ShirkGoldbrick
Active Member
Ok so this will be my contribution for all of you that are as lazy as me.
Hempy buckets are nice, but isn't it a pain trying to water them all? Well, problem el solved.
Here's what you do:
Decide how big you want your "plot" to be. If you are super lazy, buy a tray. If you want to save money or want a weird size or shape then build it out of plywood. Not OSB, why? because OSB chips like hell and will puncture your liner..ask me how I know. I tied the corners together with that angle iron with holes in it because I suck at woodwork.
If you buy a tray, skip to water supply.
Building Box
If you suck at woodwork like me then this way works:
1. Cut a bottom piece to your interior bottom dimensions.
2. Measure the length and ADD two thickness of your plywood then cut two strips that long by 6" wide.
3. Now measure the width and cut two strips that long 6" wide.
4. Connect all four sides together at the corners with some pieces of angle iron that has holes in it..just do a couple screws per each edge. You will need to cut the angle iron, I used an angle grinder with cutoff blade. You could use a hacksaw, you will be there all day.
5. Set the bottom inside the now connected 4 sides and connect it to them with angle iron and screws.
Mine is for my mothers and it's 4'2" x 2'2" x 5.5" (interior dimensions), why the weird dimensions? Because 5 gallon buckets fit too tight in a 4x2 (I tried..leads to holes in liner from friction). Speaking of liners, don't try to use 10 mil poly, it will leak in short order..ask me how I know, and once it springs a leak you have to pull everything out and clean up the mess. Use a pond liner of at least 14 mils.
Inserting Liner
Just put the liner it in, fold the corners like you would a bed (except the corners are on the inside not outside) then staple the hell out of if along the outside (wood working stapler..not paper stapler), I did 3 staples vertically every few inches. IF you'd like you could put another thin layer of trim around the outside edge to make it look nicer. Trim off the excess pond liner with a utility knife.
Ok, so now you have a tray or a custom made water proof box, now what?
Water supply
Build yourself a little platform or use a couple milk crates upside down to put a reservoir atop. You need something strong enough to elevate your reservoir. I think a 55 gallon drum is ~480lbs full of water.
I used 2x3's and made a square outside dimensions 36" x 36", put a piece of plywood on top of that square and screwed together. I then screwed on some 18" legs putting in 4 screws per leg (2 per each side as legs are at the corners).
I use a 55 gallon drum that was plastic, I had to cut the top off with a sawzall and then I drilled a hole through the side at the bottom to insert a bulkhead fitting and connected that to a spigot (important, you want to shut the water off when filling or if you mess up and get leaks) I then connected a female hose to 1/4 tubing adapter.
I actually only fill it about 25 gallons worth (http://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/mp144/a-measures.pdf I used this table to mark 5 gallon increments on a piece of 1/2 PVC pipe with permanent marker. It doubles as a mixing stick for nutrients)
I keep the top on to keep the bad stuff/light out. You could use a bunch of different containers. Reservoir must be higher than plants.
Garden layout
You can use 1,3, or 5 gallon buckets for your plants. You will need to dedicate one bucket per square meter to hold an aqua valve that will be connected to the 55 gallon drum(or other reservoir) keep a lid on this bucket, and keep it somewhere you can reach it should you need to service. All buckets should have holes drilled in the bottom as the water will come out of the valve and fill the tray an inch or so..dry up and flood again - automatically, with only the power of gravity. I think there are a couple other brands of valves too. Clearly, your holes must be below the water line. Don't want any holes above the water line for pests to crawl in.
Media
I use 100% perlite medium/large size.
In Action
So you have water in your res, it's connected to x number of aqua valves, and a bunch of plants in buckets that have holes in the bottom inside a box or tray. Fill res with nuted water pH and wait for the res to empty, when it runs dry fill with nuted water pH and wait for the res to run dry again. That's it.
Pest Control
I have a layer of diatomasceous earth on top of all the buckets with plants. They're bottom fed (Note: I've never seen it actually go "dry" unless the res goes dry, but I don't get any root rot or other issues with or without bennies). No bugs can enter now.
If you have any other pest on the leaves or whatever just spray tops and bottoms of leaves with a gallon or two plant sprayer thing that has 4 table spoons of diatomasceous earth per gallon of water. It will leave a residue, just leave it on for a few days - anything that crawls on it will be shredded. Rinse it off after a few days so stomata can breathe again, repeat as necessary.
Bennies
Don't put them in the res, put them in the box/tray.
I originally just put some myco into the buckets, and I never had any sort of bloom even though I have an inch of water or so sitting exposed to light in a tray constantly. I also used mostly chemical nutes (dynagrow foliage pro 250mL per 25 gallons, silica protekt 125mL per 25 gallons).
Since then I had some leaves fall into the water(Again, being lazy, got tall..bottom leaves died), and I'm too lazy to pick them out. So I put into the box some EWC tea, pondzyme, and more myco..it's all bubbly now - but the plants don't care. Some roots have actually left the bucket, if they get into the aqua valve bucket I will need to trim them or they will make it stick open and flood my room.
Conclusion
No power, no pumps, no air stones, only a valve to fail. If you wanted you could first feed the tubing through a float valve at the top of the box and then to the aquavalve. If the aquavalve fails then it will keep adding water until the float valve shuts off the water to the aquavalve so you don't flood your room.
Unfortunately, you do still have to check on them occasionally to make sure everything's going okay. Otherwise, they pretty much grow themselves, the only work you do is to nute the water and pH once the res goes dry. I never recheck pH since its run to waste. 25 gallons for 7 3' tall plants in veg ~3 weeks per reservoir fill.
Questions, comments, concerns?
Hempy buckets are nice, but isn't it a pain trying to water them all? Well, problem el solved.
Here's what you do:
Decide how big you want your "plot" to be. If you are super lazy, buy a tray. If you want to save money or want a weird size or shape then build it out of plywood. Not OSB, why? because OSB chips like hell and will puncture your liner..ask me how I know. I tied the corners together with that angle iron with holes in it because I suck at woodwork.
If you buy a tray, skip to water supply.
Building Box
If you suck at woodwork like me then this way works:
1. Cut a bottom piece to your interior bottom dimensions.
2. Measure the length and ADD two thickness of your plywood then cut two strips that long by 6" wide.
3. Now measure the width and cut two strips that long 6" wide.
4. Connect all four sides together at the corners with some pieces of angle iron that has holes in it..just do a couple screws per each edge. You will need to cut the angle iron, I used an angle grinder with cutoff blade. You could use a hacksaw, you will be there all day.
5. Set the bottom inside the now connected 4 sides and connect it to them with angle iron and screws.
Mine is for my mothers and it's 4'2" x 2'2" x 5.5" (interior dimensions), why the weird dimensions? Because 5 gallon buckets fit too tight in a 4x2 (I tried..leads to holes in liner from friction). Speaking of liners, don't try to use 10 mil poly, it will leak in short order..ask me how I know, and once it springs a leak you have to pull everything out and clean up the mess. Use a pond liner of at least 14 mils.
Inserting Liner
Just put the liner it in, fold the corners like you would a bed (except the corners are on the inside not outside) then staple the hell out of if along the outside (wood working stapler..not paper stapler), I did 3 staples vertically every few inches. IF you'd like you could put another thin layer of trim around the outside edge to make it look nicer. Trim off the excess pond liner with a utility knife.
Ok, so now you have a tray or a custom made water proof box, now what?
Water supply
Build yourself a little platform or use a couple milk crates upside down to put a reservoir atop. You need something strong enough to elevate your reservoir. I think a 55 gallon drum is ~480lbs full of water.
I used 2x3's and made a square outside dimensions 36" x 36", put a piece of plywood on top of that square and screwed together. I then screwed on some 18" legs putting in 4 screws per leg (2 per each side as legs are at the corners).
I use a 55 gallon drum that was plastic, I had to cut the top off with a sawzall and then I drilled a hole through the side at the bottom to insert a bulkhead fitting and connected that to a spigot (important, you want to shut the water off when filling or if you mess up and get leaks) I then connected a female hose to 1/4 tubing adapter.
I actually only fill it about 25 gallons worth (http://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/mp144/a-measures.pdf I used this table to mark 5 gallon increments on a piece of 1/2 PVC pipe with permanent marker. It doubles as a mixing stick for nutrients)
I keep the top on to keep the bad stuff/light out. You could use a bunch of different containers. Reservoir must be higher than plants.
Garden layout
You can use 1,3, or 5 gallon buckets for your plants. You will need to dedicate one bucket per square meter to hold an aqua valve that will be connected to the 55 gallon drum(or other reservoir) keep a lid on this bucket, and keep it somewhere you can reach it should you need to service. All buckets should have holes drilled in the bottom as the water will come out of the valve and fill the tray an inch or so..dry up and flood again - automatically, with only the power of gravity. I think there are a couple other brands of valves too. Clearly, your holes must be below the water line. Don't want any holes above the water line for pests to crawl in.
Media
I use 100% perlite medium/large size.
In Action
So you have water in your res, it's connected to x number of aqua valves, and a bunch of plants in buckets that have holes in the bottom inside a box or tray. Fill res with nuted water pH and wait for the res to empty, when it runs dry fill with nuted water pH and wait for the res to run dry again. That's it.
Pest Control
I have a layer of diatomasceous earth on top of all the buckets with plants. They're bottom fed (Note: I've never seen it actually go "dry" unless the res goes dry, but I don't get any root rot or other issues with or without bennies). No bugs can enter now.
If you have any other pest on the leaves or whatever just spray tops and bottoms of leaves with a gallon or two plant sprayer thing that has 4 table spoons of diatomasceous earth per gallon of water. It will leave a residue, just leave it on for a few days - anything that crawls on it will be shredded. Rinse it off after a few days so stomata can breathe again, repeat as necessary.
Bennies
Don't put them in the res, put them in the box/tray.
I originally just put some myco into the buckets, and I never had any sort of bloom even though I have an inch of water or so sitting exposed to light in a tray constantly. I also used mostly chemical nutes (dynagrow foliage pro 250mL per 25 gallons, silica protekt 125mL per 25 gallons).
Since then I had some leaves fall into the water(Again, being lazy, got tall..bottom leaves died), and I'm too lazy to pick them out. So I put into the box some EWC tea, pondzyme, and more myco..it's all bubbly now - but the plants don't care. Some roots have actually left the bucket, if they get into the aqua valve bucket I will need to trim them or they will make it stick open and flood my room.
Conclusion
No power, no pumps, no air stones, only a valve to fail. If you wanted you could first feed the tubing through a float valve at the top of the box and then to the aquavalve. If the aquavalve fails then it will keep adding water until the float valve shuts off the water to the aquavalve so you don't flood your room.
Unfortunately, you do still have to check on them occasionally to make sure everything's going okay. Otherwise, they pretty much grow themselves, the only work you do is to nute the water and pH once the res goes dry. I never recheck pH since its run to waste. 25 gallons for 7 3' tall plants in veg ~3 weeks per reservoir fill.
Questions, comments, concerns?
