Guest Review: General Hydroponics WATERFARM®
Max Parker, stoatmax.wordpress.com
The Waterfarm is a drip hydroponic system designed for personal use.
It's small size, energy efficiency, and low price make it a great
choice for a small-time home-grower. It's simple, square design makes
it possible to pack many systems side-by-side in a small space. It uses
a drip ring to irrigate plants. It's suitable for small to large
plants, ranging from small leaf vegetables to heavy producers like
tomatoes.
It's roughly 10" x "10 x 15". It retails for about $50. Some assembly is required.
The complete system includes:
- 4-gallon reservoir
- 2-gallon growing chamber
- Pumping column
- Column support tube
- Drip ring
- 1/2" grommet
- Drain level tube
- Elite® 800 air pump
- 9L Hydroton
- 3-part Flora Kit
I've recently obtained a sample Waterfarm for review. I'm so far pleased with the results.
The system is packaged in a small, tight fitting box. All of its components are packed inside the reservoir and growing chamber.
Lightweight expanded clay aggregate, or Hydroton is a growing media used in hydroponics.
The Waterfarm includes about 9 L. of Hydroton, just enough to fill the growing chamber up to the drip ring.
Because it's shipped in a bag, it grinds together and makes a sort of "sand". It's best if the Hydroton is washed off prior to use. The more "sand" that you remove, the less that will wind up in your water.
These are the components that make up the Waterfarm. The assembly
guide and the instruction manual shown here are very informative. The
assembly instructions are elegant and understandable.
The system gets you started by including a three-part nutrient
lineup. They each have charts on the back listing nutrient amounts for each stage in a plant's life cycle.
FloraMicro contains 5 % Nitrogen, 1% Potash, 5% Calcium.
FloraGro contains 2% Nitrogen, 1% Phosphate, 6% Potash.
FloraBloom contains 5% Phosphate, 4% Potash, 1.5% Magnesium, 1% Sulfur.
It takes a little over 2 gal. to meet the fill line in the
water-level indicator. The pump running to the drip ring works most
efficiently when the reservoir is at its 2 gallon capacity.
The finished product:
I do, however, have two suggestions for what could be packaged in with the Waterfarm.
A seed starting media would do wonders for starting up the system
immediately. They'd hardly cost anything, and GH could use their brand
of starter plugs. It would be helpful to somebody who has no seed
starter otherwise.
A pH Adjustment solution and Liquid pH tester would be a great
addition to the package. Control of pH is important for vigorous plant
growth. Different plants like different pH. They should have include
enough pH solution to adjust the first few gallons.
I'm pleased with the Waterfarm's design and it's simplicity. The nutrients that are included are easy to use and of high quality. Seemingly no fallout whatsoever occurs.
The drip ring is a nice, simple irrigation method. Keeping plants
around the ring will give them a nice amount of water. However, if you
move a plant to the center, be prepared to adjust the ring/hydroton to
get a sufficient flow to the plant and it's roots. I set my ring to a
45-degree angle to shoot the water from the first two holes. It works
quite well and evenly coats the area around the plant, shown below.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the Waterfarm. It's obvious that a
fair amount of attention to detail went in to the design. The system's
performance and function are simple, but very efficient and affective.
If you've got $50 to spend and you're looking for a great, reliable,
easy to use system, I have the utmost faith in the Waterfarm. I highly
recommend this system.
-Max Parker
stoatmax.wordpress.com