Bit of Hempy info copied below. 'Runoff' being the main issue this method and others have said that. But its not a big deal.
Credit to 'nothumb' of IC forum for this post.
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With my first successful grow 10 days away from being done, it's time to thank the Hempy Bucket...
Before I learned of this method, I was a certified pro at killing seedlings. In fact before this grow, I had only had one bagseed plant make it through the seedling stage, and it died 2 weeks into veg...
So maybe you're getting an idea about where I got my nickname from...
Well. one day, as I'm messing with setting up a rather large DWC, this fella named Outlaw comes around and tells me, " If you want a system that is as simple as it gets, and grows as well as anything else, I'll tell you about the Hempy Bucket". I told him "sure", and we spent the next couple of weeks chatting about this method. Since it was basically just he and I in the chatroom all the time then, we would talk for hours sometimes about this bucket. I got to admit, at first I wanted to call bullshit. I'm here thinking," If this system is sooo easy, and grows plants out sooo well, why doesn't everyone use it?" But the more he talked, the more consistent his advice was becoming, and at some point I realized that I knew nothing about DWC, and he had pics of this Hempy Bucket in action. So, one day I moved the DWC to the side and made room for three Hempy Buckets. After two weeks, the DWC was torn down, and my bubble wands were turned into nute mixers. I was sold. I transplanted everthing into Hempy Buckets, and continued the vegging. I had quickly out grown my closet! I pushed them into 12/12 to sex, and the shit really hit the fan! 6 of Bog's LSD had taken up all the space I had in my 3.5x3.5x7 ft closet, and they hadn't started the flowering stretch yet! Luckily I caught a male or two, so a little space was freed up. From there I picked 2 girls I liked the best, and threw a runt in that had really started growing. I had never even been to this stage of growing, but the ease of the Hempy Bucket had me brimming with confidence. Like I said, I'm now 10 days from cutting them down, and couldn't be happier with my girls or these precious buckets! Sure, some people might grow em bigger than mine, but I'm ecstatic with the results of my first grow so far. Besides, I'm just an insignificant little closet growing noob growing one measly strain
, I'm not supposed to be able to match the weights of the almighty commercial growers. I'll just be happy to never have to buy a sack of wet, additive laden kinda buds again!
I'm not saying this is the end all be all of growing methods, I'm only saying that for someone who couldn't get anything to grow, I smile everytime I look at these girls...
From here on, I will describe in painstaking detail how simple this method is, and show you pics of the buckets and my first ever grow, using them.
THE HEMPY BUCKET
What you need:
1 bucket- $3 ( i cut a 5 gal bucket down to 4 gal)
perlite- $15 ( i bought the 20lb bag for $15, instead of 1lb bag for $6, you'll use it!)
vermiculite - $15 (also the big bag, of the coarse stuff)
nutes- $40 ( GH Floranova. It's a one part grow and one part bloom, very easy to use, all you do is measure quantity)
Other than seeds or clones, and water, that's all you need! I checked the ph twice throughout, and ppm once. I realized I don't need to worry about the ppms, and the ph was fine, so I never had to adjust anything.
Take the bucket and drill a hole about 1/2" round into the side of the bucket, two inches up from the bottom. This two inches is what forms your water table, and acts as your reservoir. Fill the bucket with a 75% perlite/ 25% vermiculite mix. Be sure to wet it all down before you mix it, the dust is nasty! Punch a hole in the mix to place your rooted clone or seedling, and fill the bucket to one inch below the rim with perlite/vermiculite. Water until it drains from the hole.
That is really all there is to the set up. You may have to water every day until the roots hit the bottom, which for me was about 10 days. At that point, water every 2nd or 3rd day, full nute strength, just until water comes out the hole. You'll have to elevate the bucket little, and place something under it to catch the water, but once you get a feel for the plants, you'll have only a few drops of run off everytime you water.
The Pros and Cons:
To be honest, I've not found any real cons, just small pains. I would rather deal with them, however, than some of the troubles I read about.
Things like:
Before I figured out how much water to give them, I would just run 2L of water off every plant, every other day. At first I thought, no biggie, but then as I watched my nutes get blown through like it was a cheap bottle of tequila on cinco de mayo, I adjusted accordingly. True con averted.
Catching the runoff. I went and bought a few of the plastic stackable shelves at the dollar store, and some cups to catch the runoff. Con #2 resolved
Some people say that it's a chore to water every other day. It takes me 5 minutes every other day. I spend more time than that ogling, when I should just walk past my closet, so I don't count that as a con.
The pros:
The plants respond quickly to mistakes like over watering, over fert, etc. I count this as a pro, because they fix just as quickly. There are no lingering ill effects from experimentation.
No soil = no pests. As we pull into May, and I read about all the insect problems, I think about the one fly I have caught in that closet, and how quickly he was dispatched.
No reservoir to keep cool, no pump to go bad, etc. The vermiculite holds enough water up top to keep the upper roots wet, and the two inch res on bottom is gone before it can go stagnant. You refill it every other day when you water, and the mix keeps nutes nice and cool in an 85f closet.
Easy nute application. I use the one part to make it mindnumbingly simple. Full strength, every time you water. If it's too hot, you simply back off a bit on the nutes a bit in the next watering. The plants tell you quickly what they want.
Space saving. I can veg up to 9 plants in the new and improved 4x4x7ft area, flower up to 4, the plants look right now like they could pull 3.5 - 4 oz per, and that's more than I need to get by for 2 or 3 months!
So, like I said, just one super easy method for noobs like me to grow better than they ever thought possible. If you've got any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Just be ready to sell out to the fact that it can be that easy to grow this weed! The hardest part for me was believing that it's really that simple, but it is...
