The Official Hempy Bucket Thread

[osecretgardeno]

thank you for the response.

So you are saying many indoor gardener's use water straight from the tap without altering it in any way. I have read on numerous occasions that tap water contains chlorine, which the plants dont like, want or need, so the way to remove the chlorine is to just let the water sit for 24 hours, I've read this numerous times (this is an example of conflicting advice provided)on various boards. No need to remove the chorine? Just mix tap water with your hydro nutes, check ph and then water? Can you clear that up for me? thanks

i have used straight tap water, from multiple city tap sources. all i do is lower the pH since mine starts off quite high. Sometimes I get mag def, but that is what cal-mag is for What i am saying though is that a RO system is ALWAYS better, then you always know what you are putting in (just the nutes) and there is no random shit.

About the chlorine, it is a common misconception that chlorine will simply evaporate if you leave it to sit. SOME of it will gas off, but in order to get it all to gas off, you need to agitate it for that 24 hrs, and that should get most if not all in that time. If you leave it for a few days (3-4) without agitation (airstone), most of it will gas off on its own, but certainly not in 24 hrs

Also, as a side note, some areas are now using chloramine instead of chlorine, which can gas off but takes much longer (around a week of agitation). You can call your city water system if you have a question about that.

PERSONALLY I don't remove chlorine from my tap. I mix my tap and my nutes and adjust accordingly (although in my case most of my nute regiment ends up putting my pH right where i want it). I probably should spend more time removing the chlorine, but so far in my couple years of growing on city water I have not seen any noticeable problems. RO system for christmas tho ... thanks santa

hope that helps,
sg

 

[bostrom155]

Hello Luigi4bud,
I think the main thing to do is whats easy or best for you. thier are a million ways to grow this stuff. I would have your water checked first. im one of those off the chart, my water sucks. i bubble my water, for more o2 and to remove chlorine. I have a small ro system in my kitchen so i just started using that with GH M/B i feed every water (every other day), but not full strength, i do 3/6 every water. I have a 18 gallon tote of this nute mixture. and a few 5 gal bucket of just water. If the plant needs more nutes or i need to back off i have the plain ro buckets to mix stronger nutes or just plain water or flush. Before that i used tap/bubbled with PBP at about 5 to 10ML everywater in peat/compost/perlite/lime.Yes check ph before you water. what nutes you using?

 

[Luigi4Bud]

Hello Luigi4bud,
I think the main thing to do is whats easy or best for you. thier are a million ways to grow this stuff. I would have your water checked first. im one of those off the chart, my water sucks. i bubble my water, for more o2 and to remove chlorine. I have a small ro system in my kitchen so i just started using that with GH M/B i feed every water (every other day), but not full strength, i do 3/6 every water. I have a 18 gallon tote of this nute mixture. and a few 5 gal bucket of just water. If the plant needs more nutes or i need to back off i have the plain ro buckets to mix stronger nutes or just plain water or flush. Before that i used tap/bubbled with PBP at about 5 to 10ML everywater in peat/compost/perlite/lime.Yes check ph before you water. what nutes you using?

I am going to use the GH Flora with the Lucas feeding schedule. I've been researching for months in prep for doing my first and I was all set on hot organic soil mixes that only need watering, until I stumbled upon the Hempy method and it just seems to be the perfect KISS solution for hydro and indoor growing generally. I had the organic stuff down pretty good in my head, but now I'm going in the hempy direction because it appears to be very simple, which I like a lot and effective. It's also cheap as I have been pricing the buckets, perlite, nutes ect.

 

[skeeterpeep]

thank you for the response.

So you are saying many indoor gardener's use water straight from the tap without altering it in any way. I have read on numerous occasions that tap water contains chlorine, which the plants dont like, want or need, so the way to remove the chlorine is to just let the water sit for 24 hours, I've read this numerous times (this is an example of conflicting advice provided)on various boards. No need to remove the chorine? Just mix tap water with your hydro nutes, check ph and then water? Can you clear that up for me? thanks

if you read what hempy says it tell you simply.......you feed every time you water,gh three part nute,at full stength,and follow feed ratios on bottles. you start by watering every day in the begining and in about a week you start to see a growth spurt, then you water every 2-3 days. thats it. anything more is complicating things which means there is more to go wrong. if you use tap water it should have a ppm of 200 or less. chlorine is BAD for plants. that is why i use ro water now. 24 ppm.the less you have to do to yer water the better and you can buy an ro unit for yer sink for a couple hundred bucks,or in my case i buy it at the food store for 30 cents a gallon. i keep my ph after nutes at 6.5 i have followed hempys dirrections with no variences and have had great results so i dont think i need to tweek a thing. keep it simple. thats the whole idea of the hempy buckets and thats why they have become so famous. if you wanna get all the bells and whistles then i suggest you get yerself a hydro system and play with that. but as far as simplicity goes,this hempy thing absolutely rocks! just my two cents. hope it helps. good luck in yer grow,brother!....peep

 

[bostrom155]

Yea GH Flora is easy, im gonna get the FloraNova and have that as my main nute, and if i need just M or B then use that

 

[Luigi4Bud]

Yea GH Flora is easy, im gonna get the FloraNova and have that as my main nute, and if i need just M or B then use that

keeping it simple is what I am after.

can someone explain what ro water is?

What type of water sold in supermarkets would be ro water?

I hear "ro water" batted around a lot on here, but no one explains what that is. What is ro water?

 

[skeeterpeep]

keeping it simple is what I am after.

can someone explain what ro water is?

What type of water sold in supermarkets would be ro water?

I hear "ro water" batted around a lot on here, but no one explains what that is. What is ro water?

ro water is water that is purified by reverse osmosis. meaning it has no impurities,chlorine,ect. as close to rain water as you can get without the pollutants. you can buy it already bottled or,like i do,from a machine disenser. all major grocery stores seem to have one of these machines that you can fill your own bottles. i use five gallon water bottle i get from walmart. i believe walmart might have an ro machine also. where i buy mine its under five bux to buy 15 gallons! not bad when ya consider what your usin it for. i would say try it and if it works for you then buy a home unit. but make sure you read lables on already bottled water cuz its not all ro water. it will usually say"purified by reverse osmosis" and is normaly called purified drinking water. if this dont answer all your questions let me know and ill try to clarify further. there also seems to be a lot of terms used here that seem to be common knowlege so if you dont know just ask and someone will explain it to you,these peeps ,for the most part, just wanna help and will do a lot to help you learn!....good luck bro.....peep

 

[messn'n'gommin']

If the purity of your tap water is acceptable to you for your own use and home units are getting to the point of being pricey, you might want to consider this:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=55810
“DIY Reverse Osmosis,” by Pipedream

Buying your RO water can be cheap and going to the store can be an adventure in itself. But, if having to lug gallons of water around all the time while jockeying for position to the register starts getting to be more of a chore than a labor of love, I think it is a viable alternative. You can definitely tell a difference in a pot of coffee.

Namaste, mess

 

[dubwise]

geez...I'm away for one day and this thread explodes! Glad to see so many people into hempy buckets! It's by far the easiest method (IMO) and it provides great buds.

 

[skeeterpeep]

If the purity of your tap water is acceptable to you for your own use and home units are getting to the point of being pricey, you might want to consider this:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=55810
“DIY Reverse Osmosis,” by Pipedream

Buying your RO water can be cheap and going to the store can be an adventure in itself. But, if having to lug gallons of water around all the time while jockeying for position to the register starts getting to be more of a chore than a labor of love, I think it is a viable alternative. You can definitely tell a difference in a pot of coffee.

Namaste, mess

this has got to be the best thing since sliced bread!! as soon as i get done here i am on my way to the auto zone! im so friggin excited i might piss myself! thanx messn! and good mornin' to you,dubwise!

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I looked into that before skeeterpeep and it is very expensive to maintain. The reviews of people washing their cars said the filter is only good for 4 washings and the filters are around $9 +shipping for one. From my perspective it might be cost effective for a small grow but if you are using more than 5 gallons per week, I'd save up for an RO system.

There is also a company I found that makes a 3 layer pitcher water filter that cleans up water a lot better than just a carbon filter. rated for 2000 gallons

http://www.crystalquest.com/faucet-and-pitcher-water-filters.htm#CRYSTAL QUEST® Pitcher Water Filter

They also make 6 stage counter top filters for $80. rated for 10k gallons

http://www.crystalquest.com/countertop water filters.htm

I can't vouch for how much they lower the ppm, but I'd guess pretty close to an RO system depending on how high your tap ppm is.

 

[osecretgardeno]

I looked into that before skeeterpeep and it is very expensive to maintain. The reviews of people washing their cars said the filter is only good for 4 washings and the filters are around $9 +shipping for one. From my perspective it might be cost effective for a small grow but if you are using more than 5 gallons per week, I'd save up for an RO system.

There is also a company I found that makes a 3 layer pitcher water filter that cleans up water a lot better than just a carbon filter. rated for 2000 gallons

http://www.crystalquest.com/faucet-and-pitcher-water-filters.htm#CRYSTAL QUEST® Pitcher Water Filter

They also make 6 stage counter top filters for $80. rated for 10k gallons

http://www.crystalquest.com/countertop water filters.htm

I can't vouch for how much they lower the ppm, but I'd guess pretty close to an RO system depending on how high your tap ppm is.

i agree, and even RO systems arent THAT much to get ... i just did a quick search (no promises this is perfect) and found this system for $200 and it even has a storage tank. i am sure a further search of ebay, etc would find a decent system for a little less.

for the cost of all that equipment for the diy and the replacement filters, etc, one might at least think about getting a normal system.

just my and btw, i have NO problem at all with the DIY system ... that is great for people it works for! good work.

 

[Luigi4Bud]

so do you guys water only with the store bought purified water? Do you do 50/50 tap and purified? Or, water only with the purified? Does it make that much of a difference over just regular straight from the tap water(provided you have decent tap water) How is the plant affected by using the average tap water most people have?

thanks

 

[Sam the Caveman]

Luigi4bud, your starting to remind me of Yummybud, are you all cousins?

I doesn't matter, just use whatever you have or are willing to buy. There is not that much difference if your just starting out growing. Experienced growers trying to dial in a strain, it will matter to because they can feed their plants exactly what they want and not the excess ppms in the tap.

If your tap is full of stuff, ~400 ppm, you will want that lowered sooner than if it were 100 ppms, because thats 300 ppms of fertilizer your plants could be feeding on.

So with that being said, I would recommend on seedlings use a 1:4 ratio of store bought purified water to tap water and increase that ratio every 5 days by %15 in favor of the store bought purified water and once your at 80% purified store bought water start lowering it every 3 days by 33% until your at 13.5% tap water and go back and forth and so on and so on.

Ready, SET, GO!!!!

 

[osecretgardeno]

Luigi4bud, your starting to remind me of Yummybud, are you all cousins?

 

[Luigi4Bud]

Luigi4bud, your starting to remind me of Yummybud, are you all cousins?

I doesn't matter, just use whatever you have or are willing to buy. There is not that much difference if your just starting out growing. Experienced growers trying to dial in a strain, it will matter to because they can feed their plants exactly what they want and not the excess ppms in the tap.

If your tap is full of stuff, ~400 ppm, you will want that lowered sooner than if it were 100 ppms, because thats 300 ppms of fertilizer your plants could be feeding on.

So with that being said, I would recommend on seedlings use a 1:4 ratio of store bought purified water to tap water and increase that ratio every 5 days by %15 in favor of the store bought purified water and once your at 80% purified store bought water start lowering it every 3 days by 33% until your at 13.5% tap water and go back and forth and so on and so on.

Ready, SET, GO!!!!

OK, but a couple more questions.............




But seriously, I know I ask a lot of questions, always have and
probably always will. I do appreciate your patience and your sharing
of information. Honestly, I read so much stuff that seems conflicting
so at the risk of being annoying I ask a lot until I get it and you guys
helped me get it.

Now, I don't know yummybud but I found his posts and see that he has a lot of red chicklets so I guess you were ribbing me a little and thats cool, I appreciate the help.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

Here is what Pipedream had to say in post #152 (page 11).

I went back thru all 10 pages of this thread and did a bit of math. It seems that the average person gets between 12 and 18 gallons of water from a filter. At $4 a pop, that makes the cost of water between 22 cents and 33 cents per gallon. The difference in every case was the quality of the water they were starting with. The higher the ppm from the faucet, the fewer gallons of clean water produced.

As I stated several times, this is not a replacement for an RO system, and is not for the person that needs buckets and buckets of water. This is for the small scale grower that goes to the local grocery store and hauls back distilled/bottled water a few gallons at a time. In this situation, it will eliminate alot of heavy lugging and the cost per gallon can be as little as 1/2 to 1/3 of what they would otherwise pay.

One more note...I noticed on the filter in the picture that there is a CHANGE/USAGE indicator. The original filters from a couple of years ago did not have them. I'm wondering if they may have made other changes in the filter as well that would affect their longevity?

Last thought... after rereading your 1st post I noticed that you stated that, when the filter crapped out you were getting a reading of over 400 ppm. That being the case, I'm guessing that the water out of your faucet must be even higher, say near 500 ppm. Asking this small filter to pull that much mineralization out of the water is truley pushing it to its limits. Most folks are starting with tap water in the 200 ppm range. So it stands to reason that you would see less than half of the production that the average user would.

The whole point of the DIY is for small growers who need/want RO water for their grows and aren't going to use it for drinking and washing cars and taking showers and cooking and whatever else. If that is the case, then yes, you are much better off getting the home sized units. The DIY is a convenience over lugging around 1/2.5/5 gallon jugs of water every other day or even once or twice a week. The filters will only last as long as the relative quality of water you are using. The higher the ppm's, the shorter the life span of the filter. Me? I don't use it anyway. My tap water is 125 ppm and I bubble the water. But, some use RO for their small grow hydro set-ups and can't justify the expense of a large home RO unit for a few gallons a week. Which is why they are buying it at a store to begin with. The cost is going to be roughly the same (taking into consideration the relative hardness of your tap water) as buying it in gallon jugs and it offers the convenience of not having to continually go to the store to buy it. I say that if you are going to use less than 10 gallons or so per week, this is a viable alternative.

Luigi4Bud, I suggest you call your local water company and ask them for the details of exactly what is in the water that comes out of your tap. The general hardness, the pH, whether or not they use chlorine or chloromine, etc. If none of it is excessive, don't bother with RO water. Just bubble it for the DO (Disolved Oxygen) and to reduce the amount of chlorine or chlorimine. My tap water is 125 ppm and a pH of 7.9-8.0 right out of the faucet. I add 8ml of FloraNove Bloom (Lucas formula) which reduces my pH to 6.0-6.2 (and yes...I have used it a time or two straight from the tap without bubbling with no apparent ill-effects) and feed every watering. I can think of few things that are as dead simple!

Aside from all that though, most have a difficult time understanding how something so simple can be so effective. But, that doesn't change the fact that the Hempy buckets are simple and effective. Absolutely no reason to make it more complicated than it is. Later on, if you decide to try more complicated hydro systems, Hempy's will give you a base for a better understanding of how they work.

My Hempy tubs after one week in flower (two weeks veg in plug trays):


End of 4 weeks


And I suck at growing!!!

Good luck!

Namaste, mess


​

 

[dubwise]

mess-those tubs are badass. I just finsihed one a month ago and was happy with the results, wish I had vegged longer. Good idea about contacting the municipal water supply and getting the low down on what's in the water.

 

[solace]

Would it be possible to get a hempy infirmary thread going? (for both types: verm/perlite & coco/perlite).


Health/plant abuse directly related to growers that use this style. Such as what problems are more prevalent in hempy's than in the other modalities like soil, hydrotone, aero, etc...

As well as how to fix the problems, what to look for, tips/tricks with hempys.... all for sick plants.. cause these hempy threads are just getting giant and hard to read threw. Yay or nay?

 

[Sam the Caveman]

If there was one, I wouldn't have anything to say. I've never had any problems other than my plants giggling in the other room.

I think the only thing you could possible screw up is mixing the nutes or your choice of nutes.