From the Loftsmith community

Hydroponic tower – per-pocket drips and printed net cups

Grow lettuce and herbs without soil, right on a shelf or balcony. Water climbs the centre tube and drips into each angled pocket, and the printed net cups sit in the openings to hold the plants. Change the cup size and pocket angle to suit what you grow.

18 parts · 1081 g · 290 × 290 × 416 mm

Tall green tower of stacked modules with angled planting pockets, standing on a round base over a bucket
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No adjustable sizes

Ask for the sizes you want to tweak, e.g. “make the width adjustable”.

Change it in the Studio

Parts

  • module ×3 · PLA · Upright, standing on the spigot

    No supports. Updated: new drip ring and four drip holes in the funnel. Reprint if you already printed the old version.

  • bucket-lid-a · PLA · Top face down, turned 45° on the bed

    Unchanged; skip if already printed.

  • bucket-lid-b · PLA · Top face down, turned 45° on the bed

    Unchanged; skip if already printed.

  • top-cap · PLA · Flat top on the bed

    Updated: 4 keyed jets, one per top pocket. No supports.

  • net-cup ×12 · PLA · Standing on its floor

    New. Four per module, no supports. Use dark filament to keep light off the roots.

Print settings

Layer height
0.2 mm
Walls
3
Infill
15%
Supports
None
Notes
Opaque dark or green filament stops algae. Add a brim on the modules if your bed adhesion is marginal.

Hardware

  • 5 gallon bucket · Set the bucket slider to its inside diameter at the top (default 262 mm).
  • Small submersible pump · Enough lift for about 0.5 m of tower plus the bucket depth; around 30-100 L/h is plenty.
  • 1/2 inch pump tubing, about 16 mm outside · Long enough to reach from the pump up into the top cap.
  • 4 × 1.75 mm filament offcuts as dowel pins · About 20 mm each, for the lid halves.

Assembly

  1. Pin the two lid halves together and set the lid on the bucket.
  2. Put the pump in the bucket, drop its cord through the edge slot and fill with at least 12 L of water.
  3. Stand the tube up through the lid's centre hole.
  4. Stack the modules over the tube; the keys only let each one drop in turned 45° from the one below.
  5. Push the tube into the top cap and key the cap onto the top module.
  6. Put a net cup in each pocket and run the pump.

Good to know

  • Keep the tower standing straight up. If it leans about half a degree, the low-side pockets get roughly 14% more water.
  • The drip evenness, the net-cup fit and the lift-off clearance are only checked in the model. The tool couldn't finish checking the module lift-off. Run it with plain water first and watch every pocket drip.
  • PLA softens around 55 °C and ages in sun and water. PETG or ASA will last longer on a hot balcony.
I printed this Remix

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