Hydroponics with limited materials

One of the big challenges of designing a hydroponics system on an Island like this one, is the lack of materials. Some countries have big hydroponic supply stores where you can buy everything, even pre-made high end systems. In other places, you can still find nearly anything you need on the internet and have it shipped to you. Not so here. Where I live we don't even have a mail system, we can't even get letters mailed let alone packages. Also, even traditional garden centers do not exist in this country, gardening just isn't a thing. Farming is a thing, but here farming is walking into the jungle with a machete and chopping down any plant or fruit you need that just happens to be growing there.

Hardware stores, or "ferreterias" in spanish are a good resource. Here you can get basic materials like wire, pipe, tape, light bulbs etc. Nothing is labeled for gardening use so you need a bit of knowledge to know what to look for. Grow lights are not too difficult, My wife and I built our own grow light out of a metal shelf piece, tin foil, wire, and CFL bulbs. It has yet to catch fire, so thats good.

Selling seeds is rare also, so you will have to find most of you seeds in the wild, or take cuttings from the wild or from your neighbors (yes, I ask permission first). People here don't know Jalapeños, but I love them, so I went to the one market that sold them and bought the most shriveled up, over ripened Jalapeño they had. I got some strange looks for buying one single rotten pepper, but it was full of viable seeds. Sadly most of the sprouts died from salt and wind exposure, which is part of my inspiration for doing this hydrponic project. I also plan to grow lettuce, spinach, oregano and other herbs that are not available from the markets here.

I was able to find fertilizer in the capital on the mainland, but had to know what I was buying. Hydroponic nutrients can't be found here so I had to buy some other fertilizer by the kilogram, i'll go into more detail in another post.

In all I think I spent $10-15 on the entire setup, but it took some work and some creativity. In future posts I'll explain in detail each of the steps.