Coco to hempy bucket or back to soil

F

Fevs.

Well-Known Member
I'm finding growing in coco is just too much work. I used to grow in soil and loved the way I could just water every 3 days. Now I have to feed the plants every night at 10pm and every morning before 10am. My yield went up a fair bit when I switched to coco, but it's just too much...

I grow in 3 separate rooms in six 3ft x 3ft tents under led, so a drip system is not an option. If I transplant my plants into hempy buckets from 12 litre pots, how often will I have to water them do you reckon? Even once per day would be fine compared to twice. What difference would that 2'' high res make?

It ain't easy getting to my grow and back since the covid19 lockdown has started. The hot fuzz are pulling cars over each day in my area now and I don't live where my grow is.
 
ISK

ISK

Well-Known Member
Fevs. said:
I'm finding growing in coco is just too much work. I used to grow in soil and loved the way I could just water every 3 days. Now I have to feed the plants every night at 10pm and every morning before 10am. My yield went up a fair bit when I switched to coco, but it's just too much...

I grow in 3 separate rooms in six 3ft x 3ft tents under led, so a drip system is not an option. If I transplant my plants into hempy buckets from 12 litre pots, how often will I have to water them do you reckon? Even once per day would be fine compared to twice. What difference would that 2'' high res make?

It ain't easy getting to my grow and back since the covid19 lockdown has started. The hot fuzz are pulling cars over each day in my area now and I don't live where my grow is.
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I'm currently using 3 gallon (12 litres) buckets with 100% perlite and I only water-feed every second day
 
F

Fevs.

Well-Known Member
Kps8798 said:
I've grown in coco for 7 years and have only ever fed once every 2 days with great results never having any problems
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My plants would be dead if I fed them every 2 days. What size pots do you use? Hempy bucket or normal pots?
 
Gentlemencorpse

Gentlemencorpse

Well-Known Member
I've grown in both standard Coco and Coco hempy buckets and I just don't get how you have to water that often, either way. What's the humidity in your grow area?

The nice thing about Coco is you CAN water/feed more often because it's so hard to overwater. But it actually should retain moisture just as long as soil or longer. Hempy will hold water even longer because it has a reservoir to pull from, but I think there are some other factors in play here.

My guesses:
Need a bigger pot. Plants rootmass is so large it's just drink
 
F

Fevs.

Well-Known Member
Gentlemencorpse said:
I've grown in both standard Coco and Coco hempy buckets and I just don't get how you have to water that often, either way. What's the humidity in your grow area?

The nice thing about Coco is you CAN water/feed more often because it's so hard to overwater. But it actually should retain moisture just as long as soil or longer. Hempy will hold water even longer because it has a reservoir to pull from, but I think there are some other factors in play here.

My guesses:
Need a bigger pot. Plants rootmass is so large it's just drink
Click to expand...
I don't monitor temps or rh. I'm in the UK. I grow under led, so just create a nice warm environment in each of the seven 3ftx3ft tents and use enough electric to create enough heat to warm the whole place up a bit. The tents are spread over 3 different rooms. Some have 240w of led in, some have upto 500w.

They are in 12 litre pots. As they are in a 3ft x 3ft area I have used 12 litre pots so they don't outgrow their area. They were transplanted into the 12 litre pots from 2 litre pots about 2 weeks ago. 7 different strains, each in their own area.

They are about 5 days into 12/12. Have already taken clones from them too.

I have to feed them that often because the coco gets really dry. In the morning I just give them a small feed so they rh doesn't get too high in their dark period. At night though they get 2-4 litres of feed with plenty of run off. I even feed them the 1st 2 litres, then wait, then go again after they have had 15 minutes to drink. Even then, they are still smashing through the feeds.

I just worry that in a 3ft x3ft area that had I of used a bigger pot they would of grown into trees and been too big.

I have just done a round of autoflowers in 25 litre pots and they were trees, but it often became a pain in the arse having to supercrop them in flowering and tie them down etc. It was nice though as they only needed watering once per day.

I liked growing in soil and am tempted to go back to soil in the future, but would rather try hempy buckets. Yesterday I got 7 buckets and drilled a hole in the side of each 1. Perlite is otw. I'm going to transplant them Tuesday into the buckets.

It will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.
 
E

end_of_the_tunnel

Well-Known Member
Fevs. said:
Bump... anybody else with experience growing in hempy buckets?
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Hi Fevs, have you looked at examples of octopots grows. I know you are asking about hempy buckets, and many examples show a reservoir of perlite. Whatever can give you a long lasting reservoir of water, I guess is the reason I mentioned them.

Oops, just seen you post. Hope you do well. Keep safe, and wash hands. T
 
Speedtriplebbc

Speedtriplebbc

Well-Known Member
Old thread but I just stumbled across this and my first thought was to try soil hempy buckets? Wickes builders buckets are about 14l and I drill a hole 2” from the bottom and fill to that with clay pebbles then soil on top. The clay pebbles will wick the soil and depending on plant size I don’t need to water for three days in full bloom and near weekly in veg. Currently trying a living soil in a similar system, 56l fabric pots with a saucer in the bottom filled with clay pebbles and a living soil on top, water every few days and almost zero nutrients.
 
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