The Official Hempy Bucket Thread

[zor]

The answer to your questions are yes, ...yes there have been noobs who have thought to add airstones and yes it is redundant and un-necessary.
Peace, SOG

Anybody have any links or side by side's with an airstone hempy bucket vs non airstone? I understand that hempy used to get quite grumpy when anybody tried to tinker with the system but I have yet to find anyone who has actually tried this despite the rhetoric of 'an airstone is not necesary'.

EVen if the airstone is not necesary to grow dank plants, I'm curious as to the effects or lack there of.

In one of my runs, i used cement mixing tubs as a coco/perlite hempy bed sog with an airstone in the bottom of the perlite. That run got me the most yield of any hempy grow. However, because there were too many variables I can't claim the airstone had anything to do wiht it. That being said, after seeing the growth rate of non aerated hempy buckets, it seemed quite apparant to me that the growth rate was more hydro like with the airstone.

It makes sense logically to me that aerating the internal res would result in faster growing plants.

Just like in Soma's sog beds where he uses pvc under the beds to increase o2 at the root zone (even though its not necesary as people grow dank all the time in beds with no pvc), there might be some improvement in the hempy bucket growth, despite it violating the simplicity rule.

In order to further illustrate this. Picture an undercurrent system of fast hydro with a perlite bucket sumberged 2 inches into the system. This is essentially an extreme version of 'hempy + airstone' concept. It would be hard to imagine that this system would not outyield a traditional hempy bucket.

Any one have any insights to share about this?

 

[Graham Purwatt]

what Graham said makes sense ...

lol,i misread dubs post.i took it that all the plants were of equal size despite the different size containers. what sg said makes better sense.the 5's had more room to keep going

 

[OpiO]

Hello hempyfriends

Hello hempyfriends

first off:
hello to you hempy growers out there

this is going to be my first hempy grow. ive have been growing soil, coco, nft ... always with decent results.

i got 16 2,5gal white buckets, which will be wraped in black foil to get the roots light protection.
the tent is 4x4x7 ft. powered by 600w

strain will be casey jones. those rw clones will grow first in a 16oz party buckets with 100% perlit till they are ready to be transplanted.

yet, iam not sure what to aim for.

iam thinking of trying a side by side grow->

8 buckets with 100% perlit, the other 8 with 50/50 perlit/coco.

perhaps 2 of each with an airstone on the bottom of the bucket, cause i got two air pumps laying around..

questions:

- has someone got experience with piranah or other beneficials in hempy buckets?

- use of enzymes? better permanent with every feeding or just for flushes ? i got AN sensizym

- nuts: i wanted to go for GHE Biosevia, cause i like it since i got nice results with it in other grows. anyone tried biosevia in hempys ?
if not, i go for GHE FLORA DUO or MAXIBLOOM with Lucas formula

hope to get some imput from some hempy pros here..

every advice welcome

cheers, opi

 

[dubwise]

Fellas----thanks! They were vegged for the same length of time. I'm wondering if once they were flipped that the ones in the bigger pots had a little time to pack on a few more roots. I wonder if there is a method to judge what you'll get on top to what you've got going on down below...haha..that's kinda funny....but you know what I mean.
Hey Opio-welcome. FWIW-I had horrible results going from RW to hempy buckets. I couldn't get the moisture evaporation/retention correct and kept drowning my girls. Making the switch to rapid rooters was pivotal for me. Also, I directly sew my seeds in the medium and transplant them only once into their final pot at 4w from germination. This all but eliminates transplant shock and the issues which can come from that. I use the KISS method and liquid karma for cloning. WAY cheaper and works just as well. Put your coins in the genes and not in the companies coffers.
I may be wrong (please help out if you can) but I thought that the beneficial enzymes didn't help out in hempy buckets because the medium is inert. I thought that the enzymes did more within soil or water but I may be 10,000% wrong. Hope this helps.

 

[geoponics13]

taged

 

[OpiO]

thx dubwise,i dont know if the RW is that bad in my case, the cubes are only 1/2"x 1" big, cant drown anything in there.enzymes for sure act more potentially in soil, but in the res they would also eat up dead material which will be washed down from fushing or just feeding the girls from above.. inert, yes, but you use enzymes also in aero or coco.i think the enzymes will just "die" faster when there is no organic stucture , cause they cant reproduce themselfs or just die cause there is no "food" left if they have eaten up the dead material.but what to use if not enzymes, iam afraid of root rot a lot ( i know this is the biggest fear of noobs when switching to hempys)is h2o2 an option ? and for the nuts . i think i will go for Flora Duo or MAXIBLOOM, cause iam afraid of ph fluction when using Biosevia. and using Biosevia is just impossible to measure EC...thx in advance,opi

 

[someotherguy]

High folks, first let me say that I only made the switch to coco hempy-buckets about 2 - 3 months ago so I don't have a vast wealth of personal experience but I HAVE read most of this thread as well as Dalaihempy's thread and several coco threads, ...anyway I believe gaiusmarius suggests using an enzyme product in coco if you plan on reusing your media.

...btw, I wish I had discovered hempy growing years ago and I don't know why everyone doesn't grow this way, ...i have been using 35.5 ounce Folgers coffee cans as my buckets with perlite in the res and straight coco for the rest and I have been feeding straight Maxibloom (seen you in that thread too brother dubwise, lol) with Silica Blast as my ph up and the growth has been phenonenal, ...just fucking awesome!

Anyway, I don't see me EVER growing ANY other way, the results are just too good and it is the easiest way to grow I have ever tried.

Peace, SOG

...i also now do my cloning in straight coco and that has turned out to be as easy as pie, ...almost as easy as falling off a log, lol. ...fortunately, my clone factory continues to provide an environment conducive to rooting, I was a bit worried because I designed it around the ice-tube-tray cloners that i've used for the last couple of years but my worries are over and my cuts root with ease.

 

[OpiO]

...i have been using 35.5 ounce Folgers coffee cans as my buckets with perlite in the res and straight coco for the rest

with no layer between ? how do you prevent the coco from above to be flushed down into the res... cant imaging that with the coco i got here, far too fine grained..

did you try 100% perlit too ?


cheers , opi

 

[someotherguy]

with no layer between ? how do you prevent the coco from above to be flushed down into the res... cant imaging that with the coco i got here, far too fine grained..

did you try 100% perlit too ?


cheers , opi

Yeah, what I did was poke a drainage hole 1.5inchs up from the bottom of the plastic Folgers 'can', (i use a soldering iron to poke holes in plastic containors) then I fill the bottom with perlite up to that drainage hole, then I just pack moist coco on top of the perlite and then I pot my clones up into the moist coco.

...i did much research and decided the coco was superior to perlite and vermiculite, it gives me the simplicity of soil an no, the coco does not run into the res.

Peace, SOG.

 

[Lowman]

I know alot of people worry bout coco in the rez...even Hempy himself thinks the coco chould get too waterlogged if it's coco from top to bottom in the Hempy bucket.....But I don't have an issue with coco throughout the whole bucket.

I don't cut my canna or B'cuzz coco with anything either. I have never been able to over water a plant yet in coco with the exception of baby plants that need a few extra days between waterings.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

no shit? do you use the fine ground or piece coir? the biggest pain in my ass is cleaning my rocks i use for the res out every month.if i can get by without those my life would be so much easier.how long have you been running that way?

 

[dubwise]

@SOG-isn't KISS the best stuff ever?!? What a huge benefit to reduce overall input cost and suffer NO loss. Switching over to that and changing to vert have revolutionized my little garden.

I wouldn't mind giving the coco a try....and I do believe that the enzymes would help out more in coco than in the "standard mix". As of right now, I have TONS (not actual tons) of hydroton so I'm using it to see if I can get what I want out of the medium. I'm thinking that with a mix of 60/perlite 20/vermiculite 20/hydroton I can achieve a stronger stem which would allow more nutrient to flow, supporting larger branches ending in larger buds. Lots & lots of plants have passed through these walls and the only real gainer is time (for me) but you do get to a point of diminishing return. So if the goal is enhance what you've got, I'm leaning towards adding something to the medium to allow more for the roots to grab on to. Does this make sense or am I just babbling? I'm okay with your honesty

 

[Warped1]

Yeah you were babbling, but it's cool dub. You know I seem to recall Hempy saying he was working with coco in some of his last posts in this thread. I'll have to go back and take a look. Peace folks.

 

[dubwise]

hahah! I do that a lot so it seems.....like this one time, at band camp, we were blazing up this real mellow bud and the man was screaming...and-a one and-a two and-a three...nevermind. Babbling again.
I seem to think you're right warped1...He did say he was doing some work with coco before he vanished and I'm sure he perfected it. It would be cool to see some results.

 

[Lowman]

I use the finer grind of coco. Canna, B'Cuzz are both about the same grind. I have been running without anything other than coco in the rez for a few years now.

no shit? do you use the fine ground or piece coir? the biggest pain in my ass is cleaning my rocks i use for the res out every month.if i can get by without those my life would be so much easier.how long have you been running that way?

 

[Graham Purwatt]

damn lowman,i'll have to try it then if you've done it that long.that would save me sooo much work not having to put rocks in the res or clean them everytime i finish a grow. i thank you sir from the very bottom of my heart

 

[someotherguy]

@SOG-isn't KISS the best stuff ever?!? What a huge benefit to reduce overall input cost and suffer NO loss. Switching over to that and changing to vert have revolutionized my little garden.

Right on man! I love the simplicity, no more ml's of this and ml's of that, just a teaspoon per gallon, balance the ph and away we go! ...and being able to feed ALL my plants the same formula makes everything so much freekin' easier, ...and ALL my plants are just lovin' the new juice, lol.

I wouldn't mind giving the coco a try....and I do believe that the enzymes would help out more in coco than in the "standard mix". As of right now, I have TONS (not actual tons) of hydroton so I'm using it to see if I can get what I want out of the medium. I'm thinking that with a mix of 60/perlite 20/vermiculite 20/hydroton I can achieve a stronger stem which would allow more nutrient to flow, supporting larger branches ending in larger buds. Lots & lots of plants have passed through these walls and the only real gainer is time (for me) but you do get to a point of diminishing return. So if the goal is enhance what you've got, I'm leaning towards adding something to the medium to allow more for the roots to grab on to. Does this make sense or am I just babbling? I'm okay with your honesty

Yeah, i'm using the perlite more because I still have a butt-load of it left over (i was growing organic soil before switching to hempy's) but once I run out of the perlite ima gonna start using the hydroton I have from my forays into DWC, I figure it'll be easier to clean and seperate out for re-use after harvest.

...btw, like you, K.I.S.S. has revolutionized my garden and i'm in the process of gathering equipment to set up a 600watt vertical stadium inside my brand new DR120 Secret Jardin which I expect to truely carry my grow to the next level, but I have to say that hempy growing, especially with coco, has been just as revolutionary for me, it's just so much easier in every way and all my plants are so happy and vigorous, I can't keep up, lol, what a problem, hunh?

(and don't sweat the ramblin' brother, I suffer periodic bouts of verbal diarhea myself so a little ramblin' is fine by me, lol)

Yeah you were babbling, but it's cool dub. You know I seem to recall Hempy saying he was working with coco in some of his last posts in this thread. I'll have to go back and take a look. Peace folks.

High man, heres a link to the Dalaihempy's own coco thread, I think you'll enjoy the read.

Dalaihempy's coco thread

Frankly i'm an old phucker and a disabled veteran so I have the time to research the hell out of a topic before I make any changes and being poor means i'll be married to any changes I DO make so I spent a LOT of time reading up on growing and cloning in coco and the last few months since making the switch has made me a true believer, now I grow in coco hempy's and clone in straight coco and I couldn't be more pleased, my clones root with ease and all my plants are growing beyond my control, I NEED that tent, NOW! ...lol.

Peace, SOG

 

[dubwise]

I'm feeling the pull of coco. Thanks for posting the link sog

 

[Lowman]

damn lowman,i'll have to try it then if you've done it that long.that would save me sooo much work not having to put rocks in the res or clean them everytime i finish a grow. i thank you sir from the very bottom of my heart

NP man. I tried lava rocks in the bottom once....really hated emtying out the buckets and pulling those rocks apart after harvest.

I am running an experiment right now with different mixes of coco. 6 Napalm plants from the same mother....same size....planted in Hempy's at the same time.

3 different brands of straight coco, one 50/50 coco/perlite, one reused coco, and one pure perlite.

I'm about a week or so away from flowering. It's really a three horse race at this point. The buckets with only MG prefed coco and B'cuzz coco are tied with the pure canna coco a close third. The pure perlite is probably forth...but shows a few calcium issues. The reused and 50/50 are lagging behind a bit. The reused coco is doing the worst.

I plan on a few more tests in future reruns regarding coco with bucket styles and to add or not to add things like lava rocks to the rez.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

ive only ever ran them with straight perlite, a mix of fine and piece coco coir with rock in the bottom and a mix of perlite and coco with rocks in the bottom.the coco without perlite always seemed to be the winner,less watering,less issues period but never a side by side.i'm about to get started running straight coco again since you say i don't need the rocks.i'm going to do piece coir in the res and and fine coir on top of that. the rocks do suck to clean