Bubble Tote (Dwc) Vs Hempy Bucket

[MI Compassion]

I was curious if anyone has tried running a side by side comparison of Hempy Buckets vs Bubble Totes or had any experience with both, and if so what are your opinions?

 

I have been considering trying out the totes, but not sure I can see any advantage aside from not having to hand water every other day (would save me a few minutes each time).

[Grow Thread]

 

[MI Compassion]

 

 

Maybe you could tell me the advantages of DWC Mr. Bubble Grower extraordinaire?

[Grow Thread]

i mean no disprespect or wrongdoing..... as im sure you know.

 

i have grown in every substrate on earth..... ok, maybe not EVERY one, but pretty dang close. yes i have grown hempy's. i have a few time consuming posts buried around here somewhere about hempys. i will try to dig them up, but to be honest, jipo may be able to find some quicker.

 

nothing wrong with hempy's. no kidding. and i invite ANYONE to use them. they are a great "jumping off point" for anyone making the switch from soil to bubbles.

 

much the same as bubbles...... in hempy's, you have to give the plants 100% of EVERYTHING they need..... there is no soil to back us up and throw in some micro/macro nutes when the plant wants. we have to give it all it needs.

 

hempy's are a GREAT way to grow. i like em.

 

BUT, they are a stepping stone to bubbles.

 

hempy's still have a few problems associated with soil or soil mixes. oxygen for one. dont get me wrong, hempy's are ONE THOUSAND % better than soil when it comes to air to the roots, but it still isnt bubbles.

 

hempy's have a major problem with algae and the medium (perilite) becoming out-of-whack as far as ph goes.

 

in bubbles, we know the ph all day everyday..... with no worry of anything altering it.

 

hempy's can clog..... flooding the roots. very easily. in bubbletotes/buckets...... we force air directly at the roots 24/7 whether they like it or not

[1337Gr33n]

play clicky clicky on the links in his signature. You'll get all you need to know and more!

[+420Atheist]

I'm no expert. There is a simplicity to hempy in that you don't have 55 gallons of nutrients to dump every couple of week. Ok Ok 55 gallons may be a slight exaggeration but still it is nice not having to spend the time to deal with that. You also don't waste any nutrients. The down side is watering every two or three days and having to mix nutrients every time. Still so far I am liking hempy better than any other I have tried. In the past I have had a ebb and flow, stinkbudies, rainforest, and bubble. Truth is I had best success with ebb and flow but that may have been more genetics than system or technique.

 

Oh and with hempy I stopped doing all ph or ppm test. My plants have never looked more healthy. Sadly they are not as tight of buds as I would like but I think that is poor genetics and not a issue with hempys.

 

One thing I think is not considered is what the person is going for. All I want to do is supply my wife and myself. I could grow 24 plants legally. However 4 to 8 at a time suites our needs really well. For those who are just supplying themselves and not looking to have overages hempy can't be beat.

[str8dank]

Because of DWC's process the plants root system has more oxygen available directly from the air consistently without having to let the medium dry out.

 

Plants absorb vastly more oxygen directly from the air than from the oxygen dissolved in water. Deep water culture allows plant roots to absorb large quantities of oxygen while also allowing the uptake of nutrients. ~ wikipedia

 

i've never ran hempy's but i know guys that do and love them. of course i know people who love DWC and especially RDWC as well. one is passive and one is active and both provide oxygen directly from the air at a higher rate then a medium that retains liquid for longer periods of time. like i said above i think its pretty clear the DWC does this in a more consistent fashion then a medium that is drenched and left to dry multiple times versus bubbles being provided consistently at the same pace.

 

hempy has no moving parts or electrical requirements which means the failure rate potential is higher with a dwc bucket that a pump that could die, a line could kink or electricity could be interrupted.

[budpuffer]

as some here may already know ,i'm a big fan of the hempy bucket.for too many reasons to list i'll just say that i take exception to the algee statement unless your talking about the run off container..sorry BG,,lol,, and any PH problems are easily delt with if you flush at week 5-6and use ph adjusted nutes when you feed.i always flush a week or so before harvest as well...buckets were built so that even a dumm donkey(like myself)could get some fine quailty meds..i truely can't think of a simplier way to grow,,,zzb

[MI Compassion]

i mean no disprespect or wrongdoing..... as im sure you know.

 

i have grown in every substrate on earth..... ok, maybe not EVERY one, but pretty dang close. yes i have grown hempy's. i have a few time consuming posts buried around here somewhere about hempys. i will try to dig them up, but to be honest, jipo may be able to find some quicker.

 

nothing wrong with hempy's. no kidding. and i invite ANYONE to use them. they are a great "jumping off point" for anyone making the switch from soil to bubbles.

 

much the same as bubbles...... in hempy's, you have to give the plants 100% of EVERYTHING they need..... there is no soil to back us up and throw in some micro/macro nutes when the plant wants. we have to give it all it needs.

 

hempy's are a GREAT way to grow. i like em.

 

BUT, they are a stepping stone to bubbles.

 

hempy's still have a few problems associated with soil or soil mixes. oxygen for one. dont get me wrong, hempy's are ONE THOUSAND % better than soil when it comes to air to the roots, but it still isnt bubbles.

 

hempy's have a major problem with algae and the medium (perilite) becoming out-of-whack as far as ph goes.

 

in bubbles, we know the ph all day everyday..... with no worry of anything altering it.

 

hempy's can clog..... flooding the roots. very easily. in bubbletotes/buckets...... we force air directly at the roots 24/7 whether they like it or not

 

No disrespect taken whatsoever, I ask questions because I love to learn. Experience is the best teacher. I appreciate any and all opinions even if they completely disagree with my own opinions, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinions. I am going for yield and quality, and running with the smallest number of plants with the least amount of work so I might be able to help as many people as possible.

 

How do you think the yields between hempies and bubble totes compare from your trials?

 

With hempy buckets I never have to ph, as the nutrients I use have a ph stabilizer in them (GH FloraNova) that brings the ph down to the ideal 5.8-6.2 range. I have never seen the ph fluctuations you mention, maybe it's certain nutrients causing these kind of issues? Perlite and vermiculite are both inert and should not affect the ph.

 

I switched from using aerocloners to using bubblecloners due to losing a number of clones to a clogged nozzle, that combined with reading your posts on DWC totes has made me interested in how they work.

 

I have a number of years experience growing in soil and with ebb and flow, but since I started using hempies a year ago I haven't looked back. I just find the hempies to be amazingly simple, and there's no nozzles or cords to clog, timers or pumps to fail, no need to monitor ph, no need to check ppm or calculate how much nutes to add back to the res, and if I forget to water one day it has no ill effects on my harvest. All of the benefits of growing hydro with none of the downsides, as long as you don't mind spending a few minutes every other day mixing up nutes and watering by hand.

 

But if there is a big advantage yield wise it may be worth it to invest in pumps, totes, hoses, etc to setup someone DWC totes to run side by side.

[Grow Thread]

.

 

But if there is a big advantage yield wise it may be worth it to invest in pumps, totes, hoses, etc to setup someone DWC totes to run side by side.

 

you pretty much nailed it right there

 

as stated previously, i see hempys as a stepping stone to bubbles.

 

a great start. so if you have the hempy mastered, you really should consider running a bubblebucket/tote...... double your work, double your yield, come back here and thank me

 

haha.

 

you should give it a rip though. seriously. nothing to lose, everything to gain.

[MI Compassion]

Well I have been reading up on DWC and the one issue I see is the need for a res chiller as my flower room can hit 85 on hot summer days... what do you do to keep your res temps under 70?

[Grow Thread]

Well I have been reading up on DWC and the one issue I see is the need for a res chiller as my flower room can hit 85 on hot summer days... what do you do to keep your res temps under 70?

 

well, depending on how many totes/buckets you plan to run, linking them all together may be an option. that depends on you, your grow, your nutes, desires.... blah blah

 

but it you link them together, it makes filling a snap. fill one and they all get filled.

 

linking them all together and then linking to a control bucket is key. the control bucket i use is just another tote/bucket (without plants growing in it)......

 

from the central control tote, i can do all my checks every day. ph,ppm,water level..... and i can fill through there as well. big bonus here, is to put a water pump in the control bucket and pump water back out to the linked together system. then you can add ice cold water, or r.o. ice blocks to your control tote..... cooling it down.... and then it gets pumped out to the others..... mixing/cooling with all the other nute/water and then gravity sends it through the tubes and back to the control bucket. very simple, very cheap way to keep your water chilled.

 

 

 

 

you can also make the line to your control bucket real long..... and put it in another room to help keep it cooler.

 

 

 

see the complete DIY on linking them together here: http://michiganmedic...post__p__167774

[knottwhole]

One of the nice things about having the grow room in the basement is that the concrete stays at a nice 65-68. No need for a chiller.

[MLM]

Thank you all for the knowledge you share!