Excellent idea my man! I have built DWC buckets for a buddy and they were pretty straight forward and the "hempy bucket" (swear I have heard another name as well) is supposed to work similar minus the air pump and stones. I would add an airstone per bucket after the roots hit water for aeration btw - would that make it DWC (?). The only consideration when building is to add either a drain or have another bucket on hand to lift and transfer the plant into (for changing the water). For the drain I used an electrical grommet, silicon sealant, pvc pipe and valves. The grommet took a few trial and errors for size (with the drill bit 14/16" ?) The pvc has to be f**king tight for a good seal. Ooooo I do look forward to your latest project! Bill
Hey man, sounds great. I have no experience with hydro so I'm a little hesitant to give advice, but I have read about the hempy buckets before and was considering trying it at one point. This was all I could find with a quick search:http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=2329&highlight=hempy Right now I'm going to finish off the bail of promix I have laying around, then I'm going to try my hand with coco coir. Give that a look if you're still considering different methods to try, some people are getting fantastic results. Wish I coulda been more help.... peace. edit: This method is real similar to the hempy bucket: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=68107&highlight=hempy+bucket
This sounds sorta, kinda like my setup. bucket on the bottom, 1/2" hole in the side as close to bottom as possible (leaves about 1" water in the bucket, (When I created this was trying for a complete drain)! on the bucket sits a basket built for the task. In the basket I mix 75% coco chips 25% coco coir (fiber). In the coco is a plant and a spray nozzle. they get sprayed once a day, 10 - 15 min. extra water runs back to res. where it's reoxengenated and warmed back to 75F. With this settup I add nutes once a week to res. 25gal. wgich amounts to a 25 gal. plastic storage box. The only drawbacks that I notice are white buckets need to be covered so lite won't let algea grow in the bucket, and the roots are cooler than in soil, Which in warm regions is a + I guess,>P
You might not want to reuse your turface/vermiculite mix a second time. I think there might possibly be a disease problem, or maybe something unwanted accumulating by reusing it. just a hunch.
