Hempy buckets

[Nizza]

Oh good reggie I misread- I thought you were re-using the nutes

what is your water source? Town/city or a well?
Do you use any water purifiers?

Just want some info on water quality as well

When hand watering hempys I always went full feed first day, half feed second day, quarter or no feed third day, and repeat. If they look hungry I up the feed. This allows excess salts the plant doesn't use to leech out of the medium with the 10% runoff

automated can be an issue if some of them aren't sucking up water as fast as the others. Overwatering can happen and underwatering can happen both are bad

at the end of my hempy days I liked doing a mixture of Coco and perlite the most

also how cold are you getting your reservoir? It really shouldn't be getting hot if it is only having a circulation pump running for aeration

you want the temp of the water 62-68f

 

[rkymtnman]

Here’s a photo of my reservoir with the tubing like yours? View attachment 4450999

above in a reply I wrote how I mix my nutes from something I found online. Do you think that’s wrong?

that looks good to me. way more than you needed but nothing wrong with that.

 

[rkymtnman]

and my hempy buckets were automated just like yours. in veg, i fed once a day with plenty of runoff. in bloom, twice a day during lights on with plenty of runoff.

i much preferred perlite/vermiculite mix. the perlite only worked but not as well.

 

[onegreenthumb]

I’ll check out your Journal now mate. So your saying the ph on runoff does matter? do you think I should start flushing my plants with 5.8? I’ve been putting frozen water bottles in my reservoir lately making sure temps are down. But what about the temp of the nutes inside the hempy bucket does that matter?

I only water for 30-40 secs once a day at lights on. I’m sure my perlite being under 5 qb288 in a tent, in a brick garage, in an Australian summer would dry out somewhat between waterings. Maybe I should water twice a day for half the time? Thanks for your reply mate.

Yes it matters a whole lot because all the pores need to have water where you want it 5.8 so just run your feed about 700ppm at 5.8 until it reads 5.8 but your not done there now it needs to run for a couple hours to straiten out the ph in all the pockets and you should be feeding enough that the temp wont change that much in the pots feed for 20 mins to allow those pockets to get refreshed with good water does that make sense ...when it is strait you should be able to pour a little distilled water through the perlite and it should come out at 5.8 to 5.9 then you are on track if you let that perlite dry out your yield will be cut in half

 

[reggie1387]

Oh good reggie I misread- I thought you were re-using the nutes

what is your water source? Town/city or a well?
Do you use any water purifiers?

Just want some info on water quality as well

When hand watering hempys I always went full feed first day, half feed second day, quarter or no feed third day, and repeat. If they look hungry I up the feed. This allows excess salts the plant doesn't use to leech out of the medium with the 10% runoff

automated can be an issue if some of them aren't sucking up water as fast as the others. Overwatering can happen and underwatering can happen both are bad

at the end of my hempy days I liked doing a mixture of Coco and perlite the most

also how cold are you getting your reservoir? It really shouldn't be getting hot if it is only having a circulation pump running for aeration

you want the temp of the water 62-68f

someone else thought the same thing too I thought I must of wrote it wrong lol.

using good ole tap water it’s about ph 7.0 and E.C. of around 0.2 usually. I was using a water filter I connected to my hose and put the hose in the res but it said it removed chlorine and nasty stuff but I reckon it made the water smell more of chlorine not less lol so I binned it,

That is my drama I’ve noticed a little with the auto watering. Some days are hotter/colder then others so some days my timer turns on and it turns off before I get runoff or sometimes it spends the whole time running to waste.

I grew last time using 70/30 coco/perlite in fabric bags. I did like it but thought I’d try just perlite for more of a hydro grow.

It can get warm cause it sits on my concrete garage floor. I’ll be sitting it on some wood next time it’s empty. I had a few frozen water bottles in the freezer next to it. I swap them out with new ones when I notice it’s getting warm. The circulation pump comes on for 5mins every 1hr

 

[reggie1387]

and my hempy buckets were automated just like yours. in veg, i fed once a day with plenty of runoff. in bloom, twice a day during lights on with plenty of runoff.

i much preferred perlite/vermiculite mix. the perlite only worked but not as well.

and my hempy buckets were automated just like yours. in veg, i fed once a day with plenty of runoff. in bloom, twice a day during lights on with plenty of runoff.

i much preferred perlite/vermiculite mix. the perlite only worked but not as well.

I seen most people use vermiculite in their hempys but some people said it can get to soggy and could water less. Do you have any dramas?

 

[reggie1387]

Yes it matters a whole lot because all the pores need to have water where you want it 5.8 so just run your feed about 700ppm at 5.8 until it reads 5.8 but your not done there now it needs to run for a couple hours to straiten out the ph in all the pockets any you should be feeding enough that the temp wont change that much in the pots feed for 20 mins to allow those pockets to get refreshed with good water does that make sense ...when it is strait you should be able to pour a little distilled water through the perlite and it should come out at 5.8 to 5.9 then you are on track if you let that perlite dry out you yield will be cut in half

I might have to setup another submersible pump in a bucket/s and just hand water them. My watering halos don’t cover all of the bucket so I’m guessing it wouldn’t be doing much. I’ve noticed the feed pump isn’t quite strong enough when watering either. Water only trickles out and doesn’t make it to the last few holes. So I’ve brought a new bigger pump that should water with pressure and hopefully wash the perlite as it waters.

I might set my timer up to water earlier in the day for little bit to keep the perlite wet. Thanks for the reply mate

 

[rkymtnman]

I seen most people use vermiculite in their hempys but some people said it can get to soggy and could water less. Do you have any dramas?

no dramas at all. and yeah, the vermiculite holds water unlike perlite so you do need less water.

i have a 30 gal trashcan as my res and i can go away for 2 weeks without issues. which is really nice. lol.

 

[rkymtnman]

My watering halos

i use a DiG manifold (mine is 6 outlet, they make 12 and 18 i think) and just use silicone aquarium tubing cut to same lengths. i put a brass tee on the end of each one to give it some weight and set it right at the stem area of each plant. no worries about clogging up halos or emitters or sprayers either.

 

[onegreenthumb]

I might have to setup another submersible pump in a bucket/s and just hand water them. My watering halos don’t cover all of the bucket so I’m guessing it wouldn’t be doing much. I’ve noticed the feed pump isn’t quite strong enough when watering either. Water only trickles out and doesn’t make it to the last few holes. So I’ve brought a new bigger pump that should water with pressure and hopefully wash the perlite as it waters.

I might set my timer up to water earlier in the day for little bit to keep the perlite wet. Thanks for the reply mate

If you have it set up to water like soil you will get soil results....you want the hydo results the system needs to be set up so ….it is just what ever you are looking for I used to use a little vermiculite as well but have sense removed it so i could water more often

 

[reggie1387]

no dramas at all. and yeah, the vermiculite holds water unlike perlite so you do need less water.

i have a 30 gal trashcan as my res and i can go away for 2 weeks without issues. which is really nice. lol.

haha that’s why I made my automated watering setup for. But I only grew 2 plants last time and I could get about 7-8 days out of it. But now with 4 plants I only get 3/4 days. So no holiday for me haha.



I made my own watering halos out of black pipe And a t piece and I drilled holes in the pipe but they were crap the water wouldn’t come out properly so I gave up and brought some halos.

 

[reggie1387]

If you have it set up to water like soil you will get soil results....you want the hydo results the system needs to be set up so ….it is just what ever you are looking for I used to use a little vermiculite as well but have sense removed it so i could water more often

I hated growing in soil haha it was so slow. I better change my timer a little then. Does it matter when you water? Ie lights on, off, every 2hrs? I have mine to water at lights on. I was thinking maybe watering just before lights out?

 

[CoB_nUt]

no dramas at all. and yeah, the vermiculite holds water unlike perlite so you do need less water.

i have a 30 gal trashcan as my res and i can go away for 2 weeks without issues. which is really nice. lol.

I tried verm,didn't like it myself.Too messy and it's water holding capacity is ridiculous so is it's wicking properties.
I run Perlite and calcinined clay(Turface all pro sport) hempy and Coco perlite with some turface thrown in help us as well.
The clay wicks well and retains water exceptionally well.

 

[CoB_nUt]

Silly question, is that res left open to the air like in the picture or covered? Evaporation will screw with TDS & PH or your solution as well.

Appears you are in good hands with @rkymtnman @onegreenthumb.They'll get ya sorted.
I'm bowing out,I have run a many perlite hempy grows sog 2 liter armies, as well as big pot hempy bushes.This was 7+years ago. I'm a lil out of touch.

 

[onegreenthumb]

I hated growing in soil haha it was so slow. I better change my timer a little then. Does it matter when you water? Ie lights on, off, every 2hrs? I have mine to water at lights on. I was thinking maybe watering just before lights out?

I water every 2 hrs for 30 min lights on and every 4 hr lights off at peak but, it changes with the plants needs they need to be sitting in a little bit of water, the air stone is there to oxygenate the water.... when you see that water almost gone you need to re water.... it will depend on you situation I am on my last few days and now water ever 4 hrs lights on and once at night it changes throughout the grow and I am still learning as well

 

[rkymtnman]

(Turface all pro sport

had to look that up. never heard of it before. seems like that should work pretty good for what we need. that's whats great a bout a hempy: so many different little changes to the same concept all work.

i went away from hempys and went to DTW autofeed waterfarms instead. same leave it alone ability but with the growth of rdwc instead of passive hempy. i'll never try anything else.

 

[reggie1387]

Silly question, is that res left open to the air like in the picture or covered? Evaporation will screw with TDS & PH or your solution as well.

Appears you are in good hands with @rkymtnman @onegreenthumb.They'll get ya sorted.
I'm bowing out,I have run a many perlite hempy grows sog 2 liter armies, as well as big pot hempy bushes.This was 7+years ago. I'm a lil out of touch.

Nah it has a lid. It has a vent in it only cause the bin was used as a evap cooler previously and I cut a hole in it and the vent was all I could find to fill in the hole lol

 

[reggie1387]

I water every 2 hrs for 30 min lights on and every 4 hr lights off at peak but, it changes with the plants needs they need to be sitting in a little bit of water, the air stone is there to oxygenate the water.... when you see that water almost gone you need to re water.... it will depend on you situation I am on my last few days and now water ever 4 hrs lights on and once at night it changes throughout the grow and I am still learning as well

Is your setup a drip feed? Or do you have a small pump? I water mine for 30-40secs once a day but my current pump is 3500LH. It would empty my whole res in 3-4 mins I reckon.

 

[CoB_nUt]

had to look that up. never heard of it before. seems like that should work pretty good for what we need. that's whats great a bout a hempy: so many different little changes to the same concept all work.

i went away from hempys and went to DTW autofeed waterfarms instead. same leave it alone ability but with the growth of rdwc instead of passive hempy. i'll never try anything else.

Yessir.It work great in hempys. It's the mix I use for my ppk system. I got away from flowering in hempys as well.As you,my ppk system allows me a lot of time away from that part of the garden with good growth rates.

 

[onegreenthumb]

It is kind of like a drip feed, but no regulators just open end