Runtz DIY hydro bucket.

So, just for fun, i made a hydro bucket out of a Tidy Cat bucket. The strain in it is Runtz. It's in a 3x3 tent. To create the system i used a Tidy Cat Bucket which i cut a 6" hole in the lid using a hole saw. Then i drilled 2 x 1/4" holes diagonally into the side of the bucket on each side for the air lines. I drilled diagonally so it would have a more natural and less air line pinchy angle. Then, i drilled a 5/8" hole at the bottom of the bucket for the sight level tube. After that, i used air duct silver foil tape to cover the whole lid and the finned sides of the bucket. Making sure to block out every possible place that light was penetrating. Then i wrapped the main body of the bucket in tin foil and taped it onto the bucket. Then as a means of protecting the foil from getting ripped, i wrapped the whole thing in red tuck tape. I then inserted the 5/8th" Grommet into the bottom hole, then squeezed in the 5/8th blue tubing and snipped it off. Then inserted a 3/8th" Elbow into the blue tube and attached the rest of the blue tube to the other end and fixed it to the side of the bucket. At the top i added a 3/8" to 1/2" Elbow as a means to drain out the nutrients. The blue tubing i got off amazon and i believe it's tubing used for a liquid cooled computer cooling system. Air pump is a 2 port ac infinity pump. Fun little project. Now to put it to the test!

I topped this girl yesterday. She's been slow going the past week with not much enthusiasm. The little clone is just beginning to produce some roots to reach down into the water. So now that it's starting to establish some roots it'll have access to the food and can start to photosynthesize. I'm gonna roll this batch of nutrients for another week as it's really not used much at all. Hopefully she starts to take off this week.

Finally getting decent roots down into the water. Changed the nutrients out after 2 weeks. I accidentally added natures candy to this batch. Things are going well now after a slow start. Will start to scrog this lady when she reaches the net. Which won't take long.

Today is the end of week 3 and the start of week 4. Nutrient change out. After 1 week the plant consumed 2 gallons of the 4 gallons in the reservoir. Fresh batch of nutrients has been swapped in and out came the 2 gals of week old nutrients. The plant is still in Veg, but it has been given week 1 of bloom mix. I always feed bloom mix 1 weeks before light flip. I find this to give the plant a head start on flower production when the light schedule changes. I also find the increase in Phosphorous has a positive effect on the reduction of the stretch.

Today is day 1 of 12/12. Looks like possibly a potassium deficiency goin on? Seems to be displaying a few symptoms. I don't know why potassium would be an issue. Remo is loaded with it. Maybe pH drift? I never really check on the pH after the initial mix. I keep it in the 5.8 neighborhood. I'm super lazy with my grows so i never go check on them. I'll try to this week and see what the pH is up to. This Pheno i have of Runtz has a genetic mutation where it produces white leaf blades halves. Don't know if it can be seen in the photos. Its an odd strain.

Thats the end of week 1 flower. On to week 2. The plant shows a few funky things like a touch of magnesium deficiency and a past potassium issue. Makes sense i guess cuz i just never check the pH or ppm other than when i mix the nutes up. So 4 days from now i'll have no idea what the pH is haha. Plant looks pretty decent so good enough. I'm hella lazy....

Chugging along. Not much to talk about here. It's doing it's thing. Next week i'll clean up the lower portion of the plant and defoliate a bit. I'm also gonna have to get another trellis cuz those tops aren't going to stay upright when they put on weight.

Did the 21 day defoliation. Thinned out the bottom of small branches and leaves. Mixed up a fresh batch of nutrients. I have a second trellis which i will deploy down the road when i feel it's needed. Onward we roll.

I should really top off the res as the week progresses. I never do i just drain, fill forget for a week. But when i do that i drain about 1 liter out of the res as it uses up everything so i think i'll start to top off with a few gallons on say thursdays and then next monday it wont be so dry. I'm guess thats the source of my fading green leaves on the bottom half. Week 5 begins.

I literally didn't check on this plant for a entire week. The thing gobbles up all of the nutrients and water in that time and when it's the start of a new week there's about 1.5 liters left in it. So you can see in the pix there's some potassium issues. Which makes sense because it's blooming and requires a ton of it. And it not being there because of me being lazy it's having some issues. Overall it's not too bad for how badly i am neglecting this plant haha. I'll do better going forward. Maybe i'll add a gallon on Thursday. Onward we roll. Might be time for the second tier support trellis next week, or maybe later this week.