# 5 Gallon Bucket D.W.C. Do it Yourself Guide



## Operation 420

Hi everyone! I posted this on my blog and got an excellent response. So i thought I would post it here to help anyone new to dwc and hydro. It is a very simple set up. Enjoy. 

This guide is to show how to make a simple 5 gallon bucket deep water  culture system. You will need a few things, but overall it is very  simple and most items can be bought at local stores.

The items you will need include:

1.  1- 5 gallon bucket  - Preferably black to keep light out. If not,  it's ok, you can use tape to cover the bucket if it is white or a  lighter color.[3-4 dollars]

2.  A net/mesh lid  - Ask your local hydroponics store if they have a 6" or 10" mesh lid for 5 gallon buckets. [4-5 dollars]

3. Hydroton - You will need no more than a 10 liter bag. (If using the  6" net lid, you will have a lot leftover for other buckets) [Around 10  dollars]

4. An air pump - I suggest a 5-15 gallon pump. Go to your local pet store, or major store that has a pet department. 5-7 dollars

5. Tubing, get the tubing when you get your pump, it is very cheap. [1.50-2.50 dollars]

6. Air Stone -  Get one that fits obviously. And one that gives you a lot of bubbles. [1.50-3 dollars]

Now to set it up. It is a very easy process. The below diagram will show you exactly how it works.



​ After  you have it all set up, it is time to add your nutrients. Nutrient  strength will vary depending on how old your plant is, so check your  nutrient labels, or you can check our nutrient feeding schedule page at  xxx.marijuana-strain-spot.com .

If you have a young plant, you want your water level to be high enough  so the bubbles burst on the hydroton. If the hydroton is getting wet,  the rockwool will too. Check it to make sure though.

Once your plant is bigger and the roots are longer, you can lower your water level accordingly.

Some of the biggest indoor plants I've seen were grown using a 5 gallon  bucket. You will enjoy the benefits of quicker growing plants, while  using less nutrients to feed them.

Well, that's it, now you now how to make a 5 gallon bucket dwc system.  If this was helpful, subscribe to Strain Spot and check back, because we  will be adding more guides in the future. Good luck, and happy growing!


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## OGKushman

Hello and welcome! 

Small improvement:
What i did was use 2 buckets. the top bucket held the netpot with clone in rockwool and hydroton had holes drilled in the bottom of the bucket. This set on the second bucket. 

This way you can lift the plant out of the res and not disturb the roots.

Even better was hooking up a peacock drain valve fitting so the plant never had to move.


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## OGKushman

Like this:

itll save u some headaches and your plants will grow happier without having their roots disturbed.


this is a REALLY old mama. 
eace:


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## Operation 420

Awesome tip. I just used an extra bucket and switched them over, but your method is great for not disturbing the roots. Very cool, thanks for the input.


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## OGKushman

:48:


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## guerillaweedfare

thats it I'm definitely making one of these for my next grow. seems simple enough...so you drill holes in the bottom of the top bucket and the airstone stays in the lower bucket, allowing the bubbles to flow through the holes and to your roots?

sry im new to this whole hydro game...


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## EDGY

No, I would think the airstone would stay in the bottom of the TOP bucket - let the water drain out and just drop it into the next bucket. You would never need to use a pump and you would never have to expose the roots to light except to check them. Genius!!!


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## Operation 420

guerillaweedfare said:
			
		

> sry im new to this whole hydro game...



Starting to grow hydroponically can seem pretty complicated at first, but once you get the basic principles down it's rather easy. You're just using water/nutrients with air bubble aeration as your medium. The plants are always fed, and they don't suffocate, because the bubbles provide the Co2 to the roots.


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## fruity86

insteed of DWC why not check out RDWC multi bucket's controled from one bucket its a piece of cake there a diy in my sig
piece fruity


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## woodydude

^^^^^^
Im with Fruity,,,,, no, not like that!!!!

I do use both methods, dwc for veg and rdwc for flower, once the girls go into flower, you NEVER have to move them for checking ph, topping up, anything. Just when its time for harvest.

Prefer dwc for veg though as I run perpetual harvests, harvesting 3 plants every 2 weeks.

I tried flood & drain before and results were nowhere near as good as this deep water stuff!!
JMO W


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## my my

Welcome 420.
Woody, im with you, i like the RDWC i built for flower.   
just starting up a veg room with dwc buckets as well.
the double bucket method is pretty smart ideal OG!
My My


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## Hick

Operation 420 said:
			
		

> they don't suffocate, because the bubbles provide the Co2 to the roots.


:confused2:.. "c02"????  


> 1. The magnitude of CO2 uptake and fixation by Xanthium plant  roots was reinvestigated in an attempt to explain unexpectedly low  C14/C12 ratios of tree leaves with regard to fixation of radiocarbon of  nuclear-test origin.* 2. It was found that plants derive relatively  insignificant amounts of carbon from CO2 via the roots, and the minute  amounts that are incorporated are approximately one hundred times less  than the amount lost by root respiration*.


 hxxp://www.jstor.org/pss/2473046



> "Although several investigators have claimed that plants should receive little direct benefit from dissolved CO2 (Stolwijk _et al_., 1957; Skok _et al_.,  1962; Splittstoesser, 1966), a number of experiments have produced  significant increases in root growth (Erickson, 1946; Leonard and  Pinckard, 1946; Geisler, 1963; Yorgalevitch and Janes, 1988), as well as  yield itself (Kursanov _et al_., 1951; Grinfeld, 1954; Nakayama and Bucks, 1980; Baron and Gorski, 1986), with CO2-enriched irrigation water.   Early on, Misra (1951) suggested that this beneficent effect may be related to CO2-induced changes in soil nutrient availability; and this hypothesis may well be correct.   Arteca _et al_. (1979), for example, have observed K, Ca and Mg to be better absorbed by potato roots when the concentration of CO2  in the soil solution is increased; while Mauney and Hendrix (1988)  found Zn and Mn to be better absorbed by cotton under such conditions,  and Yurgalevitch and Janes (1988) found an enhancement of the absorption  of Rb by tomato roots.   In all cases, large increases in either total  plant growth or ultimate yield accompanied the enhanced uptake of  nutrients.   Consequently, as it has been suggested that CO2  concentration plays a major role in determining the porosity,  plasticity and charge of cell membranes (Jackson and Coleman, 1959;  Mitz, 1979), which could thereby alter ion uptake and organic acid  production (Yorgalevitch and Janes, 1988), it is possible that some such  suite of mechanisms may well be responsible for the plant productivity  increases often observed to result from enhanced concentrations of CO2 in the soil solution."
> Although much is thus known about many aspects of root responses to atmospheric CO2  enrichment, much remains to be learned.   Nevertheless, it is  abundantly evident that plant roots, like most other plant organs,  typically do better in CO2-enriched air than in current ambient air.


 hxxp://www.co2science.org/subject/r/summaries/roots.php

Now let's .._"Ask ED"_...


> _Adding CO2 to the water will not help the roots and in fact will  hurt them. Plants use CO2 when they photosynthesize, the process which  results in the production of sugar. Photosynthesis occurs only in areas  of the plant that receive light and contain chlorophyll, the source of  plants' green color. It is absorbed through pores called stomata. Roots  have no chlorophyll and don't ordinarily come in contact with light so  they have no use for CO2._
> _Plants use the sugars they have manufactured as a source of fuel.  Their metabolism is similar to the method used by animals. Sugars, which  are hydrocarbons, are chemically "burned" in a controlled reaction that  occurs when they are combined with oxygen. Energy is released and the  waste product CO2 is created. _
> _Both CO2 and oxygen dissolve in water. When water is saturated  with CO2 it cannot absorb oxygen so the roots have no source of the  element oxygen, which is needed for their metabolism. This weakens the  roots and promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which thrive in  oxygen-free environments and attack roots._
> _When water in a reservoir is circulated, it releases the dissolved  CO2 to the air and dissolves oxygen. That's why circulating water in a  reservoir using a pump is beneficial to roots: It removes the CO2 and  supplies the water with oxygen._


 hxxp://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/4384.html


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## The Hemp Goddess

I use individual buckets because I have a perpetual harvest with different strains that are different sizes and have different nutrient requirements.  With a RDWC you do not have the ability to raise or lower individual buckets or individually control your nutes.

I also do not use 2 buckets.  I simply lift the lid from one bucket to a fresh bucket when changing nutes--little if any stress to the roots.


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## pcduck

:yeahthat:

except I went with a battery operated (kerosene) pump


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## nouvellechef

Running lucas. You can generally run muli strains in rdwc. Some go good together, some dont.


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## OGKushman

*and in OP is says 10" lid. A 5gallon bucket is 12" wide


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## Operation 420

OGKushman said:
			
		

> *and in OP is says 10" lid. A 5gallon bucket is 12" wide



The net itself is 10". 6" nets and 10" nets  

Thanks for the tip Fruity, but as I said this is meant to be simple. Nothing you will need power tools for.


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