Having built a system in my basement to grow basil, spinach, and lettuce, there's a whole lot more to it than $25 in plastic.

First, you should use food grade plastic, then there are lights, a pump, shelving, growing medium, fertilizer, ph adjustment, extension cords, timers, cups, air tubing, and air stone, and a bunch of other stuff.

Then you have to get it all home, double and triple check you are doing it correctly.

I don't think I spent $500, but no way anyone can put together an equivalent system for $25. Like most things, there's a lot more complexity than people realize.

Perhaps not NFT. But you can get into other forms of hydro real cheaply if you're thrifty.

A kratky setup is cheap, but even that wouldn't be $25.

Every time one of these vertical/rotating indoor farms comes onto the market (usually via crowdfunding), it has roughly the same level of cost inflation. Haven't quite figured out who they are conning into buying these setups.

I have a way overpriced aerogarden farm and for me it's really just decor along the lines of having an aquarium. It certainly doesn't yield enough of anything to be worth the price. I contemplated something DIY but I didn't think I could get the clean aesthetics. I have a 3d printer now so I could probably make something that looks less like a hack now.

What's the best DIY video on building something like this? I don't even know where to start.

I saw this guy a while back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzcC6zkDDiY

I think he got a lot of flack for pointing out that the zip-grow towers are way overpriced and you can DIY them yourself reasonably well. There really isn't anything too-complicated about the ZipGrow towers, other than that they use a sponge as a media.

Thank you!

This is reminiscent of the people who ask, "Why would anyone buy a pre-loaded Linux laptop, Dell's Developer Editions, when you can already install it on an older Thinkpad?"

Service, support, ease of use and setup, and, in the case of something that might be visible in a readily trafficked area, aesthetics.

If those things are not valuable to you (and they may not be) then you are not the target audience.

Square vinyl fence post or large diameter PVC pipe are commonly used with Nutrient Film Technique aka NFT. Both super cheap at Home Depot as well.