How to Build an Ebb & Flow Grow Box

Mark a spot on each 5-gallon plastic bucket, 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch above the base. Slide a 1/2-inch grommet into each hole from the outside, and a barbed connector from the inside. Insert the ends of a 60-inch piece of plastic tubing into the connectors.

Pour 2 inches of gravel over the base of one of the buckets, which you will use as the planter. Do not pour gravel into the second bucket, which is the reservoir.

Measure the opening of the bucket. Transfer the measurements on a sheet of fiberglass window screen. Cut 1/4 inch within the outline so it fits snugly over the gravel in the bucket. Dry-fit the screen into the bucket, trimming its edges as necessary. This screen filters the nutrient solution and keeps the growing medium from passing through and entering the reservoir.

Set the planter bucket on the table and pour a soaked growing medium into it, directly above the screen, until it is 1 inch from the top. Tamp the growing medium to level it and remove trapped air pockets. Using a hand trowel, make holes and plant your desired seedlings in the growing medium.

Set the bucket for the reservoir on the ground, directly under the planter. Pour water into the reservoir and mix the hydroponic nutrient growing solution into it, according to the instructions on the packet. Check the pH level of the nutrient solution with the pH indicator provided with the growing solution, and adjust it, if necessary, according to the pH of the plant you want to grow. Most nutrient solution kits include a list of common plant pH values.

Place the air pump into the bucket with the solution. Connect one end of a length of flexible 1/4-inch plastic tube to an air stone and its other end to the pump. The length of the tube should match the distance between the table and the ground.

Put the reservoir on the table next to the planter when you want to feed your plants, so the nutrient solution flows through the plastic tube and into the planter. Lower the reservoir after three minutes so that excess nutrient solution drains back into it through the tube. Follow this pattern of feeding plants every other day.