Certified Redneck DIY Drain to Waste System

Now, you can't do a redneck system and claim to be redneck-er than the next guy unless you use red, yes red, solo cups.

The system I started with 'back in the day', I used a large nail heated up to poke a bunch of holes in the red solo cups. Vermiculite and perlite was my medium. Seeds and rooted clones went into small Dixie cups, the ones without wax. Those went into solo cups. They'd rot out eventually. Cat pan (never used) was the 'catch pan' with a bulkhead fitting to drain into a 3 gal rubbermaid tote. To put tote lower than a bucket, cinder blocks to elevate cat pan. Swamp cooler pump to water using the distribution arms that came with it on a 30 min x 2 cycle. 24 hr lights using a couple of old school shop lights, 48" T-12's.

That was then, more will be revealed. . .

i did a floodn drain useing upside down soda bottles as root zonez, . i wpould lift up a container of nutrient solution, untill the medium started to float, same as yours, verm/pearlite, although the perlite ended up on the floor or on top of the vermiculite. untill i taped those plastic orange bags , the netting ones. across the top loosely to stop it all overflowing lol
it was a right bodge it and scarper job. great days

heres what a modern same set up would look like, wish i had some old pix

Wow. That's too elaborate for this redneck back then. I'm older than shit now and a long haired country boy. But I'll tell ya, used to get roots just running out into the pan back then. The mid 80's.

teddyearp said:

Wow. That's too elaborate for this redneck back then. I'm older than shit now and a long haired country boy. But I'll tell ya, used to get roots just running out into the pan back then. The mid 80's.

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yep, same here. the pic above would be the equivalent of nasa's take on my set up, it was no ware as sophisticated as the pic above lol

Ok, fast forward to now. Y'all have breeded the weed to grow different, but my same basic principles are at work. I stick with those 3 gal Rubbermaid for my reserviors cause 3 gallons is enough for me, easy to handle for my old ass.

Here's a couple pics, bash me for all I'm doing wrong, 'cause that's the internet. Left is flower room, right is a bit better built in veg room. More talk l8r.

@go go kid Stopped to read your sig, that's some cool shit. I remember when that fabulous one first came out, lol.

teddyearp said:

Ok, fast forward to now. Y'all have breeded the weed to grow different, but my same basic principles are at work. I stick with those 3 gal Rubbermaid for my reserviors cause 3 gallons is enough for me, easy to handle for my old ass.

Here's a couple pics, bash me for all I'm doing wrong, 'cause that's the internet. Left is flower room, right is a bit better built in veg room. More talk l8r.

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i would get some protection from water spillage over those electrical items, just in case like. ive had close escape before and protect everything even close to water. looking good

Yes, thank you. I have changed it a bit, and the tray never gets enough water in it to overflow at all. I use a small aquarium pump for each setup. Then as you can see, it is just drip irrigation line. I do NOT use drip emitters. There is a bung fitting in the corner of the tray and it is slightly angled to drain out that way. The pump runs for two cycles of fifteen minutes each; once at 3:30 am and the second at 11:00am as the sun comes up in my flower room at 3am and goes down at 2pm. Veg is a pair of two four foot fluorescent fixtures. Flower is a 600 W dimmable HPS.

As I said, I used to plant seeds into small unwaxed Dixie cups, many times with a tiny bit of potting mix mixed with the vermiculite/perlite, but then I decided to just plant straight into the solo cup and then once it is up, put it straight under hydro. THAT is working real well. Too well almost. I'm thinking I may just try to do my clones the same way, just straight into the solo cup and right under the hydro.

I have also painted those trays black for a huge improvement in algae control and a bit more heat for the roots. I live in the part of the terrible™ Arizona desert that resides at around 6300 feet. The two plants in the rear left and right are bag seed, so I nicknamed them after the name on the Dixie cups, lol. The one in the middle is Purple Larry, and the one in front named Q is also bag seed planted direct into solo cup. Mickey and Goofy are almost a month older than the others. I actually didn't think Goofy was going to make it, but its looking to be the best of the bag seeds so far. The leaves are from Goofy.

teddyearp said:

Now, you can't do a redneck system and claim to be redneck-er than the next guy unless you use red, yes red, solo cups.

The system I started with 'back in the day', I used a large nail heated up to poke a bunch of holes in the red solo cups. Vermiculite and perlite was my medium. Seeds and rooted clones went into small Dixie cups, the ones without wax. Those went into solo cups. They'd rot out eventually. Cat pan (never used) was the 'catch pan' with a bulkhead fitting to drain into a 3 gal rubbermaid tote. To put tote lower than a bucket, cinder blocks to elevate cat pan. Swamp cooler pump to water using the distribution arms that came with it on a 30 min x 2 cycle. 24 hr lights using a couple of old school shop lights, 48" T-12's.

That was then, more will be revealed. . .

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I'm from deep redneck country, but I've never in my life seen one of them drinking out of a solo cup. That was always a fratboy thing.

But Toby Keith said so, hehe. But yeah, I'm a poser of a redneck.

teddyearp said:

But Toby Keith said so, hehe. But yeah, I'm a poser of a redneck.

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I didn't call you a poser, I just thought it was odd because I've never seen it. To me it's like saying rednecks wear Jordans. I also don't get my redneck info from Toby Keith. ha.

teddyearp said:

As I said, I used to plant seeds into small unwaxed Dixie cups, many times with a tiny bit of potting mix mixed with the vermiculite/perlite, but then I decided to just plant straight into the solo cup and then once it is up, put it straight under hydro. THAT is working real well. Too well almost. I'm thinking I may just try to do my clones the same way, just straight into the solo cup and right under the hydro.

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OK, it is almost a month later, but yes. No pics for this post, but I'm thinking for me the vermiculite/perlite mix is the shit. Go ahead and buy that fancy aero setup. Try the Clone King. Mine is pretty much the same. The vermiculite holds enough in the places it is and the perlite wicks it away from the others. Gets 15 minutes of flushing two times a day.

So all those plants above are more than twice that size, I took one clone each from 'mickey' and 'goofy' and stuck them straight into a solo cup of the mix and put them both under a 'spout' about two weeks ago. I sprayed them with plain water about two squirts a day. Goofy is goofy as it will almost instantly wilt, but then almost as fast come back. It is really compact, too. Those two are showing new growth so I took one from 'Q' and will probably start flowering mickey and goofy parent next week.

100% success with cloning? Hopefully I found it.

Here's a pic of the clones. The two in the front. are about three weeks old and starting to grow. That's at almost two fresh sets of leaves now since cutting.

I have to thank this site because it seemed to be the one that had the best info for me to fix my 'first year' problems. I hope that this thread helps others. Wish I could have put this in the OP of it.

I bought some battery acid and mix it with distilled water for PH down. One qt for $10 makes four gallons. Hey, if you want to buy the premixed stuff for four times as much, hehe. I also learned PH is really a bigger thing with today's plants than 30 years ago, even your bag seed, LOL.

Oh, you should see how those look today. That one in the center rear marked 'Q' is already growing now two weeks later. I'm starting to have a space problem.

Which is a dang good thing!

go go kid said:

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heres what a modern same set up would look like, wish i had some old pix

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hope you don't mind me jumping in the thread, but I had to share my pepper hydro grow from about 20 years ago
same style flood and drain. I also used it as a recirculating drip system.

Hash Hound said:

hope you don't mind me jumping in the thread, but I had to share my pepper hydro grow from about 20 years ago
same style flood and drain. I also used it as a recirculating drip system.

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That's way cool and too much for this non redneck. I guess, technically mine is different if yours is flood and drain. Mine runs nute from the top through the medium and the drains to reservoir.

the flood and drain and top drip feed both did well.

Hash Hound said:

the flood and drain and top drip feed both did well.

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I don't use drip emitters, just a 90 to hook it on the cup. Runs for 15 minutes 2x a day. I'm using the lowest aquarium pump. Flows through real well. Somewhere here they call this mix 'hempy'.

teddyearp said:

I don't use drip emitters, just a 90 to hook it on the cup. Runs for 15 minutes 2x a day. I'm using the lowest aquarium pump. Flows through real well. Somewhere here they call this mix 'hempy'.

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ahh so these are hempy pots with an automated top up feeder? Whatever works for you! seems like a winner. Solo cups are still great, I use the double pot system for my outside starts =).

Are you using straight perlite? or mixed? Can't say I'm brave enough to mix battery acid for ph adjusters!