Poor Man's Dro - $10 Manual Ebb & Flow Setup

Bucket is the res, and the black box is the plant tray. No pumps needed, flooding is done manually.



Lift bucket to flood plants (above the bucket is a hand), and then put the bucket below the tray to have the water flood back into the bucket.

Looks like more than 10 dollars worth of wood for the table.

Hah!
I love it, in a funny way
But for real, your saving a pump and the overflow fittings...
But yeah, love it,and the pictures make it even better!

you should rig some sort of pulley system to make lifting the bucket easier

haha nice

haha nice

you going to try this with hydroton?

I didn't count the wood in the cost. It can be anything you have laying around: a table, chair, another bucket, cardboard box, etc. The tray just needs to be higher than the bucket for flooding to work.

I won't be trying this myself. I'm using a pump, but I wanna show people that hydro/ebb & flow doesn't have to be complex or expensive. People understand the theory better when you don't talk in terms of pumps, fittings, drains, and timers.

!!!,
I've seen that diagram before...essence of simplicity for E&F.

Except that anytime you leave a regular task in the hands of a pothead...it will get forgotten. I speak from personal experience.

Add a pump and timer and walk away for a few days at a time. Well worth it...
ET

Then you could run the rope from the pulley to an electric motor.
Then put it on a timer. Fully auto.

very cool!

so how many times a day would you need to be in there to lift the bucket?

Kcar said:

Then you could run the rope from the pulley to an electric motor.
Then put it on a timer. Fully auto.

Click to expand...

If you are going this route it would be easier to get a pump and a timer. Harbor Freight has $9 500gph pumps and $10 timers. Even with a $25 water pump this is a better option then having to search for & purchase a motor that will lift ~5 gallons of water and lower it safely in an automated fashion.

Dr Dog said:

so how many times a day would you need to be in there to lift the bucket?

Click to expand...

probably 4 times a day, but it depends. See these links:

http://icmag.com/modules/Tutorials/Hydroponics/Hydroponics.htm
http://icmag.com/modules/Tutorials/Hydroponics/695.htm
http://icmag.com/modules/Tutorials/Hydroponics/696.htm

With 6" rockwool cubes in this system you could get away with one watering a day in the beginning of flowering, probably 2 towards the end...

Rockwool or any other medium costs money, though... So does a hydro tray, even if you get a hardware store mortar mixing tub those are $15 alone.
I just think if the money is the issue you are trying to solve, you should stick to a soil grow and save up or do hand-watered coco maybe. Hydro systems just have an upfront equipment cost, can't get around it. Give a friend some of your awesome herb for monetary compensation (sneaky way of saying sell a couple grams) and buy a pump, etc. Save yourself a lot of trouble.

And to the complexity/intimidation of the new system issue: I think that anyone that can't look at a couple threads or just pictures of a system and understand the way a simple flood & drain table works should be sticking to soil for a couple grows to learn up. It's really not that hard. Honestly, once a flood & drain system is set up (which is easy in and of itself), it's easier to maintain than soil, IMO. Maybe we should spend some time explaining the necessary concepts instead of dumbing it down and making it harder on the person overall. I mean with $20 more and 30 minutes set up, tops, your system could be flooding on a timer. Easy peasy. Compare the hours you will spend lifting that 40 lb. bucket to the 2 hours tops in which you could come to an understanding of how F&D works and design your system.

Just my , or maybe a little more.

excellent concept. thx for sharing...
k.i.s.s. flood & drain...

eliminating machines+++

enjoy your garden!