My Grow in only Perlite
- Thread starter lagarrettBLUNT
- Start date
scroglodyte
Well-Known Member
lookin' good there, Garrett
lagarrettBLUNT
Active Member
thanks! hoping this one turns out a female i just killed the other one because all the sudden today there was balls everywhere. some spots pistils but still a hermie is unacceptable lol
lagarrettBLUNT
Active Member
View attachment 2139310day 5 flowering
BigBuddahCheese
New Member
I have permafrost in hempy bucket in perlite only. Works well but dwarfed by my dwc plants. Last one I run but worked well.
LearyRed
Member
Vermiculite shouldn't be used, it holds onto the wrong kind of salts.
Perlite dries out, but if watered daily it should be fine. With hempy buckets a reservoir is kept at the bottom of the pot, and the roots and perlite slowly wick up water from the bottom, keeping the plant from drying out.
The only thing is once a week you HAVE TO flush your hempy bucket out with fresh water. This prevents salts from building up, along with flushing out any stagnant water.
I use coir and perlite for mine though. Perlite keeps it airy, but coir is compressed and easy to store in large amounts.
I really couldn't believe the growth on hempy buckets watered daily like a soil grow, it is completely mind blowing.
Bigz2277
Well-Known Member
hes a hydro mod lol... If he was first time growing testing some vermiculite id understand but HR is a testing god.. if he says verm works listen to him.
ANC
Well-Known Member
Sorry mate, perlite is bunk at keeping the amount of moisture you need to grow good weed, swap out for vermiculite if you want another medium that is actualy made to drain well yet retain lots of water. It consists of concertinas of thin plates of mica. So it holds water realy well. I only need to water twice a day, when my pots are large enough compared to the root system. Watering is simple, I pour my nutes in a large container, then dip the pots till the water reaches the top, and hold it up to drain out, before returning to the lights.
I believe salts can be diluted by submerging the pots in clean water for a while every few days. Not too concerned as plants go into coco for last phase, finding mothers, after which they will go to soil.
I am currently on week 5 of a verm grow and I am blown by how well it works.
I believe salts can be diluted by submerging the pots in clean water for a while every few days. Not too concerned as plants go into coco for last phase, finding mothers, after which they will go to soil.
I am currently on week 5 of a verm grow and I am blown by how well it works.
lagarrettBLUNT
Active Member
yeah nobody even gave this plant a chance to get past veg so honestly its all opinions out right now, probably heard 200 times my plant is gonna rot, not grow and die due to no vermaculite. still looking healthy 
lagarrettBLUNT
Active Member
lagarrettBLUNT
Active Member
shes completely lacking moisture and about to die 
LongHairedCountryBoy
Member
hey I have been following your grow and I like it ,keep doing what you are doing
BigBuddahCheese
New Member
yeah nobody even gave this plant a chance to get past veg so honestly its all opinions out right now, probably heard 200 times my plant is gonna rot, not grow and die due to no vermaculite. still looking healthy
That is bullshit brother, I have a perlite 100% hempy right now runs awesome probably the most trouble free plant I have run. Never an issue or problem with water, just make sure lift to check weight for water and add when needed 2-3 days. Simple. 100% perlite is the best way imho, and many many other do the same. Don't listen to the mindless sheep who cannot think for themselves and because someone whispered "vermiculite" in there ears its the gospel.
Sad. Here is my 34 day old Permafrost in hempy with 100% perlite and dyna gro nutes just like my DWC.
View attachment 2156064
LearyRed
Member
Damn, I just changed the pot that had this to. My buddy decided to mix his hempy up with coir and vermiculite, to run against my coir and perlite version. In a few weeks the vermiculite was white with salts, couldn't get it to go away. Also things can grow on vermiculite easier than coir.
But ya, perlite doesn't hold water, it allows a membrane of water to travel across its surface, it's the air in the mix. The water is either in the coir, or in the resevoir, where the perlite will wick it up as a membrane across its surface.
Vermiculite sucks in water like a sponge, leaving the salts on the surface of the vermiculite, which isn't redissolved off of the vermiculite when the water escapes later on. Again we want the coir to be the resevoir, not the vermiculite, as it does a better job of keeping the salts in the water.
Your vermiculite bucket will work, but it will have more potentials for problems, and probably has a lower nutrient absorption rate overall.
Also I got my vermiculite advice from a university. No offense to the mod, but I'm going with the universities advice on vermiculite in a soil-less medium, and my own results which showed this to be true.
I'll save my vermiculite to add to my coir when mushrooms are grown. Otherwise it's a waste of good verm.
Also he was growing in soil, not hempy buckets pure. Vermiculite in soil works a lot better as nutrient uptake takes a lot longer, and more plain water is added, rather than just nutrients all the time.
But ya, perlite doesn't hold water, it allows a membrane of water to travel across its surface, it's the air in the mix. The water is either in the coir, or in the resevoir, where the perlite will wick it up as a membrane across its surface.
Vermiculite sucks in water like a sponge, leaving the salts on the surface of the vermiculite, which isn't redissolved off of the vermiculite when the water escapes later on. Again we want the coir to be the resevoir, not the vermiculite, as it does a better job of keeping the salts in the water.
Your vermiculite bucket will work, but it will have more potentials for problems, and probably has a lower nutrient absorption rate overall.
Also I got my vermiculite advice from a university. No offense to the mod, but I'm going with the universities advice on vermiculite in a soil-less medium, and my own results which showed this to be true.
I'll save my vermiculite to add to my coir when mushrooms are grown. Otherwise it's a waste of good verm.
Also he was growing in soil, not hempy buckets pure. Vermiculite in soil works a lot better as nutrient uptake takes a lot longer, and more plain water is added, rather than just nutrients all the time.
poind3xter
Member
That pic looks amazing! I'm considering using 100% perlite in 1 gal smart pots in a flood/drain setup. I'm just nervous about how much perlite can/can't retain water. I don't want my girls to die because I haven't watered in a few hours. But then I read that people are running hempy grows and only watering every 2-3 days. Forgive me for being a n00b but is that serious? I didn't think perlite retained that much water. Any advice would be helpful.
BigBuddahCheese
New Member
I can tell you that it's 100% safe mine is nearing harvest and still to this day the most trouble free plant I ever grown in any medium. I will run one off strains in this medium all the time now, it's just that easy and awesome. Cannabis is a dry footed plant so the roots actually prefer the drier medium and it helps with the nasties that can come from too moist.
My two gallon hempy probably will yield three ounces dry and that's not even lst or scrog going which I am doing this next grow in my journal. It will thrive myself and thousands others guarantee it, don't listen to the morons that say you need this and that percentage of that etc.. They all work to some degree and probably more then adequate just that perlite alone is just as good if not better then the stupid concoctions that everyone tries to claim the gospel.
Peace brother see my journal for the permafrost harvest next week when I take pics of roots in perlite etc... To give every doubter a nice slap in there face just for this post.
Oh ya my 2.5 gallon perlites run dry at three days but I usually top off every two, and they will survive many more days if you can't or forget though wouldn't recommend it but you can do larger pots for ore days between waters.
poind3xter
Member
Thanks brother! You're giving me a ton of confidence to start a hempy style grow. I can just imagine how much the roots love the aeration from going 100% perlite. Thanks for your insight and help!!
BigBuddahCheese
New Member
Sure check out my journal in my sig for when I post the pics of the hempy.. For my own personal interest alone, to see how the roots look and the mass.