JeffsPot:Duo....or something



A peek inside bloom: soil-ponics and Deep water Culture running side by side



Perhaps by now the reader is starting to see how I think and solve problems. One of the key things in my overall system is that everything should be able to work with everything else and more specifically, that this part represents the foundation upon which everything else works.

Before anyone asks, the name JeffsPot-Duo came about when I designed this and then was asking my mentor about some little details about something. I designed it initially to handle two average plants side-by-side but also, by swapping the lid it could handle one big 5-gallon bucket in case you wanted something with a larger root system. Also, the version of the Autopot that handled two pots was called an Autopot-Duo and I am nothing if not plageristic.

I was designing this with two key features: ease/reliability of operation and simplicity of materials such they could be acquired from any local Walmart/KMart/etc or on Amazon even more cheaply. There was one additional "want" for this design, something the disabled amongst us understand untuitively: can run unattended for up to a week or more in case you (the only grower) suddenly need time off or simply cannot attend the plants. In short, this system is great for folks with dementia including memory and cognitive impairment. It starts with the tub-rig itself. The foundational model can be created from simple items, many of which can be found around the house or like I said, the local KMart.

The tub/rig is the basis for adding, hydro, soil or whatever you want. The tub is just a plastic 12-gallon tub with lid. With a 3/8 inch drill, punch a hole at about the half-way mark:


Into this hole install an inexpensive float valve that coincidentally fits your 3/8 inch hole:



This is your auto-feeder. The system is gravity-fed from a central reservoir. When the level in the tub drops below about 5 gallons, it refills. Essentially you have a main reservoir for all plants (of a type) and then each tub represents an additional 5 gallons of breathing room or insurance for even the worst case of forgetfulness.

Now take a piece of 1/4 inch flexible irrigation tubing, add a simple ring and collar to the end and affix the tube to the float-valve. 



Now get some 1/2 or 3/4 inch PVC and elbows and make a loosely-fitting rectangle to fit the bottom of the tub. Finish it off by drilling numerous 3/8 inch holes in the PVC. Air will be pumped through this, distributing the bubbles but also this provides the base for a stand-off so in certain configurations the plants don't have to sit on their roots on the base of the tub.



Drill one more 3/8 inch hole just above and to the side of the float valve. This will be where your airhose will enter the tub:




The fully assembled base unit:


You see the air-line feeding into the PVC.

33 Gallon reservoir for bloom
Before we go further, now that you see how it is put together, the bigger picture is ready for you as well. In a common configuration like I use, I have a larger reservoir I use to gravity-feed all of my tubs, connecting with inexpensive 1/4 irrigation tubing. Commonly for a reservoir all you need is a big plastic something with a lid; two of my reservoirs are kitchen wastebaskets and my bloom rez (the big feeder) is a big black plastic garbage can.
12.5 Gallon reservoir for vegging


In every case I just drill a 3/8 inch hole (you would think thats the only bit I have) and adding a sort of filter valve I snagged from Autopots design:



This little thing is filter and fixture for the reservoir in one el-cheapo package and plugs right into the 1/4 inch irrigation tubing I use:
Lots of cheap, flexible 1/4 inch irrigation tubing. DON'T get the really stiff kinds, they are beyond painful to work with....


One note on these reservoirs are that they are all elevated on buckets about 3 feet off the ground. This allows gravity to do the work pumps normally would, making the grow safer from brown-outs or power outages. I use a 12.5 gallon reservoir for veg and a 33 gallon can for bloom. Each lasts about two weeks, give or take. The tubs also hold about a weeks worth in veg and a few days in bloom, so you can forget and mess up and be late ALOT and still succeed.
Basic feed system diagram



8-way air pump for all of your mad-scientist needs

Also in the same way I have a main rez feeding many plants, I have a main air-pump, a real industrial bugger. I can go cheap on a lot of things but this just pays for itself because the cheap aquarium pumps break quite easily....I have an 8-port metal rig with individual switches that feed various parts of my grow. Very powerful, very useful.

As I have said before, the tubs can be used in a myriad of ways, much of which depends on how you prepare the lid that came with the tub. For example, you can just cut a smaller 6x6 inch square hole on each side, add a standard wide-brim 6-inch netpot and you have a very low-profile DWC hydro rig.

If you cut larger rectangles into the top, then (using your handy 3/8 inch drill) drill out the bottoms of a couple of standard 3-6 gallon waste baskets, add a layer of lawn cloth to the bottom to keep the roots inside, then a 75/25 soilmix of coco-coir and perlite for an inert soilmix. Plant your plants in this and set this into the tub and you have a first-class soil-ponics rig.


Leave the lid off, add a screen or something to the bottom (I used old greenhouse shelving) and you can stack up to maybe a dozen plants in there as over-flow using my To Go cup things).

Overflow/vegging tub. Note styrofoam hosted seedlings..another wild experiment.
I have another lid with just one large circular hole cut into it; I have a standard 5-gallon paint bucket I have drilled out for growing a single monster plant in with soilmix.

 The tub and system supplies all your plant will need between air, water, food and light, its up to your imagination what to do with it. For me, its a mood thing

A key take-away here is this setup gets around another pet-peeve I have had with the commercial pot growing biz, and that is nothing works with anything else. By that I mean I can't just pick up a potted plant from my Autopot grow and expect to insert it into my Octopot grow or DWC grow or literally anything else, because Autopot, like the rest makes sure you stay within their commercial world.

Real life means you need to be able to grab plants/pots/equipment from one part of your grow and use it in another w/o alot of retrofitting. So by using these common base system parts I describe here, all plants/tubs/everything are very plug-n-play, meaning I can start a plant in hydro, veg it in DWC, and move it to a soil-ponics setup (if I desire) with little effort. Moving plants from veg to bloom is no more of a process than simply picking up a plant in veg and setting it into a container in the bloom tent; instantly all of its feed, light, water and air requirements are met. Because the base-medium remains with the root system, the odds of plant-shock are nearly eliminated and your odds of success rise dramatically.

The only problem with describing the tub and why it is the way it is, is that you have to sort of explain some or all of the rest of the system. Its all meant to work together to do/be anything you want or need.

That means I could go on and on and on....so this will close for now; you know what the tub is, how its made and how it works with the rest of the system...

Peace,
Jeff

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