Building my own system... advice on size needed

So up to now I have only used soil. I have been wanting to build my own cheap hydro unit to see how well I can do. Hydro seems more straight forward than soil, so I really want to try. The problem is, I don't have a very wide grow space. My cabinet is 23"x11.75"x68". I have plenty of vertical space, but not much width to work with. I found this: Roughneck Storage Box - 3 gal
which fits my size requirements and is 3 gallons. I just want to make sure I can grow 2-3 plants in it. I will be doing SOG style, so the plants will be kept a decent size.
What do you hydro experts think? I plan on just using an airpump/airstone and a couple of baskets.
Any advice/thoughts/opinions are appreciated.

yes ive been looking around for the same information, and someone sent me this.
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/18301-diy-dwc-cannabis-growing.html

i am growing 1 plant in a 3 gal roughneck and it is barely big enough to house 1 . i dont think it will work. there is a pic in my g.j. of the roots i think no just a pic of the plant its the one covered in white plastic

Buy two brand new five gallon paint buckets with lids at Home Depot.

Go to WalMart and go to the aquarium section. Buy one, dual outlet air pump. Two six-inch air stones. A package of air lines.

Go to your local hydro store. Buy two, three-inch net pots. A small package of GrowRocks. A slab of one-inch RockWool. One quart of General Hydrophonics "Micro." One quart of General Hydophonics "Bloom." The "Micro" is brown in color and the "Bloom" is red. DON'T let the hydro guy talk you into anything else ... the two nutes are all your gonna need.

Drill a 2 7/8 hole in the center of each paint bucket lid.

Drill a small hole in the side of each bucket near the top.

Put one airstone into the bottom of each bucket.

Connect the air lines to the pump and run the line through the small hole you drilled near the top of the bucket.

Place the netpot into the hole in the lid.

Fill the bucket with nutrient solution until the level is just about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the net pot.

Put your rooted seedling or rooted cutting, which should be rooted in the one-inch RockWool, into the netpot and fill it with the GrowRocks. Cover the top of the RockWool too to avoid creation of algae.

Now, plug the pump in ... and you'll see that the airstones create bubbles that break on the surface of the solution keeping the bottoms of the netpots wet. That's all the moisture your plants will need. The roots will grow down into the solution and eventually fill the bucket.

Here's the solution mix;

Always use a 2 to 1 ratio.

For newly rooted seedlings and cuttings:

2.5ml "Micro" per gallon and 5ml "Bloom" per gallon

once they get going well, use:

5ml "Micro" per gallon and 10ml "Bloom" per gallon.

For flowering:

8ml "Micro" per gallon and 16ml "Bloom" per gallon. Use this ratio all the way through flowering.

As the solution is used up by the plants, or lost through evaporation, just top up with PLAIN water. Once you've replaced the original amount of the solution with plain water, dump the buckets and mix up a new nutrient solution using the ratios I've given you.

This is called the Deep Water Culture (DWC) method of hydro growing. If done right, with proper lighting and attention to your environment, you will get a great harvest for a little bit of money and effort.

That's it in a nutshell.

Vi

ViRedd said:

Buy two brand new five gallon paint buckets with lids at Home Depot.

Go to WalMart and go to the aquarium section. Buy one, dual outlet air pump. Two six-inch air stones. A package of air lines.

Go to your local hydro store. Buy two, three-inch net pots. A small package of GrowRocks. A slab of one-inch RockWool. One quart of General Hydrophonics "Micro." One quart of General Hydophonics "Bloom." The "Micro" is brown in color and the "Bloom" is red. DON'T let the hydro guy talk you into anything else ... the two nutes are all your gonna need.

Drill a 2 7/8 hole in the center of each paint bucket lid.

Drill a small hole in the side of each bucket near the top.

Put one airstone into the bottom of each bucket.

Connect the air lines to the pump and run the line through the small hole you drilled near the top of the bucket.

Place the netpot into the hole in the lid.

Fill the bucket with nutrient solution until the level is just about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the net pot.

Put your rooted seedling or rooted cutting, which should be rooted in the one-inch RockWool, into the netpot and fill it with the GrowRocks. Cover the top of the RockWool too to avoid creation of algae.

Now, plug the pump in ... and you'll see that the airstones create bubbles that break on the surface of the solution keeping the bottoms of the netpots wet. That's all the moisture your plants will need. The roots will grow down into the solution and eventually fill the bucket.

Here's the solution mix;

Always use a 2 to 1 ratio.

For newly rooted seedlings and cuttings:

2.5ml "Micro" per gallon and 5ml "Bloom" per gallon

once they get going well, use:

5ml "Micro" per gallon and 10ml "Bloom" per gallon.

For flowering:

8ml "Micro" per gallon and 16ml "Bloom" per gallon. Use this ratio all the way through flowering.

As the solution is used up by the plants, or lost through evaporation, just top up with PLAIN water. Once you've replaced the original amount of the solution with plain water, dump the buckets and mix up a new nutrient solution using the ratios I've given you.

This is called the Deep Water Culture (DWC) method of hydro growing. If done right, with proper lighting and attention to your environment, you will get a great harvest for a little bit of money and effort.

That's it in a nutshell.

Vi

Click to expand...

thank you for all the great info! My only concern is size. As I mentioned my cab is only 23" wide, 11.75" deep and 68" tall. So I need a smaller hydro system. Could I still get decent results with a smaller system?

two of the plants here are in a DWC hydro setup that i used as a trial run with hydro before I invested a lot of money in my new setup. But the two plants share a gallon Tupperware container are growing well. So I think a larger 3 gallon setup would work fine. Oh all the plants are clones so you can see the diff between hydro and soil .