Gungadin Posted February 13, 2021 Share Posted February 13, 2021 Do many of you use hempy buckets? I haven’t seen too many posts about people using this method. I got onto using them a year or so ago and absolutely love them. Only having to water around twice a week is a great benefit as I don’t like to be in and out the grow room like a yo-yo. even though I probably still do this I have tried with perlite vermiculite mixed at about 3:1 respectively but have now settled on 100% perlite. For nutes Im using house and garden hydro a + b and bud max. Ph runs at about 5.8. I can’t think of a simpler or cheaper method to grow a small number of plants. One change I may make is clay pebbles as a top layer to the perlite as it does go green with time. If there are any other hempy users out there with any additional tips I would welcome them. So far yields have been good and better than my previous soil then coco grows with the same strains. Always looking to improve the method as I learn more. Thanks All 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wethefreed Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Hi mate, Yeah I've been using them for a few years now. Tried the original 3/1 ratio to start and had good results. Had a go with cellmax rockwool cubes, not as good. I'm currently using 100% perlite which has produced the best results. I'm currently using advanced nutrients ph perfect so I don't worry about ph. It's literally just water every few days and make sure you have a bit of run off and happy days. Stress free growing is the way forward. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KC Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 I've never tried hydro but these have always interested me from seeing it on Overgrow. It's got to be one of the cheapest ways to hydro i think. Any reason why you both have dropped the vermiculite? It should retain more water to make it longer between feeds. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shumroom Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Welcome to UK420 @Gungadin Hempy buckets just caught my attention in the last year or so since I joined here. I dunno if I'll give it a try or not but I definitely find it interesting, I've grown for years in soil/compost and am only now trying coco for the first time @Arthur Mix runs hempys with clay pebbles at the bottom of the pots, with coco as the main medium iirc. Arthur seems to do rather well under LEDs. What lights are you using? Atb 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Mix Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 I use hempy but use straight coco so can only help with that style. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbillybob Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 a mate of mine uses hempys, clay at bottom few inches and coco on top. he gets great results. he uses a bucket inside another bucket, with a cheap tap plumbed into the bottom of the lower buckets to drain the excess nutes/run off. he grows trees in them 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KC Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 (edited) I hope Mr Hempy never see's this thread. Coco in a hempy bucket, you might as well put a chicken fillet in a bigmac I might give these a go when i eventually shut down/start up again (it's not going to plan) If i started seed/cuts in jiffy plugs would it be a bad idea going straight to the bucket after? @wethefreed how do you do it? Edited February 20, 2021 by KC who's mr hempty 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Mix Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 (edited) chicken fillets. If you did a side by side one perlite and one coco you prob choose coco at the end imho. You can start and pot up as normal also. Edited February 20, 2021 by Arthur Mix Add 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KC Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 Tbf mate if i have to buy a ec meter and a pH pen i might as well try coco too, although I'll need different nutes. It's gotta be worth a try huh! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gungadin Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 I have put root cubes into hempy and also just directly placed germinated seeds into the perlite. Both worked equally well I found. Il probably use the remaining root cubes I have then go back to placing seeds directly in. i dropped the vermiculite as I had the notion that pure perlite would allow more oxygen to the roots as there is no solution ‘suspended’ in the medium other than at the res level. At the same time I was a bit concerned that the roots above the res are in a dry environment other than at watering times but between the verm inclusive and pure perlite grows I didn’t notice any difference. I don’t honestly think il use any method other than hempy from now on, other than if I get the urge to do an organic grow, which I can feel coming on! one tweak i would consider is an auto irrigation system to top water the plants little and more often to keep a steady flow of oxygen being pulled through the route system. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gungadin Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 Not got the hang of quoting or replying to specific comments yet! current set up with the hempys is as follows: 2 x 14l black storage tubs filled with pure perlite with hole 2” from bottom both sat on trays elevated off the floor on planks. Holes grilled in the trays to allow run off to collect in a bucket underneath lighting 2x ts1000 environment includes extraction and fan with temperature controlled by inkbird, heating via small oil rad and cooling by additional fan. Temps swing 18 - 24 ( may review cooling method in summer to include a water cooler but not concerned that this may then cause humidity issues, which currently don’t seem to be a problem with setup ) nutrients house and garden hydro a and b plus bud max. start at 25% recommended then scale up gradually to 80 to 100% depending how plants react. I don’t check ec or ppm. All Greek to me i usually mix a 15l res up and ph to 5.8 and allow it to swing to about 6.2 which it just seems to do so I don’t interfere Watering schedule. I always water at least 2x a week to recirculate the res. Additional waterings only if plants require it. If anything I probably water more frequently than needed but want to keep res changed and draw oxygen into roots. Good thing about hempy is can water every day or infrequently without negative effect excess runoff in bucket goes outside on the garden 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KC Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 Interesting, thanks for that @Gungadin (if you type @ before someones name a list will come up which you can select, they will be notified they have been mentioned) If you highlight text it will give the option to quote it or by pressing quote at the bottom it will bring up all their post which you can then delete parts of that are unnecessary. So we've both learnt something new!!!! I'll certainly have to give this a try, i've only been meaning to for 2 decades. I won't have any auto feeding systems though, i flower in the loft and i'd never be able to sleep thinking about a leak. I'll stick with my trusty watering cans 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasouris Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 I'm in coco and run a couple of hempys along side regular pots, I don't bother with pebbles at the bottom of the pot and haven't suffered any sort of rot. I water them every couple of days with Sensi PH perfect so chucked the PH meter and also the EC meter as well. Next to autopots they're a productive hands off way to grow. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gungadin Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 Thanks for the tips @KC the auto watering was just me fancy having something to tinker with. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wethefreed Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 On 20/02/2021 at 9:31 AM, KC said: I hope Mr Hempy never see's this thread. Coco in a hempy bucket, you might as well put a chicken fillet in a bigmac I might give these a go when i eventually shut down/start up again (it's not going to plan) If i started seed/cuts in jiffy plugs would it be a bad idea going straight to the bucket after? @wethefreed how do you do it? Hi mate, straight from a jiffy into5 litre buckets for me, just water over the jiffy a little every day till they are established 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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