- [Instructor] In this episode,
we're gonna be building a self-watering five-gallon bucket. If you're like me and
so many other people, you may be hesitant about gardening, because you don't know how
much to water your plants. The really nice thing with self-watering self-irrigated buckets is
that you don't have to worry about giving your plants
the right amount of water. They'll control that themselves. All you need to do is make sure that the bottom reservoir has water and your plants and your
soil will do the rest. So let's take a quick look
at how this system works. This system works by stacking
two five-gallon buckets on top of each other. The top bucket acts as a
growing chamber for the plant. While the bottom bucket
acts as a water reservoir. A fill port runs from the top bucket down into the bottom bucket and is used to fill the
bottom bucket with water. A drain tube is located
in the bottom bucket to prevent the bucket from
overfilling with water. A cup with several holes drilled
in it is filled with soil, then it's placed in a hole in
the bottom of the top bucket and it's used to wick water
up into the growth chamber. The top bucket has several drain holes drilled in the bottom of it,
and it's lined with perlite. The perlite acts as a filter and keep soil from draining back down
into the bottom bucket. I've used these buckets
for entire growing seasons and opened them up to find
there was almost no soil in the bottom of the bucket. And that is awesome for keeping the fill and drain lines clogged-free. If you notice in this
diagram, there's an air gap between the water line
and the bottom bucket and the bottom of the top bucket. This air gap provides
additional air flow and aeration to the root zone of the plants that are growing in this type of system. To fill this system with water, you simply add water into the fill port until it starts coming
out of the drain port. Even if your plant's
exposed to heavy rain, that rain will drain through the soil into the bottom bucket
and out the drain tube. Now that we know how this system works, it's time to gather up some
materials and get started. You're gonna need two five-gallon buckets. Next, you're gonna need a cup with a lip. Personally, I like the one
quart paint mixing cups that you can get from places
like Lowe's or Home Depot. They work really well,
they have a strong lip, and the cup is pretty heavy duty itself. That's important because
we're gonna be drilling a bunch of holes in it. If you use a cheap cup, as soon
as you start drilling holes, the cup will probably tear up. Next thing, we need an
18 to 24-inch section of one inch PVC pipe, along
with a three-inch section of half-inch irrigation tube. Next, you're gonna want a
one-inch rubber grommet. This is totally optional. I use a grommet, so
that I have a tight seal around the drain line, but
it's not really necessary. I just like it. You're gonna need a
3/16ths and quarter-inch or 5/16ths-inch drill bit, a drill, a one-inch and one-in-one
quarter inch hole saw. If you're not gonna use a rubber grommet, all you'll need is a half inch and a one and a quarter inch hole saw. You're also gonna need a permanent marker, a tape measure, four self
tapping screws and a bit driver, along with a jigsaw or a razorblade. I personally use a jigsaw
to cut the large hole in the top bucket that the cup goes in. If you don't have a jigsaw,
don't worry about it. You can use something like a box cutter or other heavy duty razorblade. I don't recommend using
craft raisers like this one. They're too weak. Irrigated tubing can be cut
with razorblades or scissors, and you can cut the PVC pipe
with a hack saw, miter saw or anything else you have that might work. Okay, now that we know
what materials we need, let's start building. First, I'm gonna take the
top bucket, flip it over, set the cup on top of it and
draw the outline of the cup. To do this, I hold the cup
upside down on the bucket and draw an outline with
my permanent marker. Once I've got the outline drawn, I take the cup off the bucket
and draw a smaller outline inside the first outline. It's not perfect, but I try to make it about a quarter inch smaller
than the original outline. Just keep in mind, it's better to have a
hole that's too small than to have a hole that's too big. Otherwise, your cup's gonna
fall through the top bucket and it will be pretty much useless. Now that the outline is drawn, I'm gonna take my quarter inch drill bit and drill a pilot hole that the jigsaw blade will fit through. Once the hole is drilled, it's time to cut out the hole for the cup. Take your time here and try not to cut beyond that inner outline
that you just made. If you're using a razor blade, make several shallow scouring passes, because if you try to cut it all at once, your cuts won't be accurate and it's gonna be really hard to cut. Once the hole is cut, test the fit. Now, that the cup's in the bucket, it's easy to see why that lip's important. It supports the cup and it's gonna help the
bucket drain better. Next, drill several holes into the cup with a 3/16ths inch drill bit. These holes will allow the soil in the cup to wick water up from the bottom bucket up into the top bucket. Also, you're gonna want
to drill five or six holes around the lip of the cup that'll help the top bucket drain better. Now, take that same 3/16ths inch drill bit and drill 10 to 12 drain holes in the bottom of the top bucket. Make sure you leave one area
open, so you'll have room to drill a hole for the fill
port with your hole saw. With a one and a quarter inch hole saw drill a hole in the top
bucket for the fill port. The center of the hole saw, you know, where the drill bit is, should be around two inches away from the edge of the bucket. One-inch PVC pipe is slightly larger than the diameter of the
entry and a quarter hole saw, and that's perfect, because
what that's gonna do is make a really tight friction fit, and that's exactly what we want. You can see here, when
I test fit the PVC pipe, it's really tight, no soil
or perlite or anything is gonna be slipping past that seal. That tight seal is also really handy when it comes time to fit the top bucket onto the bottom bucket, because that PVC pipe will
basically hold the top bucket in position while we screw it. Okay, go ahead and set
the top bucket aside, 'cause next we're gonna be
working on the bottom bucket. Measure up three inches from
the bottom of the bucket and make a mark with your marker. This marks the spot where you're gonna be
drilling the drain hole. If you're using a grommet,
grab a one inch hole saw; if you're not using a grommet,
grab a half inch hole saw. Center the bed of the hole
saw on the mark you just made and cut the drain hole. If you're using a grommet,
go ahead and install it now. Once you've finished that
up, have fun sitting back and watching how hard I had
to struggle to get mine in. Sometimes rolling a small screwdriver along the inside rim of the grommet will help it get seated better. Next, install the half inch drain tube, make sure that the tube is bending down. If it's bending up, you're
gonna unload more water to build up inside the
bucket than you want. With the drain tube installed, it's time to test fit the
top and bottom buckets, so we can mark the
height or the fill port. To do this, you want
to lower the top bucket into the bottom bucket
until the bottom of the cup almost touches the bottom
of the bottom bucket. Then you want to mark a
line on the fill port, that's roughly three to four inches above the top of the bucket. Go ahead and remove the
fill port from the bucket and cut along the line you just marked. Once you've cut the fill port to length, drill a couple holes in it
with a quarter inch drill bit. These holes will help make sure that you get water to the bottom bucket even if the PVC pipe
gets clogged on the end. That's not really going
to be an issue though, because we'll account for that when it's time to assemble the buckets. Install the fill port
back into the top bucket, make sure the drain holes you
just drilled are facing down into the bottom bucket,
and slide the top bucket back onto the bottom bucket. I've always oriented the fill port to where it's on the
opposite side of the bucket from the drain line, but it actually makes way more sense to me to have the fill port
close to the drain line, so you know when the bucket
is full and started draining. With the top bucket on the bottom bucket, go ahead and push the fill tube on down through the top
bucket a little more until the bottom of the fill tube reaches the bottom of the bottom bucket. Once you've done that,
slide the top bucket down into the bottom bucket
until the bottom of the cup almost touches the bottom
of the bottom bucket. This is where we want the
top bucket to be positioned. The fill tube will help hold
the top bucket in place, while you screw it into position. I like to install the first
screw on the opposite side of the bucket from where the fill tube is. That way the fill tube
and this first screw will hold the top bucket in place. The last screw to be
installed will be the screw that goes through both buckets
and into the fill port. Before you install the fill port screw, pull the fill port up a few inches from the bottom of the bottom bucket. This will help prevent it
from getting clogged later on. With the bucket secured, it's time to create the
bottom layer of perlite in the top bucket. This layer of perlite only
needs to be the same thickness as the thickness of the rim of the cup. Once the layer of of perlite's been added, it's time to fill the cup and
the bucket with potting soil. My favorite potting soil is
Ocean Forest from FoxFarm. It has a nice amount
of perlite added to it that helps promote good aeration and helps reduce soil compaction. But honestly you can use
any kind of potting soil that you like. Go ahead and fill the bucket with soil, until the soil is about three inches from the top of the bucket. Now we're ready to transplant. To start, remove soil from the bucket, just like you would for
any other transplant, into a container. When you've removed enough
soil for the transplant, go ahead and put it in the bucket and fill in around it with the
soil that you just took out. This is a mini bell pepper plant that I grew from seed indoors. Prior to transplanting
it, I let it harden off for about a week outside
to allow it to acclimate to the outdoor temperatures
and the sunlight. Once your plant's in possession, it's time to fill the
lower reservoir with water. To do this, simply add
water to the fill port until it starts coming
out of the drain port. Now that we've got water
coming out of the drain port and the reservoir's full, it's
time to fully soak the soil in the bucket until the
bucket starts draining again. Once the bucket starts draining, the soil is fully saturated with water. This is a really important step because it primes the soil, so that it can wick
water from the reservoir as the soil begins to dry. If you skip this step, the
bucket won't work right. Take your time soaking the soil. If you hit it with a higher
pressure blast of water, it will displace and compact the soil. Instead with the light soaking pressure, and if you're using a garden sprayer heads like the mist or a rain setting, that'll keep from tearing your soil up. Do that for several minutes to make sure that the
soil is good and wet. Once it's wet enough,
it will start draining out of the drain tube. If for some reason your
plant looks starved for water after a few days, you may need to rewet
the soil more thoroughly. Normally, as long as
you've done a good job with the initial soaking,
this won't be an issue, but just in case it is, now you know, just rewet
that soil really good, and your bucket should
start wicking on its own. Also within about a week, the soil at the top of the
bucket should begin forming that protective crust, and
that, like I said earlier, is gonna help keep insects
from trying to move in. If you found this video helpful,
I'd really appreciate it, if you would click the like button and subscribe to my channel. If you have any questions, you
can ask them in the comments or you can contact me directly
at happyhydrofarm.com.
