Hempy pots/ buckets

What’s up fellow rollitupers, got a question about hempy pots. Has anyone tried to make one with a smart pot or fabric pot? Most are made out of plastic pots, which work fine, but I wanna know if anyone has successfully made one with a smart pot. On a side note, for those that actually use them, what’s a good recommendation for nutrients to use.
Thanks for any replies.

Dontjudgeme said:

What’s up fellow rollitupers, got a question about hempy pots. Has anyone tried to make one with a smart pot or fabric pot? Most are made out of plastic pots, which work fine, but I wanna know if anyone has successfully made one with a smart pot. On a side note, for those that actually use them, what’s a good recommendation for nutrients to use.
Thanks for any replies.

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How were you planning on having a reservoir at the bottom with a smart or fabric pot?
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I've had good luck with maxibloom powder, lucas-style in my hempy buckets.

I thought about maybe putting the black plastic that some pots are made out of in the bottom. Pretty much cut it out in the size of my current smart pot and place it in the bottom 3” high to hold the perlite. I only ask because I’ve never seen or heard of it being done. I’m gonna try it anyway and see what I get out of it. Just figured I would ask if anyone has successfully done it. I heard that powder is a no go because it just drains out of the hole. Might have to give that maxibloom powder a try.

Best of luck to you, but it seems you're trying to re-invent the wheel.

Canna Aqua as the base for me, seems to work well.

I wouldn’t necessarily say re-inventing the wheel, more like upgrading from alloy to chrome. If the aeration from the pot stops the roots from wanting to travel downward, then maybe you’re right, hence the reason I want to try it, or see if anyone else has. I have absolutely no problem with the hempy set up as it is, I just have extra smart pots that I can experiment with, so why not try to build a hempy out of fabric material vs plastic. There is a considerable difference with plastic pots compared to smart pots. So maybe using a smart pot for a hempy pot vs plastic might have the same result.

Dontjudgeme said:

I wouldn’t necessarily say re-inventing the wheel, more like upgrading from alloy to chrome. If the aeration from the pot stops the roots from wanting to travel downward, then maybe you’re right, hence the reason I want to try it, or see if anyone else has. I have absolutely no problem with the hempy set up as it is, I just have extra smart pots that I can experiment with, so why not try to build a hempy out of fabric material vs plastic. There is a considerable difference with plastic pots compared to smart pots. So maybe using a smart pot for a hempy pot vs plastic might have the same result.

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Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the mindset of always looking for tweaks and improvements. It's just that after reading the huge thread at another place, I've seen a lot of attempted upgrades that took away from the simplicity of the original concept without adding any significant benefit.
Adding airstones is the first thing I recall from that thread, but there were lots of other stuff tried. Other than switching mediums from the original perlite/vermiculite mix I don't recall anything that was an improvement.

Yea I figured as much. I just don’t have any other pots to do it with, and since I have these smart pots just sitting here, why not give it a go. I don’t expect anything exponential out of it, more of doing just to do it.

Dontjudgeme said:

Yea I figured as much. I just don’t have any other pots to do it with, and since I have these smart pots just sitting here, why not give it a go. I don’t expect anything exponential out of it, more of doing just to do it.

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Why not? No such thing as a mistake if you learn from it.

Very true. If it ends up being the same, worse or better, I’ll post again just in case anyone ask the same thing I did.

I took a 3 gal smart-pot and set it atop a 5 gal tote that I had placed 2 side-by-side pieces of 4" corrugated pipe. I packed coco in bottom/around the pipes to make a wicking bed and then the lid to the tote was cut to fit the cloth pot and let it sit on top to wick from the bottom.

This was for keeping moms, but it's worked too well. They kept getting big on me & I've topped them over & over 3-4 times at least in just a couple months. They're now headed into flower and getting replaced with fresh moms. They have a 3/4" thick stem and look to be very happy/healthy.

As long as you get the moisture delivered that they demand any variation of techniques can work - it's all about the water/nute delivery and keeping up with demands. We'll see how these do in flower but I'm hoping they don't need watered more than every other day or so.

I guess my variation is more of a mini-SIP than a hempy, but still a wicking-based variant that appears to work just fine.

Great minds, right? Found these at the Dollar store. A small laundry basket, little air holes all around. Not the deepest res, we will see how it goes.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought about this. Plastic pots are becoming obsolete, taken over by smart/air pots. So why not use what’s becoming the norm for the hempy. At least that’s the reason why I wanted to do it.

I used to grow hempy. Simplicity at it's finest. I've switched to fabric pots and will never go back. I got a cycle timer and feed frequently. Growth rate is amazing. But I had thought about your exact plans. I've seen some who keep the fabric pot as is, but place a large, deep saucer underneath which is filled with perlite. I guess a screen over the top would prevent perlite running off when you top water with runoff. Good luck. Also, trying to perfect your grow situation is the sign of a thinking gardener. Can't knock that.

Thanks tincdink. I never even heard of hempy pots till I was scrolling through YouTube feeds, ran across it and thought hey, why isn’t anyone using smart pots. All I saw were plastic pots which I’ve ditched long ago. So why not convert the smart pot into the hempy pot. Seemed to make sense to me. Obviously you have the issue with water continuously draining, so why not create a reservoir to hold the water in the bottom. I’m curious as to how you do it sense you are already ahead of me.

I never did try to use fabric pots as a hempy. Couldn't work out the logistics. But our summers here are hot enough that black plastic was hurting my plants, so I went to fabric (I too will never go back to plastic). Then realized the watering schedule was pretty crazy, so I got a cheap cycle timer. Plug it in when I wake up and make up a 6 gallon reservoir, and let the automation do the work. Unplug it at dusk. I grow on my patio. I also have some cob leds to break up the night cycle (Gas Lantern Routine). So I use the Sun for almost all of the growth, but I can control when I want the girls to go into flower. Only 1 drawback so far. After the plants are harvested, I cannot recycle any coco. It's all just 1 giant root ball. I'm still working on keeping pests out of my patch. Always another challenge, but that keeps life interesting. Have a great season!

What you're talking about kind of exists already. They're called Octopots. They have a plastic slotted cup at bottom of fabric pot that has a hole in it that you fill up with dirt before packing the bag and then that's how the water wicks up and they come in 3 and 6 gal reservoirs with a nifty little floaty to let you know the water level. I am currently trying them out...

Here they are start of flower

Holy crap Batman!!! I knew there had to be something out there that existed with fabric pots. Thanks for the info Zoo, time to get some octopots.

Dontjudgeme said:

Holy crap Batman!!! I knew there had to be something out there that existed with fabric pots. Thanks for the info Zoo, time to get some octopots.

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Thats just a SIP. Its not a Hempy. Some nice SIP grows about. Pedro has got a nice following.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEnIa3XxCaB5qtcnKXvdWjg