Hello, I have some questions and need some adive on building a home-made DWC system. I am planning to have a progressive system that consists of 16 5-gallon buckets. four rows of four. I plan on taking clones straight from the clone tray to 12/12 lighting. Having a total of 8 weeks under this light, i will harvest 4 of the 16 buckets every two weeks. Once i harvest 4 buckets, i will in turn put 4 more clones into the empty buckets. I will have 4 buckets for 0-2 weeks, 4 for 2-4 weeks, 4 for 4-6 weeks, and finally 4 for 6-8 weeks. My questions are as follows. I am connecting 4 square buckets to eachother in the week 0-2 group with 3/4 pvc. One outside bucket will have a 1 inch pvc hole higher for drainage with a stopper on it, and another 1 in drainage pvc pipe slightly higher so i can adjust the levels thruought the four 0-2 week buckets depending on root growth. All other 4 bucket groups will have the same design, minus the stoppers because root growth with most likely be out of the pots and into the water by the time they go into the next group (0-2 goes to 2-4 etc.) .... I am wondering if anyone knew a good cheap way to connect buckets using pvc piping rather than ebb and flow drainage/fill connectors? Also, The 0-2 & 2-4 group buckets will be of either a sprayer or top drip feeding method; whereas, groups 4-6 & 6-8 will consist of under water current and possibly a sprayer inside to promote air circulation in the water. I am still looking for a good air pump. i plan on using two, and each one will support 8 buckets. If anyone knows of a good place to get such a pump it would be appriciated. I had a petco pump but it didnt give me the air supply i wanted... im looking to spend up to 100 dollars per pump. I also am unsure of what light or lights would best siut this method of dwc. Any advice or suggestions whatsoever would be greatly appriciated... thank you
I have 2 bubble buckets, connected at the bottom by a piece of 1/2 inch hose I got from home depot. I just drilled holes in each bucket and put a ball valve on em, then connected a barb thingy and then hooked the hose up. So now I add water to one and it does into both. On the DWC I think the most common idea is to put airstones in the bottom of the water, so that the roots can breathe. The general consensus is that mo-air = mo betta. So get the fattest ones you can, the cheap blue ones tend to fall apart btw. I only run 2 5 gallon buckets, and I use 2 of the 30 gallon air pumps from walmart, (one per bucket). So that works fine for my aeration. But you said you needed a bigger pump, so here's a good place to look for one. High Tech Garden Supply That shop also has lights, which you will need a shit-ton of. I grow one plant, (this time I'm trying for two), with a single 400 watt cool tube running MH for veg and HPS for flower. You're gonna need alot of light, and in turn you will need alot of fans to cool them. Hope this helps. I'm not an expert grower, but I've been studying this website for well over a year, reading pages and pages every day. It's my favorite thing to do.
cool thanks man. question. did you use any silicone or anything around the edges of where you drilled holes in your buckets for the hoses? i looked up ball valves on homedepot.com and only found the shut off valves... if you could put a picture of what you mean that would be helpful, because the pics i saw werent really connectors just shut off valves. thanks again
I use silicone, yes. Some say it's not necessary but I just got frustrated trying to stop leaks. One thing I can tell you though, is if you're going to use silicone, let that shit sit and dry for 3 or 4 days or else it'll start melting down and getting in the water it's a gross mess.
cool thanks man. Any suggestions on a good internet seed bank or a high yeilding, potent strain??? im not sure exactly what strain i was to go with yet, but its hard to find any clones around here especially of anything good, so im thinking im going to have to start from scratch...
Google "worldwide marijuana seeds". Check out the feminized seeds section, and look for one called "barney's farm pineapple chunk". It's supposed to grow fast as hell and be like 25% thc.