Building the Hydroponics Frame - Considerations

When building a new hydroponics system, there are so many things to think about that the vast majority of people end up discarding the idea entirely. Hopefully, the list we have laid out here does not make the problem worse, but that it serves as a baseline of things that you may not have thought about. Although this list is not meant to be comprehensive, it does represent some of the most common issues we found when thinking about building a hydroponics setup.

We spent a lot of time thinking through many constraints needed to build our version of a hydroponics wall garden. Even though we had settled on the Neumayer garden wall, mostly for the ease of construction of the grow sites, there were still a few other considerations we had to think through before jumping in. We hope this list provides insights to help you work through some of these problems so you do not have to face them in the middle of your building process.

Some basic considerations

These were the primary constraints we had in mind when constructing our build. Some of these we put a great deal of thought into them, others were just in passing because we felt comfortable enough to not take too much time. Even though you will have different priorities and considerations than we do, but the basic process should remain the same and we recommend at least some thoughts go into each of these categories.

Available space

It’s important not to just look into floor space availability, but also how high you are able to build the frame. In our case, we wanted to have this garden in our garage and the only location was near the garage door. Our garage has a low ceiling, and height is further reduced when we open up our garage door. It removes about a foot (30cm) from the available height. As a result, we had to take multiple height measurements with the garage-door opened. The lowest point, with the garage door in the open position, was 85 inches.

In between all of our bicycles and garden tools, we also had a large enough space for something that is about 2 feet by 4 feet. Luckily, there’s enough wiggle room here that we decided to make our garden a little wider and a little deeper. The final build ended up being a little larger with a dimension of 26 inches deep x 52 inches wide x 80 inches tall (66cm x 132cm x 203cm).

Temperature

For most indoor spaces, temperature is not a big problem. In our case, although our garage is attached to the house, it is unheated. We had to make sure that the temperature is reasonably close to ideal temperature range for plants (around 65F to 75F, 18C to 24C). We started monitoring the temperature of our garage to ensure that it is warm enough for plants.

We live in the Pacific Northwest, and luckily, our climate here in Seattle is pretty mild. Our temperatures outside in the winter averages 35F - 45F (1C - 7C) degrees, and our garage, since it’s attached, is about 15F (8C) degrees warmer than outside. These temperature ranges is slightly colder than the ideal temperatures for plants. When we planned out the frame, we knew that it had to be covered, but it does not necessarily have to be insulated. We to take this into account when we build the frame.

Vertical or horizontal

Although we have a longer write-up on our decision regarding vertical versus horizontal NFT hydroponics build, we will briefly mention it here. You will need to see what makes sense for you and what works best for your situation. Maybe you only want a few sites, or for your kids to be able to access the sites easily, it may make sense for it to be a horizontal garden with only a layer or two. A horizontal garden stack on top of each other, so you can expand it layers at a time relatively easily. The downside is that the higher the layers are, the harder it is to reach and care for the plants of your garden.

For a vertical setup, you will need to get a stronger pump to pump the water higher to your highest placed plants. You will also need to have lights placed in front of the plants, making it harder to reach the plants. The ease of access is a permanent part of the setup, so you have to take care when planning out your build.

Size your reservoir

Our hydroponics setup is an NFT, nutrient film technique, build, so it must mean that all of the growing sites have to be above the tank. Consequently, deciding on the the volume of the reservoir determines what its dimensions are. So if you are thinking of an NFT build, determining the dimensions will give you have a better idea of where your grow sites will start above ground.

We looked at available totes at our local hardware store, and with the number of grow sites we had in mind, we went with what we felt was reasonable for our setup and how much space we can afford. The trade-off is that the larger the reservoir, the taller it will be with these storage totes. The taller, the less space you have for plants. Since our height is quite limited, an inch or two (2cm - 5cm) makes a difference.

Once you’ve decided on the reservoir size, your frame will need to accommodate for these dimensions. As mentioned earlier, if you are limited on height like we are, the reservoir’s height will be the most important dimension for your build. This height also sets the minimum where you can actually grow your plants.

Grow site spacing

Similar to growing in the ground, you will need to have the proper spacing around the plants for them to grow to mature sizes. As such, you will have to consider both the number of available sites and the spacing between the sites for your garden. If space is not at a premium, it’s ideal for hydroponics grow sites to be around 8 inches to 9 inches (20cm - 22cm) apart from each other. This will give enough room for common plants like lettuce to have enough room to grow to its full size. In our specific scenario, we are moving from an Aerogarden, so pretty much anything reasonably spaced is an upgrade.

With that said, space is at a premium for us, so it made little sense to go for the ideal spacing of 8 or 9 inches between grow sites. Our other priority was to be able to grow a variety of plants, which meant we were willing to sacrifice the spacing for more grow sites. In the end, we went with 7-inch (18cm) on-center spacing to maximize grow sites given out limited “wall space.”

Mobility

Most people will want a stationary garden. When it is loaded with 15 to 20 gallons (60 to 75 liters) of water, you are looking at 125 to 165 pounds of weight (55kg to 75kg). Naturally, we went the opposite direction that most prefer, we opted for it to be on wheels. This is mostly because we are locating the garden in our already cluttered garage, the mobility allows us access to our tools on the walls. This requirement took away several inches from our maximum potential, but gave us a little more flexibility on the location day-to-day and project-by-project depending on our needs for the garage space.

Light and easy to move around

In the same vein, we wanted the ability to move the frame around when it is unloaded. It is something that we think we will need given the limited floor space in our garage. So when we are cleaning the system or decommission it for any reason, we can easily move it out of the garage to temporarily place it elsewhere. Given this, the frame we built, when unloaded of all the hydropnics stuff, is pretty light and can picked up to be moved around. Although it is a bit big and awkward, but we installed 2 inch caster wheels and they greatly aid with the moving of the frame.

Other considerations

Although these considerations are important, they were not high priority for us when we designed our hydroponics wall frame. We list these here because we saw some of these come up during our research and we understand that our needs are likely to be different from yours. Maybe these will be helpful for others so we are listing them here for completeness.

Plant type

Although most people grow leafy greens like lettuce in their system, knowing what your favorite plants are can also determine how far apart your grow sites ought to be. For example, if you want to grow broccoli, tomatoes, or peppers, the spacing requirements for these would quite a bit larger than for lettuce or spinach.

There are designs out there with variable spacing so that it can accommodate different plants, so it may be something for you to consider. So if you are itching to grow a larger plant, be sure to plan for it otherwise you will end up wasting grow sites that get covered up by larger plants.

Production quantity

With us, our limiting factor is the available space and we wanted variety, so it limited what we can do. On the other hand, if you want to produce at scale, the calculations are slightly different. In this scenario, it makes more sense to work backwards from the quantity you want to produce. This will give you a good idea of the number of grow sites, the spacing of the plants, and the amount of time it would take for the plants to mature.

Another consideration here would be how and when to rotate and harvest your crop. How much can you process on a weekly basis? This becomes a farming question rather than something a hobbyist would likely consider. Naturally, this is something we have little experience with and are limited help here.

Starts and seedlings

To maximize grow space, you may consider having a dedicated space for starting your seeds. You can use the hydroponics system for your seedlings, but that may be unwise for a few different reasons:

Some seeds may take a long time to germinate, thus wasting effective space of your system. Time spent waiting for germination is time not spent on growing.
Seeds may not germinate in the time frame that you need them in. Hydroponics systems may not have the ideal temperature for germination and may not be as effective as a dedicated system.
Extras can be used for microgreens, which you can’t really have if you germinate seeds in a typical hydroponics system.

Indoor versus outdoor

Will your hydroponics garden be based indoor or outdoor? Or were you thinking of a hybrid system where you can take the system out during the summer and bring it back inside in the winter. We did not want a system that is used for both, so we opted for just an indoor version. This will give us complete control over the garden’s environment. This translates to dedicated lighting and heating system, thus costing more when it comes to operations.

Saving money

It may be tempting to think of hydroponics gardening as a way to save money, it may not be. Once a system is in place and everything is working properly, sure the cost per plant will be cheaper than store bought, but it will take an awfully long time to recoup the cost of a hydroponics system. For us, hydroponics opens up another avenue entirely. The reason we wanted to have a hydroponics garden is, not only for its convenience and as a hobby, but it is a source of pesticide-free greens. With this last point, it makes the comparison between homegrown and store-bought like comparing apples and oranges. Even organic produce have a lot of pesticide on them and limiting that exposure for our kids is invaluable.

Energy cost

Knowing how much it will cost you on a weekly basis will be important to know if going down this route is right for you. The majority of the cost will come from lighting, so if you are to build this as an outdoor system for the summer, the operating cost will be quite low. On the flip side, having it as an indoor system where you supply the heat and light, the cost will be dependent on the cost of electricity in your area. Although it may still come out to be negligible depending on your setup, it is still prudent to do the calculations to know what it will cost you before jumping in blindly.

Buy a system

An obvious choice here is to buy a pre-built system. There are a few different systems out there, and making a decision based on what each system offers can be a big headache in and of itself. You can go for a small, simple desktop system to a giant wall/tower system that can accomodate a variety of different plants. These systems are visually appealing, and some come with a community that is helpful when it comes to troubleshooting issues.

Pre-built, commercially sold systems are designed to be aesthetically pleasing so that you can have them in your living area and won’t cause embarrassment when guests are over. We are not sure about you, but we suspect that orange, Home Depot 5-gallon buckets littered all over the living room is only appealing to a small percentage of the population.

Summary

There are many different considerations when it comes to building your hydroponics garden. As you probably have guessed, this list is not exhaustive. There are a few more we have not listed here, like sizing your pump or what type of nutrients to use, but listing it all here becomes information overload. Ultimately, you just need to jump in and decide to build one. We were on the fence for five years before taking the plunge, and we are very glad that we did. It is a fun hobby and has been quite therapeutic for our stressful work life.

We recommend that you take this list of considerations along with doing your own research to add a few more, then prioritize it. Once you have a prioritized list of requirements, pick the top three to five, then plan your build your hydroponics garden around these constraints. It is impossible to be perfect and you have to keep in mind, you will only have a garden if you build it or invest in a designated system. Thinking about possibilities and what-ifs is only that. Embrace your inner Nike, just do it.

Most importantly, enjoy the process! You will find your own path and discover new and better ways to do things. Hopefully, you have the time and bandwidth to contribute your findings back to the community and help folks along in their own paths to discovering the wonderful world of hydroponics gardening.