Hydro bucket (hempy with extra reservoir)

dudin · Aug 8, 2012

Ok here is my passiv hydro setup. I think its a hempy but some didnt so I run it in a new thread.
I have some hempy experience and I really like the result of it. At my new location i sometimes need to leave it for longer periods so i modified the hempy bucket to a extended reservoir hempy.

Dont know if it works but I cant see any reasons why it shouldnt.
If i fill the tank up to the blue line in the picture I get at 10L reservoir. Hpe it atleast gives me a week. The buckets are just plain 5L 1$ buckets with 10 holes drilled in the side and in the bottom. Filled with 3parts perlite and 1 part vermikulit.

The light: a 150w dimmable HPS and a magelux v reflector. Just flipped to 12/12. Want them short! the light is closer then in the picture about 20 cm from the plants.

The strains are white berry from paradise seeds and blue widow from DinaFem.

Nutes: Using Hesi Bloom soil 15ml/10L water and two drops of Supervit

All is fitted in an old safe 50x55x150cm.

edit: The metric system rules.

woolybear · Aug 8, 2012

PRetty cool. Wonder if this would work with cloth pots. I keep thinking about the dry cycle or whatever for roots but in hydro case all the roots are wet 24/7.

gtgio · Aug 8, 2012

This looks cool. A scrog screen would mount great on that box

dudin · Aug 8, 2012

Thanks. Well most of the roots will be above the waterline. I think of it as a regular hempy but with a reservoir.
Yes a scrog would be nice but I can only cheek it twice a week so I have to let them grow as they want.
Will get some stretch I guess.
Smartpots or airpots are interesting, might work.

dudin · Aug 10, 2012

It seems to work so far.

dudin · Aug 12, 2012

It´s a bit slow but it´s also rather cold (14c) at "night".

dudin · Aug 14, 2012

Got algae on the perlite, put som ehh leca on top to prevent it.

Doobie Ninja · Aug 14, 2012

FWIW, I've always had a brownish algae on the tops of my hempys. I never noticed any problems from it.

I've though of doing something similar with airpots. I am very interested in seeing how this works out.

dudin · Aug 14, 2012

@Doobie If this works I will make a new one with three or five "tubes" and grow autos during the winter. Cold winters and no heating makes it impossible to grow photostrains here and heating is not an option.
Still think of it as a hempy with just a tiny change.

dudin · Aug 16, 2012

Growing nice. No problem yet.

dudin · Aug 21, 2012

Any clues what is going on with the white berry?
Defoliated the blue widow to make a bush a leafless bush.

Inside the reservoir.

woolybear · Aug 21, 2012

sweet! is that root in the rez i see?

dudin · Aug 21, 2012

Yes it is.

dudin · Aug 22, 2012

Strange leafs any ideas?

thinkin · Aug 23, 2012

Do something very similar,

Big net pots sit on bottom of my rez.
filled with hydroton

air lines fit into the bottom of net pot. (cant be moved)
AND NO AIRSTONES ! never again!

works wonders. plants love it!
less likely to tip over vs using small net pots.

thinkin · Aug 23, 2012

Big Net Pot and Small Rez

Big Net Pot and Small Rez

Do something very similar,

Big net pots (8") sit on bottom of my rez (2 gallon).
filled with hydroton

air lines fit into the bottom of net pot. (cant be removed)
AND NO AIRSTONES ! never again!

works wonders. plants love it!
less likely to tip over vs using small net pots.

dudin · Aug 25, 2012

Ok. lowered the water level in the rez yesterday. Looked a bit overwatered.
Pink-White berry Blue- Blue widow

St3ve · Aug 25, 2012

Yes it will work.

So.. did you change reservoir containers then? I was going to recommend opening some ventilation in the original rez to keep it o2 rich but if you're going to stick with an open contanier like that pink one then just keep a fan moving air around (you should anyway for the plants) then you'll be good to go.

On a similar note.. I did something similar. I use 3 gallon smart pots and I buy the oversized drip trays and fill them to the top. I can get away with three days in between watering but could easily do more of I had a even bigger diameter drip tray. Except for peak flowering.. then I really have to do it every day or so.

dudin · Aug 25, 2012

I have three cpu fans its not a hurricane but a nice breeze. Just took them them out to change water and clean the reservoir. No problem, it was clean and nice.
The reservoir is no where near air tight, do you mean I should open it up more?
Want it to work as a hempy as much as possible, just dont want to water every third day.

St3ve · Aug 25, 2012

the higher the o2 levels in the water and root zone the faster the growth. When you have a passive system like this with that much water in the "rez" you want to at least hit it with a fan. Regular hempys are not really an issue because they don't hold all that much water. But when you get into more and more water its a good idea to keep it oxygenation. Since its only a few inches deep and very wide, all that means is blowing a fan over it occasionally.

I would open it up more if it was mine. I would punch tons of air holes in the sides for air to pass through when the fan hits it. It will cause a slight increase in evaporation but the added o2 is well worth it IMO.

Hydro bucket (hempy with extra reservoir)

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