Hempy Bucket Design [for Mother Plant(s)]

Hi RIU,

I'm germinating about a dozen seeds right now... 5 HSO Blue Dream, 5 Green House Seeds White Widow, 1 Dinafem Blue Hash, 1 Dinafem Super Silver. I'm planning on making a single mother from the BD seeds, another from the White Widows, and depending on what I think of the other two seeds (Attitude freebies), maybe they become mothers... not sure yet.

Anyhow. I'm looking at keeping my mothers in hempy buckets. I'm looking at designs, and watching videos. Each of the ones I've liked are coco on the top (or maybe coco/perlite mix) with 2-3" coarse or chunky perlite on the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket.

While I like the design, I'm thinking 5 gallons might let my mothers get too big. I'm thinking 3 gallons might be better for my needs. Also, rather than using perlite on the bottom of the bucket, would hydroton work? As inert as the perlite, reusable, and easier to clean I think... One comment I did read about it was that hydroton won't hold as much water as the perlite... although I can't see that as being true...

So what I'm thinking is:

1) A 3-gallon bucket
2) A 1/4 or maybe 3/8" hole drilled 2.5-3" from the bottom
3) 3" layer of hydroton on the bottom
4) Coco or coco/perlite to fill the bucket.

Thoughts, adivce?

Thanks, everyone

I've kept moms in 1 gallon hempy in the past but I'm restricted on space and wanted to keep them small. 100% perlite, mix of perlite and vermiculite, as well as coco hempy. All of them worked well, but I think the coco did the best. I think the size of your bucket is going to be controlled by how long you're trying to keep them around.

After hempy I switched to bonsai moms (which works surprisingly well) in FFOF and then eventually switched to coco, but I get bored easily so I *just* started trying coco in air-pots to see how well they do there. It always pains me to root trim.

I bought 2 gallon buckets from lowes, and since my local hydro stores (there are 3 in driving distance) don't sell anything but regular horticultural perlite, I'm using hydroton on the bottom and coco on the top... I started 13 seeds in grodan blocks two days ago (see previous post above) the blue hash not only popped already, but it's sprouted too! I never heard of the strain before, but I'll keep it as a mother and throw a few of her clones into flower and see if I like it...

As far as how long to keep a mum? I'm hoping to get 6-8 months of cuttings from each before replacing them with a clone... I don't know how it's going to all work yet, but I'm only going to be keeping 3 full-sized mums under my T5... I'll also have my clones under the same light. I'm not planning on vegging at all.... just enough to get the cuttings rooted and ready for the flower room. To do this right, I'll need 6" cuttings which means I can't really bonsai as if I recall the tutorials I've seen give ample cuttings, but always small cuttings.

I might bonsai the Blue Hash, Cheese, and Super Silver though... For that I'd use hempy cups or 1 liter bottles cut in half. Not sure yet... Thanks for the feedback.