Hempy Bucket Growing (please explain some things)

Ok, so I am new to hydroponic growing. I have a general idea of how the hempy bucket works, but I have a question and would appreciate any help.

Ok, so i understand the bucket is filled with a reservoir and has nutes in it. What i do not understand is before the roots reach the bottom of the bucket where the water/nutrients are, how does the plant get water? At the beginning the roots arent long enough to sit in the water, so how do they get water and nutes up until they get down into the water?

I understand that I probably will have to water them a little everyday until the roots reach the resevior, but the water will just bascially run right through the medium and down to the bottom of the bucket. Is that enough to keep the plant going until it reached the water/nutes at the bottom of the bucket?

Thanks to anyone who helps me out...

You're right in watering them at the start.
The roots do not have to touch the nutrients; your air stone will splash it over them once they reach down just a little way.
It won't take long, and in the meantime keep the root ball damp...you can't over do it

Hempy buckets are something different. It sounds like you are talking about deep water culture.


Hempy buckets would be a damned good idea for you, though, and you should google them.

Hempy buckets are filled with coco coir and have a layer of hydroton or parse pear lite in the bottom 2 inches and a hole 2 inches up for drainage.

It is also hydroponic in nature and in production but it feels like a dirt grow and it is probably the most forgiving setup in hydro.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A hempy bucket has a medium that retains water as well as a reservoir that is wicked back into the medium. Your hand watering. Not filling the res.

yep933 said:

Ok, so I am new to hydroponic growing. I have a general idea of how the hempy bucket works, but I have a question and would appreciate any help.

Ok, so i understand the bucket is filled with a reservoir and has nutes in it. What i do not understand is before the roots reach the bottom of the bucket where the water/nutrients are, how does the plant get water? At the beginning the roots arent long enough to sit in the water, so how do they get water and nutes up until they get down into the water?

I understand that I probably will have to water them a little everyday until the roots reach the resevior, but the water will just bascially run right through the medium and down to the bottom of the bucket. Is that enough to keep the plant going until it reached the water/nutes at the bottom of the bucket?
..

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Correct...you need to water them daily at first until the roots reach the reservoir, but they are able to absorb the water from the medium
I typically will tip the bucket to drain the old water from the bottom reservoir hole....then re-fill as normal
I would suggest using perlite as it's more forgiving than coco coir...but you can use near anything as a medium
I typically mix 75% perlite & 25% vermiculite, but many folks use 100% perlite...I also soil-cap my hempy's (most folks don't)
Attached is a link to a journal I posted....KISS my Hempy
you may find some interesting tips...also check out "World of Hempy" in the Drain to Waste sub-section of the hydro section

https://www.rollitup.org/t/kiss-my-hempy.856645/

yep933 said:

Ok, so I am new to hydroponic growing. I have a general idea of how the hempy bucket works, but I have a question and would appreciate any help.

Ok, so i understand the bucket is filled with a reservoir and has nutes in it. What i do not understand is before the roots reach the bottom of the bucket where the water/nutrients are, how does the plant get water? At the beginning the roots arent long enough to sit in the water, so how do they get water and nutes up until they get down into the water?

I understand that I probably will have to water them a little everyday until the roots reach the resevior, but the water will just bascially run right through the medium and down to the bottom of the bucket. Is that enough to keep the plant going until it reached the water/nutes at the bottom of the bucket?

Thanks to anyone who helps me out...

Click to expand...

If it is hempy buckets you're referring to, then as @ISK said, the medium will wick up moisture from the reservoir, but you will need to water young plants until the roots find that res.. I've just about started a 14 litre hempy bucket - perlite at the bottom, coco coir main medium and will be topping with more perlite once seedling is big enough, running Canna Coco nutes.

ISK said:

Correct...you need to water them daily at first until the roots reach the reservoir, but they are able to absorb the water from the medium
I typically will tip the bucket to drain the old water from the bottom reservoir hole....then re-fill as normal
I would suggest using perlite as it's more forgiving than coco coir...but you can use near anything as a medium
I typically mix 75% perlite & 25% vermiculite, but many folks use 100% perlite...I also soil-cap my hempy's (most folks don't)
Attached is a link to a journal I posted....KISS my Hempy
you may find some interesting tips...also check out "World of Hempy" in the Drain to Waste sub-section of the hydro section

https://www.rollitup.org/t/kiss-my-hempy.856645/

Click to expand...

Why do you soil cap? Is it just to keep a layer of moisture at the top of the hempy?

SickSickWorld said:

If it is hempy buckets you're referring to, then as @ISK said, the medium will wick up moisture from the reservoir, but you will need to water young plants until the roots find that res.. I've just about started a 14 litre hempy bucket - perlite at the bottom, coco coir main medium and will be topping with more perlite once seedling is big enough, running Canna Coco nutes.

Why do you soil cap? Is it just to keep a layer of moisture at the top of the hempy?

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It provides some nutrients for young plants and also helps keep the light out of the top layer

I mostly do it to hold the perlite in place.... and to confuse people as it looks just like a normal dirt plant

There is also "soil-core", start in a coffee or solo cup of soil, then transplant to a hempy once established, works well for large hempy buckets

@WattSaver is the King of soil capping/cores

cheers

Hempy's are very simple. Most of your root core will be above the rez. It's the wicking property of the medium that will pull the rez water up above the hole. This is why the original hempy was a mix of perlite and vermiculite. There are many mediums that will help with the wicking process, and accelerate the growing since 90% of the roots are above the rez. Straight perlite is the most neutral medium you can use, and is my favorite. But without vermiculite or a coco mix it doesn't wick that well. But if you cap the perlite with soil it will create a wicking mechanizium . Other benefits include light reduction into the bucket, root growth will be nearer the top (increasing the root growth area in the size or your container) and the heavy root growth at the top of the container will help with the hydraulic effect of the bucket which brings in more new O2 into the root zone.

Just to say I do use coco over perlite also and it works great, but I mix a brick of coir with a brick of coco mulch (chunks) which makes more room for O2.

Check out World of Hempy lots of good info then pick the way you want to go.

That just doesn't sound right how would a soil cap help a straight perlite hempy wick up water ? I'm wondering cause I have only dabbled in hempy a little with straight perlite as a bottom rez to an existing soil grow.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-no-transplant-fix.901636/#post-12407330

240sxing said:

That just doesn't sound right how would a soil cap help a straight perlite hempy wick up water ? I'm wondering cause I have only dabbled in hempy a little with straight perlite as a bottom rez to an existing soil grow.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-no-transplant-fix.901636/#post-12407330

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I wasn't going to ask but the same question came to mind.

Garden hackle said:

I wasn't going to ask but the same question came to mind.

Click to expand...

I can't come up with a real scientific answer, its just that most potting soil is peat based. And peat has natural desire to be wet. So soil will want to be wet.
Let's start at the watering. Water thru a 2" soil capped perlite bucket. the soil will be totally saturated to the max it can hold and the perlite body of the bucket will also be at be at it's max water load, and the rez will be full. With the soil cap there will be no light penetration into the medium and the root level will be higher making the growing volume larger in whatever size container you're using, and it will reduce moisture loss due to evaporation in your room, this will reduce the watering frequency. The soil will also want h2o more than the perlite and it'll take it to maintain it's desire. Perlite isn't the greatest mover of moisture but it will move some and the soil cap will dry out. I've noticed over the years that when the soil cap is dry the rez is also expired or very close to dry. So in an environment where you can't lift your bucket to see if it's dry (like under a screen) this trait can be very helpful. There are other hempy users who cap with coco, and it reacts about the same as soil, I've tried it myself but still prefer a soil cap just for the hydraulics.

I understand what you getting at but I would just say its probally due to evaporation and the fact that perlite does has somewhat of a moisture content and wick as it dries you are probally right.
Are you using chunky perlite?

I've done hempy before, wasn't overly impressed, been a organic soil grower for along time but decided to give dwc ago, WOW, I wont be going back.

Here's some seeds, two weeks old

240sxing said:

I understand what you getting at but I would just say its probally due to evaporation and the fact that perlite does has somewhat of a moisture content and wick as it dries you are probally right.
Are you using chunky perlite?

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Yes I use chunky, but I recycle it so it's really a mix of 1/4" up.

Bachomp said:

A hempy bucket has a medium that retains water as well as a reservoir that is wicked back into the medium. Your hand watering. Not filling the res.

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Not entirely true.
If you hand water (every day or more) above is true.
But with hempy, you don’t HAVE to water every day.
Hempy himself ( as do I) watered every 3-4 days
In that time the water is sucked up by the roots.
So when one waters one fills the rezzy.
Plus watering every 3-4 days has close to the same production as every day watering with less work.
All depends on ones grow style.
Peacep

2 liter full coco hempy top to bottom. Believe it was 2 weeks ago. Forgot to take pic last week. So that was 63 days flowering. Fed 1 time a day for veg 4-5 weeks and 2x a day all of flowering till i got lazy last 2-3 weeks and only been 1 time a day. Thing is way bigger than i wanted when purposely using 2 litter soda bottle to keep her small so the 1x feed hasn't hurt daily. I like coco way better than perlite.

sworth said:

your air stone will splash it over them once they reach down just a little way.

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Air stones won’t splash solution through medium and you don’t even need air stones in hemps, they do nothing for you.

Just feed/water as needed till roots reach bottom of hempy bucket, you’ll know

Traditional hempy medium is 70% perlite 30 vermiculite and has almost zero wicking power. People make all kinds of changes to the medium and style but the basic works just as good

240sxing said:

That just doesn't sound right how would a soil cap help a straight perlite hempy wick up water ? I'm wondering cause I have only dabbled in hempy a little with straight perlite as a bottom rez to an existing soil grow.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-no-transplant-fix.901636/#post-12407330

Click to expand...

240sxing said:

That just doesn't sound right how would a soil cap help a straight perlite hempy wick up water ? I'm wondering cause I have only dabbled in hempy a little with straight perlite as a bottom rez to an existing soil grow.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-no-transplant-fix.901636/#post-12407330

Click to expand...

You are correct, capping the perlite with coco or any finer medium will only act as a mulch layer, but it can not help wick the reservoir water higher in the perlite. While some media may have more sponge like properties such as vermiculite, the basic physics of water wicking is particle size. For instance fine perlite will wick water higher than coarse perlite. Mixing Coco in with coarse perlite fill in some of the voids of the coarse perlite with finer coir fibers which help to wick the water. coir is preferred to peat moss as it does not stay as saturated. I am currently doing a layer cake growstarting with coarse perlite on the bottom inch and then a layer of 20/80 40/60 60/40 80/20 in 10 inch tall fabric pots in 1 inch deep saucers which are topped off every hour or two. Watered only from below this layer cake mix will progressively wick water to the surface, but also can be watered from above as much as every hour or two without waterlogging the soil. Just for fun, i have plants that are almost 4 feet tall [one with a stalk almost 2 inches in diameter that drinks 3 cups of water every hour and even 2 cups during the dark cycle. I think of it as a modified hempy setup, eventually i will try 20 inch pots in up to 5 inches of water, perhaps with some of the soil on an air deck with 4 to 5 hollow feet filled with soiless mix that go to bottom of the reservoir. this way the soil feet wick all the way to bottom of the reservoir but air can get to bottom of most of the root mass. This would probably be most ideal, but i have discovered no problems with just setting my fabric pot filled with my perlite/coir mix. the secret is to always keep the saucer filled or fill often enough to discourage terrestrial roots from growing into the saturated zone. If the zone is kept constantly saturated any roots which grow into the reservoir or into the saturated soil will change morphology (fewer fine root hairs) and the roots will behave more like hydro roots. The worst thing you can really do is let the reservoir dry out. in a normal hempy bucket where the water is as high as 2 inches, when this soil dries out, terrestrial roots will be encouraged to grow into the formerly saturated zone. Then when this zone is reflooded with water, anoxic low oxygen conditions will exist and the terrestrial roots may begin to die and invite pathogens. Of course, there will be some variation in species tolerance to having wet feet. So keep the this zone constantly filled and the roots above will simply not grow down into the WET zone if they do not like it that wet. In a 12 inch tall bucket, the totally saturated zone will be 2 inches and perhaps the soil for another 1 or 2 will remain too wet for roots to be happy. This will allow 8 inches of properly and continually moist "soil" where the matric potential will maintain container capacity and the roots will never stress to find water. As a grower if only having 8 inches of growing height of media seems or only 3 gallons out of the 5 gallon bucket then simply get a 7 gallon (taller bucket) and now you will have 5 gallons of growing media that is just the right amount wet without ever drying out. This notion of constant flood irrigation is explained in a 1989 Hort Research article called Constant Flood Irrigation as a method of watering greenhouse soil experiments where soils in the experiment could range from sand to clay to highly organic. With a constant level of sub irrigation no container will "see" more than container capacity and all roots will "see" water at the same matric potential. If one liter of water is applied to the top of the sandy container, the sandy soil may dry out too soon, whereas the clay soil container may drown with one liter of water applied to the top of the soil if it is watered again too soon.
The concept of maintaining a precise water table has been used in orchards growing in drained swamp areas by using weir boards to keeps the water table at a set distance from the surface... let us say the mature orchard has deep roots easily down 7 feet. this practice has existed for at least 100 years and probably was figured out millenium agoc

WattSaver said:

I can't come up with a real scientific answer, its just that most potting soil is peat based. And peat has natural desire to be wet. So soil will want to be wet.
Let's start at the watering. Water thru a 2" soil capped perlite bucket. the soil will be totally saturated to the max it can hold and the perlite body of the bucket will also be at be at it's max water load, and the rez will be full. With the soil cap there will be no light penetration into the medium and the root level will be higher making the growing volume larger in whatever size container you're using, and it will reduce moisture loss due to evaporation in your room, this will reduce the watering frequency. The soil will also want h2o more than the perlite and it'll take it to maintain it's desire. Perlite isn't the greatest mover of moisture but it will move some and the soil cap will dry out. I've noticed over the years that when the soil cap is dry the rez is also expired or very close to dry. So in an environment where you can't lift your bucket to see if it's dry (like under a screen) this trait can be very helpful. There are other hempy users who cap with coco, and it reacts about the same as soil, I've tried it myself but still prefer a soil cap just for the hydraulics.

Click to expand...

I just lost a post i worked on for an hour so i will be briefer in this post. Yes Wattsaver, Your current post explanation is correct, the peat layers is acting as a sponge which holds an upper reservoir of water that slowly drains into the perlite. The Scientific explanation is one of soil physics. Any 2 distinct soil boundries will impede the flow of water, A finer layer of a soil will have to be fully saturated before much water begins to seep into the lower coarser layer. Counter Intuitive even a layer of coarse material such as gravel over a finer layer will also see ponding of water at the interface. You are also correct that the layer performs like a mulch slowing down evaporation and also blocking light and keeping surface temps cooler. The finer soil layers DOES NOT HOWEVER help the perlite wick water higher in the container. If the perlite mix can not lift the water to the next level the soil cap can not wick it higher, the soil cap is acting as a sponge and if water can be wicked to the surface of the perlite from the bottom reservoir then the soil cap will indeed continue to wick the water to the surface. For an easier illustration, consider you were using coarse hydroton and the reservoir were filled 2 inches deep, the hydroton would never be able to wick the water high enough to reach the soil cap. In the case of perlite, the grade or coarseness of the particles determine the wicking height. Fine wicks higher than coarse, same thing goes for fine sand versus coarse sand. Coarse vermiculite wicks higher than the same coarse grade of Vermiculite because perlite can only pull water by capillarity in the void space plus some surface ability of the perlite to hold onto water and air. Vermiculite though wicks water right through the entire particle because its accordian flat layers simply suck water like a sponge and until this accordian structure flattens and becomes waterlogged holds an immense amount of water and air.