Or add the shavings to the resin for the end caps , it would keep it out of the land fill and possibly save on the amount of resin needed for the end cap.

You are such a sweet, generous man. If only the world had more people like you!

A few non-plastic thoughts occurred to me with the last video, but I wanted to try them out before I said anything, just to see if they worked. I am another home grower who worries about our overuse of single-use plastics, but I have seen plastic bottles put to good use as drip irrigators for gardening in soil, and I have put this to good use myself on particularly hot days. I keep the bottles and use them over and over until it's time to toss them into recycle. Aluminum soda and beer cans have a rim around the top that can be clipped with a small wire cutter and pulled out of the can, and behold! A 2-inch net cup or pool noodle fits into the opening perfectly. I'm on a week's worth of Mizuna that I started as a microgreen, and so far the light is reflected off the can and the nutrient mixture is still good. You can take netcups of varying sizes to any Goodwill or other Thrift store and see if the pot fits into a particular size glass jar--large or small--and use that jar for Kratke growing. All you need is aluminum foil to wrap the jar, or like you mentioned, a layer of socks over the jar would block the light. I have some Merlot Lettuce growing like this that seems to be doing well. I am astounded at how much material is under our noses that is usable for Kratke. Gosh, Mike, you have access to COCONUT shells in Fla! They hold liquid, have a somewhat antiseptic property in the wood, and could be a great Kratky vessel. I'd bet they wouldn't grow algae, because the shells are impermeable to light. Just some ramblings I wanted to put forward that sounded like good alternatives to plastic use. But you're right; plastic isn't going to disappear in huge numbers anytime soon. I hope this helps. Thanks for shedding light on this issue which is so important to share if we are going to be able to grow our own food and teach others to do the same. There's an old saying: If you buy someone a fish, you've fed them for a meal or two. But if you TEACH them HOW to fish, you've fed them for a lifetime. Thanks, Teacher Extraordinaire and Venerable Hippie! 👍🏼

Love the everyone share attitude, truly another old Hippie. As long as all prosper and do well, all is good.

Nice idea on the end caps. Better way of makin'. I have found another trick. I drill a 1/4" hole on the side of downspout at exactly the height to provide the air gap Kratky recommends. So even if I over fill it weeps till its the right level.

Email sent off. It's 107 here in California today, I'd love to try out to see how well the end caps hold out here. I just want to say I appreciate how you encourage people to take what you've shown us to try to make a living from it if we can.

Thank you Mike, enjoying learning more about different ideas for growing hydroponically.

I so appreciate you and love your channel . I’ve learned so much. I’ve started my hydroponics using recycled food grade containers. Next project will be starting the downspouts. I’ve shared all I’m learning with family and coworkers. You’re so right, we all need to start growing our own food. Thank you so much. Can’t wait for the next video.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful journey with helping people grow food. I love your honesty and humble videos.

You are such a generous soul. I bought a set of your end caps and they fit perfectly! Now I want a to buy your mold so I can make myself some fun designs end caps to perk up my grow room. ☮️

Hello. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and your videos. I’m wanting to get started with hydro gardening so I’m really enjoying all of your content.

Love your knowledge and attitude. Thank you for sharing

not sure how i missed this video but other day was looking at how i could make down spout and i find this video well went over and bought the that mold and ebook you are awsome!!!!! thank you!!!!!! 😃

i love your attitude of sharing

I love to try out,with my pepers plants , I love you idea. And the mold.

Thank you for sharing an affordable way to garden. My rototiller went out and I'm exploring other ways to garden. I like to find ways to do things without spending a fortune. I'm watching all your videos. Again, thanks for sharing.

I am using 4" PVC pipe we were tossing at work. 10' long with Pool noodle holes thanks for that idea.. Tomatoes, peppers & Bok Choy growing. 1 end cap 1 90 on each of the 4. The 90's are covered but allows for easy water top off.

Put the shavings in the resin. I actually had the idea of using resin to seal off the ends I am glad to see you actually doing it!

Thanks for the ideas. Starting my journey into hydro, and I'm broke so this helps alot

Pretty cool. I recently started a kratky bakers rack of 40 plants in tubs - I think the downspout route is great and I will give it a try with the next rack. The clear end caps are awesome! Will check back in a while, hopefully you keep making them…

It is so much fun to do love this hobby

Greetings from South Africa Mike! Be the change! I love your work!

one thing i found is a useful way to recycle is those small gatorade bottles, if you have kids you have a ton of them, cut the tops off and use a small soldering iron or wood burner to make holes, free net cups!

Hey Mike 1/8" flat die cut caps. Oven @ 350 for 10-15 minutes. Flatten out and use a cookie cutter while the pvc(gutter) is soft. 24" per length in the oven x 4. Just an idea. Keep up the great work. Pvc glue /silicone the end caps.

You are a wonderful person.

in centrel fl hello nieghbor great info you are doin great making everyone at ease when talk to everyone here i might give this techique in the future thanks for the share of wealth of info wish you all the best

Just an idea. Since you have the shavings from the down spouts. Try putting some of those shavings into the epoxy end caps. Save a tiny amount of epoxy. But it gets rid of the shavings in a productive manner.

Generosity is Mike's strength!

The chocolate bar was in the guy's pocket. He was working on a microwave transmitter standing in front of a horn antenna.

Thank you for showing me how to make my own mole awesome can’t wait to try it I have some resin

Great video mike getting the people involved some great ideas in here 😄♥️😸✌🏼

After doing hydroponics for over 50 years, I have decided to switch to wicking growing boxes using soil again. I still grow within as well as without my greenhouse, but Texas is just too HOT to stay on top of hydroponics. By the time I'm done filling all my Kratke containers, the first ones are dry again and the plants die. I can't leave my property for any more than a day, thus, the changeover.

Merci from Montreal, Canada.

That's Cool, to be able to see the Roots & the Water level.👍 Could you put a sort of flap on the end of the downspout, with a hinge. You could just lift it up to peek inside. Or you could put a Black Trainer sock over the end, like I do with my Mayo jars, I cover them in a trainer sock, No Algae, & White roots. Even tin foil might work. You've probably tried all these anyway, so just ignore my ramblings. Lol. TFS Mike, & take care too everyone. ❤🙂🐶

This gave me an idea. You want to see the water level, but don't want algae to grow from sunlight coming through the 'window'. If you created a 'cofferdam' type thing to make it possible to pour the black resin on the sides and clear resin down the middle, that can be removed after pouring and before it cures. That would create a resin end that blocks most light but had a small window that would show the water level. Just a thought.

Awesome! I will have to get the molds and some some resin!

Yessss i love this

Great idea, been using your pool noodles and downspouts for a long time. Love the new end caps. I will email you to find out where to buy the end caps. Thanks for all you are doing.

Instead of making endocarps, you just put the drilled gutter end up on a piece of silicone and pour some resin into the closest hole and let it cure bonding it to the gutter. You could even make the bond even stronger by poking a hot nail into the end of the gutter around the edge so the resin can lock into the dents made by the nail.

Mike, you are AWESOME! Thank you! As. dietitian, my concern with food dyres/coloring are their toxicity and what they may change withe the natural chemistry of the plant and what the body would absorb. I'm going to try and make some and a silicon thin cover (if it will naturally adhere)that could be placed over the clear one to check water level. I may try adding some aronia berry juice instead of dye and that may also fortify the nutritional content.of the plants?

Cool idea, I've really enjoy your channel. I ended up 3D printing my end caps.

Love it!

I rather buy stuff from you then trying to make the stuff myself. It's my way of supporting you and your channel. I learned a lot from watching your videos and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge... For the algae problem. My thoughts on the caps. Make a clear cap that fits inside, and then make a 2nd cap in black that you can pull off and see your water level inside, etc...

We R Memory Keepers does an affordable vac forming machine. It takes dental sheets that are cheaper than resin, and you can vac form as many as you want. Love your channel!

Inspires me to think about a ceramic direction

I love the way your mind works Mike! So creative & I love how you focus on what you can do to help others. The resin is a brilliant idea, and providing clear end caps is an epic educational opportunity! I began gardening this year & Im always showing my son all the new growth & teaching him about the plants & everything thats in the soil. He loves watching things grow, & our fav thing to watch grow was a preying mantis 😍 I was wondering if the plastic waste you were producing could have been recycled. I understand you cant turn it in to a recycler, but if an indivual tried to melt it themselves would it melt & be able to form into a mold? Ive watched Brothers Make channel a little which is where my thought came from. This is just me thinking outloud, not a criticism in any way. I think you are amazing!

First off - Dude, Thank you! I just started looking into something better for me here in NM. We are so dry here you can fart and start a fire. Watching your older vids now, I need to come up with a grow system that I can use without needing to water daily. I live in the middle of nowhere and high desert on top of that, so getting anything worth the money is a luxury. I wanted a green house here, because the UV's are so high that just an hour can fry most plants ( I just got a shade net now and it helps). I am looking into what my friend described as a grow bunker ( half underground green house/ pit) with a hydroponic system. I tried something like that, but it was just a hole with a plant that need to be watered. Sure it helps shade the stem and root, but again the watering. I think I am going to try a combo of the pit with a spout pot like yours. Also resources here a very limited, so what ever waste I make winds up here and goes nowhere less I haul it somewhere or worst burn it.

The struggle is real 😫 but the only way to learn is from failure

Hi sir I love your videos (watching from south texas). I have a suggestion. Maybe do a test with orange or red food coloring in the water. In your previous video you used the orange Home Depot bucket for the food tower and demonstrated minimal algae growth in the bucket /water (compared to on the pool noodles). This way orange would allow you to see the green algae growth (if any) and block out the blue/green spectrum liken you and your wife determined based on the complimentary color wheel. If you do this test please share it in a video :) thank you for your hard work.

What about using the shavings as grow media for your plants?

Get you one of the 3d printer filament recyclers and turn your scrap into 3d printer filament and sell it to people with printers? Idk if it's something that would work or not just a thought

I have moved and now my outdoor space gets no sunshine so my growing has grown to a halt but I still like to watch

Your videos are great. I tried looking on your etsy store for the end caps but seen nothing but e-books. Do you know where I can get them? TY

Hello there Mr. Mike, J ust a thought on what to do with your Shavings, gather them all up and put them in a few cans ad put those cans i the oven @ 500 degrees, or burn some cardboard outside and place the cans i the fire to melt the shavings down. Then send them to recycling and let them figure out what to do with them.

As always, your expertise, knowledge and willingness to share are amazing! Am I the only one not seeing your endcaps or molds on Etsy? Seriously, I've looked twice. Love adding the food coloring, hopefully you'll reproduce the same positive results. Are you growing anything that produces a white flower? If so, the dye will/should change the color of the flower to the dye added to the water. Thank you for all you do and stay cool in FL

im pretty sure you could color the water purple instead of black and still prevent algae, it needs red and blue light to grow, that way you can still see through it

You can try plaster of Paris for your master mold so it’s easier to unmold next time.

Email Sent! Thanks for the inspiration -Peace

Could you use the shavings with a strong resin to create things like legs and stands and brackets?

If the end blocks were just a little thicker with a groove for an O-ring to help seal it up once installed, less silicone would be needed to seal it and hold it in place.

If you slip over to brothers make they may give you some ideas of how to deal with the waste plastic

is there some kind of bracket that i can use to suspend the strips of downpour peace from my frence so i can use that space above the raised bed so space is wasted let me know that be great or other people out there that might know

Hi Mike, "No mistakes, only happy accidents".- Bob Ross, RIP.

maybey try a polyurethane based resin like task12. that stuff sets way faster and you can get much more done in a shorter time frame.

In terms of checking for algae, you could always just strain the water through cheese cloth or paper towels and see if you catch anything. I’m looking forward to experimenting more in my own hydroponics. Speaking of experiments, did anything come of the cheap $20 led work lights as grow lights you found at the hardware store? I won’t be able to grow outdoors at my new place, and grow lights are somewhat expensive. But I can always experiment too and report back 😁

Spray molds with a spray on "Pam" food grade!"

If the plastic is re-mouldable then it is recyclable as it's probably thermoplastic 😁🌱☀️

If you use alumilite clear slow and a pressure pot you could do larger batches and have them cured in 2hrs or less.

You can maybe find a fast cure resin on Amazon ? Great idea and much easier than the router.

Didn't see the end caps on your Etsy store,

Hey Mike I miss what the incaps are making from I like that

Now you've taken the downspout & end caps to Stratosphere!

Hi mike! Occasionally I’ve dropped a piece of pottery after it was fired. Shards are not a whole lot of use to anybody; they are certainly not very marketable. Lol. But when I want to make something of a sculpted form, instead of a thrown or built form, those pieces could be crushed finally enough to make some decent grog. Sometimes the grog is exactly what the project needs in order to be successful. So you probably have something figured out by now for dealing with that leftover bit of plastic. I’ve never done a blessed thing with resin before. Except for two-part Apoxsee resin for making a repair on something, and even that experience is really limited. I don’t know if it’s even possible, but if you’re able to use at least a percentage of that leftover resin that you machine or had to cut away from your project, but you might be able to use it to add visual surface interest to your end caps. I don’t know if it would affect the strength or not, but you might be in a position to judge that fairly. If it doesn’t affect adversely, then that would be a great way to use it up, keep it out of the landfill, and make some noise variation for a person’s wall garden. So, the other thing about that is that certain plastics can melt down, and be formed in a mold. I have no clue as to whether or not this is even possible with the resident you use. All I know is that I save the Soda pop covers that can’t be recycled, and if I melt those down carefully in a ventilated situation, I can put them in a silicone mould to make other little parts and gadgets that I need. Might that have an application in your workshop? About those white flies, I don’t know if you got the same pissed that we get on our brassicas over here, in the Garden Gallery but if it’s the same thing, if you wrap that growing pot that you’ve got made in a piece of cheese cloth, or curtain sheer, just until whitefly season is over, they don’t end up infesting and eating your brassicas. Since global warming has become a real bad problem, the frost in our area isn’t enough to kill them off in the winter time anymore, so every spring we have to do the same thing now. The ones in the ground, we more or less make a shower cap out of cheese cloth, and put over them. It saves the crop. I have one other thought. You could put one very thin clear strip of acrylic or resin in any part of your end plates, so that you have a way of seeing your water level.

Has anyone tried white oak for the end caps? It is what they make wine and whiskey barrels from. Almost all of these barrels come from Missouri white oak. I live in Missouri and might try making some. I will try to make a template. It would look pretty and is somewhat waterproof and could be more waterproof sealed with polyurethane, mineral oil, or shellac. The waste products would be wood shavings and sawdust, both of which can be composted.

try morning dew nets and vertical hydroponics you would not even have to water the growing food then . the night will water the plants for the farmer. even more water saved .

I’d love ❤️ to experiment

Hi there Mike, instead of making the end cape out of plastic, why not use wood? It is natural and will decompose over time.

I gave my thumb up on first minute

Please 🙏 make 2x3 end caps. We are unable to find any 3 x 4 vinyl downspouts anywhere in Southern California. 💕 Your channel. Thank you! :)

This is awesome! I was wondering, is there a reason the resin endcaps are designed to nest completely inside the gutter (versus the previous ones where they stuck out from the end of the gutter)? Does this design make it more difficult/messy to attach to the gutter since there's not the groove to squeeze the silicone into? Or is there a special technique to attaching them? Thanks!

What is your average grow time for kale from seed to harvest in the downspout?

Yeah I can not find any of the 3 x 4 Amerimax downspouts here in Southern Cali at either lowes or home depot!

are you still making the 2x3 end caps? I am interested in them. I cant get any of the downspouts that are any larger in Alaska... only the 2x3 end caps.. or do you have the molds for the end caps for the 2x3 downspouts? Thanks

What do you recommend for people that want to try hydro in an area that gets really hot. I'm going to be moving in a few weeks and traditional gardening just isn't a solution for where I'll be. Therefore I'd like to convert to aquaponics or hydroponics. But I worry about water temp when it's 115 outside consistently.

Have you ever considered Zinc Gutters and Downspouts. A lot easier to recycle.

If the downspout material melts easy could the shavings be melted into a end cap?

Hi i have 2 x4 square pipe but the water keep on both side but not hitting the middle is it ok??? ..still commisioning ..round pipe are running

Great ideas you have there, have you considered making wooden ones and water proofing them..... sawdust is biodegradable waste.

Can you re-melt the plastic and form it into more end caps? You could probably add the shavings to the resin to add bulk to the end cap and reduce waste? My friend in Vegas blew my mind the other day when she said they don't have gutters on their homes. 😳

How is cleaning out the gutters between grows with the end caps siliconed in place?

Hey what kind of glue do you use for easy end cap attach/detach for cleaning again? I ran out and threw it away before ordering more XD

Can flowers be grown with the hydroponic system/ as shown in this video?

I just thought of another idea to keep the algae down...what about keeping aquarium snails in your rail systems? They eat algae...or would they eat the roots, too? Has anybody every tried it?

Hello to you and your family I am Lee in the Philippines a expat from the UK . Love all you do sorry I am using my wife Joy phone we do this to save on money .. now back to you your end caps are fabulous love them question for you could you put on the end a stick on thermometer that will tell me how warm the water is in the NFT system would it work why I ask this as our temperature can reach 47 to 51 cells here in the Philippines plus the high humidity .. we can not us electric temperature system as they just die after 3 months and 10$ every 3 months cost a lot of money over a year .. You all stay safe love to you from the Philippines Joy and me Lee

If you are producing that much waste, are there not plastic recyclers that would take the materials? I'm thinking a manufacturer who could add your waste to theirs that may be geared to producing 3d printer filament ... and then you could 3d print your endcaps? just a thought?

Do you still need to use silicone for the resin to stick them to the downspouts.

How do you attach the resin end cap to the downspout?

Could you use worm tea to make your water black?

I would like buy some

If I have not A&B fertilizer,how can I do?