GEN 2: 8 Ball Kush - Send in the clones!

EDIT: Was just convinced to go full perlite-only in the buckets. Which means I'll either need to start a pair of 3rd gen clones for the buckets off the clones I have now, or just flower the clones I have now in the pails they are in and start new seeds in the new buckets. Things are going well. Slow, controlled grow. I topped plant A about 4 days ago, and topped plant B today. (you don't HAVE to top to make LST work, I'm just doing it to a) be able to spiral out 2 main colas on each plant and b) temporarily slow the growth even more. Flushed both plants midway through the weekly cycle, then today I flushed again right before watering with nutrients. "Still" waiting on the last part to build my still... They really did put it on the slowboat. I'm super excited about my new 4-gallon buckets!! Thanks to someone on here who discussed grow methods with me, I was able to build a kind-of hybrid (two actually, one for each clone) hempy bucket. I'll be manually watering. Normally you fill them with perlite, cut a hole in the lid of the bucket, and use rockwool in the perlite to germinate -- but if you do that without a proper hydro pump setup, you'll be manually watering at least twice a day. So I'll fill about 1/2 of the bucket with pure perlite, then the rest of the bucket with a soil/perlite mix which will a) hold down the perlite on the bottom without needing to mangle a perfectly good lid and b) give me a good amount of water retention so I can water every other day or so and c) provide the micro-nutrients that only come standard in soil. The idea is that there's about a 3" reservoir of water held back in the perlite below the spigot. The plant will grow roots down to the perlite, where it can sip from the reservoir without drowning. From what I understand, it should get used to this reservoir being constantly there and just dip some root tips into it rather than burying down into it and drowning. This will supposedly cause the plants to need to grow less roots to reach water as well, meaning I can grow bigger plants with less overall volume. PRIMARILY, though, I'm doing this so I don't have to pull the plants out of the tent any more!!!! I'm growing tired of having to lift them out twice a week without breaking them, then put them back soaked with water without breaking them, after spending an hour letting them drain. Just hook up the hose into a container and open the valve, pour in the water, come back an hour later and close the valve! Should be interesting! :)