Building a Floating Hydroponic Garden

Abstract

The Aztecs and Incas amazed the Spanish conquistadors with their floating gardens, and now 500 years later you can impress your friends and neighbors with yours. A floating hydroponic garden is easy to build and can provide a tremendous amount of nutritious vegetables for home use, and best of all, hydroponic systems avoid pest problems commonly associated with the soil. This simple guide will show you how to build your own floating hydroponic garden using material locally available at a cost of about $40.00. This is document HS-943, a publication of the Horticultural Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication Date: March 2001. Revision Date: September 2003.
 HS943/HS184: Building a Floating Hydroponic Garden (ufl.edu)

Growing Lettuce in Small Hydroponic Systems

“…Further information on how to build a floating raft system can be found in EDIS article HS943, Building a Floating Hydroponic Garden, at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs184 (Sweat, Tyson, and Hochmuth 2003).…”

Hydroponic Vegetable Production in Florida

“…The greenhouse hydroponic vegetable industry in Florida has changed significantly over the past 15 years (Tyson et al, 2004;Tyson et al, 2001) due to shifts in market demand, adverse weather, and research-based innovations in new crops, as well as improvements in production cost and efficiency (Resh, 2004, Shaw andCantliffe, 2002;Shaw et al, 2000;Stapleton and Hochmuth, 2001;Sweat et al, 2003).…”

“…Floating raft hydroponic systems and vertical systems (see below) are popular, new hydroponic systems that were not even reported in 1991. The floating systems utilize the floating-raft or mat system, in which Styrofoam rafts with holes drilled in them are floated on nutrient-rich water (Sweat et al, 2003). This system works well with short-season, shallow-rooted crops --such as lettuce, basil, and watercress, which grow well under high-moisture conditions in the root zone.…”

School Garden—Plastic Wading Pool Hydroponics

“…The Aztecs amazed the Spanish conquistadors with their floating gardens. Now, 500 years later, you can impress your friends and neighbors with yours (Sweat, Tyson, and Hochmuth 2013). A floating hydroponic garden in a wading pool is easy to build and can yield lots of nutritious vegetables.…”