Hempybucket/bucquet test

[Sir_Stickybuds]

u gotta wonder about what type of water levels we could keep in such things also, considering with such small "pots" you have to water frequently, but maybe if u could make the "reservior" deeper then docs method would become less tedious.

 

[hempybucquet]

Hempybucquet....Great thead!

After reading your "Hempy Bucket Basic Questions" thread, I decided to do your "Hempy Bucquet" for an outdoor grow. After reading about the original hempy bucket, I decided that I would not be able to water every 2-3 days, and needed something low maintenance. They can go about 4 days without rain or watering in very HOT weather.

That's so cool! I am glad they are working for you...keep me updated.

I know you may not like to hear this, but I used Miracle Gro soil with fertilizer potting soil for the top third, coco layer, then a 4 to 1 perlite/vermiculite mixture on the bottom, with a hole about 2 inches from the bottom. If/when we get rain, there's really nothing to do. The trick is determining when the MG ferts have mostly flushed out and when to start adding the FN Grow.

Hey, I could care less what you use. Lots of "you can'ts" out there. My thought is if it produces healthy plants, and yields buds that taste good and give you the high you were looking for then good on yer mate.

As far as the nutes getting used up, just listen to the plant, the leaves will tell you when its hungry.

 

[hempybucquet]

u gotta wonder about what type of water levels we could keep in such things also, considering with such small "pots" you have to water frequently, but maybe if u could make the "reservoir" deeper then docs method would become less tedious.

My goal with this test is to eventually get all the pots into a tub that I can fill with water. The perlite will wick up moisture to the roots and the tub size will have enough capacity to last for a week or so. I suspect that salt buildup with this watering method might be an issue in the small pots, so would probably still do the manual dip watering every so often to exchange gasses and clear out the soil layer of wastes.

My two strains drink like mad week 4-6, watering once a day is needed when they are in full slurp mode. This would allow me to be more lazy

 

[hempybucquet]

Hempy test day 16

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[CaptainStoner]

It's like you cut my head open and took my thoughts lol

I was thinking that the DrBud method only needed some form of autowatering to make it perfect, so that I could leave it for about a week. Love this trial but would like to see it on some flowering females hehe

Nice work mate, will have to pull up a pew for this one

 

[hempybucquet]

Love this trial but would like to see it on some flowering females hehe

I have two cuttings in the rooting box, and should have 3-4 more in a week or two. The veg test has been a success in my opinion. If the nutes were going to rot out, they would have putrefied and killed the plants by now. Both are growing, and they don't seem to stink at all. The plants show no signs of deficiency on the leaves, so I am going to say its ready for a flowering clone..

I plan to put my next round of clones into bucquets and see how they do.

Just gotta wait now

 

[CaptainStoner]

I had planned to take DrBud's watering method and convert it to a flood and drain system lifted from the simplest hydro tray grows. Now I'm looking at these bucquets and thinking this may be the best possible solution to the issue, especially if i can give plants that need more nutes than the central reservoir a top up before I leave. It also looks to solve the problem of different plants requiring different water amounts at different times during flower. I regularly spend a week away from home, perhaps once a month so I think this method or one like it would be the best for me. The beauty of the perpetual SOG is that experiments, once they get rolling, will provide data very quickly for us to get a grow dialled in so that no plant will be overwatered, no plant will be underwatered, and it may cut down on the maintenance quite significantly.

I was talking to a mate the other day about what'd happen if I got busted. In the UK whenever a grow is busted the press/LEO spout the usual BS about "heat lamps" and "sophisticated hydroponics" etc to make the growers look more criminal. My grow blueprint is starting to get pretty complex and will get more so if i adopt the bucquet system. The report on my bust would DEFINITELY state 'highly sophisticated cannabis factory' or the like. To which, I would be able to say in court 'Highly sophisticated? you mean a one square foot box with some energy saving lights and some plants in pop bottles, with a PC fan or two thrown in?'

Lmao.

Am liking this method more, the more i think about it and imagine it running in my grow.

 

[hempybucquet]

especially if i can give plants that need more nutes than the central reservoir a top up before I leave.

You should be able to do that easily by just top dressing the bottles that are more hungry with fish emulsion and molasses slurry. (Yes, that will stink like mad!) I plan to use the Schultz and super thrive plus a little hydrogen peroxide as the mix for the tray rez area.

One note. The holes in the side walls of the bucquets are for standalone pots. If you are doing a SOG you would be filling a tray, and would want to have many holes punched into the bottom area of your pot so that the perlite can drink from the much larger tray rez as it needs. The tray will also increase humidity and air movement will be important so that you don't have mold issues.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Yeah it's humid here in the UK anyway particularly in summer. I'm going to put a big, fairly powerful PC fan in there (70-150cfm) for air circulation and the intake/extraction will be enough to keep things nice in there.

A local store sells a combined air purifier/dehumidifier unit, fairly cheap, on their website the reviews are pretty good. I'm going to put this in the room that the grow is in for a little extra smell proofing and to keep the humidity down. It'll make the room more comfortable for me anyway.

As for feeds i'm going to use biobizz g&b with superthrive. Can't be bothered messing about with garden centre stuff for my first few months, that schultz stuff isn't available here. Should be able to make that work in this system.

I think I need to set up my own experiments with pumps, etc to see the best possible combination for me, but i'm thinking this system may solve my watering while i'm away worries. Nice one.

 

[Sir_Stickybuds]

well just to update you a lil more on mine, my soil mix roots have hit the res first, but my pure hempy is showing a bit more growth. interesting we are having slightly different results, my nute mix consists of pure blend original grow @ 2 tsp per gallon and some maxicrop and mollases at the moment watering with about a shot(ounce) a day, both seem very healthy

 

[hempybucquet]

Interesting... I am just using my soil nute recipe from Dr Bud. Perhaps that is why the pure hempy is stunting. Not a true hydro nute mix. Still, the plant is growing and is healthy. No signs of deficiency yet.

 

[Sir_Stickybuds]

that could be, i am trying to figure out how a hempy reacts organically is more my goal, the dr bud 20oz bottle just came along because i am also thinking of trying his sog methods... due to not being able to flower any plants at the moment i have been doing a lot of experimenting with vegging plants, clones, and getting moms established but when i can start flowering watch out lol. only thing i am worried about is how rootbound some may be in these bottles by flower time, may have to go bigger

 

[Thundurkel]

Ahh shit damn Hempy I hadn't bothered to check this out yet but I now know how my Dr.Bud SOG will be goin... This looks like a damn good method to use

 

[2stoge]

Very Very Nice. thanks for running this experiment for us to observe.

 

[hempybucquet]

End of phase one

End of phase one

After 23 days I think I have enough info to begin a real test of flowering in the micro bucquet. Here are the final results......

At the starting line, two clones from the same plant, taken the same day.

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23 Days later, same nutes and watering schedule. The bigger plant is the soil/perlite hybrid. (Hempybucquet) Just beside that I have taken a female clone which I will root out in the hempybucquet and see if I can't get this little busicle to go from birth to death in the same pot. Clone in, harvest out is my goal.

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Root shot at day 23

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[bounty29]

Is that algea all around the top of your last pic hempybucquet?

I've got a few 3 liter pure coco hempy buckets right now, the plants are looking great. Even if that is algea in your bottle there your plants still look very healthy. I've been taking pictures at the same time every night, I'm thinking once I'm done vegging I'll put them all together in time lapse kind of thing.

 

[2stoge]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to hempybucquet again.

 

[hempybucquet]

Is that algea all around the top of your last pic hempybucquet?

Yes, both the 100% perlite/vermiculate pot is green and nasty looking on the top of the matrix. Does not seem to matter for the plant. They are healthy and the leaves have never shown any signs of deficiency.

<EDIT> The pot in the root shot is the "bucquet" with the soil layer which is dark on the top. (Not algae)

 

[Thundurkel]

Those roots like good I like how its what they would do in nature how you have the mediums set up. Do you think it would grow better if I was to use just coco and perlite like you are doing with Bucquet/soil one??

 

[bigd21]

yes this is a wonderful test thanks for doing it, I have been running conventional micro buckets, after seeing your test I started adding a little seedling soil (mostly peat moss) to my buckets and I am very impressed not sure what that extra layer does but I will be using this method from now on thanks