The Official Hempy Bucket Thread

[Spanishwilly]

Hi Spanishwilly (lol funny name). Me and my crew plant rooted clones in small hempy cups then xplant into their final buckets. After a week or so we notice great growth. Take a look at this...

(Carefully get the rooted clone out of the cup, without damaging the roots. Nice roots huh?)

(TIP: use the hempy cup to create a hole in the medium, them plant clone into final bucket)

Works for me and my crew. Hope this helps.

Wow, nice roots is right! And right to the bottom of the cups too. You use a touch of perlite from what I can see from your pics right?
Umm, do you take them out of the styrofoam cups wet or dry?
Thanks, this is great.
SW

 

[grassott's dad]

Wet or dry, it dont matter. Straight after xplant they get watered anyways. The above run are in 1gal buckets, the smallest size buckets recommended by Hempy himself. My mate found the buckets in a skip so we thought we'd try them out. Save on medium as well as for shits and giggles.

 

[grassott's dad]

...You use a touch of perlite from what I can see from your pics right?
Umm, do you take them out of the styrofoam cups wet or dry?
Thanks, this is great.
SW

You can plant in pure perl, perl/verm, coco (with rez area filled with perl) what ever rocks your boat mate. Seriously, it's sooo easy. Benn doin this for ages. I can do it blind folded lol. Piece of p1ss mate

 

[grassott's dad]

Didnt see that anyone else have had this. So theres some green stuff on perlite. Some sort of fungus?

Just algae. It's absolutely harmless. I get it on my perlite all the time mate. Honestly. Just make sure you got your light, water and air dialled in and you'll be laughing when it's time to harvest

 

[Jellyfish]

Put a layer of hydroton on top of the hempy mix, and a) you will have less algae, b) it's easier to water without disturbing the perlite, and c) it looks better.

 

[Spanishwilly]

You can plant in pure perl, perl/verm, coco (with rez area filled with perl) what ever rocks your boat mate. Seriously, it's sooo easy. Benn doin this for ages. I can do it blind folded lol. Piece of p1ss mate

Sorry, I meant coco. You seem to have mixed a bit of coco into the perlite is what I meant to say. Thanks again matey. Keep posting so you can send/receive private messages soon.

 

[Bobbo4200]

If I were to use a 2.5 to 3 gallon bucket, with a 400w HPS light-what do you think my yield would be? How long do you veg in these things? Can she keep herself upright, in these things?? Thanks guys

 

[Jellyfish]

If I were to use a 2.5 to 3 gallon bucket, with a 400w HPS light-what do you think my yield would be?

Too many other variables to say.

How long do you veg in these things?

Long as you want. People keep mother plants in hempys for years.

Can she keep herself upright, in these things??

Hard to believe maybe, but yes. There wouldn't be a 157 page thread about a method that didn't work, now would there?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Anyone happen to know how far up 75% perlite and 25% vermiculite will wick nutes in a 4" pvc column?

Would LOVE to hear from someone that's already done the tests... I don't have any pvc to spare in testing. Planning on capping the end and drilling a hole.... tall hempy.

Thanks and....

Stay Safe!

 

[Jellyfish]

Why? You want long roots? What will that do for you except shorten your growing space?

 

[Maddhatter]

i think hs was looking for more airspace within the root structure?

 

[Jellyfish]

A four inch diameter container is pretty small for a hempy bucket imho, but I guess you could make it 8 or 10 inches tall before it would become silly.

If the goal is more airspace (root space?), if it were me, I'd go with larger diameter containers. That means fewer plants, but they'll do better in the larger containers, and probably give you better grams per sq. ft. again, imho.

It would be interesting if someone has any more input on ideal bucket size to maximize grow space. Not just volume-wise, but going OUT (diameter) versus going UP (tall buckets). ***edit*** What I mean is optimal footprint size, and height for hempy bucket. Cheers!

 

[grassott's dad]

Sorry, I meant coco. You seem to have mixed a bit of coco into the perlite is what I meant to say. Thanks again matey. Keep posting so you can send/receive private messages soon.

Hi mate. I've never used coco. I use perl/verm 3:1. The reason why there's a drop of clay pellets in the above example is coz I tried hydroton at the bottom of the rez in a previous grow. Waste of time really. No difference in yield or taste IME.

If I were to use a 2.5 to 3 gallon bucket, with a 400w HPS light-what do you think my yield would be? How long do you veg in these things? Can she keep herself upright, in these things?? Thanks guys

I too use 400w HPS in flower. Can't guess your results but I average about 4+ zips in 3gal buckets using Hempy's basic instructions at the beginning of this thread. I'm still working on ways to increase my yields. Others get more than 4+ zips and others get way less.

I also fim and prune/defoliate to get me multiple colas. Much depends on your experience and common sense. Gotta do it right.

I grow perpetual without keeping mothers. (Gonna pop some Mr Nice seeds soon though. I wanna Afghan Haze male to cross with my Shiva Shanti II. We got plans to give breeding a go). My veg time (from day of cutting - 1st day of 12/12) is about 10 weeks. Same as flower time basically.

And can she keep herself upright?...

What do you think lol? You might need some bamboo to tie up the massive colas.

Anyone happen to know how far up 75% perlite and 25% vermiculite will wick nutes in a 4" pvc column?

Any reason why you wanna deviate???

i think hs was looking for more airspace within the root structure?

I dunno why he'd wanna deviate lol.

Happy Hempying everyone

 

[Hydro-Soil]

It would be interesting if someone has any more input on ideal bucket size to maximize grow space. Not just volume-wise, but going OUT (diameter) versus going UP (tall buckets). ***edit*** What I mean is optimal footprint size, and height for hempy bucket. Cheers!

Yes... it would.

I figure a 12" tall container will hold about a gallon of medium. I've found that with the 25% vermiculite.... nutes wick up pretty damn far.

At this point it's a CHEAP bucket source... and 4" pvc is nearly 5" across... wider than you think. May take a minute for the roots to reach the res... but I know for sure the medium isn't going to dry out horribly wrong.

Thanks and....

Stay Safe!

 

[Jellyfish]

... and 4" pvc is nearly 5" across... wider than you think.

It's just a little wider than a 2-liter soda pop bottle. So, to make a container like that hold a gallon (Hempy says that's the minimum size for hempys), it would be around twenty inches tall (a two liter bottle is about ten inches high at the widest point.)

That starts to cut into vertical grow space for a lot of people. And then there's the question of how effectively does a hempy bucket that tall and slim work.

I see where you're going with this, let's figure this out, friends.

edit..........

p.s.- Hempy himself says in post #1 that he favors 10 liter buckets. To have 10 liter volume in a 5 inch round container, it would need to be about four feet tall!

 

[Hydro-Soil]

It's just a little wider than a 2-liter soda pop bottle. So, to make a container like that hold a gallon (Hempy says that's the minimum size for hempys), it would be around twenty inches tall (a two liter bottle is about ten inches high at the widest point.)

That starts to cut into vertical grow space for a lot of people. And then there's the question of how effectively does a hempy bucket that tall and slim work.

I see where you're going with this, let's figure this out, friends.

edit..........

p.s.- Hempy himself says in post #1 that he favors 10 liter buckets. To have 10 liter volume in a 5 inch round container, it would need to be about four feet tall!

I'm looking at something like a vertical sog with a 400w hps... 10 liters of medium is waay big for a single plant. 20" isn't too bad... the ceiling for this person is 9'. Nutes will definitely wick that far. At least with the 75%/25% perlite/vermiculite mix it will.

Anyone else have some input on this?

Stay Safe!

 

[Jellyfish]

I'm looking at something like a vertical sog with a 400w hps... 10 liters of medium is waay big for a single plant. 20" isn't too bad... Nutes will definitely wick that far. At least with the 75%/25% perlite/vermiculite mix it will.

Well, 10 liters is two and a half gallons. Doesn't seem "waay" to big, but you could go smaller, agreed.

You say the nutes will definitely wick that far, okay, maybe. But my point is, that any gram per watt advantage gained by using taller/narrower containers (and therefore more plants/containers per square inch of floor space), is going to be offset by putting the extra burden on the plants to reach water.

And, your reservoir is going to be much smaller if you put the hole two inches up, like the original hempy design. If you move the hole up, you might as well go ahead and use shorter containers.

As I said earlier, I think going UP is not so good an idea in your 5 inch diameter pvc pipe container beyond 10 or 12 inches height.

I could be wrong, it's just my POV.

 

[someotherguy]

High man, i'm relatively new to hempys myself, about 4 - 5 months, plus i've recently picked up a DR120, 4 x 4 tent and a 600HPS so i'm in the process of finding my ideal 'bucket' for an intended vertical SOG.

I'm still working out my ratios, as to container volume to number of containers, so no where near dialed in but here's a couple pics of my first harvest.

Anyway, this was a first on several levels, it was my first harvest grown in hempys, first grow in coco, first grow in a new tent under a new light, first time bare-bulb vertical and first time feeding K.I.S.S. style so, not to be droll but again, i'm nowhere near dialed in. ...lol.

...that first harvey yielded about 12 grams per and i'm trimming round 2 as I type so I can't be sure yet but it looks closer to a zip per 2liter 'bucket'.

...i've just flipped round 3 but this time i'm using 3liter soda bottles for a 30% bump in media and root volume, i'll be happy if I can consistantly pull a zip+ per bottle.

...my plan is for a 4 - 5 week cycle with 10 plants in an inner ring that gets pushed outward 4 weeks after flip to make room for the next round and harvested 4 - 5 weeks later.

...i'm also planning bench shelves about 15 - 18 inchs high for the outer, older ring, ...i'm currently using milk crates but they are too wide so impinge to much on floor space.

...btw, hempy has a thread here under 'Dalaihempy' where he updates his method and moves to coco, I think it's 'Coco, hempy style'. ...anyway, working with coco is much like soil in the mechanics but way easier and my plants just love the hell out of it.


...i also like that the coco is compressed so more stealthy bringing it into the house and it's relatively cheap at about $15.00USD for a 5kg bale.

...btw, i'd definitely raise the drain hole for a taller container size, ...i look for about 15% of total volume for my res but like I say, i'm still trying different things so i'm very interested in your results.

Peace, SOG

I'm looking at something like a vertical sog with a 400w hps... 10 liters of medium is waay big for a single plant. 20" isn't too bad... the ceiling for this person is 9'. Nutes will definitely wick that far. At least with the 75%/25% perlite/vermiculite mix it will.

Anyone else have some input on this?

Stay Safe!

 

[grassott's dad]

...It would be interesting if someone has any more input on ideal bucket size to maximize grow space. Not just volume-wise, but going OUT (diameter) versus going UP (tall buckets). ***edit*** What I mean is optimal footprint size, and height for hempy bucket. Cheers!

1gal bucket size info...
9" diameter (top), 8" height, 7.5" diameter (base).

2gal bucket size info...
10" diameter (top) 10" height, 10" diameter (base).

Above sizes are approx. Hope this helps.

 

[someotherguy]

Mornin' HS, here is that link to Hempy's updated thread where he has switched to coco.

Coco, hempy style

...btw, besides the reasons I mentioned above I also prefer coco because cloning in coco is so easy and when I pot up there is no transplant shock, they just spread out and take off. ...i'm also able to take much larger cuts which saves me at least a weeks veg time, maybe 2 weeks.

...btw, those are 9oz cups and I use either a red or blue outer cup to shade the root zone and minimize algal growth, not because I worry about the algae but more so it's easier to see the roots as they hit the sidewall of the cup. ...i average about 10 days but my record is 4 days.

Peace, SOG