Easy outdoor drip bucket hydro system

[treemanjohn]

Alrighty folk my wife is out of town and I'm bored. Here's a super easy 4 hour project that will make your production numbers off the charts!

Items needed:
Free bakery buckets
1/4" drip tubing
1/2" funny pipe
T's
1/2" Grommets (general Hydroponics)
NSF trashcan
500 GPH + pump. I prefer Danner because they're the best

First you need to cut a few lengths of 1/2" pipe to use as drains on the buckets. I cut them about 8" long. Then you insert a T into one end

Then you need to drill 7/8" holes in the side of your buckets so you can insert the drain pipes. You need to use a lube to insert the funny pipe into the grommets. I prefer a drop of soap water. Once it's properly lubed you're home free. YOU CAN NOT USE SPIT OR KY! Then daisy chain your buckets together and leave plenty of hose at the end so it can drain into the trashcan.

Next run a 1/2" feed line along side the buckets. You will have to use a hole punch to tap into the hose for your drip line. Each bucket gets one dripper. You'll notice that I connected misters in the original design, but they suck. I've never used them until this year, so a little money was pissed away. Oh Well!

 

[treemanjohn]

Next you'll want to drill 2 holes in your trashcan. One for the drain and one for the feed line. Remember that you're using gravity, so your drain hole will have to be below your buckets.

5 weeks later you're covered up with produce

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Nice and simple setup. Seem like it can been done fairly inexpensively too. Will keep this in mind, as my next adventure will be in hydro.

Thanks Treeman!

 

[chefben4]

Next you'll want to drill 2 holes in your trashcan. One for the drain and one for the feed line. Remember that you're using gravity, so your drain hole will have to be below your buckets.

5 weeks later you're covered up with produce

I also have a drip setup that I made for peppers using the general hydroponics drip kit. Totally new to hydroponics, mind helping me out with some nutrient ideas? Which do you use, your plants look great!

 

[treemanjohn]

I also have a drip setup that I made for peppers using the general hydroponics drip kit. Totally new to hydroponics, mind helping me out with some nutrient ideas? Which do you use, your plants look great!

Ben, I'll be glad to help you out. I'm not a typical hydro/micromanager grower. I work a ton and I don't need another headache. I grow to feed my family and friends, and I sell a little produce to teach my kids about business. I use a Tomato formula from www.hydro-gardens.com. This is the first year I've used is and I'm sold for life. It's extra cheap and works better than Maxigro (I used it for many years). I use tap water and I've never checked the PH of it. I've never changed the reservoir in my life and my plants always look great. Here's a picture of the Tomatoes and a nice Datil pod I found. The Datil it buried under the Tomatoes and probably gets 7 minuted of light per day.

 

[treemanjohn]

Here's a pic from the other side of the plats this morning

 

[chefben4]

Thanks TreeMan! I really appreciate it. I try not to fall for the hype. Its helpful to see that people has success. Nice datil!

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Nice maters.

What are you using for the medium?

How often is the drip system allowed to run?

 

[DarkTrak]

+1 ...that's amazing for never checking the ph or changing the solution... Mine start acting wierd after two weeks in the same water...

 

[treemanjohn]

SS, I'm using an expanded clay product called Hydrocks. It's a ton cheaper and it works just as good if not better. It's basically Hydroton with rough edges. I find that the rough edges actually help root growth and development better than round hydroton. I cycle the system at 6am, 9, 12,3, and 6 pm. I run the system for 4 minutes each cycle. I never run hydro when there's no light

DT, This is a test for me. I've never checked PH and I use tap water for the res. I've never, ever changed out a resavoir on any of my systems and I've never seen a decline in growth or production. I also give my plants tough love. I don't baby anything. If it grows great if it doesn't, then it just didn't want to live. For the most part all of my plants are clones and tough as hell

Here's a few shots from this morning.
Orange Habs

Tomatoes

Mr Stripey. My favorite

White Habs

 

[treemanjohn]

First Datil (2 weeks ago)

 

[Geosojda]

cool looking setup! doesn't get much simpler than that. I think i may try this out next year. i have zero experience with hydro, so couple of questions, do you have any type of fitting where the sprayers were or do you just lay the open feeder tube on top? Do you start the plants in rockwool and just plop them into the hydrocks when they are ready? one more, it looks like you have 10 buckets int he string, what size res. do you use for them? sorry for all the Q's, just new to the hydro world and interested

 

[Datil Patch]

I looked up HydRocks, they don't list any retailers. Where did you get the material?

 

[boutros]

Beautiful! I'm in a hydro slump this year. Lookin great man.