PonicLabs
Search
EN ES PT

MUNCH: Method of Up-cycled Non-Circulating Hydroponics

Draft, awaiting review. This article was written with AI tools from cited sources and blind-verified; PonicLabs has not yet approved it for publication. Report errors through the newsletter form or the About page.

MUNCH stands for Method of Up-cycled Non-Circulating Hydroponics. It is the simplest system PonicLabs has worked on: no pump, no air stone, no mineral fertiliser, and no electricity after set-up. The method was published openly in 2024 as a proof of concept (technical report, PDF) and is not patented.

The four requirements

  1. An inert wicking substrate such as sand, or a coir and perlite mix.
  2. Bottom-fed, partial irrigation: the nutrient solution is added at the base of the container and rises by capillarity, so the upper substrate stays moist but aerated.
  3. A liquid fertiliser made from organic waste, in the proof of concept a JADAM liquid fertiliser (JLF) fermented from garden waste.
  4. No circulation: nothing moves the water or the air.

The aerobic upper layers of the substrate are the key. They give surface area to the microorganisms that finish converting the partly digested fertiliser into forms the plant can take up. A deep water culture container, which has no such zone, did not work with the same fertiliser (below).

The proof of concept (Lund, Sweden, 2024)

The fertiliser. About 50 L of raised-bed waste (roughly 70% leaves and stems, 20% flowers, 10% mouldy fruit, mostly tomato and cucumber) was submerged in about 50 L of tap water in a 60 L barrel with 1 to 2 L of leaf-mould inoculant, the lid closed but not sealed, and left for about ten months with occasional stirring.

Media beds. Two 12 L buckets with about 8 L of beach sand each, irrigated from the bottom through a hose, grew large-leaf basil on JLF diluted 1:50, dosed at 180 mL every two to four weeks. A “pot-in-pot-in-tray” container with a coir and perlite mix grew a micro-dwarf tomato (Red Robin) outdoors. The basil reached about 50 cm with 10 cm leaves and no deficiency signs; the tomato reached about 20 cm and gave 12 fruits.

Deep water culture, for comparison. Six 10 L containers with 36 basil cuttings in stone wool, on the same 1:50 JLF, grew slowly over 48 days, with small light-green leaves, discoloration, necrosis and premature flowering. The same fertiliser that fed the media beds well was not enough on its own in water.

Where it fits

MUNCH is meant for places with intermittent or no electricity, poor soil, and no access to mineral fertiliser: the fertiliser is made from what the garden discards, and the containers can be anything that holds sand. It is also the natural end point of the energy ladder in our other work, from pumped recirculation to a single airlift to nothing at all. The passive hydroponics page covers the mineral version of the same idea, and the free library has a build guide for a single-container Kratky system.

Sources