how's it going guys? thought the city could use a how to on this method. credit goes to a grower who goes by hempy on another forum for the directions. here it is: Hi every one i thought id add this system of growing I use and have used from the early to mid 80s. As most of you that know me will already know that im a believer in simplicity and things that work and I only really state facts that I have experienced from hands on. I like the hempy bucket because of its simplicity and the price of the system (ITS FREE ) to make and has no moving parts that can fail and once the plant has started its root system you can basically water and forget it for 2 days or 3 depending on temps and you can grow any strain from sativa to indica in it . I basically got the idea from my first hydro kit I ever got that was a tomato hydro kit and I found it really easy to understand. It was basically an aquaponic set up and the guy I had got it from I went back a few years later telling him about my creation and how I got it from his idear and the look on his face and smile sed it all ,Ive spoken to a few people in the hydro industry about it and they all tell me it wont work it will cause root rot so on well there all wrong because this method works and they say a picture is worth a 100 words right lol. I AM NOT SAYING THIS METHOD IS THE BEST BUT What I am saying is its a option and a easy cheap way to grow hydroponically and nothing more, I have tryed a lot of methods and have all ways gone back to this. To make a hempy bucket is simple all you need to do is this Get your self a bucket any color but clear as you will end up with algy forming as the nutes react to the light . The size of the bucket can very from 1 gal (4lt) to 5gal (20lt) roughly I personally like useing a 10 lt bucket and have had up to 19 oz cured yield from a single bucket but it depends on the strain and given pheno . Once you have your bucket then get a drill and drill a drain hole in the side of the bucket about 2 inch from the bottom , The drain hole can be around 7/16. And the medium i use is perlite/vermiculite at around 3 to 4 parts perlite to 1 part vermiculite.You can use volcanic rocks but personally I found the perlite / vermiculite a lot better in many ways. All you need to do now is basically add the rooted clone or seedling water with nutes and thats it,I would water it daily until the tap root and root system has headed down to the res but once you see a desent growth rate id then start to water every 2 days. The only thing wrong with it is you need to hand water and you get run off from the drain hole thats it and as far as checking your PH well the only time you need to do that is when you mix your nutes i like useing a PH of 6.2 PH . If you want to ask me questions feel free . Like I said im not stating this methods is the best just saying its a option and a free one and it works and works well ................hempy
Credit for this info goes to a guest on another forum: So the hempy buckets have your attention, but you're still not sure exactly how everything works? Lets go ahead and do a minor tutorial in an effort to establish exactly what a hempy bucket really is. These pictures below were borrowed from JessE's album over at mrnice.nl. So the first step of the hempy buckets is to have rooted clones or seedlings. Here we have the clones, perlite and vermiculite. All the material you're going to need to set up the hempy buckets initially. Perlite Vermiculite A bucket(3 gallons will usually do the trick) Wetting the perlite before handling to avoid dust kick ups. Recommended to Adding the perlite. Add 3 parts of perlite for every 1 part of vermiculite. And the vermiculite making its way into the mix. Be sure to mix both mediums together each time you do an initial 3:1 ratio. Repeat the process until your container is full. Punch a hole on the side of your bucket, around 2 inches from the bottom of the bucket. Ok time to add your rooted clone or seedlings. Just place them right under the surface. So now lets go over the feeding schedule. You will want to have a good hydroponic based nutrient formula. Below are General Hydroponics products. An empty gallon jug to mix the nutrients in. Follow the directions on the back your fertilizer on how to mix the nutrients according to the plants life cycle needs. Add the indicated amounts of each part of your feeding routine to the jug by following the directions on the back of the bottles/containers. Fill the entire gallon up with water after mixing your nutrients. Now feeding time. Generally you will feed the plants every 2-3 days, although some prefer to feed them every day. You should feed the plants at full strength from the beginning, as according to hempys directions. All you have to do is follow the basic outline hempy outlined and success will follow. The run off from the bucket And an idea of how the plants perform in the hempy buckets
It’s quite simple. I just put two seedlings in mine 2 days ago. You just fill a gallon of water up into a bucket drill a hole just above the water line. Empty the bucket wash your perlite mix it with vermiculite and dump it into your bucket. Hand water around the seedling or cutting for about a week or so. Pour 1 gallon of water with low dosage of nutrients into the bucket which acts as a reservoir. And once the roots hit the reservoir they’ll take off. Every other day maybe even every other two days put a gallon through the pot. If you get run off out of the hole the plants aren’t drinking your whole reservoir. If you get no run off they’re drinking the shit out of the nutes left in the reservoir. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Neat! So I’m doing an experiment. I’m running the worlds furst “Ricey Bucket” lol All or mostly Rice Hulls instead of perlite. Might do vermiculite and rice hulls 20/80 What are your thoughts? The rice hulls feel PERFECT for it. Very airy and springy, and it holds some moisture for sure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I was just seeking info so I can modify the method and run this new grow method for the first time. Thanks for the feedback Somexbreak! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ive done hempy buckets , I dunno about using more that 30% rice hulls . Because rice hulls are canoe shaped it's going to retain moisture inside of them so 80% rice hulls sounds like a no go to me id be worried bout my plants dying from damping off
The original Hempy bucket was take any bucket/container/cup and drip drain holes 2 in from the bottom. Solo cup, little office plastic trash can, 5gal homer bucket, whatever. Just measure 2in from the bottom of the bucket and drill a hole on the side to act as a drain. Then 80% perlite (chunky preferred but smaller perlite worked) and 20% vermiculite. When you first plant seed or transplanted clone you would top water until the roots hit the reservoir created by the bottom 2in of the container. Then you would just sit back and only water when the reservoir was empty. The beauty of the system was it was dam near impossible to overfeed. If you fucked up the nute mix it was also really easy to flush. Lastly you got the benefits of hydro nutes vs soil. Alot of people have changed the method and many have achieved great success. I have grown with it and taught others how to use it. I pretty much always teach new growers to start with this method because its pretty much fool proof as long as you stick to the original design. I tell them do the original method successfully once then try to change it. Ugh.. I babel on too much. my original thought and post was to say, I would worry as well with the heavy rice hull because of too much water retention. The whole idea of the hempy bucket was to fight over watering and over feeding which is pretty much the most common mistakes for a new grower.
Anybody using this now? I’m doing something close where it is watered thru a pipe to the bottom. Is there a thread for these? I’ve heard them called SIP buckets as well.
I’ve been interested in trying the coco. I have the earth box system and some don’t advise it for some reason. Those are basically the same set up. I’m making one from an 18 gallon tote.
I’m not sure why they wouldn’t suggest it... just make sure there’s a lot of perlite and coco will be fine I would think.