nice arcin, i have been using the DWC system in buckets for quite some time now. I really do like doing things this way, however I'm looking into a vertical grow now that I have an entire room to commit to only flowering, you guys should check it out under the grow room section

I've been growing organic soil for awhile. After reading this thread a couple months ago I decided to try DWC. I built one bucket for the test, rooted a grapefruit clone into it. It's now been in 12/12 for 7 days, and it is EXPLODING with growth! I used Fox Farm grow big with some B1 for veg, and just started with a mix of Grow Big and FF Tiger Bloom for the first week of flower. I'll go to just Tiger Bloom next week, plus a splash of FF Big Bloom.

The first and most amazing thing I notice about this method is how fast it grows. It took about 8 days to show roots, then I vegged for 2 weeks after that, plus one week in 12/12, and it is already the size of my soil plants that were vegged for a month and in week 5 of flower. The fan leaves are three times the size of my soil plants. I noticed the most explosive growth in the last week since I moved it to the flower room, where I have co2. Moving it from a 175w MH to a 1000w HPS with co2 made this plant double in size in a week. AMAZING!

I like organic grown weed, I have swore by organics for a long time. This is my first hydro attempt, but i want to see if I can do organic DWC.

I'm on my 2nd crop right now, using drip hydro in bato buckets. My first crop was strictly a half-assed affair- 8 5-gallon buckets under a single 400 in a corner of the basement. Eh, it didn't turn out horrible- I'm smoking the last of the harvest as I write this- but I didn't put effort into it. Was more of a "If I can half-ass it and make it work, I'll give it a good effort next time" kinda deal, and I still got about 7 ounces out of some random stash seed.

I dumped a lot of cash to build and set up my grow room because I intend to self-medicate for the indefinite future basically free-of-charge. That being said- had I run across these forums 3 months ago, I would have saved a grand, easy, and went with this bucket setup over the drip system I have now.

Kudos Arc for putting together an idiotproof guide to home hydro. I fully intend to put this to use for my mothers and clones in the very near future.

A question about multiple bubble buckets.

If I wanted to connect them all to a large reservoir, do I just connect them all via 1/2" tubing and T connectors at the bottoms of the buckets? Do I need a shutoff valve or something? Also, when mixing up the nutes in main reservoir, will the water mix well enough to reach all the buckets? Seems like that would be a problem if the water isnt being pumped in any way. Anyone have a setup like this? Any input?

I'm sick of hauling my 5 gallon buckets to and fro. I also dont want to disturb my plants by taking them out of the bucket to change nutes.

Sure, you could connect them all together and use a float switch of some sort to keep the level equal. There are commercial controller buckets out there that do what you want, with a reservoir and float switch to automate it. I imagine it would be just as effective and way cheaper to put one together yourself.

As far as keeping the nutes mixed in the res, well... I think that was one of the reasons arcin wrote this post like he did- KISS. Everything here *can* be improved upon, but arcin is, as I have seen through all of my browsiing here, the Messiah of Keep It Simple. And Cheap But yeah, I think a single airstone in the reservoir would be more than adequate to keep it thoroughly mixed, and oxygenated, at the same time.

Okay, here's what I did. I linked each bucket in a circle where each end is connected to an extra bucket with a water pump to create an inline pump action for mixing. Works pretty well aside from an issue with the first bucket in the line has a higher water level than the last in line. I assume this has to do with too much resistance in the line. I got the weakest pump I could find. 66 gph turned to the weakest setting.

Great pics.

That's similar to mine, but here are a couple caveats for anyone building a system like this:

1: It's probably not a good idea.

Don't get me wrong, I like my system. And I'll probably keep screwing with it because I like to tinker and I like things that are complex.

But the fact is that once you start recircing, you probably could have saved time and money with a good F&D system.

2: It's very vulnerable to fouling of the lines.
What happened to me was a combination of poor circulation from trying to bend tubing where I really needed an elbow, excessive res temps and a few other minor mistakes. I developed pythium, which further clogged the lines.

3: Understand plumbing or spend extra on plumbing hardware to compensate. I know hydraulics. I know high pressure systems in general. I can unclog a toilet, but that's the extent of my experience with gravity flow plumbing.

I added a large pump to make sure that there would be no further flow problems. This one will pump 3000gph. At that point, the common drain line isn't going to cut it.

I had to run individual 3/4 inch lines to keep the buckets from overflowing. I did get the increased flow, but the pump also causes:

4: Heat. The pump added so much heat that my res temps went from 78f to 90f. Ok if you're making stew - not so much if you want massive snowy roots. So, off to google to find some plans for building a chiller. If you are patient enough to unbend a piece of copper tubing without breaking it, you can build a chiller for little or nothing that will cool even a large system.

I did organic with FF, but I'm done with that.

There isn't any real benefit to organics. An element is an element and your plant doesn't know the difference.

Since I went with refined nutes, I now have much less turbidity, it's cheaper, and it's a lot simpler.

The FF line is great for beginners, but once you get the feel for what your plants crave (plants crave Brawndo - it's got electrolytes)then you can roll your own a bit more.

I tossed my nute schedules and my plants are happier for it.

Hey i have a question...Is it possible to grow more than one plant in a 2.5 gallon bucket??
The strain would obviously have to be small; ie-lowryder