in this episode we're going to be building a self-watering 5 gallon bucket if you're like me and so many other people you may be hesitant about gardening because you don't know how much to water your plants the really nice thing with self-watering sub-irrigated buckets is that you don't have to worry about giving your plants the right amount of water they'll control that themselves all you need to do is make sure that the bottom reservoir has water and your plants and your soil will do the rest so let's take a quick look at how this system works this system works by stacking two five gallon buckets on top of each other the top bucket acts as a growing chamber for the plant while the bottom bucket acts as a water reservoir a fill port runs from the top bucket down into the bottom bucket and is used to fill the bottom bucket with water a drain tube is located in the bottom bucket to prevent the bucket from overfilling with water a cup with several holes drilled in it is filled with soil then it's placed in a hole in the bottom of the top bucket and it's used to wick water up into the grow chamber the top bucket has several drain holes drilled in the bottom of it and it's lined with perlite the perlite acts as a filter and keeps soil from draining back down into the bottom bucket i've used these buckets for entire growing seasons and opened them up to find there was almost no soil in the bottom of the bucket and that is awesome for keeping the fill and drain lines clog free if you notice in this diagram there's an air gap between the water line and the bottom bucket and the bottom of the top bucket this air gap provides additional airflow and aeration to the root zone of the plants that are growing in this type of system to fill this system with water you simply add water into the fill port until it starts coming out of the drain port even if your plant's exposed to heavy rain that rain will drain through the soil into the bottom bucket and out the drain tube now that we know how this system works it's time to gather up some materials and get started you're gonna need two five gallon buckets next you're going to need a cup with a lip personally i like the one quart paint mixing cups that you can get from places like lowe's or home depot they work really well they have a strong lip and the cup is pretty heavy duty itself that's important because we're going to be drilling a bunch of holes in it if you use a cheap cup as soon as you start drilling holes the cup will probably tear up next thing we need a 18 to 24 inch section of one inch pvc pipe along with a three inch section of half inch irrigation tube next you're going to want a one inch rubber grommet this is totally optional i use a grommet so that i have a tight seal around the drain line but it's not really necessary i just like it you're going to need a 3 16 and a quarter inch or 5 16 inch drill bit a drill a one inch and one and one quarter inch hole saw if you're not going to use a rubber grommet all you'll need is a half inch and a one and a quarter inch hole saw you're also going to need a permanent marker a tape measure four self-tapping screws and a bit driver along with a jigsaw or a razor blade i personally use a jigsaw to cut the large hole in the top bucket that the cup goes in if you don't have a jigsaw don't worry about it you can use something like a box cutter or other heavy duty razor blade i don't recommend using craft razors like this one they're too weak irrigation tubing can be cut with razor blades or scissors and you can cut the pvc pipe with a hacksaw miter saw or anything else you have that might work okay now that we know what materials we need let's start building first i'm going to take the top bucket flip it over set the cup on top of it and draw the outline of the cup to do this i hold the cup upside down on the bucket and draw an outline with my permanent marker once i've got the outline drawn i take the cup off the bucket and draw a smaller outline inside the first outline it's not perfect but i try to make it about a quarter inch smaller than the original outline just keep in mind it's better to have a hole that's too small than to have a hole that's too big otherwise your cup's gonna fall through the top bucket and it'll be pretty much useless now that the outline's drawn i'm gonna take my quarter inch drill bit and drill a pilot hole that the jig saw blade will fit through once the hole is drilled it's time to cut out the hole for the cup take your time here and try not to cut beyond that inner outline that you just made if you're using a razor blade make several shallow scouring passes because if you try to cut it all at once your cuts won't be accurate and it's going to be really hard to cut once the hole is cut test the fit now that the cup's in the bucket it's easy to see why that lips important it supports the cup and it's going to help the bucket drain better next drill several holes into the cup with a 3 16 inch drill bit these holes will allow the soil and the cup to wick water up from the bottom bucket up into the top bucket also you're going to want to drill five or six holes around the lip of the cup that'll help the top bucket drain better now take that same 3 16 inch drill bit and drill 10 to 12 drain holes in the bottom of the top bucket make sure you leave one area open so you'll have room to drill a hole for the fill port with your hole saw with a one and a quarter inch hole saw drill a hole in the top bucket for the fill port the center of the hole saw you know where the drill bit is should be around two inches away from the edge of the bucket one inch pvc pipe is slightly larger than the diameter of that inch and a quarter hole saw and that's perfect because what that's going to do is make a really tight friction fit and that's exactly what we want you can see here when i test fit the pvc pipe it's really tight no soil or perlite or anything is going to be slipping past that seal that tight seal is also really handy when it comes time to fit the top bucket onto the bottom bucket because that pvc pipe will basically hold the top bucket in position while we screw it okay go ahead and set the top bucket aside because next we're going to be working on the bottom bucket measure up three inches from the bottom of the bucket and make a mark with your marker this marks the spot where you're going to be drilling the drain hole if you're using a grommet grab a one inch hole saw if you're not using a grommet grab a half inch hole saw center the bit of the hole saw on the mark you just made and cut the drain hole if you're using a grommet go ahead and install it now once you finish that up have fun sitting back and watching how hard i had to struggle to get mine in sometimes rolling a small screwdriver along the inside rim of the grommet will help it get seated better next install the half inch drain tube make sure that the tube is bending down if it's bending up you're going to allow more water to build up inside the bucket than you want with the drain tube installed it's time to test fit the top and bottom buckets so we can mark the height of the fill port to do this you want to lower the top bucket into the bottom bucket until the bottom of the cup almost touches the bottom of the bottom bucket then you want to mark a line on the fill port that's roughly three to four inches above the top of the bucket go ahead and remove the fill port from the bucket and cut along the line you just marked once you've cut the fill port to length drill a couple holes in it with a quarter inch drill bit these holes will help make sure that you get water to the bottom bucket even if the pvc pipe gets clogged on the end that's not really going to be an issue though because we'll account for that when it's time to assemble the buckets install the fill port back into the top bucket make sure the drain holes you just drilled are facing down into the bottom bucket and slide the top bucket back onto the bottom bucket i've always oriented the fill port to where it's on the opposite side of the bucket from the drain line but it actually makes way more sense to me to have the fill port close to the drain line so you know when the bucket is full and starts draining with the top bucket on the bottom bucket go ahead and push the fill tube on down through the top bucket a little more until the bottom of the fill tube reaches the bottom of the bottom bucket once you've done that slide the top bucket down into the bottom bucket until the bottom of the cup almost touches the bottom of the bottom bucket this is where we want the top bucket to be positioned the fill tube will help hold the top bucket in place while you screw it into position i like to install the first screw on the opposite side of the bucket from where the fill tube is that way the fill tube and this first screw will hold the top bucket in place the last screw to be installed will be the screw that goes through both buckets and into the fill port before you install the fill port screw pull the fill port up a few inches from the bottom of the bottom bucket this will help prevent it from getting clogged later on with the bucket secured it's time to create the bottom layer of perlite in the top bucket this layer of perlite only needs to be the same thickness as the thickness of the rim of the cup once the layer of perlite has been added it's time to fill the cup and the bucket with potting soil my favorite potting soil is ocean forest from fox farm it has a nice amount of perlite added to it that helps promote good aeration and helps reduce soil compaction but honestly you can use any kind of potting soil that you like go ahead and fill the bucket with soil until the soil is about three inches from the top of the bucket now we're ready to transplant to start remove soil from the bucket just like you would for any other transplant into a container when you've removed enough soil for the transplant go ahead and put it in the bucket and fill in around it with the soil that you just took out this is a mini bell pepper plant that i grew from seed indoors prior to transplanting it i let it harden off for about a week outside to allow it to acclimate to the outdoor temperatures and the sunlight once your plant's in position it's time to fill the lower reservoir with water to do this simply add water to the fill port until it starts coming out of the drain port now that we've got water coming out of the drain port and the reservoir is full it's time to fully soak the soil in the bucket until the bucket starts draining again once the bucket starts draining the soil is fully saturated with water this is a really important step because it primes the soil so that it can wick water from the reservoir as the soil begins to dry if you skip this step the bucket won't work right take your time soaking the soil if you hit it with a higher pressure blast of water it will displace and compact the soil instead go with a light soaking pressure if you're using a garden sprayer it's like the mist or rain setting that'll keep from tearing your soil up do that for several minutes to make sure that the soil is good and wet once it's wet enough it will start draining out of the drain tube if for some reason your plant looks starved for water after a few days you may need to re-wet the soil more thoroughly normally as long as you've done a good job with the initial soaking this won't be an issue but just in case it is now you know just re-wet that soil really good and your bucket should start wicking on its own also within about a week the soil at the top of the bucket should begin forming that protective crust and that like i said earlier is going to help keep insects from trying to move in if you found this video helpful i'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button and subscribe to my channel if you have any questions you can ask them in the comments or you can contact me directly at happyhydrofarm.com you