Thinking about my next grow and Im going with; 3 gal buckets or 5gal 50/50 Coco Coir and pearlite mix Greenleaf nutrients "MEGACROP" nutes The idea here is a self watering/nute delivering system that works without electricity... Elevated water rez bucket gravity feeds into lower float valve bucket that feeds into grow buckets... Plan on making 2 to 3 buckets exactly like the ones on www.alaskagrowbuckets.com To grow each plant... and this photo explains the auto watering delivery system... Now, has anyone seen info about people doing this with Cannabis specifically? Any foreseen issues with the idea of having the soilles medium wicking water/nutes from the bottom for the whole grow, obviously after root system actually reaches the bottom of bucket... My thoughts here are since cannabis tends to show explosive growth in 3gal soiless media with low ppm feedings 2 to 3 times a day... why not allow for the system to feed nutes and water as often as the medium starts to dry out a little... example: wet medium drys some, system allows for self wicking and maintains ideal moisture in the medium 247. As the water in the bottom of bucket gets drank up the float vlave is triggered and provides more water untill the float valve is triggered again, maintaining same water level consistently which in turn gives stable ph and ppm feeding values. If the whole systems totttal water is say 5gal then Id feed for 5gal, the gravity feed reservoir feeds into the float valve bucket then into the grow bucket... Everyone with me still? Thoughts and ideas of all types im looking for. What ya think? Soild plan? Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Grow bucket looks like this Basically take a 5gal pale, drill a load of holes in it and place a fabric pot inside full of your coco coir and perlite... inside the bucket under all the holes is a colander the type from your kitchen so it has a bowl shape bottom. Your bag sits on that and wicks up water/nutes. The reason for the fabric bag and holes in bucket is for air to reach the roots and the roots can also air prun, so you end up with a nice root ball full of smaller feeder roots and this also should prevent roots circling inside the bucket... In my mind, air pruning, air gets to root, roots feed as much as necessary with explosive growth. I can just toss a air stone into the water rez at top to keep the water super aerated if necessary... Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Any thought of this before? I mean its basically a hybrid Hempy/low water DWC kinda deal with an auto water feature. Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Well I guess if this works for Tomatoes it can also work for Cannabis. If I fail, I fail. Hopefully I wont tho. Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I think it will work, but I would definitely keep a nose out for that bottom res section. You should be able to smell if it starts to sour. Also do you plan to apply nutes to autofeed? If so, really watch for toxicities, and keep some flush handy. Good luck. Big buds and triched out nugs to you my friend!
The problem I see is you will only be feeding the lower roots. With a top feed drain to waste system, you feed the entire medium. Give her a try and see what happens
In my mind the medium would soak up water/nutes from the bottom and saturate the entire medium in the bucket... would it not? I hear that coco coir retains water pretty good and Perlite is good for air and drainage... im thinking 50/50 mix would in theory suck up water untill full saturated giveing the plant some time to suck it all up. And by this happening more water/nutes would be replaced in the rez on a continuous cycle. This photo perfectly illustrates what im planing. Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I only plan to feed 1 nutes greenleaf megacrop nutrients its a 1 part system from seed to harvest that im going to try out. Im thinking if I need to flush at any point, I take all water out of system and flush it excatlty like a hempy bucket untill its all clear and re evaluate the whole set up, make changes if necessary. Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Coco does not retain water especially with Perlite added. That’s why we use it in multifeed drain to waste. It allows us to feed 2-3 times a day. I still say top feed will do better as You are saturating the entire rootzone. Sickomindo was bottom feeding his hempys but found it to be missing the top of the rootzone even with coco/perlite as his medium so the wicking effect isn’t like you’re hoping. Maybe if you put an actual wick in there
Well the medium will be inside a fabric bag, hopefully the bag can act as a wick? Maybe someone could actually take a fabric shopping bag but some coco coir and perlite in it. Place it in a pan with some water and see if it will wick up the water through the bag?? That would be super helpful Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I mean put a wick material in your medium leading up to the top 1/4 of the pot. That’s a growing method though again, not as good as drain to waste.
Only reason im tryin to work this method out is cause I really cant be home watering 3x a day while im at work lol but I really want to get the explosive growth it provides. Only other option I can think of is a 15L water jug that has a hose that is gravity feed into the top of plants, but then I run into issues with too much or too little water being used at once to the plant. What other medium's can be mixed with coco coir and perlite to help it soak up water? Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
From the website where I found this idea says they use " Sunshine Mix #4 by Sun Gro Horticulture. It consists of Canadian Sphagnum peat moss, coarse perlite, starter nutrient charge (with Gypsum), dolomitic limestone and a wetting agent. Other Peat based soilless growing mixes will also work – but the addition of perlite and dolomite lime are recommended for strong wicking medium" what If I just add these same ingredients into the mix or just use a Canadian version of the brand name soiless medium? Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Anyone here use Pro Mix HP Mycorrhizae before? Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Would a old tshirt cut into 3 wide long strips starting inside the rez and up into the top half of the medium suffice as a wick? Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Root Farm soiless medium for beginner hydroponics. Advise on the npk values on this product please. Obviously when starting from seed dont feed right away. But how far into the grow would this stuff actually be useful for? Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Says the bag has sphagnum peat moss, coco coir, aged softwood bark, perlite, worm castings, bat guano, feather meal, bone meal, blood meal, sulfate of potash, kelp meal, and volcanic ash. Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Any grows on here that tryed this style setup? It still requires hand watering, just less often. I guess it a low tech dwc bucket Sent from my SM-G950W using Grasscity Forum mobile app