2 1/2 Gallon Buckets for DWC? How small can you actually get?

Just harvested some white widow plants and a few purps plants from my NFT/DWC set-up. Even though i had some trouble in the start i eneded up getting about 3 ozs per plant of the white widows and about 1 1/2 oz from the purps . Although the purps was not a high yeilder it is some of the best tasting smoke ive ever had.

I ran these all in five gallons buckets and after a while, changing out all that water every 2-3 weeks is a pain in the ass. MY QUESTION- What is the small size bucket you could run in DWC to grow a single plant in? I just bought five 2 1/2 gal buckets and im gonna give them a try and see how i do. My last grow, the roots still had plenty of room to grow so im guessing in a 2 1/2 gal bucket i should be alright. Im also guessing that with less water and a smaller container, my air rings will be able to pump more oxygen into the roots, thus making it grow faster and healthier.

Let me know what you guys think and if you have any experience growing in anything smaller then a 5 gal bucket.

Well some people will say that a 3 gallon bucket will produce a lovely plant.

The size of the bucket does not mean the plant will be bigger or smaller, hydro and dirt are completely different. I can grow a 6' plant in the same bucket I could grow a 2' plant in.

I'd make sure to use a control bucket with such a small set of grow buckets. I've never done less than 5 gallon buckets because I worry about large ppm and ph fluctuations. More water = more room for error and less babysitting and topping off. Water capacity is pretty much the only buffer we have in DWC.

My first grow was in 2g buckets... it worked fine. The smaller the plant, the smaller res you can use. The bigger res you use, the more stable the nute solution will be. I have seen someone around here running dwc in a coffee can.

BossHoggins said:

I'd make sure to use a control bucket with such a small set of grow buckets. I've never done less than 5 gallon buckets because I worry about large ppm and ph fluctuations. More water = more room for error and less babysitting and topping off. Water capacity is pretty much the only buffer we have in DWC.

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It is much easier to control a larger volume of water especially the water temp.

On that same line, your baby sitting when they get larger could get immense as mine between evaporation/plant drinking can pull over a gallon every few days. 2 gallon container that's half your volume which could get risky.

i'm running 2x5 gallon buckets via rdwc..with a total of 8 gallons of water. i'm in my second week of flower and she is drinking a gallon a day.

I would have to agree you can grow a nice plant is a coffee can sized container. Although if you find changing out a 5 gallon bucket every week or two to be a pain. Topping off a smaller bucket everyday and if you are growing a 3 oz plant. Then topping the water off twice a day will be a real pain.. I myself like the smaller buckets for smaller plants and then move them too a 5 gallon bucket once the roots are developed enough that it's drinking too much that I worry if I don't visit in a day or two they will dry up

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Don't veg them as long if you want to use a 2g bucket obviously.

I ran a few tests using pint paint cans (new of course) to get clones started with good results. I agree with other folks about needing extra time to manage pH swings especially during flower. An external res should help. 2.5s will definitely work but plan on babysitting more than with 5 gallon buckets.

Changing water was a hassle for me too. I ended up installing a clear water level viewing tube and raised the buckets a few inches. Now I just turn the tube down and drain into a oil change jug. Super simple changes now.

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My plan is to veg all the way in the 2 1/2 gal containers then after the 2 week change into flower i will move them into 5 gal buckets if needed. I am worried about ph swings and uncontrollable nutrient levels but i feel comfortable enough to do it at this point. Something tells me that the plants are going to grow wayyyy faster in these smaller buckets with my air ring blasting them with O2. I may be wrong but i hope im not, ill keep everyone posted. Thanks for the info guys!!!!

I just finished growing a plant in a 24oz clear container from Costco that came with Feta cheese. It was a nice clone and I didn't want to kill it so I found something to put it in. It was healthy and also cool seeing the roots and bubbles in there.

MJDeity said:

I just finished growing a plant in a 24oz clear container from Costco that came with Feta cheese. It was a nice clone and I didn't want to kill it so I found something to put it in. It was healthy and also cool seeing the roots and bubbles in there.

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I actually just got done growing one in a bubblegum container, a litte less then an gal of water. This is exactly why i wanna see how small i can go without sacrificing yield. Im thinking i might have to go up to a three gal but that should be big enough. Anyone know where to get a three gallon container with a lid?

gtran said:

I actually just got done growing one in a bubblegum container, a litte less then an gal of water. This is exactly why i wanna see how small i can go without sacrificing yield. Im thinking i might have to go up to a three gal but that should be big enough. Anyone know where to get a three gallon container with a lid?

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I am not sure about 3 gal but I have seen plenty of 3.5 gallon buckets at local stores. There are great if you are trying to save on height since they are just like a 5 gallon only shorter.

i think its only a matter of how big you want the plant to be. i had a pc cab grow with a container that only held about 12oz of solution and a bubble stone.i used it for a mini cloner right next to my mother.. it had auto feed reservoir made out of an old ph up bottle that sat on the top of the pc cab. i probably could have grown the plants big enough to fill the whole pc box but i only needed them to be big enough to move them to the flowering box. even a gallon size bucket would work for a decent plant but you want to minimize the other medium you use to hold it in place, i just use a polyfoam disk out of a clone machine to hold the stem and a screen holds the plant in place as the plant gets bigger. the roots will grow unrestricted in the bubbling solution and if you check it often enough you can keep your ppm's and ph in range. but working with a smaller amount of solution means youll have to use less additives to correct ph and nutrient deficiencies, and especially working with pure water the levels may rise and fall rapidly and become unstable quickly.

As you said, my biggest problem I see encountering is not being able to have control of the ph or ppms in a container that small. I just started a dyna fem fruit automatic in the 2 gal bucket and well see how that goes. Three days after sprout and it looks good. I got the auto as my free seed with an order so i figured i would try it out. Also my first time dealing with an auto. I have two 5 inch air stones in the 2 gal container right now and it is bubbling so much that you can see the bubbles coming up through the net pot.....

gtran said:

As you said, my biggest problem I see encountering is not being able to have control of the ph or ppms in a container that small. I just started a dyna fem fruit automatic in the 2 gal bucket and well see how that goes. Three days after sprout and it looks good. I got the auto as my free seed with an order so i figured i would try it out. Also my first time dealing with an auto. I have two 5 inch air stones in the 2 gal container right now and it is bubbling so much that you can see the bubbles coming up through the net pot.....

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awesome!, the 2 stones is more than plenty, one would have been fine, but i imagine the roots are loving it. you should see an explosion of growth compared to other methods. i also use a bcuzz root stimulator/hormone in with solution it seems to help give the roots a boost and for me the difference was phenomenal.
A 2 gallon system should be fairly stable. youll have to compensate for a lot of evaporation though with those bubbles coming out the top, actually if you start seeing a problem with too much evaporation you might take one of the stones out and calm it down a little.you know what i mean? and as it evaporates the concentration of the solution with go up. i just use plain tap water as it evaporates. then after my solution has been thinned down a little, maybe after a week of adding water i change the solution and start all over again.
so in eccense, you start with high nutes in a fresh batch and gradually taper off througout every cycle that way it never gets burned. and i usually dont even adjust ph i just let it go. by the time the solution is thinned out its time to change anyway so that takes care of everything.

theartoflife said:

Changing water was a hassle for me too. I ended up installing a clear water level viewing tube and raised the buckets a few inches. Now I just turn the tube down and drain into a oil change jug. Super simple changes now.

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at first i had planned to use a 5 gallon bucket just as you are doing, but then i came up with the design that uses two smaller flatter containers and the lids are connected together by a screen that wraps around a vertically placed 400w hps cooltube. i can get 2 plants into each container.ill veg and weave all 4 plants into the screen with a florescent tube, then install the cooltube and let her rip. the plants and lids will all come off together as one piece, the floor of the cab rolls out and it will just pop right off for easy nute changes and cleaning if necessarry.

i see the dilemma with your setup , once your in there youre locked in.right? but with my plan youll be able to move all your plants at once. you could even totally dissasemble the setup and move it without harming your babies.the screen only goes so far around the light , you would have a slot in the back of it so the drawer can roll out from around it. you can get twice the square footage of a slat screen and yield about 4 times as much in the same small area