Welcome little_nicky {{gwi:998412}}

Sorry to hear about your little child.
I think your proposed system seems adequate. Don't forget that some plants require different levels of nutrient and pH. So, you may need to grow some of them in different nutrients. For small systems, passive ways are easier to install and maintain. They are also easier to maintain.
Do you have any space to do this?

Sounds like you have a great start. A few things I thought of when i read your plan-

You do not have to change the nutrients every 2 weeks.
Although frequent nutrient changes will not harm the plants they are wasteful and nutrients are not cheap. Over time you'll get a feel for when the nutrients need changing becasue the plants will let you know when something is out of ballance. Depending on many factors including what you are growing, stage of growth, how many things you are growing, size of resivior, original concentration of nutrients, etc. you may only need nutrient changes once a month. I respect that some people choose to do frequent, scheduled nutrient changes but it is not required to have a successful grow. As you get more comfortable with hydro growing you'll learn to 'read' your plants and they will tell you when something is off.

 Check the pH often.
From what you wrote, it sounds like you are already aware that pH is an important part of hydroponic growing. pH controls what nutrients the roots will be able to absorb. If your solution goes to acidic or basic the nutrients will be 'locked out' and the plant will suffer.

 It is okay to turn the drippers off at night.
This idea scares some people and they will say things like 'the roots will dry out', 'you miss 8 hours of feeding time', 'the drip emitters will clog' and I'm sure many other things. The truth of the matter is- Generally plants do not "eat" or "drink" at night so you are not missing any feeding time. If you are using a suitable growing medium, it will hold enough moisture to keep the roots moist for a few hours in the dark. And finally, stalagmites (sp?) are formed in caves from a constant dripping of water depositing trace ammounts of nutrients that buildup over time. Nutrient deposits can build up and clog emitters regardless of pump timing. Drip emitters designed to conserve water in terrestrial gardens, where excess water seeps into the ground and is wasted, are not the best or most reliable for use with hydroponics. I use 'rings' made from a 6" piece of airline tubing wrapped around a T connector, with pin holes melted around the inside. The flow rate is much higher than a commercialy available 1 or 2GPH dripper you might use in your dirt garden, but becasue the water is recycled, nothing is wasted and they are much less prone to clogging with debris or nutrient salt buildup.

ÂWhat growing medium are you planning to use in the cups, and what size cups will be used?
I ask becasue you did not list any provisions for supporting the plants and unless you are using a dense medium and/or large growing cups, you will need some form of external support for the plants as they grow.

 Use of compact fluorescent lights.
I'm not knowledgable enough about it to make much of a recomendation other than you should talk to the people in the 'Growing Under Lights' forum here at GW. Fluro's are great for seed starting but may be lacking for 'growing on'.

ÂContinuous producing plants
I took from what you wrote that you plan to use a single large plastic tote with the plants suspended in cups flushed into the lid. Saddly, there is almost no chance that a system of this size will continuously produce all of the veggies you described. If you built multiple systems (one for each type of plant) you could get close, but as described you'll only have space for 1-2 of each plant and 2 pepper plants (assuming we are talking about bell pepers) will not produce a continuous yeild, nor will 2 squash vines. I'm not trying to be a pessimist; I just want you to have realistic expectations before you invest all the time and money into building something. I think what you are trying to do sounds great and although it may not eliminate the need for storebought veggies entirely, you can supliment your diet with food you grew free of pesticides and other harmful chemicals.

ÂAirating the solution
If you plan to run this system in a part of your house that you regularly spend time in, you will quickly discover that walmart air pumps are LOUD. Because getting oxygen to the roots is critical for cellular respiration, you do want to airate the liquid but it can be done without an annoying air pump. The drip rings i described above in the section about turning the drippers off at night can perform the same function as an air pump (proably better) and are very quiet. They produce small jets as water is forced through the holes. When the jets of water hit the growing media they explode into tiny dropletts of water catching oxygen from the air and carrying it with them as they collect back into drops that run down into the root zone.

These tips are just my oppinion of one way to do things. As you start playing with your hydro garden you will learn your own way of doing things that may be completely different from how I or anyone else does them. there are very few hard and fast rules about what is correct or incorrect in hydroponics so my most important tip is- keep an open mind and experiment with different things until you find what works for you.

I just read the wiki you posted. If I remember what we learned in IPM class correctly, I believe that prolonged exposure to pesticides can cause a significant drop in your phenylalanine hydroxylase levels and many professional horticultural chemical application technicians have to get regular blood tests to check their exposure levels.

I know that is completely irrelevent to your son's condition but it does relate to agriculture/gardening so I thought I'd share.

No need to be sorry, its just a different way of life that what some people are used to. He doesn't seem to mind for now.

I do know that some pesticides in plants can make his levels go up.

At first I'm going to start with plants that have around the same nutrient levels.

I do not know what growing medium I'm going to use yet. With continues drip what is better, to have a medium that stays wet or one that doesn't absorb the water?

If the first batch of plants goes well be them all the same plants or not, then I'm going to move my computer room out of the closet and put many more containers in there.

I'm not worried about the noise of the air pump, I sleep with a CPAP machine, a FAN, a fish tank and several computer fans on.

Has anyone used the maxi-bloom and maxi-grow products?

Thanks

Sawdust is used here in drip irrigations without recycling. This picture was taken in a newly established farm for growing Bell peppers. The sawdust is used twice.
Make sure that the sawdust does NOT come from treated wood.
{{gwi:1014603}}

If the nutrient will be recycled, than you may need to dilute it with sand in a 1:1 ratio.
Sawdust can get very acid though. So check the pH.

Sorry, no exp with maxi-bloom and maxi-grow.

i wouldn't go with the CFL lights as they won't put out the lumens for such a project. i would suggest a 400 watt High Pressure Sodium lamp. CFL's may be able to get 3-5 inches away from the top of the plant but a 400 watt HPS will cover more area and put out twice the grow power.

I'm not going to spend over $100 on a light when I have read plenty of people grow with CFL without problems, They do have to go with the higher wattage than you normally get. Sawdust doesn't seem like a good idea since it can get very acidic in a recover method.

I do not know what growing medium I'm going to use yet. With continues drip what is better, to have a medium that stays wet or one that doesn't absorb the water?

A big part of media choice in a top drip system depends on what flow rate you'll be using and how often you are running the pump. If the pump will be on 24/7 a 'dry' medium such as lava rocks, pea gravel, or peralite would be better becasue with a constant flow of water you are not depending on the media to hold very much moisture. If you want to cycle the pump (on for 15 minutes, off for 30 minutes or something similar) a slightly 'wetter' media such as rockwool, coir, or wood chips would ensure that the roots have plenty to eat and drink while the pump is off.

My take on growing mediums is that you should use what is available to you. My favorite 'all around' growing medium is chopped rockwool (rockwool that has been dices into little pieces resembling salad croutons) but to get chopped rockwool requires I pay the outragous shipping charges from an online retailer or drive 3 hours to the hydroponics store in Nashville, TN.

Some inexpensive and commonly available mediums include:
lava rock
Be sure and wash the grit off the outside of the rocks before using them. It can not be good for pump internals to be constantly 'sandblasted' by those little pummice fragments. This media is cheap and available everywhere but it does not hold moisture very well for long periods so I usually 'mulch' with pea gravel if i'm using lava rocks as the primary medium. I used lava rocks with pea gravel mulch for a VERY successful top-drip pepper grow. The lava rocks are light and airy while the pea gravel blocks light and holds the humidity in during the times when the pump is off.

pea gravel
Holds more moisture than lava rocks while allowing air circulation but it is HEAVY. if you need a lot of it you'll need to seriously consider the structural support of your system. available at any garden center or big box store. reusable indefinatly.

Wood chips
I've never used them personally, but i see a lot of people swear by them.

Expanded clay pellets
A 'hydroponic specific' media. Works great for almost any type of system becasue of a good air/water ratio but can be expensive and hard to find locally if you don't have a hydro store in town. unlike rockwool, 'hydroton' is recyclable indefinatly.

Coir
I only recently started playing with this coconut based media. I like that it is organic and made from what would be a waste product but it seems a little 'wet' for most plants. maybe mixing with peralite would help? also not readily available at non-hydro stores.
BONUS: can be used as an ingredient in soil based gardening as well.

Rockwool
My favorite media for general use but also the most expensive and hardest to get locally (for me). Superior air/water ratio for most plants, easy root growth, self contained, can be reused a few times. If money were no object I'd use rockwool for every system i build because it has never failed me.

Peralite/Vermiculite
I find both these ingredients alone or a mix of them to be messy and inferior to anything listed above. I use them in soil based gardening but i have no use for them in hydroponics. YMMV.

I'm sure there are some other medias I'm forgetting.

Has anyone used the maxi-bloom and maxi-grow products?

No, but i regularly use the FloraGro and FloraBloom liquid nutrients from the same manufacterer. General Hydroponics makes quality nutrients and I'm sure those will be fine. If you are going to use dry nutrients it is important to make sure they disolve and are mixed into the solution completely.

Not that we are for a spelling lesson, but it's AERATE not airate....I've just seen it spelled incorrectly too often.....

Thats, I will most likely use lava rock since I'm all for getting the stuff local, if my first system works out well then I'll start ordering stuff online for it, I just hate paying shipping.

I would still like someone to post that has uses CF lights to grow.

Thanks

I've just seen it spelled incorrectly too often.....

I'm spoiled... I run FireFox with an automatic spell checker on my home computer but @ work I have to use this smelly old IE browser. I am no good at the spelling. (or grammar, or puncuation for that matter)