- Hey everyone, this is Nate Storey with Bright Agrotech,
and we're really excited today to talk about bato buckets.
As you know, towers are great for herbs, for greens,
for those short statured crops, they're one of the best ways
in the world to grow those, but if you're talking about
vining crops, things like tomatoes, hops,
cucumbers, eggplant, larger statured crops,
you really need to be using a different technique.
And that's why we're talking about bato buckets today.
So now we're going to hand this off to Reuben,
he's going to show you guys how to set these systems up.
If you have any questions, make sure that you leave them
in the comment section below.
- Hey this is Reuben with Bright Agrotech,
and today we're going to show you how to build
an eight bucket bato bucket system.
Now the only thing we don't show you in this video
is how to build the table itself.
Which what we did, is we took a two by eight sheet
of melamine, put it on some two by fours
and cut down the legs on this side,
so our drainage line would drain to the reservoir.
So let's get started.
- [Voiceover] The things you're gonna need for this system
is eight buckets, and they should come with eight
drain fittings.
A reservoir of your liking, which we ended up
switching out to a 15 gallon white reservoir,
a pump, about 20 feet of half inch poly or vinyl tubing,
a roll of quarter inch poly tubing,
a 10 foot stick of one and one half inch PVC tubing
with an elbow and end cap.
You'll need a half inch drain valve,
and about 16 two-gallon drip emitters,
two pipe clamps,
and some zip ties.
Oh, and some two-inch binder clips.
So now what you're gonna wanna do
is you're gonna wanna cut your PVC down to eight feet.
Leaving a couple extra inches so you can fit your end cap
and your elbow on the ends.
Make sure your PVC fits on the table.
Once we know it fits, we'll grab our first bato bucket.
So you're gonna place your bato bucket near the edge
of the table.
Once you find a good spot, grab a marker and add a mark.
From there we'll grab a tape measure and we'll measure
one foot and we'll add seven more marks.
Now you're gonna wanna grab a drill
and at three fourths, to inch hole saw
and drill out those eight marks.
Next, you're gonna wanna PVC cement and prime
your end cap and elbow, making sure that all your holes
are facing up when you put on the elbow.
Next we're gonna set all our buckets on the system.
Then what we'll do is we'll drill out a couple holes
on each side to put some zip ties
to make sure our drain line stays in place.
You can also use one and one half inch conduit clamping
instead of zip ties.
Next we're gonna take our half inch vinyl tubing,
clamping it down with binder clips to each bucket.
Once you have your irrigation line set out,
we're gonna take an eighth inch drill bit
and drill out 16 holes on each side of the binder clips.
These holes are where we will be placing
our two-gallon drip emitters.
Next, we'll take the end of our irrigation line,
cut it, and add on our release valve.
This is good for if you ever want to drain
your reservoir or flush your system.
Now let's take the fourth inch poly tubing
and cut out 16 pieces at five inches.
These pieces will center our irrigation
so it drips directly over our plants.
Next, we'll clamp down our pump
to the start of our irrigation line.
Now that we have all the pieces together,
it's time to test out the system.
We wanna do this before we set any media in
so we can make sure it works.
Once we know our system is working,
it is time to fill up each bucket with the media
of your liking.
What we went with is perlite and clay pebbles.
The first thing you're gonna wanna do
is add clay pebbles to the bottom.
This will act as a filter so none of the perlite
ends up clogging the drain.
Next, add in your perlite, making sure you get close
but not to the top, 'cause we're gonna add one more layer
and this will be of clay pebbles so our perlite
doesn't end up blowing around from the wind.
- Awesome, so that's pretty much it,
so if you have any questions or anything,
please let us know.
Most of the stuff now is sold on our store,
so there should be a link above me,
that will take you there.
And if you're interested in us showing you
how to build a table like this, please leave a comment.
And as always, please subscribe and thanks for watching.