# KFB System Design



## Useless

Mutt was asking about this type of set-up so I figured I'd drop it in a post for everyone. 
For those who don't know KFB = Krusty Freedom Bucket. Its a hybrid aero/drip/swc system for growing trees of exceptionally large size! 
Krusty was a member of OG until he was banned around '02 I think. Excellent grower with a wealth of information and even had somewhat of a following in the Krusty Freedom Riders. He was very opinionated somewhat psychotic, so it made it a ***** to get any good info without reading through pages and pages of crap. But, I read 99% of it and here's the jist of all, Krusty's diagrams included.

The first thing I say about this set-up is Krusty treated it not just as a room design or hydro set-up, but as a complete "syngergistic" (man I hate that word) completely STRESS FREE SYSTEM, and it results in a complete state of Zen for your plants. 
Next I will say the smallest mini version one could do would run 3400 watts and 4 plants. You could also do 6 plants with 5600 watts. The set-up shown is for 10 plants and 10K watts. Yes, its a lot light, but not like you think, More on the lighting later. 
The ultimate goal is produce the highest possible yield while maintaining a low plant count. This is ideal for us med users in Cali and other states where plant count matters. 
The items you will need for this grow - 
The hydro part: 
20 Black 5 gallon buckets (paint em if you can't find em in black)
10 1 gallon pots
3/4" return lines or PVC
3/4" PVC manifold or soft lines to 1/4" feed lines, 2 per plant site. 
A 25 gallon ressy (or more, larger ressy = more stabile solution)
A Thomas air compressor or vacuum pump - get one that puts out about 20-30 psi and the max cfm. Sorry I don't have model numbers at the moment. 
So here is the bucket diagram 






As you can see, the top bucket is drilled out with 3/8" holes effectively making an extremely large net pot. The lower bucket is drilled out for the 3/4" return lines. Drill the hole at a level that alows 1.5"-2" of solution to remain in the bucket. The two buckets are sperated by the 1 gallon pot which is inverted and the air lines are run in the gap between the two buckets and laced through the holes on the 1 gallon pot. This insures the air hose stays on the bottom. You will need it, as the you will be pumping large amounts of air, making the solution in the bottom bucket "froth" up like a jacuzzi. The feed lines are run to the top of each plant site, two 1/4" lines per. No drippers required, run those babies wide open 24/7, you need the moisture to offset the tremendous amount of air you're pumping into the bottom of the bucket. 
Medium used was lava rock. Yes, lava rock, from Home Depot. Trick is to crush a rock beore you buy it and take a smell. If it smells bad, you will have uncontrollable Ph fluctuations. If there is no smell, it's good to go. Lava rock is used because it provides a better surface for the roots to cling on to than hydroton. You need this to prevent stress to the root zone, as it tries to hold up some 6-7 foot trees. It also has larger air pockets and is more porous, always a bonus. 
Be back a bit later with room design and lighting set-up. 
Fire your questions away, I know I have to have forgotten something! LOL


----------



## Useless

OK the Room Set-up is as follows:





Plants are given 5'x5' spacing and 8 foot cielings or better required. The plants will get to about 6-7 feet. They will bush out because of the lighting setup. I know 5x5 is a big area for one plant, but they will use it. Krusty even recommends 6'x6' spacing when possible because you drop the light in between the plants. 
So here is the lighting set-up:
All lights hung vertical without reclectors. Heres the logic behind it 

OK - so general summary:
Feed 24/7
Lots of air to each bucket.
CO2 is a must, forgot to mention this is completely sealed environment. 
Lots of A/C
Vertical Lighting, no reflectors
Veg for 4-6 weeks
Bloom the biggest monster trees possible. 

Next post will be all about the no stress, Zen type environment....
Peace

(Images edited by Stoney Bud to remove cussing.)


----------



## Useless

OK, so here we go on the Zen environment thing. 
Basically don't want to stress the plant in any way. 
Room environment should 80-85 degrees F Lights on and around 75 dF lights off. Rh kept at 65-70%. Fogger was used to counter A/C dehumidification. 
Krusty used only the GH 3 part with no additives. Used as directed from the website, not the bottle. Will try and attach feed chart at the end of this post.
No acids for PH control, if the nutes can't buffer it to proper levels, you need to fix the problem of the water quality. (Zen folks, Zen! LOL) 
Feed 24/7 
Lots of air to the roots, and a frothing/foaming action in the lower bucket are imortant factors. 
Ressy temps to be kept at 68-73 dF. A ressy chiller may be required. A little trick to increase yields here folks. If you have everything dialed in as perfect as can be, run your ressy temps 68-70 dF lights ON and then increase to 73 dF lights OFF. You can get maybe a 3%-5% increase in yield. Try it. 
Height issues might be a problem, so a low profile or "sunken" ressy might be in order. Might have to drop the ressy down to floor level if possible. The earth will act as an insulator and help maintain ressy temps. 
CO2 at 1500-1800 ppm. 
A/C requirements are 3K BTU to 5K BTU per 1000 watts. Actually in engineering specs it's 3750BTU/ 1K watt. And 1 Ton of A/C is equal to 12,000 BTU. 
Branches will need to be tied up. These are big trees you're working with. For this the best set-up was using some chicken wire or comparable material and mounting to the ceiling. Then use some tomato ties to hold up the branches. 

The Pro's and Con's as I see it.
Pro's:
Totally stress free for your girls. No stress means the plants can do what they do to their fullest extent. 
The larger bucket is better for the bigger bushes than say a 10" net pot. The roots don't get stress trying to hold up a monster bush. 
24/7 feed means they eat constantly, and  with that air compressor there is more air available to the root zone than say DWC. This means better uptake of nutes. 
Completely sealed environment means you don't have to worry about odors outside of the grow (although you can run a carbon inside the room if you're worried, no need to exhaust), and you're not using as much CO2 to replenish the room.
The vertical lighting hung in between the plants provides light to all sides of the plant, as well as all the lower branches. This means bushier plants with bigger side branches equating to increased yields compared to top lighting. Also, no reflectors to build up heat in. 
Fairly simplistic system.
Low plant count, high, high yields. Bonus for Medical Users and where plant count matters. 

Cons:
Lotsa light required even for the smallest set-up. Means high electric bills. However, if you actually do the math you see it's only about 40 watts /sq. foot. 
A decent sized room is required for the smallest set-up. Not for a closet grower.
4-6 weeks of veg means not as many harvests per year. 


Well, fire away with questions, comments or observations...I will answer what I can for you.
Damn shame I didn't save any of Krusty's pics. Nothing like seeing a man holding a bud as big as a small child in a room full of them.


----------



## Mutt

Lets bring this one back to life. Shall we?


----------



## Useless

beating a dead horse Mutt...LOL


----------



## krusty

"4-6 weeks of veg means not as many harvests per year."

uhm...wrong...if your veg'n for 4-6 weeks your fail....

i always stated about 18 inches so never more then 2 weeks of veg..


----------



## krusty

oh here are sum ole pix


----------



## ishnish

is it me or is this an invisible thread??
edit:  nevermind..
anyone know why there's only one page in the DIY forum??
I would think there were at least a dozen...


----------



## Locked

Man those are some serious trees Krusty had going....I wish he gve a yield...


----------



## nouvellechef

Now were talking, Vert at its finest. Old thread., but. Thanx for sharing.


----------



## Locked

nouvellechef said:
			
		

> Now were talking, Vert at its finest. Old thread., but. Thanx for sharing.



Yeah definitely a good dig up....


----------



## ATX36

Thanks for stoppin by Krusty. Your trees are legendary.


----------



## leafminer

Not for me. Way too expensive, and I don't have a limit on number of plants ... all of them are illegal! 
What immediately came to mind was this: in what way would this system be any better than a normal DWC? Hell, it IS DWC, surely? Just the small details have been altered. 
I can see this being a good idea 10 years ago when electricity hardly cost anything. But now? Electric bill really hurts. That's why I am a greenhouse grower as much as possible.


----------



## Mutt

It was a hybrid for sure...but TBO i prefer my lighting hung vert. I do get more expression vert with MH. just my two bits on that. The dude did have some proof to his puddin tho. but yes I FULLY agree elec is rediculous right now. can't wait till i can OD again. but look at the thread start date


----------



## leafminer

Yeah, I did! Check out the thread date, I mean.
I prefer to carry the young ones back and forth from growroom to greenhouse to keep the bill low, otherwise I get:argue: :hairpull: :angrywife:


----------

