Fogponic Garden (Hydroponics With Fog)

A small fogponics garden for Basil, using an IKEA box, an ultrasonic fogger, and an aquarium air pump.

Materials:

• 1 IKEA SAMLA box, 11l, black + matching lid
• 1 ultrasonic fogger (I got mine in a pet shop, they're often used in terrariums)
• 1 Aquarium air pump, plus tube and air stone
• Net buckets
• A bag of hydroton, large enough to not fall through the net buckets
• Plants (I used basil)

Additionally, you'll need a light source. You could just set this up on your balcony, or use a daylight lamp.

I wanted to put some basil in my fogponics setup. I had a small basil plant on my balcony, so I cut off some stems, placed them in water, and waited a few weeks until they had grown enough roots to place them in the fogponics garden.

Make sure to cut the stems fairly low to the ground, so you have a lof of stem to work with. You'll need to exchange the water every days, and make sure to not have any leaves in the water. They should get enough light as well, but direct sunlight would probably not be such a good idea.

Take the lid of your box, and make holes for the net cups. If you have a hole saw with the right diameter, that's probably the easiest ways. I did not, so I drew the circles with a pencil, and drilled lots of small holes on the inside, very close to the line. I then took a box cutter, cut out the inside of the circle, and trimmed the sides so the net cups would sit flush on the plastic, without falling through.

Then, make two holes in the box, right underneath to top rim of the box, one for the air hose, and another one for the cable to the fogger. Depending on your fogger, this hole has to be a bit bigger to fit the power connector of the fogger through it.

When the hydroton comes fresh out of the bag, it's usually still quite dusty and dirty, so it's a good idea to wash it before using it.

Now take a net cup, put in a plant cutling so a bit of the roots come through the bottom, and fill the cup with hydroton to stabilize the plan. Repeat for the other cutlings.

Place the fogger in the box, and push its plug and cable through the hole near the rim that we drilled earlier. Don't plugin it in the powersupply just yet.

Take some air tubing, push it from the outside into the box through the other whole, and connect it to the airstone. Cut the tubing to an appropriate length, and connect it to the airpump.

Now, fill your Samla box about half with water, and plug in the fogger. It should start to create a mysterious looking layer of fog on the water. Plug in the airpump, and the fog should disperse a bit more, and you can see air bubbles in the water

Put your plants (in their net cups) in your fogponics box. If you don't fill all holes for net cups yet, make sure to close them off with foil. Now, it's just waiting until stuff starts to grow.

I put the fogger in my system on a timer, so it runs for 30min, and then stay off for 30min. Just didn't trust it to run all the time, and this seems to work fine. The airpump just runs all the time.