Hempy Design Questions

So I have decided that I really like the idea of the Hempy Bucket. I am working on designs that I can use in the future. My recirculating Hempy is ready to go. I have a rushed mixed Hempy that has a thick soil cap going right now (couldn't get perlite when I needed it). I have a variety of pots I can use and some buckets as well.

Question: has anyone used 6-8" pipe to create really deep Hempy SOG??

The 2L pop bottle SOG seems to do well for small spaces. My tent is only 3.75 sqft so I need to be careful about how I use that space. I am curious about other things people have used.

Justanotherbozo showed me pics of plants in 2 liter soda bottles with a folgers coffee container to catch the run off.







That's his pic, I just saved it to show you.

That is very interesting.
Exactly the kind of thing I was wondering about. Nice use of available materials.

Question:

Has anyone used course sand for a Hempy grow?? Or maybe aquarium gravel??

I've used pea gravel when I first started, worked great.

DeeTee said:

I've used pea gravel when I first started, worked great.

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Cool, I think I read a comment like that in the WOH thread!
How did it work?? If your watering is adequate it should work well.

Hhmm... 8"x18" pipe. Fill with gravel (optional size). Drip or recirculating system for watering... Maybe worth trying.

Question: How much difference does the depth of the Hempy make in the end? Does it effect the size of the plant as much as with a soil grow??

Pea gravel worked well, problem was after harvest it was a pain in the ass to pull the roots and reuse, gave that up after first grow, used a flood and drain systems, I don't think there's much of a different on how the dept is, it's not like soil where plants get root bound, right now I grow in 6" pots filled with rockwool grow cubes, plants (depending on strain) can grow up to 3 feet, I lst to keep them short, here a few pics of my current grow, WW 7 weeks 12/12.

Why bother with Hempy style if you're going all the way with recirculating? Pretty much better off just doing NFT or DWC. Hempy is all about no moving parts easy peasy hydro.

DeeTee said:

Pea gravel worked well, problem was after harvest it was a pain in the ass to pull the roots and reuse, gave that up after first grow, used a flood and drain systems, I don't think there's much of a different on how the dept is, it's not like soil where plants get root bound, right now I grow in 6" pots filled with rockwool grow cubes, plants (depending on strain) can grow up to 3 feet,

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Thank DT, I was kind of thinking the post grow cleanup would be a PTA. The weight of the gravel would be an issue. I assume it would be worse with Lava Rock given how the roots would grow into the pores in the stone. I'm glad to hear you confirm my thoughts that the growth is not limited by the size of the buckets. I was thinking that the pics I have been looking at of different peoples grow seemed to show that they could get big plants in 1 gallon buckets, much bigger than I would expect with a regular soil grow. I'm not sure how much this difference remains when you get into the larger sizes though. A 10 gallon soil grow in a Smart Pot produces some really big plants.

Shivaskunk said:

Why bother with Hempy style if you're going all the way with recirculating? Pretty much better off just doing NFT or DWC. Hempy is all about no moving parts easy peasy hydro.

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Totally legitimate question. Basically I like the simplicity of the Hempy and will do both. I will use both the simple Hempy and a more complicated recirculating system. It all comes down to my learning and enjoyment. I like the way you can setup a Hempy bucket and just check it once a day or every two days, watering every 2-3 days. I also enjoy the challenge of designing and running an active system. All depends on what I want to do at the time. I don't have any need to produce a certain amount in a given amount of time. I don't have any need to produce lots of bud. I don't sell anything, and I can't consume all that much on my own. I just enjoy growing things. Cactus, roses, orchids, vegetables, trees, shrubs, tropicals et al. I just like growing stuff and learn more about how to do it. If I didn't smoke MJ I would probably still be learning about Hempys for growing vegetables during the winter. Tomatoes and MJ are very similar plants. Potatoes would grow well in a Hempy. I believe they are all Nightshade Family.

I should look at NFT. I haven't done that yet.

Question: I have seen a couple people that use a DIY watering circle and pipe to hand water there Hempy when the plants get really big and it is too hard to get under the canopy to the bucket. Has anyone done this but used a gravity fed setup? Use a small res to mix your nutes and just turn on the tap when you are ready to feed?

Shivaskunk said:

Why bother with Hempy style if you're going all the way with recirculating? Pretty much better off just doing NFT or DWC. Hempy is all about no moving parts easy peasy hydro.

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Automated hempys work better than regulars the top 1/2 has more moisture and it is often used in large scale commercial operations.They also can provide a more continuously balanced and uniform nutrient mix when set up correctly. They are called bato buckets and before this, and even now perlite bags were used on a huge scale which is the same principle the perlite bag is laid flat with a couple drain holes a inch from the bottom and it is fed with a dripper. If you grow a LOT of plants these systems kick ass where as DWC will cause nightmares. Oh I forgot to mention plants start faster in a automated system as with the dripper they are not
just waiting for roots to hit water.

Thank you TCM. That was a very good explanation, better than I could give since I have never actually used it. It just seemed to make perfect sense to me. I will only be using it to grow one plant at a time though. It will be for my "special" grows. Mainly the long flowering Sativas that I can't do outside.

Question: Since we are talking about Perlite... What size is the best??

Right now I have the Bato bucket (recirc Hempy) setup with a fairly fine grade of perlite because it was all I could get at the time. Should I be looking for a source of course stuff?? I have seen a good number of people using the 1/4-1/2" stuff. Is it better to use that?

Perlite all holds lots of air. The course and chunky hold less water and wicks less it works great with 10-20 percent coco in a automated spray bato set up. When i first was designing my system I experimented with and researched air and water filled capacities.

I took a 10 ounce cup filled with perlite to the top placed a screen over it and filled it with water
to the top if it held 6 ounces of water but when pored out only 3 1/2 emptied that means it retained 2 1/2 then it has a 25% water holding capacity (2 1/2 is 25% of 10 ounces) the perlite also drained out 3 1/2 ounces or 35% that is the air filled capacity. I found this useful for dialing in my system and it
is very similar to the way professional agriculture labs measure media capacities. These numbers are only examples sense it has been awhile, and I don't recall the specifics but at the time I believe I may have been shooting for a minimum 37% percent air capacity but with a increased water holding capacity while still remaining relatively inert and with a low cation exchange rate. Hope this helps someone as it is a great way to dial in a system and compare different mediums.
Also if I recall supreme perlite company had some data on there web site from a lab regarding air and water capacities of there products.

For a 100% perlite hempy to course of a grade does not work nearly as well.

Interesting.
I ran some water thru mine to clean it and test the flow rate. Just given the weight after it stopped flowing and was only dripping slowly I would say 25% would be all that far off.

i love coco hempy's
remember to add cal-mag though

Hey just wanted to ask a quick question also..been reading this thread not seeing what i was hoping anyway..I plan on doing a 3:1 (per/verm) hempy bucket in a 2g container..I have some fresh clones i recently placed in Jiffy peat pellets..can I just send them straight into my per/verm mix once roots starts penetrating or do I remove them from the peat pellets?? I would love if I can just bury the pellet in the final container and move forward! thanks

I have no actual experience but from what I have read so far the answer is YES!
You should able to start then anyway you want then transfer them. As long as you do the right thing with watering you should be fine. Others will need to add more detail cause I just don't have the experience to help any more than that. Sorry.

This is so weird, I was just thinking about a similar design the other day, using 4" PVC cut into 18" long pieces. My idea was to veg to about 1 foot high, then remove all the lower leaves from the plant, add rooting hormone to the cuts that are made, and bury the roots and the bottom 8 or so inches of the plant into the pipe, give it 5 days to start developing roots, and then go into flowering with these super short plants that have massive root systems. I dunno how well it will work, I was just considering it as a concept.

BCJohn said:

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Question: I have seen a couple people that use a DIY watering circle and pipe to hand water there Hempy when the plants get really big and it is too hard to get under the canopy to the bucket. Has anyone done this but used a gravity fed setup? Use a small res to mix your nutes and just turn on the tap when you are ready to feed?

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I tried this for soil when I first started growing. I had a large tote that I put a plastic gate valve in then hooked a water wand to it. It sucked, even when I took the wand off and just use plain hose there was never really enough pressure and it took forever to water my plants. I ended up connecting the wand setup to a water pump that I put in the tote. That worked a lot better. It would also work for hempy, there's no reason it should not work.

Question, I have what they say is 4 gallon 8.5 inch square buckets, actually 8.5 bottom and 9.5 top. I plan on using three gallons of the bucket, have measured and marked. The three gallon mark is 9.5 inches from the bottom. I want to put the drain hole at 2.5 inches up from the bottom. Plan on using straight Perlite on the bottom to the top of the drain hole and a 75/25 mix of Perlite/Vermiculite. This will give me 4 inches to the top of the bucket. I plan on putting a few inches of clay pellets on the top of the mix, to help hold the mix in place and allow for good air movement. Considering using the GH Maxi Series as I have had some great reviews from friends who use it in their hydro grows.
My Cabinet is 6.25 sq ft and if I push it can get 6 plants in there but will probably go with three or 4 buckets and mainline the plants.
Where am I going wrong, please this is my first Hempy grow, current soil grower.
Any advice will be appreciated!

Thanks,

GR

My current soil grow, TGA's Querkle in Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil, three gallon Smart pots.

GR, I wanna say 4gals is about 925 cu in. so if my math is correct your pots are closer to 3gal. 3/1 p/v worked well for me in 1 and 2 gal buckets. I always have placed the drain hole at 2" but 2.5" shouldn't make any difference. I have never used any thing to cap the top and just fill the p/v up to about a 1/2 - 1" from the top rim. Once the plants are established I feed about once every other day until late flowering then maybe once a day. IMO 6 plants all the way through flower is too many for your space. Good Luck

Broke,

My buckets are actually 13 inches tall but am only going to use 9.5 as that that is where the mark was when I poured in three gallons of water. I want to put the clay pellets on top about 2 inches worth.
But you are right a 4 gallon bucket is around 925 cubic inches but I will be using just under 700 cubic inches for the hempy mix. Plus the two inches leaves me about an inch below top rim. The reason for the clay pellets is to help hold in moisture and keep the Perlite from blowing all over the place as the top dries and the fan is on them.
As I said in my post I will probably go with only three to four plants. Hoping to get three females out of the 6 seeds.

Sorry I confused you with my post, will try and be more

Thanks for you input, nothing like having experienced growers to consult with.

Peace out,

GR