5 gallon self wicking and monster cropping experiment

I tried a couple of these on a pepper and a tomato plant first. They are flourishing so I took the plunge and transplanted 4 plants into their own self wicking buckets. With the exception of the grandaddy purple they love 'em so far. I think the GDP is getting too much water, leaves are canoing but it's been a diva since day one so we will see if it adjusts. My main problem now is they're growing too fast, I've filled up my 3x3 tent and they're only 5 weeks old. Was planning on flipping them at 6 weeks. Looks like I'm going to have to do some serious pruning. I've already topped and bent the Gelato, thing is a beast it should probably have it's own tent.
First pic tomato and pepper.

2nd pic at 3 weeks ready for transplant, starting from bottom right clockwise. GDP, Gelato, BFII auto and backrow 2 monster cropped Godfather OG's

Last pic today at 5 weeks, lower right, gelato, lower left GDP center BFII auto, back row monster cropped GOG's.

I'm growing in Pro-Mix with added perlite and gypsum, feeding with Jacks peatlite 20-10-20

So far we are loving the self wicking buckets. Trimmed all the photo's back, quite a bit. 7 weeks old and 8 days since the flip, starting to see some white hairs. The auto in the middle is 33 days into flower, small and stout, probably a 1 ouncer, we shall see how fat it gets.



Here are the pics from 7 weeks old before the flip.
Gelato

Grandaddy purple

Godfather OG

Gofather OG the bushmaster!

Hey congratulations on your wicked nice wicking grow

Could you share more on your wicking buckets?

I got the directions on u-tube. There are numerous videos on how to do it. I'm using 10 coke cans in the bottom of 5 gallon ace paint buckets. Drilled a hole 3" up from the bottom for my overflow level, poked a couple of holes in the sides of each can near the top and near the bottom, stuck a piece of PVC pipe in for the fill, packed with dirt, voila, wicking bucket. 3.99 for the bucket and a dollars worth of PVC is all one costs. Plus I'm recycling cans! One cool feature of these is it takes just a smidge over a gallon to reach the overflow. So as long as I don't add more than a gallon no run-off no spills.

What's the difference between this and a SIP "Sub Irrigated Planter" that wicks from the bottom?

"A SIP is any method of watering plants where the water is introduced from the bottom, allowing the water to soak upwards to the plant through capillary action."

It's the same thing, just semantics whether it's called a wicking bucket or a SIP, the tendrils of dirt between the cans wick the moisture up from the bottom through capillary action, the cans act as the reservoir the dirt is the wicking agent. the differnce in height between the drain hole and the top of the cans give you an air gap. At first I was going to use some wicking cord, then I saw AC Infinity's wicking planters which are basically fabric pots sitting on a wicking towel. Those looked pretty elegant but my budget is pretty meager so I couldn't afford that. I'd been looking at all these self watering planter videos and finally decided to keep it simple [and cheap]. Bottom line is I am lazy and poor [social security income] and looking for something I don't have to mess with too often.This looked pretty cheap and is indeed easy. We will see how they do now that they have started flowering.

laddyd said:

It's the same thing, just semantics whether it's called a wicking bucket or a SIP, the tendrils of dirt between the cans wick the moisture up from the bottom through capillary action, the cans act as the reservoir the dirt is the wicking agent. the differnce in height between the drain hole and the top of the cans give you an air gap. At first I was going to use some wicking cord, then I saw AC Infinity's wicking planters which are basically fabric pots sitting on a wicking towel. Those looked pretty elegant but my budget is pretty meager so I couldn't afford that. I'd been looking at all these self watering planter videos and finally decided to keep it simple [and cheap]. Bottom line is I am lazy and poor [social security income] and looking for something I don't have to mess with too often.This looked pretty cheap and is indeed easy. We will see how they do now that they have started flowering.

Click to expand...

What you put together obviously works just fine. I'm all for saving money with a DIY setup especially when you're reusing things. No need to spend money on something that doesn't perform any better than what you put together with a bucket and some pop cans.

Good luck with your grow.

A week later and it's a jungle in there. I thinned them out, evidently not enough. More to come.

I added some pieces of water hose to make it easy to water the back pots.

All but the GDP in the front right are flowering. Hope they don't stretch too much more, running out of head-room.

The Back to the Future II auto is a couple of weeks out I think, looking pretty mature at 6 weeks of flower.
I had to put it on a pedestal to reach the light. The photo's dwarfed it.

Finally the tomato that started this trial continues to flourish, I hope I can keep it alive until spring. It's covered with baby tomato's and blooms.

Here's a pic at 3 weeks of flower. The Gelato is showing some yellowing I kicked up the feed, will see if that helps, otherwise looking good. I had to pull the auto flower. It was getting smothered by the photo's. I gave it it's own grow box out in the garage.

Here's the Auto at 8 weeks of flower, still a couple more weeks I think, trichromes mostly clear. Such a short stubby little girl. Boy does she stink, I wasn't aware till I moved it to the grow box, now my garage reeks of skunky goodness.

A picture of my improvised grow box. I'm using an old blurple light plus a picture of my first grow in a similar box.

Moving right along, here we are at 6 weeks of flower. The monster cropped GOG plants are suffering. I'm thinking they got choked out by the Gelato and GDP. They were more viney and just got covered up by their sisters. Anyway that's my theory. I moved them around and tried propping them up so they get more light. We'll see but their stalks are too flimsy, they just want to lay down. Don't think I will do anymore monster cropping, too much effort for diminishing returns.
The tomato is flourishing, covered with tomatoes.

The Gelato is looking nice

Grandaddy Purple also doing well

About those Godfather OG's. They have some nice buds but they are not healthy.

Just a refresher on what I'm using. Got Pro-mix from Walmart in the red bag I added more perlite and gypsum. Giving them 1/2 tsp of Jacks 20-10-20 in a gallon of water every 5 to 6 days. I have also started to give them 1/4 tsp cal-mag every other feeding.
Anybody that has some suggestions feel free to interject.

Today the plants are around 9 weeks into flower, 108 days since they sprouted. We are coming to the end of this grow. I'm thinking a couple more weeks. That will be about 4 months. It's been an easy grow, every 5 or 6 days I give them 1/2 tsp of jacks 20-10-20 in a gallon of water plus 1/4 tsp of cal mag every other feeding. One of the monster cropped plants wasn't doing too well, long spindly pale buds so I chopped the best ones and have them drying. Probably make edibles out of it.
Here's the tent today, plants are fading fast

Here we have the GDP

The Gelato

Godfather OG

Made a grow box for the garage to start some seedlings and grow a Gelato clone. I'm using some of my original cheap ass equipment and a Uhaul garment box we had laying around.

This is where autoflowers come in handy by the way. I can grow them in the box and not worry about light leaks. Which I will do as soon as the current occupants get moved to the tent. Should have just enough time before it get's too hot.