So here is what I got from my local home improvement store
1. First off, Sit one bucket inside the other bucket. look through the bucket see where the bottom of the inside bucket is and draw a line there. Drill a 1/2 or 3/4 inch hole with your compact drill at the lower line just marked. See below. If you got the Lowes bucket like mine, it's always at the line where I marked in the picture so you don't have to figure out where to mark. Just drill right below that line. You can make more holes for better ventilation. This is the drainage hole and water should run off if you pour too much water.
2. Take the inside bucket and flip it over. We are going to, for this example, draw a circle around the solo cup and take the pocket knife and cut around that circle. Try the solo cup to see if it sit inside the circle firmly in place.
Alternatively, If you have a 3 inch hole saw laying around somewhere and 3 inch net cup, you can make this step easier. An example below for net cups.
3. Drill. Drill. Drill. Drill. And keep drilling until you get as many holes actually can span and spacing enough around. This is the most tedious part of all. Also drill a bigger hole, not in the center or around the center, m for the pcv pipe can go through. The pcv pipe is where you will pour water from the top and transfer to the bottom bucket. Water will be wicked up via soil medium inside the net cup.
4. Now flip the inside bucket over and sit it in the other bucket that has drainage holes. Put the pcv through its hole and it should touch the bottom of the outer bucket. Like this
5. Drill two more smaller holes on both side of the pcv pipe, and secure the pcv to the bucket with zip ties
6. Skip this step if you use net cups. Take a solo cup and drill smaller holes like below or as many holes as you want.
This is where the solo cup, with holes ,sit inside the bucket.
This is for net cup example and it's pretty much the finished product.
7. all you have to do is add your favorite soil medium. I only use
OF soil so I don't worry about mixing nutes for young plants. but you can have coco,perlite, Grow-stones, pebbles , or whichever you think do the better job of wicking up water and good aeration. I only experienced with
OF soil so I can't advise anything other than that. Sorry
8. Finally, after adding soil, transplant your seedlings or drop your seeds. However you want it. Then, add water through the pcv pipe until you see run off at the drainage holes. Just a tip for this step, Use a funnel to pour water and have something sit at the bottom of the bucket to catch run off water.
Let the wicking job work for 24 hours and check for the water level. I am sure there will not be a lot more water left so add more water until run off. From now on and for next few weeks, you only need to add water once in three or four days. And remember, ONLy add water through the pcv pipe. Don't pour anything on the soil.
I hope this is not much. This is the most hardest part of setting this system. This took me one hour to put together and I have not worried a bit about overwater, underwater, nutes burn, pests, sickness or anything I can't tell right now.
