DIY Rotary Garden Omega Garden Volksgarden Rotogro GIgrow Bonsia Bpod Odessy etc

[maxximus]

I thought I would start this out, and I dont know if this is the right place for it but lets find out.

Below are pics of the "Tumbleweed" system, which is the first rotary garden to me knowledge to be brought to market. From this system all of the others were inspired either directly or indirectly, and many other round system as well, imo.

The Tumbleweed had water-cooled lights and photo-switch activated watering heads.

You can also see that it was mostly made from PVC pipe.

There has been some talk of building some home made units so I thought these might inspire.

I have not seen a home built version and I am hoping that this flushes out some pics n plans.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[WheeloFortune]

awesome pics. that thing is long as hell!!!

I like the mister system, its simple. do you know what media goes in the pvc, and how it's secured? Do you know what material the wheel is made of?

no air cooling, but i bet the center rod could be perforated for co2 dispersion.

minus the lights and the pump i bet this whole setup was $400-500.

 

[maxximus]

awesome pics. that thing is long as hell!!!

I like the mister system, its simple. do you know what media goes in the pvc, and how it's secured? Do you know what material the wheel is made of?

no air cooling, but i bet the center rod could be perforated for co2 dispersion.

minus the lights and the pump i bet this whole setup was $400-500.

I think it's 12 foot overall.

The medium was 3 inch RW cubes hold in place with zap straps.

I believe the wheel material is PVC sheet, but plywood would work.

I think you are low balling it, and not counting labor.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[NoLogo]

minus the lights and the pump i bet this whole setup was $400-500.

easily $2000+

 

[WheeloFortune]

12'? nice. do you know the diameter of the whell and the pvc "pots"

yeah, ofr the cost, i didn't mean to buy one, i meant in parts. obviously if your doing a DIY project your not gonna pay for labor, it is a DIY project right?


2k+???? are you buying gold plated pvc? pvc is pretty cheap, could probably build a similar thing out of 20-25 pieces 10' long of 6 or 8 inch pvc. which is $10-15 each. thats $200-350, then casters, wheels, gears, chain and a motor another $100-150. i think my parts estimate is close enough.

 

[maxximus]

12'? nice. do you know the diameter of the whell and the pvc "pots"

yeah, ofr the cost, i didn't mean to buy one, i meant in parts. obviously if your doing a DIY project your not gonna pay for labor, it is a DIY project right?


2k+???? are you buying gold plated pvc? pvc is pretty cheap, could probably build a similar thing out of 20-25 pieces 10' long of 6 or 8 inch pvc. which is $10-15 each. thats $200-350, then casters, wheels, gears, chain and a motor another $100-150. i think my parts estimate is close enough.

I count
20 x 4 in pipes @ $15 ea
10 x 3 in pipes @ $12 ea ?
46 x 4 in Tees/90* elbow @ $7 ea?
40 x 4 in end caps @ $2 ea ?
40 x 4 in stainless gear clamps @ $1 ea
32 x 1/2 in stainless bolts with wing nuts washers/lock washers @ $5 ea?

The board stuff on either end with the routering is going to be at least $100 per side.

I got $1,200 plus so far with looking at lights or watering or labor, and labor looks like 360 3 in holes with hole saw through the 4 in pipe which is going to mean a lot of marking it up to get it right, and maybe some jigging plus deburring etc. I bet you got to be looking at 2 full production days just with the holes, never mind assembly. I know you dont want to count labor but I sure do, and lets say 3 full days plus. Thats another $1,000 easy, now I have to have a place to do all that work, and the tools, and the truck or van to pickup the stuff.
Oops then there is that big catch drain, which looks like rubber and im sure thats custom made, add another $200.

How much umming and awwing time, plus DOH!!!, then spend a week making the first one that turns out like shit. I just spent 3K plus, and I have not lighting or watering yet

Glad someone already did all of this then made it into a nice small package like the Volksgarden that assembles in a few minutes

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[Keith Lake]

I have not seen a home built version and I am hoping that this flushes out some pics n plans.

Cheers,
Maxx

That's one serious prototype there. Do you know how well it works?

Seems like the forerunner for the Volks

You guys are amazing with these rotary things; got me fascinated

 

[maxximus]

That's one serious prototype there. Do you know how well it works?

Seems like the forerunner for the Volks

You guys are amazing with these rotary things; got me fascinated

It worked well if you had it dialed in, but I think it was a bit finicky. These pics are about 10 years old and I doubt there are any of these units still working.

The wheel on either end with the connecting members holding rooting medium is the basis for every other rotary garden I have seen other then the Volksgarden. You can see that in order to break through as far as cost reductions equal to size reduction, the design had to change or else you are only eliminating the least expensive middle part of the system, so making is say 1/5 the size may have only reduced the price by 1/2 or 1/3.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[Weed420]

The biggest problem I see is you would have small plants, maybe 18". But you could grow enough there that you would still get a pretty good production.

 

[maxximus]

Basically you are growing branches and once you have it dialed in that, waste per yield ratio is quite a bit better then the norm.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[Propa Gator]

Looks like a big, drippy mess. I'm inspired to avoid overuse of PVC, not that my fanciful dreams of engineering are any more practical. Rube Goldberg would love that contraption. Pity the plebe who had to cut it up, to get the trash man to haul it away! Since I found your generous journal, I've been dreaming circles and eating cheerios for breakfast. My cabinets are far less appealing; too many staight lines and lost lumens.

 

[maxximus]

If you had it all set up just right then from what I understand it worked quite well and was not a mess, but you could mess it up quite easily. Pretty cool for a home depot kinda thing, I thought.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[Keith Lake]

If you had it all set up just right then from what I understand it worked quite well and was not a mess, but you could mess it up quite easily. Pretty cool for a home depot kinda thing, I thought.

Cheers,
Maxx

I guess somebody's got to go first

This wonderful idea has sure come a long way

 

[maxximus]

Ya get a lot of DIY folks say "I can make that for next to nothing" or something along those lines. I thought posting the only "hand made" unit I have ever seen, and letting folks analyze it and maybe get a well thought out assessment of the reality of building a real working unit.

I really like the water-cooled lamps in this unit. They utilize marine lighting fixture glass like those you see on ferry decks, and custom rubber molded part that holds the bulb. You can't get any cleaner that that. Still I don't think that most people should have them when you consider how sweet air-cooling is. If I had a swimming pool though I would have water-cooling lamps heating the pool in a heart beat.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[TorturedSoul]

I wonder if those pipes sagged over time?

 

[maxximus]

I doubt it cause there is not that much weight in them

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[Racefan]

Never seen this pvc pipe set up but I talked to the guy who developed the Omega when he had joined my site years ago. His set up used cool tube type lights and the root system dipped into a reservoir on the bottom as it spun if I remembered right. Also, If my memory serves me right, the biggest problem with the omega design was getting spin speed right. Might be a similar concern with a home made system.

 

[mjanesjungle]

Hey all,.. I've been on icmag for years, but this thread actually made me sign up for this site and this is my first post here. This idea is fricking awesome, great find maxximus. I've been looking at rotating plant devices for some time now, and actually have a little experiment going right now with one.

TorturedSoul, i doubt the pipes would sag even if they were heavy because remember they'll be rotating the whole time so weight pull is going to be spread around the circumference of the pipe.

I personally like the res at the bottom that rockwool cubes dip into (like the omega garden) way of doing it myself, but unlike the omega i LOVE how this model made each one of those tubes able to be slid inward closer to the light rail to prevent streaching. (look at the slots at the end wheel) I count 10 plant holes per rail x 16 rails for a 160 plants.

My question is how is mj going to react to basically not knowing gravity? I know it's possible to grow SOME plants upside down, that Topsy Turvy device shows its doable, but tomatoes are vine plants, and ive only seen like lettuce and stuff grown in the omega. They'll be shorter and more compact for sure, but in my current experiment im finding my one plant doesn't seem to want to grow taller at all. Maybe it's as you say Racefan, and getting spin speed right is key. Currently im using a 2-3rpm motor.

 

[maxximus]

Never seen this pvc pipe set up but I talked to the guy who developed the Omega when he had joined my site years ago. His set up used cool tube type lights and the root system dipped into a reservoir on the bottom as it spun if I remembered right. Also, If my memory serves me right, the biggest problem with the omega design was getting spin speed right. Might be a similar concern with a home made system.

Hey Racefan,

This system was made by the Omega Man, and it is the system that he made before the first unit was called 'The Omega Garden'. From what I understand is the rotation needs to be fast enough so keep in front of the plant turning up against gravity, but not so fast that water doesnt drain well enough to keep from dripping on the inside of the cylinder.

The air-cooling is just so much easier/cheaper/safer then the water cooled.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[maxximus]

Hey all,.. I've been on icmag for years, but this thread actually made me sign up for this site and this is my first post here. This idea is fricking awesome, great find maxximus. I've been looking at rotating plant devices for some time now, and actually have a little experiment going right now with one.

TorturedSoul, i doubt the pipes would sag even if they were heavy because remember they'll be rotating the whole time so weight pull is going to be spread around the circumference of the pipe.

I personally like the res at the bottom that rockwool cubes dip into (like the omega garden) way of doing it myself, but unlike the omega i LOVE how this model made each one of those tubes able to be slid inward closer to the light rail to prevent streaching. (look at the slots at the end wheel) I count 10 plant holes per rail x 16 rails for a 160 plants.

My question is how is mj going to react to basically not knowing gravity? I know it's possible to grow SOME plants upside down, that Topsy Turvy device shows its doable, but tomatoes are vine plants, and ive only seen like lettuce and stuff grown in the omega. They'll be shorter and more compact for sure, but in my current experiment im finding my one plant doesn't seem to want to grow taller at all. Maybe it's as you say Racefan, and getting spin speed right is key. Currently im using a 2-3rpm motor.

Hey mjanesjungle,



It's a very cool looking system isnt it? I have read some pretty good explanations on 'applied gravitropism' or 'orbitropism' as the Omega Man coined. The idea being that the plant do know which way is up (just stop the wheel for an hour and see ) So what you see is the end result of the plants growing against the constant pull of gravity while turning head over heals, and that is why they are not growing so tall.

Are we going to get to see pics of what you are working on?

Cheers,
Maxx