Hey Chris so what did you think of your first DWC vs hempy?
I'm moving away from soil *waits for hisses and boos*
Which did you find yields more? I'm pretty much all setup to go hempy, just need buckets and perlite. DWC I'd need the whole works. I saw a post you made where you got a setup for 33 bucks, was that for just one bucket?
I'm thinking perlite hempy with AN pH perfect nutrients. Buckets, nutes and perlite will run me like 65 bucks for a 5 pot setup.
My goals are increasing yield and not having to screw with pH adjusting. I even have a coco-style auto drip irrigator built, so if I go hempy it will be pretty lazy, which I like, but I wonder if the extra yield of DWC is worth hauling the buckets around? I do have a bad back so it would have to be pretty significant increase to justify it.
I could even save 15 bucks just doing drain to waste instead of hempy but I am thinking the hempy reservoir will help my yield more than anything else.
Ok, bear with me, no coffee yet...lol
DWC is WAYYYYYYYYY better yields than I've got in Hempy or soil, WAYYYYYYYYY better
DWC in 5 gal is pretty easy, and not too bad on the back. Rezz change isn't very hard, pretty easy to maintain. You do have to watch pH , but my 5gal buckets have never been an issue
Only big maintenance issue is in flower, they can drink a gallon a day, so hard to take off for a weekend to play
I won't do the bigger tubs again, 12gal, beside starting multiple seedlings. They are just unmanageable, impossible now to do rezz changes, and pH fluxuation way more than the 5gal
Not sure I'll do the RDWC, think the large water rezz may create issues I'd rather not fight
Now Hempy is really easy. I can't really say my yields where more than soil, but a lot easier.
Easy to move, water, nutes and pH.
I can say in the bigger 3.5-3gal buckets I got significant more yield than the smaller buckets.
I tried the AE sensi pH perfect nutes. I pretty much liked them, but, I never used more than half strength so they always seemed to struggle to get the pH as low as I wanted. It seems the faught against the pH down if I tried to use it..lol..
Pros and cons
PROS
Hempy is easy, simple, light, not as pH reliant, easy to do multiple strains/plants due to multiple buckets sizes
DWC huge yields, easy to water and nutes
CONS
Hempy, smaller yields than DWC
DWC, larger pot footprint, less plants in a space, chained to the girls in flower, less manageable pot than Hempy
I'll probably do a mix of both next grow next year
Strain/pheno chasing in Hempy, and DWC for others
I do like a 1.5gal Hempy for strain testing, usually get about 2oz per plant, about 3-4 on the 3gal size
DWC , my first girl was over 7oz, never weighed it. She was huge.
Won't have the size this grow on some but should get over 4oz from the two big girls easy
