of speckling in food all throughout my yard.

I built something more like an NFT initially but using 1/2" pvc thinking I could flood and drain it. No place for roots in that plan so I either need to swap up my plan or ...

Well I have 8, but those are the ones I don't want around