Let’s do it Dutch style

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Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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So I’ve decided to give this a try. I was inspired by @tobh to build this Dutch bucket system. Almost complete, still have to top off the hydroton and rig a drain line.
to my surprise tobh is the only one I’ve seen run this type of setup.

Im running a 660 gallon per hour pump that’s housed in an external 25 gallon res
120 liters of hydroton, maxisun pb4000 lights.

I’ve got a couple of questions I’d like to bounce off you fine folks here at the farm

Do I really NEED an air stone in the res? With the amount of water flow/ exchange per hour I think the only thing it would accomplish is heating the water.

should I run this pump constantly or have it cycle? Heat is not an issue, my res sits on concrete that stays 68 degrees through the hottest part of the summer. I’m leaning towards running it 24/7, keep the water moving and agitated.
thoughts suggestions and comments are welcomed!
 
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Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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After doing some more research I think a 3 to 4 time a day watering at 1 hour intervals should be sufficient. I plan on starting out 24/7 while the plants are small, maybe week 2 I’ll back it down to 4 hours a day and see how it goes…. But maybe making it’s not needed and by doing this it’ll inhibit root growth as they won’t need to scout out a water source. Feedback would be great if anyone has any insight on this. Thanks!
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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Finally finished hanging the fan and getting that damn flex duct attached. Fiy it’s way easier to hang the fan and filter when nothing is in the tent lmao
I think next time I’ll work sober… anyone else shoot them selves in the foot multiple times while building a new set up. I think I did everything at least 3 times. 😂
I also lost a seed today. I was putting it into the rapid rooter and it stuck to my finger then fell to the floor. I looked for it everywhere but had no luck finding it. 🙄
 
Cashmeh

Cashmeh

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Finally finished hanging the fan and getting that damn flex duct attached. Fiy it’s way easier to hang the fan and filter when nothing is in the tent lmao
I think next time I’ll work sober… anyone else shoot them selves in the foot multiple times while building a new set up. I think I did everything at least 3 times. 😂
I also lost a seed today. I was putting it into the rapid rooter and it stuck to my finger then fell to the floor. I looked for it everywhere but had no luck finding it. 🙄
Ive been building my new setup for almost 5 months off and on. Now I get to tear a few bulkheads back apart and fix them properly. Sad thing is I knew I would have too, it was like I was seeing the future as I built them.

So whats the other side of that tent look like? Where your plumbing goes through to your res.

So is this like rdwc with hydrogen keeping the pots full? As long as the water is low, it runs down through and airrates via the stones. Yet your going to submerge it right for the start, or you might have to top feed due to the drips being a ways away from the center, with coco it will be fine I assume? So yea idk how this specific system works but id say if your going to keep the pots full of water and hydroton, id add airstones, now if the water level is low, you might have to top feed until the roots are longer? I honestly have no idea lol. .
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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There is only a small amount of water in the bottoms of the buckets. There’s a small pipe with 2 90s in the bottom of the bucket that feeds the return line back to the res.
I wound up adding a filter and have the timer set to run every 3 hours for 30 min. But I think I’ll back that down. The hydroton stays wet for quite a while.
 
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Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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So this hydroton is a real pain in the ass. @tobh i think I remember you having a problem with your Dutch buckets and ph going up and had concluded that it was due to a bacteria or old buffers. Can’t remember. Anyway I’ve been having the same problems. I decided to let the system cycle for a few days in case there were any kinks to work out. As I let the system cycle I continually monitored ph and ppm. Now I know hydroton is inert and shouldn’t affect ph but I don’t give a wet shit what anyone says on this subject it most definitely does. I added close to 80ml of ph down over the course of a few days. At one point I even dropped it to 4.9, the next day it was 6.5. So I did some research and another farmer recommended in an old thread to soak the hydroton in ph 5 water for 3 days. So I went through the absolute hassle of removing all the hydroton, putting it in spare totes and soaking it, even running the ph to 3.5 in 36 hours it was above 6 again. Now add in the absolute fucking nightmare of washing this shit and the expense…. in my book it’s not worth the hassle. Now I’ve got 120L of hydroton that I’m not gonna use so that’s fun.

and yes I washed it thoroughly… I spent hours spraying this shit. And I still had silt running into the res, so I rinsed it again, still had silt, so I ran around 20 gallons through each bucket and let it drain. Then refilled the res with fresh water and let it run. I think I’m total including today I drained that res at least 5 times. By the time I was done the water was crystal clear I assure you. Washing hydroton in that volume is a fools errand.

Now as I’ve learned in the past to have a back up plan and I ordered some perlite a few days ago while the hydroton soaked. So after another increase in ph I decided to go with perlite instead. It took me about 20 minutes from opening the perlite to washing to setting the buckets back in. So not only was it about a 3rd of the price it takes about a 10th of the time to prepare for use.
 
Cashmeh

Cashmeh

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I'm going to figure out a way to eliminate the hydroton or reduce the need. I'm using 6 inch pots, think imma go down to some small ones.

I reused mine going from flower to veg blends and it was ok. I wash them in the tub with burning water until the water is near clear. That should break down the fungi or bacteria that's left hanging on.

I didn't use near as much as you, but I never noticed early ph swings.

Wish u the best bud, it's only fun after it's built and working right lol..
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

391
93
I'm going to figure out a way to eliminate the hydroton or reduce the need. I'm using 6 inch pots, think imma go down to some small ones.

I reused mine going from flower to veg blends and it was ok. I wash them in the tub with burning water until the water is near clear. That should break down the fungi or bacteria that's left hanging on.

I didn't use near as much as you, but I never noticed early ph swings.

Wish u the best bud, it's only fun after it's built and working right lol..
I’ve run a grow with perlite in the pots, it gets some algae growth on top but at this point I don’t think it’ll be an issue. Watch that bites me in the ass some how 😂
Before this grow I bought some cz 3” pots they seem pretty heavy duty. I’ve been throwing out the other ones because they were so cheap but these I think I’ll run through the dishwasher after.
yeah it’s gotta be volume thing. I’ve got like 60 lbs compared to the couple of oz used in the pots. I’m sure glad I tested it first though it 😮‍💨

Thanks man, wish you the best too, looking forward to seeing your grow! I actually enjoy all the setup and have really enjoyed going this new route even though it’s been a pain at every turn lmao it’s still fun with the exception of that damn hydroton
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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Looks amazing man. I'm following along too. I'm bout wore out from my build. It's finished tho. . And filling with ro. I need a massive pump too, this one isn't near enough.

Now. . Show me how to run only perlite lol..
Thanks man! I hear ya there. I think you and me are in the same boat. Now it’s, for me at least, become a matter of pride to make this system work hahaha
Once I get this thing dialed in I’ll let you know. I’ll be running 10 plants on a 27 gallon tote. Which may be too small but can be easily swapped if I need to go bigger. As I type this I’m thinking about going bigger already…… I think I need a bigger boat 🤣
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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Started my first attempt at cloning a couple weeks back. Lost 2 of 6 but I think this was due to the cuttings being weak and feeble, I took all cuttings from the bottom of the plant.

I also had a gelato that refused to pop so I put it under one of the drippers and it finally popped.

transplanted 2 clones today.

ph has finally stabilized and tbh I haven’t done a thing with this res in over a week, haven’t added water or adjusted ph. Today I added 4 gallons at 250 ppm.
 
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Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

391
93
Thanks man! I haven’t been this excited for a grow in a while. Started with hydroton but had some issues, perlite seems to be better all around for this setup.
I’ll do an update next week, see if that gelato does anything 👍
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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Quick update , I have some algae on top of the perlite, I knew this was gonna happen but I’m not too concerned about it, as the plants get bigger and block the light I think it’ll die out. if someone has any insight Let me know.
did a water change the other day, I think I’m losing a lot due to evaporation. Perhaps I should’ve got the lids.

from right to left in the back row plants 2, 3 and 5 are clones from this monster Girl Scout cookies I have in my other tent. I’ve never grown a clone before so I’m pretty excited to see how They do.
Plant 2 was transplanted the other day. I pulled these clones from that plant when it was a couple weeks into flower. I plan on taking some clones from those clones to keep it going but wanna do so before the flip this time. Took a while to reveg but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to keep that plant going. I want to do the next grow with all clones of the same plant…. That’s the plan anyway.
 
Lynch_Ironside

Lynch_Ironside

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flipped today did a little trimming.
gonna be honest, I have been severely neglecting this tent. I was all Gung ho when it started but since going back to work I have been slacking on my garden duties. I had some Interveinal chlorosis going on but I also hadn’t feed them in a while, ppm was at 200 before too off yesterday. Bumped it to 410 took some clones today too. Topped all but 2 of them, I’ll be putting the net on them tomorrow.
 
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tobh

tobh

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shit dude! sorry i just saw this, i haven't been terribly active on the forums as of late. i'll go back through and re-read this post, but you look off to a good start.

For reference, check out youtube for commercial tomato and cucumber growers, they're the ones I jacked the system design from.

Based on what I've read about your setup so far, I'll add my two cents. The plants can go as long as a two hours without fertigation (happened a few times while figuring out the pH buffering issue). I wouldn't recommend letting them go that long though. I set my timer to run for 15 minutes once every other hour during lights on during veg, and 15 minutes once per hour during flower. Final fertigation event happening an hour before lights out in both cases. As flower neared the end, I cut fertigation back to once every other hour as the plants stopped drinking as much.

I'll touch on everything else shortly after I wrap up work for the day, got distracted when I saw your post title haha.
 
tobh

tobh

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alright I didn't miss much. my pH issue was a combination of factors in the end. First issue was an expired batch of hydroguard -- this pushed me to running sterile instead because fuck a live res. Never again. Second was my mixing process was wrong, I was moving too quickly and not buffering the pH properly, so shit was going all kinds of sideways. Additionally, I vegged entirely too long so whatever the hydroton was doing to the pH probably worked itself out if it was doing anything. I'll never run hydroton again either, garbage material that I'm still finding balls of in random places in my house and yard.

the commercial growers i pulled this setup from use perlite as well, and it works great for them. I initially wanted to run perlite but when I went to my local hydro store (i won't buy that shit online, freight is way too expensive for seeing any of the price savings of buying it in bulk) they didn't have any, so i went with hydroton.

Good thing you flipped, one thing I was going to warn you about that became a persistent issue in my DIY setup was the drains clogging. I had multiple flood events happen over the course of last run that would've been completely avoided if I'd flowered sooner. When i harvested, the root masses in the buckets were completely solid, it was quite impressive tbh. then again, i vegged for like four months before flowering. Bad idea when there was less than 3 gallons of volume for the roots to fill.

One other thing I would recommend next time is put some painter strainer bags in the buckets before you put the media in. It was an idea I picked up from one of the youtube channels, and I would hug the guy if I could. Removing the rootball + media and not making a massive mess was definitely worth the $1.50 or whatever I spent on the bags.

Finally, like you, I haven't seen anyone else run this setup with cannabis. I've seen several hempy bucket growers call their setups dutch buckets, but obviously they're not. this style of hydro is, imo, the lowest barrier of entry to a RDWC type grow without the cost overhead and inherent risks of a full blown RDWC system. Shit, I still ended up with a little under three pounds of product total, though only ended up trimming up one for smokeable flower. Everything else is sitting in totes waiting to be turned into edibles. So, anyone that says it won't work is full of shit. Just sayin. Good luck man! stoked to see someone else giving this method a try!
 
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