My 1st Hydro - Hand Watered Bucket - NL

[Blunt Africa]

Howdy y'all

Just though I share with you my first Hydro attempt, this is apparently the simplest of passive setups. The basic Hand Watered Bucket.

What I have here is a 5L bucket that I've filled with a 50/50 mix of perlite and vermiculte. You can see at that about 5cm from bottom of the bucket I've drilled small holes. I've done this to make a small reservoir at the bottom of the bucket to hold a nute solution which will be drawn up the medium via capilliary action.



What I've got growing in there is a Northern Lights from Female Seeds, she is about 7 days from sprouting. I did not want to chance germing in a non soil medium so I actually popped her in soil and then washed her roots down and put her into the bucket. This may have slowed her down by a few days but that's OK.



Nutes I'll be using is GH 3 Part Series, and I'll be starting at about quarter strength to make sure I bring her in gently. Don't ask me about PPM or EC or PH cause I do not have a meter yet to read these values. So I'm just gonna wing it for now. I will see if I can get a PH testing kit today though...

Right now I'm giving her 24 hrs light via a 23W warm white CFL during the night and then out in the sun during the day. We are coming into winter down here in Africa now so I'll be letting good old nature do the 12/12 thing with her until I get a bigger cab.

If you are interested I do also have a 12/12 from seed grow going on in my HPS/CFL cab also using female seeds. This is a soil grow.
Check out at

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=24813

As this is my first Hydro grow I'll be looking for feedback and advice. I'd also like to hear from anyone that is doing a similar grow at the moment.

L8r



AFRICA

 

[highonthechroni]

hey BA..

how long ago did you transplant the seedling into your hydro bucket?

 

[Blunt Africa]

That was about a week ago, a day or two after she popped. I'm thinking that when I did the seedling may have suffered from mild shock.

I do have another 3 seedlings that sprouted at the same time in soil (Neville's Haze, Grapefruit & Cinnamon - these are for a friend who wants to plant them in his garden) and already the NL in the hydro is growing a tad faster, although this may also be due to the 24/7 light that she has, whilst the other are using the sun's natural cycle.

BA

 

[Awol/CoA]

I have a little advice...

With a 50/50 mix of Perlite and Vermiculte, there's no need for a reservoir,
it's actually best if you didn't use one as the Vermiculite already holds enough
liquid to keep the plant happy for a week or more, so I suggest you ditch it
otherwise you may run the risk of having mold problems in the bottom of the
bucket, and you won't notice it until it is a problem. Also, because you have
a high amount of Vermiculite in the mix, over-watering could become an issue.
Personally, I only use 30% of Vermiculite in my mixes (depending on pot size)
and the rest a mix of Perlite & Hydroton and I only need to water once a week.

Good luck with your first Hydro grow,
I hope it turns out to be a good one for you.


Awol.

 

[highonthechroni]

great advice, Awol/CoA!

any place i could check out your grows/plants?

thanks bro!

 

[Awol/CoA]

any place i could check out your grows/plants?

Sorry man, at present I've got no pics, the grow I've got going now contains
only 6 one week old seedlings (2 WWxK2, 2 NLxBB and 2 White Rhino's), so I
haven't bothered to take any pics of them yet, I will when they get bigger.

Take care champ...

Awol.

 

[highonthechroni]

ahh alright, thanks nonetheless. be sure to let us know when you have some

safe

 

[Awol/CoA]

Will do man... I should have some pics in probably 2-3 weeks
when they start kicking in to gear and growing a lot more vigorous,
right now they look like any other 1 week old seedling, so they're
nothing special to look at.


Awol.

 

[Blunt Africa]

Cheers for that AWOL, I'll keep tabs on this and maybe drill some holes in the bottom of the bucket. Is there any way to know if you are suffering from mould or root rot?

Good luck with your grow, u got some nice tokage on the go there...

l8r

BA

 

[radium-]

How is this a hydro grow?

 

[Dr. D]

What you have done is known as a Hempy bucket..did you kno this??
I havent seen him around since the fall of OG and CW.
You shouldnt have any problems with the mini res at the bottom of the bucket as far as mold and root rot goes..Hempy has been running these buckets for quite some time and has never had any probs..iv only heard great things about this technique..keep us posted

 

[NiteTiger]

How is this a hydro grow?

Because it's a soiless mix, and gets all of it's nutrients through the nutrient solution.

Doc, you talking about Hempy the Hemphog? he's got a thread here, just posted in it. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=17105

 

[Blunt Africa]

Hey Radium.

This is a soilless grow, both vermiculite and perlite are inert so don't have any nutes of their own. The plant survives solely on what I feed it via the nute solution, this is the basis of hydroponics. The vermiculite absorbs the solution and holds it while the plants roots absorb all the goodness until it's gone. The perlite is non-porous and helps to allow oxygen spread through the medium to the roots.

I'm not using regular soil fertilisers as these take long to break down and don't contain some of the essential micro-nutrients the plants need.
I'm using a chemical solution of nutrients called General Hydropics Flora Series which contains all the necessary nutrients to grow fat dank buds. When mixed into water the resulting solution has everything the plants need.

So I'm basically just growing the plants without soil.

 

[Blunt Africa]

Thanks for the comments Dr D.

I had no idea this was old school. I just saw it as being the most basic yet seemingly effective method. Not having to worry about pumps, and light leaks, and noise is good, especially as this is my first hydro attempt.

I have also made my first bubbler but have not hooked it up, that will probably be in a few months time.

But if what you say is true about the 'Hempy' bucket then I'm on to a winner...

Anyone out there done a grow like this before?

 

[Dr. D]

Nitetiger no i dont mean Happyhemphog.
His name was Hempy plain and simple..he always grew mostly Shanti genetics and hung at CW alot..this type of bucket was his design..peace

 

[Blunt Africa]

So there's history behind this?....

 

[Dr. D]

Hi BA, yes there is i have seen a few peeps growing this method taken from Hempy's design..tho i havent seen him around since OG and CW...you should see great results, il be trying it myself sometime soon..

 

[mace_ecam]

Hempy buckets!

Hard to overwater and can survive a few days on its own, due to the pool of water at the bottom.


from google cache:

Hempy Bucket

Hi every one i thort id add this system of growing i use and have used from the erly to mid 80s , As most of you that know me will all ready know that im a belive in simplicity and things that work and i only realy state facts that i have experencet from hands on.

I like the hempy bucket becouse of its simplicity and the price of the system (ITS FREE ) to make and has no moveing parts that can fail and once the plant has started its root system you can basicly water and forget it for 2 days or 3 depending on temps and you can grow eny strain from sativa to indica in it .

I basicly got the idear from my first hydro kit i ever got that was a tamato hydro kit and i found it realy easy to understand ,It was basicly an aquponic set up and the guy i had got it from i whent back a few years later telling him about my creation and how i got it from his idear and the look on his face and smile sed it all ,Iv spoken to a few people in the hydro industry about it and they all tell me it wont work it will couse root rot so on well there all rong becouse this method works and they say a picture is worth a 100 wards right lol.

I AM NOT SAYING THIS METHOD IS THE BEST BUT What i am saying is its a option and a easy cheep way to grow hydroponicly and nothing more, I have tryed a lot of methods and have all ways gone back to this.


To make a hempy bucket is simple all you need to do is this

Get your self a bucket eny colour but clear as you will end up with algy forming as the nutes react to the light .

The size of the bucket can very from 1 gal (4lt) to 5gal (20lt) ruffly i personaly like useing a 10 lt bucket and have had up to 14 oz yield from a single bucket but it depends on the strain and given phino .

Once you have your bucket then get a drill and drill a drain hole in the side of the bucket about 2 inch from the bottom , The drain hole can be around 7/16.

And the medium i use is perlite/vermiculite at around 3 to 4 parts perlite to 1 part vermiculite.You can use volcanic rocks but personaly i found the perlite / vermiculite a lot better in meany ways.

All you need to do now is basicly add the rooted clone or seedling water with nutes and thats it,I would water it daily until the tap root and root system headed down to the res but once you saw a desent growth rate id then start to water every 2 days.

The only thing rong with it is you need to hand water and you get run off from the drain hole thats it and as far as checking your PH well the only time you need to do that is when you mix your nutes i like useing a PH of 6.2 PH .

If you want to ask me questions feel free .

If you want to see the resolts of the hempy Bucket let me know and il tell you were to go to see them.

Like i sed im not stateing this methods is the best just saying its a option and a free one and it works ................hempy

Don't be fooled by his spelling, he's a smart guy, but has this weakness, dyslexis.

Cheap, efficient, idiot proof

looking good Blunt Africa!

mace

 

[highonthechroni]

any pics of Hempy's work?

 

[NiteTiger]

Hmmm, simple effecient system, I like it!

I use straight perlite for germing and early veg. Wonder how it'd work with just a mixture of hydroton and perlite. I'm sure someone's tried it, anyone got a link off the top of thier head?