 Hey, fam welcome to another special edition of the private property farming podcast the gardening series in partnership with home growers And today we have a live demonstration of an NFT hydroponic system a 60 pocket to be specific Which cast and gift is going to be assembling for us So for any of you that is wishing to purchase an NFT hydroponic system to start growing your own food at home This one is for you where you actually get to see how the system works and most importantly how it's installed But that will all be covered by home growers. So joining me today is Cass and gift Gentlemen, how are you doing? Lovely to see you again Bali. Thanks for coming through again. Likewise gift great Cass Let's get the system started I mean you are going to be installing it for us And I think it's important to mention that when a customer does buy the NFT hydro system this six-pocket one specifically You will install it for them. Is that correct? That's correct. So this is an incredible system This is the 60-pocket NFT hydroponic system Okay, the beauty about home growers again, and this is where it's all comes together These home growers is always for the home grower We come and we set the entire system up as gifted displaying right now and show you exactly the magic What goes down in terms of an NFT system? So we supply the entire system set it up with all the nutrients with the reservoir and we'll go through all of it just now The reservoir the nutrients the net cups the clay pebbles and the vegetables So you don't get your hands dirty You don't everything just comes together for you and it really is a very simple system You can see it's almost like Lego or a Makano set And I don't know if I can say that because they're all registered names But nonetheless it is really like putting you know bits and pieces of a puzzle together But it is so straightforward and it makes life easier for the home grower to get Growing quickly and it really is special and remember from the first time you popped in and you visited us And I showed you the channels and we opened them up when we showed you the flow And when we talk around hydroponics know the hydro means water and it really means growing in water But the beauty around all of that is the NFT nutrient film Technique so you don't get a massive gushing flow of water that's gonna be Flying through those channels into the reservoir. It's a flow. It's a film There's nutrients being carried through by the water to the rooting system of those plants And that's what happens in this hydroponic system So we'll get into more details once we've got the whole thing set up But I'm kind of giving a bit of a intro as gift is busy putting it all together and as we described a little bit about the System you can see we almost done already and putting it together. It really is something very very special So we almost there you can see you've got those little wing mats that you got And we put those in and gift is spinning them through and we are making sure that this is Soundly put together the structure is in place And we will then be ready to lay down the channels Which will then be connected with the pipes which will be then connected into the reservoir And then we will start the process of filling it up filling it up with the water filling it up with nutrients and filling it up with The the bonds on it in the net cups and we're gonna show you everything each step of the way and It really is fun. It really is exciting Okay, so let's just see how gift assembles this and then I think it will be fair enough to then start asking questions Once the system is in store about the system because as I'm thinking now Yes, you've explained NFT now. We need to know what a 60-pocket mean and it's just the different levels, so let's just maybe wait for gift to complete this and Yeah, we could ask go in more depth with regards to the technicalities of how the system works Absolutely brilliant, fantastic By the cast so gift has installed this It looks very fancy and quite sturdy to be honest But firstly before we go into the technicalities explain to us what a 60-pocket means Is it because it has 60 holes? I don't know and what type of crops can one grow in this particular structure? Well, good question. So let's first off the 60 pockets is exactly that 60 holes And they just call it 60 pockets, right? And it's got channels so these white pieces that you see are these are called channels Yes, and the net cups is really what goes into the holes And that's kind of where you're gonna end up growing your herbs and your vegetables Got it And what happens is the water will pump up and we'll go through the process and you'll see how it all comes together But so let me show you so I kept a couple of these aside so I can at least give you an example So that's your net cup and you get different sizes of net cups So the net cups will get filled with clay pebbles, which I'll show you now. I kept some of those aside as well Okay, what happens is the clay pebbles go inside there and it gives the pond support It absorbs nutrients. It absorbs water. So it sustains the root system It sustains the root systems very very well and keeps them hydrated in times of need when there is let's say even load shedding So a lot of people will say and load shedding is important because we live through it What happens there's no electricity But what happens is the clay pebbles hold a lot of moisture in it and the root systems once the pond actually develops It creates its own buffering and it creates its own reservoir or damming up the water So it keeps a lot of water in the actual channels, which is a big thing So these clay rots essentially serve as soil That's right Right, so you put in the rocks, you put in the cup inside the system and then you put in your plant And then where does the water come in? Because this is a hydroponic system Perfect. So we have a reservoir so we'll switch it on in a few minutes and we'll show you the whole thing works But you've got a reservoir that's filled with water and nutrients and we add the nutrients in The water pumps up through this pipe here and you'll see the water running through the channel And gravity will pull it down so it'll go down that white pipe, come across all the way here And then drop down through that pipe by gravity, make its way through there and down And then all the way down back into the reservoir and the water carries on So it's a complete secular system that runs its way right through and pulls the nutrients through That's why you don't expect to have a damn full of water like that pumping through here It's a full, it's a flow of water, as long as it's enough water to carry the nutrients That's where the nutrient film technique, just a full of water that's actually carrying those nutrients And the clay pebbles will absorb that water as well and it's like a sponge and will hold all of that in That's why when you look at the clay pebbles to start, they're nice and brown After a few weeks of it you'll see they're covered in a white coat and it's a white film And that is all the dry nutrients as it's dried up, it's one of the actual stones The stones always hold nutrients So I like the fact that you keep referring to this word nutrients, nutrients What type of nutrients can one put in that reservoir? And you know, because when I think of it from a commercial farming perspective I'm thinking fertilizers right, foliar feed, you know So what type of nutrients would one want to or have to put in through that reservoir? So what we try and do with home growers, remember the whole thing here is about making it easy for people to work with Yes Because a lot of people, this is this home, this whole domestic forming and this whole home growing concept It's so new that people don't understand, like the one thing, it's a good question as well Because how often do I put nutrients in? Do I put it in every single day? No, you don't You put it in and say you should know what your pH levels are, your ECE nutrient levels are Do you know exactly how rich the water is in terms of its nutrient volume? Got it Particles per million So you need to know that in terms of not overfeeding because you'll end up burning the crop And so that's one of the most important things that one needs to know But in terms of the nutrients, you get many different varieties of nutrients You get the liquid state, which you need to know exactly how much to put in Then you obviously got to effectively check and test your levels Put the liquid nutrients into the reservoir and that will pump itself through Or use a dry nutrient, which is what we highly prefer because we've already got it calibrated So when you come to home growers, we give you the kit, we've marked it for you You pour the dry nutrients in, you put water in, you make it into a soluble solution And you pour it into a reservoir And you only do that once every three weeks And that's all you do So whilst you're drying it, you may fill up the reservoir on a more regular basis Because what happens as summer hits and it's hot Just like you and I, we get thirsty, we drink a lot more The plants do the same You know, some people want to say, do you drink more when it's a hot day? I'll push you to do it Well, the plants are no different They've also got cells They're sitting in a structure, living there So the same applies with plants You have to understand that But just because you're putting water in, let's say twice a week or three times a week Doesn't mean that you've got to put in nutrients two to three times a week Remember, the clay pebbles, as I explained earlier Will hold a lot of the nutrient value in those pebbles themselves So although the water's being replaced in the channel And there's still nutrients stuck in those little pebbles It's going to extract those from the pebbles into the plant And you only have to replace the nutrients once every three weeks or so Got it And because this is a vertical structure I presume that, you know, your type of crop that you'll be planting will be quite limited You know, so you can't grow a crop that will grow vertically Maybe it has to be just halfway in terms of height Is that correct? Technically no, not true Okay So a lot of people are quite surprised They look at this and they go, well, you can't plant much in there We've grown onions to that size in here We've grown cabbages, big cabbage heads like this in here We've got beet treats growing here We've got lettuces like you cannot believe Tomatoes to bush that size Big, big plum tomatoes So what you've got to do is the whole trick here is about planting So you don't look at a system like this and take all your vegetables And you just go plonk them anyway Yes Ideally what one should do is actually plant So anything that's going to grow quite high And big and bushy and so on You may be using the top section Got it What we like to do as well And the lovely thing about a hydroponic stand structure like this You can use natural growth string So you can toss string on And you can actually create a barrier Or a structure to hold the plant So the plant has got some support So you're dealing with it in a very effective manner What also happens is the root system As the root system grows and you'll see And I've showed you the last time when you first came to visit us And I opened this up And this was lovely about the system Because you can clip these open And you can see exactly what is going on inside the reservoir Sort of the channels So if you have to maintain roots And clip and cut and do whatever you can do up with these Which is really, really special And you'll see it For example, tomatoes, how the roots grow Now tomatoes are naughty I always say those are the naughty If you look at vegetables They're the naughtiest vegetables on the planet Because they steal all the nutrients The nutrients So although this is probably the best place to put them Because it's right on the top And you can toss string and then grow Your first base of nutrients coming up Is over here So if you're putting your tomatoes in the top section here They're the first guys that are going to get the nutrients And they are going to suck the nutrients out of the water And then you find out the lower level crops They end up suffering Because they don't get all the rich nutrients These guys are flying And those guys are not flying So you got to be clear in terms of how you actually Put it together The nice thing about this you're going to learn It's learning and obviously having farmed It's also always monitoring The yeast and the pH of the water So your customer comes to your home growers And they purchase this NFT hydro 60 pocket system Home growers will install it for the customer And then it's up to the customer to say What is it that I plant? And like I said, it's thinking about all those technicalities About the vertical crops at the top The shorter crops at the bottom So is this part of home growers value add When a customer purchases this NFT hydro system? So again, one thing that we've got right in home growers We've tried to make every one of our solutions In our samples The solution will be a bit up We've tried to make every single one of our solutions In samples incredibly easy to work with We're trying to simplify the process So what happens is when you walk in And you say, Cas, whatever you're dealing with I like the 60 pocket NFT And remember we've got different sizes You've got a 28, you've got a 60, you've got an auntie You've got a 250, you've got a big We've got different systems, right? But let's say this is the one You walk in and say this is what I want What do I get? Let's say what you get You get the full system You get all the vegetables You get all the clay pebbles You get all the net cups You get it set up You get it delivered and set up at home or at your office You just sit there and you watch And we do the whole thing for you So there's nothing you have to do Unfortunately for now We can only do that in Johannesburg, Pretoria Within the Khartin region It's the only thing we can do for now In terms of if it's far flung regions Like in the KZN or Eastern Cape Or Western Cape and so on Unfortunately we don't have a presence there as yet We do ship all over the country So we pack it up with all the instructions We've got a seven day a week line Which is edge to help Only thing which we don't send in that case Will be the fresh vegetables All the herbs Because the time we get it They get damaged or they're dead Understood But everything else We supply lock, stock and barrel There's not a cent more to be spent So when you see the system And the price is given to you It's everything You don't have to go around Shopping, looking, trying to do You understand it We teach you absolutely everything And that's what makes this experience so pleasurable Well that's quite reassuring to hear Because you know Sitting up the system And you're thinking hydroponic and nutrients And you know the bigger guys Or the bigger crops at the top Eating all the nutrients Can't be quite daunting Yes it is You know for a first time home grower Or for a person Who just wants to start producing their own food My last question here is Cass, how does one maintain the system So that it could be more durable in the long term So as you're changing the crops In different seasons and different cycles How does one maintain this? Do we throw away these stones? Do we have to replace the cup? Do we have to dismantle the NFT Hydro to clean it inside? What's the maintenance like? So maintenance are very good questions as well And I love the questions you ask Because these are the kind of questions That some people ask when they visit us And a lot of people don't ask And it just goes over the head Because they just get so super excited About this whole hydroponic buzz that they hear Yes They want to go hydro And the most incredible thing is Because there's different systems And different solutions Yes You've got a lot of people trying to attempt To build their own systems at home And they use plumbing pipe And then they go and cut them And they put the holes in And they do all this kind of stuff And it's great, it works But try and maintain it That's the problem Whereas this works This is a fully manageable system In terms of, as I've shown before You just clip the channels open And then if you have to get into here And you've got to take out some roots And clip them and cut them and clean Or do whatever you have to do You can at least get to the routing Whereas if you think of a plumbing pipe It's a complete circular system You can't get into it So if you had to drill a hole With that diameter You can't, I mean I've got a fairly sizable hand You won't get your fingers with it You won't even get a probably One year old kid's hand In there to try and do it But you've got problems Those are the shortcomings That people have Do you replace these? No, you don't You don't have to know So what you may find though Is that Depending on the type of edge that you grow So we see, like Some people say You don't know if you can grow An onion in there Or a beetroot in there Or a leek in there Well, you can We've had beautiful onions Growing to that size The problem is Is that sometimes part of the bulb Is under the channel clipping You can't get it out The only way to get out Is to open this up like you can Take a scissor Clip the roots And then you can pluck it out That you can do But by that stage Which you'll find The force of nature And the force is so incredible The pressure pushed It's most I'll show you outside I'll take them to it When that bulb develops And it's growing The force that is made That force is so significant It actually pushes those pebbles Into this plastic And it molds it into the plastic It is absolutely insane To see what goes on So when you've got that You're probably going to Either destroy the net cap Can't you replace that? These are the little things You may have to replace The pebbles What we would do is take them out Just rinse them out in water Put them in a nice big drum Or a basket type of thing Rinse them, rinse them, rinse them, rinse them So you're just taking up A lot of excess nutrients out of it Don't throw that water away Go into your garden Just pour it down into Some of the flower beds Or vegetable beds Or in the lawn Because it's so rich in nutrients It's a blessing for the ground Then start again So you have that And also the systems You can either run the system Indoors or outdoors That's a nice thing Indoors has got its own set of challenges You've got to have decent lighting Your full spectrum LED lighting Which will grow lights You've got to have that You'll also see when you enter Through the front door there You'll see on the left-hand side You've got the exact same system That you've got over here But that has only got partial sun Partial sun But it's got natural light And everything flourishes there It is natural light And everything flourishes there It is really a remarkable experience And then the others We leave in full sun And it's really exposed to all the elements And annually what you'll do is Because if it's left outdoors You must understand That it is outdoors It's like garden furniture There's dust There's dust And it's going to get dirty That's right So you've got to just take its plastic Easy to clean Just wipe it down It's really a very simple thing To maintain a manager It's not a difficult process Wow, Cass, this is awesome Yeah, I wish I could change my processes But yeah, I think this is lovely Especially for someone growing Their own food at home Very simple and efficient system And I'm glad that you can install it for us Absolutely Because we wouldn't want to get this thing wrong But thank you so much to you and your team For showing us how the NFT Hydra system works This is a 60-pocket And once again Just to remember The audience at home is that It comes in different sizes So there's a 60, there's a 12 There's up to 250 like you mentioned So we've got yours And again, we'll show in different episodes So Hydro is interesting It's not a one shoe One size fits all type of shoe system There's the tower hydroponic Which works on more of an aeroponic type of principle Which we'll cover at a later stage You've got a DWC cracky type system And a DWC system Which we'll talk about later in another episode It's also Hydro, it's all water And then you've got this And then this is available As I say, different sizes For different budgets and different sizes You've got some people that say I love this, but I can't fit in my patio So they go for a smaller unit So it's just different options What we're going to do is get in touch with home growers Home growers is here to help you We will walk you through We'll teach you We'll go through the motions We'll be passionate about what we do Our staff love what they do And it's really about Implanting the knowledge And we want to help people Thank you so much Kers For just obviously explaining How the system works But let's get GIFT in To maybe just start Planting a few seedlings I agree And see how this beautiful structure Will turn out at the end Absolutely So GIFT, come and join us So the nice thing about GIFT Is it really got everything ready for us Fantastic It's going to show you So what we've done is Because I'd like people to see The different levels of success That one gets from a hydroponic system You know, so if you're taking I always like to use You and I were talking before And we're talking about These different systems And then you look at these Cooking shows and these baking shows And so when they mix All the ingredients or whatever And they take it They pop it in the microwave And then two seconds later They open the microwave And the whole cake's ready And you say But gee man How come mine doesn't do that So we want to do A little bit different here So what we've got to do Is GIFT's already got some Units that are already Set up quite nicely And quite healthy And then we've got straight From the seedlings From the seedling room Which is exactly what you would get If you bought the system From home growers We'll give you the seedlings And then you'll set these Now these are bigger babies As you can see So they're well structured Nicely sized units And those are going in Then we're going to take The smaller ones Which are the smaller Hydroponic seedlings That we've used From our seedling room And that is going to Go into the system And they will in essence Ultimately become What you see over here So these are amazing The water's going to Stop pumping in just now We've really got some Special special stuff That looks like a tar basil To me you can smell it It's absolutely beautiful It's one of my Absolute favourites And this just Does so well The nice thing about Tar basil Is that you can Clip it You can propagate it In water Fill it with pebbles Leave it inside there And then within a few weeks You're going to have Another root system growing And more basil growing Tar basil And you can do it With a whole host of products It's really a special You can see what's going on So really we're creating A barrier over here You've got myself and you On the one side of the fence And we've got gift On the other side And soon no one's going To see us Because we're going to Have a field of Beautiful greenery Now this was at home You can imagine The incredible Absolutely incredible Vegetables that you Would be able to grow At home On an everyday basis And I can already hear And see the water Absolutely Flowing in And it's quite tranquil If you think You just close your eyes For a few seconds And you just listen to That calming feeling Absolutely So what better You've got natural greens Growing You've got water Running And this is what It's all about This is about Having something Sustainably Set up And to grow at home And you would have seen Some of the images now That with gifts busy Putting in You see the roots Now think about that As they start to mature And they start to grow Inside these channels When there's load shedding They're going to Act as a damning system They're going to dam up The water So you're not going to Say although there may be No water running for Two hours or so There's enough water In those little pockets Which is going to Sustain the plant Don't be afraid That if you see Some of the leaves Start to droop Misunderstand They're going into A suspend mode Just to protect Themselves From lack of Water and hydration But as soon as the Water's flowing again Within half an hour Whatever it is You'll see they'll be bursting With their life again Wow, amazing But the hydroponic Is really a very, very Special product This looks stunning I love the smell It's amazing Yeah and the fact that It's just different Crops as we go along And you can see So those there now So those are from The seedling room So these are small Little seedlings So the journey was This little tomato Here started like that That size The basil Started out small And then they start bursting The chilies are forming So you can imagine Imagine having this at home And you're going to say Gaston, what are we going to Have for dinner tomorrow? Well, I feel like this Tomato You can have so many different Tomato Basil pesto You can go chop up A few lettuces You've got some red oak You've got green oak You can say Beautiful chives You've got some garlic chives You can say Beautiful spinach You can set segments On this You can say For one segment of this Only lettuces You can come here The kids get so excited Because the kids They say So that's mine That's the sisters That's mom's That's dad's That's granny's And that's whatever And everyone's got their own And then they trade So for dinner They say I'll trade you with it I'll trade you with this And so on Quite remarkable Very, very special So these are all seedlings You can see that They're very They're very Underdeveloped At this point in time But you give them A short period Of love In terms of nutrients And a bit of care And then you're going to get Something like this Which is really special And these came from The outside hydroponic That you visited us before And we replace these Continuously all the time Because quite often We've got somebody that Comes and visits us And the good plants Of ours We just land up Plucking one of these All of them And give them as a gift For their hydros If you look over here And unfortunately We can't show you But you can see They're talking about How they're pressing So as that bulb system Starts to develop How it pushes Those clay pebbles So just from a technical Perspective How many of the clay Pebbles do you put in? Do you have to put in Like completely while The cup is full Or you can put just a few So that we can create Room for the actual Crop to grow inside So what we do Is rule of thumb Is that we take the The net cup We fill it up to the The brim of the Of the net cup itself Yeah Just to give the plant Enough capacity To support itself And remember The net cup's there Not only for A service to hold the plant up The net cup is there As a service to hold Nutrients and hydration Got it So the more you have The better And especially now That we're dealing with issues Such as Load shedding You can see on this baby You can see the Peppers forming This is I think this is A Jupiter Pepper Variety So we've got some Habaneros growing here We've got Serena Chillies here We've got the Red And we've got the Yellow Habaneros In a wide variety One of my best That I think I do enjoy And I'll sit down with you One day And I think we'll walk through With the garlic chives I love those garlic chives In a salad They are just Full of Sigma flavor Your magnificent Spinach Beautiful, beautiful leaves Huge leaves grow So really special Wow That's it NFT Hydroponic system A 60 pocket Fully installed by home growers And you don't leave the client hanging You give them The seedings as well Cups The clay, pebbles And you know Literally A person is Ready to go And start producing their own food And we will Fill up the rest But this is Example of What's been achieved And you can see The water pumping up here And you can see it Going through So it's creating its own flow And the water's getting Those channels Great Cass, this is Lovely Thank you so much For showing us The live demonstration Of the NFT Hydroponic system And that You could grow So many plants In such a small space That's remarkable This is what I love about it You know You're not standing here We literally Got two meters of space That's what you've got Now if you had to Visualize And you had to Listen to perspective You've got Between 8 and 10 meters Of length You know Which is typically sitting In two meters here And then the amount Of water consumption In terms of what you're Going to use Significantly, significantly less On a hydra Than growing in soil So that's the one thing Which is a big, big plus Right Talk about maximizing Your space Thank you so much For watching another Special edition Of The Gardening Series Brought to you by Private Property In partnership with Homegrows Thank you And this is it from us For myself and Cass I will see you At the next episode Take care Thank you very much