[johnnyrotten]

Originally Posted by high life 45

Jonny rotten is on the mark,
I am no longer drilling out the top bucket and I dont think d9 is either.

Jonny is using a smart pot which I have also thought about.

I prefer to use Pushfittings which can be found at your local hardware chain. They are much easier to work with than tire valves imho.

I would definitely use a mix with rice hulls. I use floor dry, no cheap source of turface around me. 20lbs of diatomite(floordry) is $7.

Looks like I'm gonna need to read up on floor dry and floor dry vs coco...

As far as smart pots go, I had male plants that I killed that were in 3 gallon smart pots and others in 3gallon hempy buckets... After seeing the roots in both of them I decided to use smart pots, much better roots IMO...

[workman]

Originally Posted by johnnyrotten

1. The top bucket is just a plastic bucket with a tailpiece that holds growing medium that acts as a wick. The buckets are usually drilled out, I believe this is so it air prunes similar to a smart pot. The bottoms bucket is a reservoir, the wick pulls the nutrient solution from the bottom bucket.

How do you make a wick I noticed some guys had plastic tubes do those just hold your medium connecting the top bucket to the bottom bucket/res?

Thanks JR

[high life 45]

Originally Posted by bloyd

Check out the wicked pulse thread. Great pics, everything you need to know. D9 has more than put in his time explaining and re-explaining every facet of the ppk in his threads.

I learned how to build a ppk when the thread was around 223 pages long. Read every page like a book I couldn't put down and consider it the best investment in time I have ever spent. You could filter d9's posts in his wicked pulse thread and get everything you need to know, with amazing pics (thanks mrs. d9) in a few hours. His documentation throughout the process is unparalleled on these boards. It's all there, put in a little time, if you have questions ask them in the ppk thread and somebody will be more than happy to assist.

You really do not need to understand the system to grow fantastic plants. I have built ppk's for 2 friends that have never grown a plant before and they have repeatedly turned out flawless harvest after flawless harvest. All they know how to do is input jacks/calc. nit at 1.2 and it has more than worked out for them as well as myself. They don't have any interest in learning the dynamics behind the system. There repeated successful harvests without a single failure is testament to them not needing to know why or how it works.

I have a hunch that there are many more people growing in these ppk's than we even know about, but they don't come forward for fear of losing an edge on competition. Truly any joe blow can grow fantastic plants in this system that d9 has thoroughly researched and designed and nobody would have a use for a hydro store if they did.

Yes to all the above.

If you dont have Jacks, you dont know jack.
Get some jacks it pays for itself quickly.

I laugh at how much I hear of people spending on hydro nutes, met a guy who spent 2k on a 12k grow and harvested less than I did off of 8.8k. His room was oversized, he thought my room was way too small,
But as our dear friend DHF repeatedly drills into our heads, make your entire room a giant air cooled reflector.

[usda101]

Sounds intresting , im going to research this method . Can anyone give some quick pros an cons ? And why it would be considered a coveted method by some ?

[johnnyrotten]

Originally Posted by workman

How do you make a wick I noticed some guys had plastic tubes do those just hold your medium connecting the top bucket to the bottom bucket/res?

Thanks JR

Go buy a 1.5" pvc drain tailpiece at Home Depot...

Drill 8 evenly spaced holes about 1-2" from the end of the tailpiece and insert and tighten 4 cable ties... Right above that, insert a 4" round piece of fiberglass screen to hold the wick medium from dumping into the bottom bucket...

Then drill a hole in the bottom of the top bucket (in the center)... And drill another hole in the lid of the bottom bucket that the tailpiece can fit through...

Drill the lid on the bottom bucket so water can drain down back down if it needs it...

For what it's worth, I use hole saws for the bigger holes and step bits for the smaller holes... I highly recommend them...

I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff and you'll probably make some mistakes but keep going and test it out...

[johnnyrotten]

Originally Posted by usda101

Sounds intresting , im going to research this method . Can anyone give some quick pros an cons ? And why it would be considered a coveted method by some ?

Do a search for Passive Plant Killer and read the first post, that should explain a lot... If you can find a con, please let me know...

[johnnyrotten]

Here are a couple pics of what I built last week... I have not watered or touched this plant in a week...

PPK
Attachment 190227

Res/control bucket
Attachment 190228

5 days later
Attachment 190229

[high life 45]

The cons that I hear about most often are how boring it is......

Im still having LOTS of fun so dont worry..

Check the links in my sig if you need to see d9s or my ppk grow.

In fact I had the worst Root Aphid infestation on IC and the ppk is probably the only reason I was able to crop. I did not use anything chemmy or "nuclear"

[workman]

Originally Posted by johnnyrotten

Go buy a 1.5" pvc drain tailpiece at Home Depot...

Drill 8 evenly spaced holes about 1-2" from the end of the tailpiece and insert and tighten 4 cable ties... Right above that, insert a 4" round piece of fiberglass screen to hold the wick medium from dumping into the bottom bucket...

Then drill a hole in the bottom of the top bucket (in the center)... And drill another hole in the lid of the bottom bucket that the tailpiece can fit through...

Drill the lid on the bottom bucket so water can drain down back down if it needs it...

For what it's worth, I use hole saws for the bigger holes and step bits for the smaller holes... I highly recommend them...

I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff and you'll probably make some mistakes but keep going and test it out...

How is the control bucket/res assembled?

[usda101]

Im checkin your grow now highlife, Cant see D9 pics thanks also Jrotten . Im going to give it a go .