Passive Hydro

MadameCrash

Well-Known Member
Hello folks! Well, I've been pretty busy these last few months. Didn't have time to do a proper grow journal like I said I would, my apologies to all for that. However, I am nearing the end of my first "Hempy Bucket" grow and let me just say that I am SOLD on this method. It really is idiot proof.. and the results... well... I'll get to those in a minute..

Here's the original info I found from the inventor..


-AKA- "The Hempy Bucket"

"Hi every one i thort id add this system of growing i use and have used from the erly to mid 80s , As most of you that know me will all ready know that im a belive in simplicity and things that work and i only realy state facts that i have experencet from hands on.

I like the hempy bucket becouse of its simplicity and the price of the system (ITS FREE ) to make and has no moveing parts that can fail and once the plant has started its root system you can basicly water and forget it for 2 days or 3 depending on temps and you can grow eny strain from sativa to indica in it .

I basicly got the idear from my first hydro kit i ever got that was a tamato hydro kit and i found it realy easy to understand ,It was basicly an aquponic set up and the guy i had got it from i whent 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 ,Iv spoken to a few people in the hydro industry about it and they all tell me it wont work it will couse root rot so on well there all rong becouse this method works and they say a picture is worth a 100 wards right lol.

I AM NOT SAYING THIS METHOD IS THE BEST BUT What i am saying is its a option and a easy cheep way to grow hydroponicly 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 eny colour 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) ruffly i personaly like useing a 10 lt bucket and have had up to 14 oz yield from a single bucket but it depends on the strain and given phino .

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 personaly i found the perlite / vermiculite a lot better in meany ways.

All you need to do now is basicly 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

the diffrence (between this and DWC) is theres no parts no pumps nothing but a drain hole and a built in rez of about 2 to 3 inches and you hand water to top up the rez thats it in short , You need to look at the hempy bucket as i do in that it mimics nature in that soil has its layers and a water table low down were the tap root heads for thats wat this is in short.

Also its free to make and you have no risk of parts failing as theres no parts , you dont get root rot or do you have eny problem with nutrents needing ph ajusting once the plants are feed all you need to do is re water before the plant or plants run dry the only problem is the run off you will get from the drail hole thats it
."

Okay - so I followed Hempy's directions to the letter... 3 gallon bucket filled with 2/3 perlite 1/3 vermiculite, one pencil sized hole drilled 2" up the side for drainage, I used clear plastic saucers to catch the run-off and a shop-vac to suck up the drainage after every watering/feeding.

I used GH FloraNova Grow/FloraNova Bloom nutrients and Florilicious Plus additive once a week for good measure. Mixed up with plain old tap water - the nutes buffered the PH of the tap water right down to 5.5 - 6.4 depending on the amount used. (1 teaspoon per gallon of nutes was the average dose, and that set the PH down to 5.9 - perfect)

Acutally, I only checked the PH/PPM's of the nutes once or twice the ENTIRE GROW! Woohoo!

Planted the seedlings and clones in the bucket, and after about 14 days the roots hit the resivoir at the bottom of the bucket, and DAMN! They just TOOK OFF! Made the mistake of vegging for 3-4 weeks before flipping to 12/12 - they stretched like nothing EVER has in my little room. It's completely overgrown in there with only 5 Hempy Bucket plants and 1 in soil for a side-by-side comparison.

Anyhoo... enough with the chatter.. here's some pics of the results thusfar. :cheesygrinsmiley:


HEMPY ROOM
hempy-room.jpg


Gordy's Spice #18 x Hashberry F2 - This plant had NO veg time 12/12 from seed
big-cola.jpg


Lemon Thai (clone)
LT-cola.jpg


And some Lemon Thai sugar shots for ya'll....
Resin.jpg


sugar-shot.jpg


Peace
MC
 
Don't know yet... but I hope so.. they've got at least 10 days of flushing yet to go before the chop..

Peace
MC
 
Very Nice! Oh and Im interested in how tall the GS 18 X Hashberry is because that thing looks huge, since it had no veg cycle.
 
Hi Guys and gals.. I'm sorry my responses are so slow.. I've been really really busy this summer..

But thank you for the kudos... we just harvested the first 3 Hempy bucket plants last weekend.. don't have yield numbers yet, but the strain isn't a big producer to begin with (the Lemon Thai) The quality is supurb, and there were almost no popcorn buds, so I'll be using the Hempy Buckets from now on..

oh,, and T.O. - the GS 18 x Hashberry is 36" or so from perlite to bud tip.. I threw it in when it was tiny with the other really big plants crowding the room.. It had to stretch waaaay up to get any light. Took me by suprise - because the same strain in soil only gets about 18" tall..

So to anyone who tries the Hempy Buckets, be prepared for RAPID growth.. :headbanger: and have lots of stakes and ties ready to hold it up near the end.. lol :smokin:

Peace
MC
 
ooooooo ive heard of the hempy bucket system...very nice indeed....are u usin a scrog on them?...hear thats the way to go with those....anyways very beautiful plants....peace
 
Hi - Thanks in_pot_we_trust.. I didn't use a scrog on them this time - or our next crop either 'cause I have to make some seeds, but I agree that a SCROG would be very easy to manage with the Hempy Bucket. I'll be trying to figure out the best way to do it in my room over the next few months and will definately be giving it a go.

Peace
MC
 
Next month I'll be purchasing a 400 w HPS, and I really think I'm gonna make a little room and give the Hempy Bucket a shot. . . Do you think I would need to do anything a little different if I used flowering clones, thats generally what I use, although I'll be purchasing some strains here in a bit. . . But I really like using flowering clones. . . any tips?

Bagz :peace:
 
Hi - Thanks in_pot_we_trust.. I didn't use a scrog on them this time - or our next crop either 'cause I have to make some seeds, but I agree that a SCROG would be very easy to manage with the Hempy Bucket. I'll be trying to figure out the best way to do it in my room over the next few months and will definately be giving it a go.

Peace
MC

how many plants did you have in there per bucket? and i jus need some clarification on this but in this hempy bucket process there's no vegitation? how??
 
how many plants did you have in there per bucket? and i jus need some clarification on this but in this hempy bucket process there's no vegitation? how??

She had one per, and she did veg;

Planted the seedlings and clones in the bucket, and after about 14 days the roots hit the resivoir at the bottom of the bucket, and DAMN! They just TOOK OFF! Made the mistake of vegging for 3-4 weeks before flipping to 12/12 - they stretched like nothing EVER has in my little room. It's completely overgrown in there with only 5 Hempy Bucket plants and 1 in soil for a side-by-side comparison.

She felt that she veg'd a bit long. . . amazing. .lol

Bagz :peace:
 
Hi Bagzgroove - Well, it so happens that the Lemon Thai's I ran were from flowering clones. 2 pieces of advice for ya - TRIM AGRESSIVELY, and put STRONG FAN on them from the very start. I had a big problem with the clones growing crazy branching and spagettii stems - the buds started falling over around day 30 of flower because they stretched and budded so fast.

For flowering clones I would definately recommend trimming them down to 4 or 5 main branches (which will need to be staked up), and then clearing the bottom 12" of all growth so you can get in there to feed them without splashing the bottom buds.

Oops-- one more thing I forgot to mention... once you plant your seedling/clone whatever in the hempy bucket, it will take at least 10-14 days for the tap root to hit the res at the bottom. During that time you will need to water a little bit around the plant every day with seedling-strength nutes.. And they might start to look a bit shitty before they hit the res and take off.

Just don't toss it - keep on feeding it every day and eventually one day the new growth will turn bright green.. the next day it will start to grow a little bit.. and the day after.. it will start to grow a LOT. Once you see it growing UP a decent amount you know the roots have hit the res and you will only need to feed it every 2-3 days at that point..

thinkGREEN - 1 plant per bucket is the way I'd start off. Or else the roots will fight each other for space/nutes and then then you'll start to see problems. And you CAN veg as long as you want in the Hempy Buckets, but they will get very very wide and start to crowd each other. If you go 12/12 from seed the plant will grow 1 LARGE main cola, with very few side branches, wich is much easier to take care of, and manuver around if you have a room full.

As a "happy medium" - I'd recommed vegging the plant long enough for the roots to hit the res at the bottom of the bucket then switching to 12/12.

Hope this helps!

Peace
MC
 
Almost nothing... I chopped it this morning, and the whole cola was lost due to budrot. It was as big around as a 2 liter soda bottle. There are some secondary branches with base-ball sized buds that look okay, but I won't have dry weight on those for at least a week. (BudRot was due to my stupidity.. I only had a tiny little fan in there that I didn't know was on the same timer as the lights. So the fan was off at night instead of on.)

But not all was lost... We pulled 5 oz total off of the 2 Lemon Thai's in Hempy Buckets.. Not bad for a low-yielding strain. The taste is good - not quite as "Rich" as organically-soil-grown weed, but still sweet and fruity. .

Peace
MC
 
Wow...
Would grodon rocks work (red clay pepples). Funny point. I'm tying a different aproce to seedlings. I've left them in rockwool, then replanted into larger rockwool. I left then in the seedling try on a heating pad and just keep filling the pans bottom with water untill there's a 1/4 inch on the bottom. The seeding are taking off.
 
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