World Of Hempy

[CaliMackdaddy]

Sad at this stage when the girls start getting ugly...dropped nutes in half last week and now its plain RO water till this weekend. So, these will be the last pics you'll see until I trim. I'll for sure get you some pics of them manicured.
Notes on the Mapito medium experience;
* Excellent water retention with still lots of air to be had in the PU foam.
* The buckets got so light when the res was exhausted it was scary, but no wilting seen...ever.
* Watering frequency did not get shorter as with coco. It got down to every 3 days but stopped there...as a matter of fact in late flower I had runoff occur before the 1gal per feed was exhausted...so 1/4gal went to the bushes outside for the last 2 weeks. Could have been the lower temps of winter though.
* A little bit of light colored crust formed on the top of the mapito..no biggy...probably mildew. I'll resuse it one day with the addition of Cannazyme.
* Is the Mapito responsible for this mass of plant tissue seen here? Can't say...I shared some offspring with others using coco and they are freaking monsters I hear, but in 5gal non-hempy buckets under 1000W lamps.
* Anybody guessing the final dried weight of both plants combined... to the nearest half-zip...after a 2 week cure... gets +rep.

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I hope my girls come out looking like that.. im also working with a small tent but ima keep mine short and bushy (topping supercropping) and ima have 4-5 plants going...
450grams dry

 

[supchaka]

31 days, 1 FIM on each. I usually veg for 3 weeks but availability of the flower tent wasn't there yet. This time around I had to switch my LED's to HPS, change the carbon scrubber and do a total cleanup/disinfection of the inside due to some pesky white flies.

I've had white flies once, pesky fuckers for sure.

 

[Rusty Shakelford]

Thats too bad to hear, Rusty. If you think you have a bad bulb, would you consider trying another CMH bulb to see if your results are different?

I actually have another Ballast coming that I am going to try with the bulb to see if it does anything. When I ordered the Ballast for the Bulb, I spoke with the Guy on the phone about it powering a CMH Bulb, and he said NO PROBLEM, the ballast is Magnetic. And it indeed does power the Bulb,, But as I do more research, I am seeing there are two versions of Magnetic Ballast, one for MH and one for HPS. Not sure exactly what the difference is, since they both need to be Fired, but I have the SUN SYSTEMS HARVEST PRO #902431 which is the 400w MH version.. I have the #902432 version coming either today or tomorrow, which is the 400 HPS, and going to see if that make any difference at all.. I may also try another bulb, but this experiment got kinda pricey.. Which is fine since I will be expanding the Grow room in May, I will still be able to use the Equipment.

Rusty thanks for sharing...lots of talk out there on these CMH's.....was that a Philips CMH bulb? And was the transformer ballast a generic variety for all HID type lamps? Reason I ask is there are "paired" setups for sale and I've always wondered if you had to buy a special ballast just for the CMH....maybe you can bust the myth.

Yes Jela, I have the Philips RETRO WHITE 400cmh.. See above comments for what my next step is.. I will keep the board posted when the New Ballast arrives

 

[justanotherbozo]

Rusty thanks for sharing...lots of talk out there on these CMH's.....was that a Philips CMH bulb? And was the transformer ballast a generic variety for all HID type lamps? Reason I ask is there are "paired" setups for sale and I've always wondered if you had to buy a special ballast just for the CMH....maybe you can bust the myth.

I actually have another Ballast coming that I am going to try with the bulb to see if it does anything. When I ordered the Ballast for the Bulb, I spoke with the Guy on the phone about it powering a CMH Bulb, and he said NO PROBLEM, the ballast is Magnetic. And it indeed does power the Bulb,, But as I do more research, I am seeing there are two versions of Magnetic Ballast, one for MH and one for HPS. Not sure exactly what the difference is, since they both need to be Fired, but I have the SUN SYSTEMS HARVEST PRO #902431 which is the 400w MH version.. I have the #902432 version coming either today or tomorrow, which is the 400 HPS, and going to see if that make any difference at all.. I may also try another bulb, but this experiment got kinda pricey.. Which is fine since I will be expanding the Grow room in May, I will still be able to use the Equipment.



Yes Jela, I have the Philips RETRO WHITE 400cmh.. See above comments for what my next step is.. I will keep the board posted when the New Ballast arrives

...high guys, i don't know about those particular ballast's but my CMH runs off a magnetic ANSI S51 HPS ballast, ...the ANSI number is what i look for. ...i actually built mine from a kit and with this ballast as in all magnetic HPS ballast's i'm familiar with there are only 3 components, a transformer, a capacitor and an igniter so if one shits the bed it isn't all that big a deal to repair it yourself.

...anyway, here's a couple pics of the one i built and you'll see i mounted it in a little fireproof strongbox i picked up at a thrift store.



...and here are a couple of White Rhino's i grew under my 400CMH in 2liter Coke-bottle coco hempy's with perlite in the res and with virtually no veg time and feeding nothing but MaxiBloom from rooted clone through harvest, ...they yielded just shy of 2zipz each.



peace, bozo

 

[WattSaver]

I actually have another Ballast coming that I am going to try with the bulb to see if it does anything. When I ordered the Ballast for the Bulb, I spoke with the Guy on the phone about it powering a CMH Bulb, and he said NO PROBLEM, the ballast is Magnetic. And it indeed does power the Bulb,, But as I do more research, I am seeing there are two versions of Magnetic Ballast, one for MH and one for HPS. Not sure exactly what the difference is, since they both need to be Fired, but I have the SUN SYSTEMS HARVEST PRO #902431 which is the 400w MH version.. I have the #902432 version coming either today or tomorrow, which is the 400 HPS, and going to see if that make any difference at all.. I may also try another bulb, but this experiment got kinda pricey.. Which is fine since I will be expanding the Grow room in May, I will still be able to use the Equipment.



Yes Jela, I have the Philips RETRO WHITE 400cmh.. See above comments for what my next step is.. I will keep the board posted when the New Ballast arrives

justanotherbozo is correct, the s51 is the correct ballast, and it is an hps ballast, this will make a huge difference in the bulb's output. I've got the sun systems harvest pro elite, which is switchable between 110/220 and mh/hps and the CMH rocks for me. Hopefully it didn't screw up the bulb.

And j a b I really like the homemade ballast.

 

[Rusty Shakelford]

Thats too bad to hear, Rusty. If you think you have a bad bulb, would you consider trying another CMH bulb to see if your results are different?

justanotherbozo is correct, the s51 is the correct ballast, and it is an hps ballast, this will make a huge difference in the bulb's output. I've got the sun systems harvest pro elite, which is switchable between 110/220 and mh/hps and the CMH rocks for me. Hopefully it didn't screw up the bulb.

And j a b I really like the homemade ballast.

Hmm,, I cant find an ANSI number on any of these ballasts.. The one I have is a MH Magnetic, and the one coming is an HPS Magnetic, so I am assuming the HPS Magnetic is correct. The Bulb Package says OPERATES ON HIGH PRESSURE SODIUM BALLASTS. I may end up having to get another bulb,

 

[CaliMackdaddy]

...high guys, i don't know about those particular ballast's but my CMH runs off a magnetic ANSI S51 HPS ballast, ...the ANSI number is what i look for. ...i actually built mine from a kit and with this ballast as in all magnetic HPS ballast's i'm familiar with there are only 3 components, a transformer, a capacitor and an igniter so if one shits the bed it isn't all that big a deal to repair it yourself.

...anyway, here's a couple pics of the one i built and you'll see i mounted it in a little fireproof strongbox i picked up at a thrift store.

View attachment 2491672 View attachment 2491673 View attachment 2491674 View attachment 2491675

...and here are a couple of White Rhino's i grew under my 400CMH in 2liter Coke-bottle coco hempy's with perlite in the res and with virtually no veg time and feeding nothing but MaxiBloom from rooted clone through harvest, ...they yielded just shy of 2zipz each.

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peace, bozo

Are those your plants? I saw them in a Maxi Kiss thread, your the reason i switched to hempy Small world.. ill also be using nothing but maxi and a couple additives.

 

[justanotherbozo]

Hmm,, I cant find an ANSI number on any of these ballasts.. The one I have is a MH Magnetic, and the one coming is an HPS Magnetic, so I am assuming the HPS Magnetic is correct. The Bulb Package says OPERATES ON HIGH PRESSURE SODIUM BALLASTS. I may end up having to get another bulb,

...if you scan the label carefully you MAY find the ANSI number, ...here's a couple of different labels to show how easy it is to miss that number.





...it's really easy to miss it.

peace, bozo

 

[Rusty Shakelford]

Thats too bad to hear, Rusty. If you think you have a bad bulb, would you consider trying another CMH bulb to see if your results are different?

...if you scan the label carefully you MAY find the ANSI number, ...here's a couple of different labels to show how easy it is to miss that number.

View attachment 2491939 View attachment 2491941

View attachment 2491942 View attachment 2491943

...it's really easy to miss it.

peace, bozo

Thanks a bunch!! That Helped, and I found mine. This one is ANSI M155,, so I guess that tells me what I need to know. Unfortunately I cant find an ANSI number for the new one anywhere online, and the images I could find of it, are too small to see the number, so I suppose it will be a Surprise.

 

[808killahz]

Well, after 2 weeks of dinking with Barney's farm Blue Cheese, I've decided to drop the strain as my next grow. These plants are super "sensitive". I've never burned anything with Canna Rhizotonic like I saw earlier once sprouted. Now after 2 weeks and lots of plain RO water, I made a week solution of Canna Substra Vega and bammm!....burned again within 8 hours. Usually my base leaves hang over the solo cup at 2 weeks and I'm into buckets by week 3. This stuff is going nowhere fast, a total departure from my growing style. Time to look at my seed collection for another variety. It sucks because my Pineapple Express will be done in 5 days and there will be nothing to throw in the flowering tent for another 3 weeks at minimum. Live and learn!

Yea i didnt have much luck on my bf blue cheese either. Only 4 outa 5 germed and that 1 was mutated....

 

[808killahz]

Heres some black widow and gdp on week 3 of flower. Hempy buckets of course!!!

 

[jela10]

808, where you been bro, good to see you over here on WOH. You should be a regular here. Nice lookers you got there....looks like you jumped into the HPS scene from a thread I saw the other day and I'm happy for you. Looks like it's working well for you too. Say, the hempy brothers here don't know about your fantastic 4" PVC SCROG hempy's....are these growing in them or are you doing another container size Now? Show these cats your PVC creations that don't fall over...I always thought it they were "marvinous"!

 

[jela10]

Dang-it...I ordered some more Grodan Mini "Grow Cubes" to make sure I had enough for concurrent 2g bucket runs in flower and veg and to my surprise I received the wrong Grodan product. Now I have a huge bag of Grodan "Grow Chunks". The mini cubes are 3/16" square and the chunks are more like 3/4". Curiosity lead me to open the bag anyway and now I'm stuck with the larger medium. Not to worry, the current Mapito I'm running right now is over 1" square but has PU foam chunks as the separator between cubes. After reading on the "Grow Chunks" they claim they hold moisture longer. That is one short-fall of the smaller cubes in solo cup starters as they dried up fast until I put hydroton balls atop the medium. So I could look at it like this, "small cubes for the little girls in cups" and "bigger cubes for the big girls in buckets". But...you know what I'm thinking....mixing the two sizes. Some of you have shown your knowledge on the root zones within a bucket. Anybody think I should put the larger chunks down low and the smaller quicker to dry cubes up top or vice-versa? How about just mixing the two sizes erroneously? Remember, the larger cubes will have larger air gaps between them due to shape, and hold their shape better under compaction.

 

[blacksun]

What you've got going isn't a true passive hydro system. If the rez can't be consumed by the plant if the pumps go out, there is a need for power assist to finish off the rez, and you're still having it maintain a rez independent of the plant container then it's not really passive. What you've got going is more of a bubbleponics system, but most bubbleheads won't recognize your setup due to the perlite netpot. I don't want to run you off, but if you want to see a great grow with the exact same setup try FlowaMasta What he does is well above the curve but I won't spend over $100/plant in nutes.
Then again all the rules except for rez maintenance (which is why most of us went passive) apply to your system.

Heck yea! Exactly like flowamasta's.

My buddy has been running a nearly identical system for a little over a decade. Then about a year ago I stumbled upon flowamasta's threads and recognized the setup immediately since I had seen the method in action at my buddies house. Adapted the setup I had been using to match FM's to compare and I definitely liked the results. I was kind of thinking the method would be considered a little bit like flood and drain since some guys flood the buckets every so often, like once every 6 hours for example. FM himself for example in that thread he says he floods every two to four hours. It's kind of a crazy mix of methods. I thought it might be considered a little like hempy too, what with the similar mediums. Also, when the pump is off, in some setups the roots do still sit in a little water. In that thread by FM actually, at the very bottom you can see a picture of him holding the inner bucket out of the outer bucket and the roots are all hanging down into the outer bucket which still has a couple inches of water in it.

Bah, sorry for the stoned rabble. And don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, I'm still doing a couple true passive hempys hehe. Just getting them dialed in...it's strange, they are really, really temperamental about feeding times. If I feed any faster than once every three days they get piiiiiiiised.

 

[808killahz]

808, where you been bro, good to see you over here on WOH. You should be a regular here. Nice lookers you got there....looks like you jumped into the HPS scene from a thread I saw the other day and I'm happy for you. Looks like it's working well for you too. Say, the hempy brothers here don't know about your fantastic 4" PVC SCROG hempy's....are these growing in them or are you doing another container size Now? Show these cats your PVC creations that don't fall over...I always thought it they were "marvinous"!

Sup jela... yeah pvc thing worked out pretty well... although recently ive been working on a 2 gal sog style set up. Got my two moms ready to go and as soon as these current girls finish ill be starting on it. I just found that a few larger ones are less work than a shit load of small ones. Gonna be topping them also. Super excited about it. The switch to coco hempy buckets have been awesome so far. Oh i got a top drip watering system for the sog already ready to go as well. That will save me time on watering these girls. It will drain to a flood flood table and out to the lawn. This is why i also switched to hps lighting.

 

[drdank50]

Sup jela... yeah pvc thing worked out pretty well... although recently ive been working on a 2 gal sog style set up. Got my two moms ready to go and as soon as these current girls finish ill be starting on it. I just found that a few larger ones are less work than a shit load of small ones. Gonna be topping them also. Super excited about it. The switch to coco hempy buckets have been awesome so far. Oh i got a top drip watering system for the sog already ready to go as well. That will save me time on watering these girls. It will drain to a flood flood table and out to the lawn. This is why i also switched to hps lighting.

808, welcome to WOH. I'm really interested to hear more about your 2 gal sog setup. I'm contemplating the exact same thing even down to your drip system. How much space are you working with at the moment?

I have a DR90 that I'm using to flower. The problem I have right now is that with 20+ 2 liters, it takes a lot of time to water and tends to waft the smell in and around your house fast. Stealth is a huge concern for myself. I'd like to switch to (4) 2 gal coco hempys and mainline them. Since you seem to run regular seeds yourself, I was thinking of starting them out in solo cups and train them for at least 3 tops and to get them to sex. You'd be surprised how big of a mom you can get in a solo cup I have an almost 2' tall afghan kush x skunk mom in a solo. So, I figure a mainline is entirely possible hempy style solo with some twist ties to train.

Please post some pics of your setup. Look forward to learning new methods!

 

[Moebius]

Dang-it...I ordered some more Grodan Mini "Grow Cubes" to make sure I had enough for concurrent 2g bucket runs in flower and veg and to my surprise I received the wrong Grodan product. Now I have a huge bag of Grodan "Grow Chunks". The mini cubes are 3/16" square and the chunks are more like 3/4". Curiosity lead me to open the bag anyway and now I'm stuck with the larger medium. Not to worry, the current Mapito I'm running right now is over 1" square but has PU foam chunks as the separator between cubes. After reading on the "Grow Chunks" they claim they hold moisture longer. That is one short-fall of the smaller cubes in solo cup starters as they dried up fast until I put hydroton balls atop the medium. So I could look at it like this, "small cubes for the little girls in cups" and "bigger cubes for the big girls in buckets". But...you know what I'm thinking....mixing the two sizes. Some of you have shown your knowledge on the root zones within a bucket. Anybody think I should put the larger chunks down low and the smaller quicker to dry cubes up top or vice-versa? How about just mixing the two sizes erroneously? Remember, the larger cubes will have larger air gaps between them due to shape, and hold their shape better under compaction.
View attachment 2492352View attachment 2492355

Jela,

JMO I don't think it will matter whether the small cubes are placed at the top or bottom as to plant growth. .. but placing the small cubes at the top may hold the clones more secure while its roots grab the rest of the substrate.

If you don't want to use the larger size, you could always go at them with a pair of scissors. .... I would probably mix them up, if you decide to re-use the RW then it'll be mixed up on the 2nd run anyhow.

 

[808killahz]

808, welcome to WOH. I'm really interested to hear more about your 2 gal sog setup. I'm contemplating the exact same thing even down to your drip system. How much space are you working with at the moment?

I have a DR90 that I'm using to flower. The problem I have right now is that with 20+ 2 liters, it takes a lot of time to water and tends to waft the smell in and around your house fast. Stealth is a huge concern for myself. I'd like to switch to (4) 2 gal coco hempys and mainline them. Since you seem to run regular seeds yourself, I was thinking of starting them out in solo cups and train them for at least 3 tops and to get them to sex. You'd be surprised how big of a mom you can get in a solo cup I have an almost 2' tall afghan kush x skunk mom in a solo. So, I figure a mainline is entirely possible hempy style solo with some twist ties to train.

Please post some pics of your setup. Look forward to learning new methods!

Hey Drdank50, thanks for the warm welcome. Here's what i got going on for this grow...

First off ive been really busy as hell lately. and time is a big concern for me now. i no longer have hours a day to just work in my grow room. this is why ive been thinking about semi automating my set up. ive also been smoking a hell of alot more lately too. thats the reason behind the sog. lmfao.... i think its the stress from all the shit ive been doing.

Currently I have a 4x4 flower room with 400 hps lighting (trying to get my hands on a 600w hps). i also have a carbon filter with 6 inch inline. I built a small platform about 15 inches high. The grow tray will sit on this platform allowing me to run a drain to waste set up from the grow tray to my lawn. This will catch all the excess water that comes from the Hempy Buckets. Currently I drain the dish by hand and its time consuming. This will eliminate that right from the start.

After taking some measurements, the 4x4 tray will not fit in a 4x4 tent. If i was to cut the top edge off the grow tray i could squeeze it in but it will be tight. also, my vents where the air gets sucked in are below the table. so as my big ass fan sucks the walls of my grow tent in, it will kinda cut off and block the air flow. My only other option would be to get a 3x3 tray or make a custom one. Im using 2 gal buckets which are about 9.5 inches in diameter. a 3x3 tray will cut my plant numbers down to 9 (3x3 tray) from 16 (4x4 tray). if i make a custom one, i would be able to fit all 16 plants in the tent and have enough space for airflow. im leaning toward a building a simple custom grow tray to fit my needs (i want 16 plants).

So like i was saying im using 2 gal hempy buckets. hydroton on the bottom for the rez and coco on the top end. the clones will be topped above the 2nd node which will provide me with at least 4 main colas. plants will be vegged till about 12 inches tall then put in 12/12. from previous grows the plants are estimated to be about 18 to 20 inches after the stretch. this is perfect as my 400 hps can only penetrate about 15 to 20 inches down efficiently depending on how heavy the vegetation is. i will be doing a small bit of defoliating too as needed.

The drip system is simple. i have a 20 gal rez outside of my tent. a pump will send the water into my tent via tubing. the tubing has drip emitters attached. every bucket will have a drip line top feeding the water/nutes. i just have to mix my nutes when ready and turn the pump on. come back later when the rez is empty and just turn the pump off. excess water/nutes from the buckets just drain from my table to my lawn outside. this cuts my time down significantly and i dont have to open my grow tent at all to do my watering (this might help with keeping the smell contained in your situation). then a couple days later do the same thing. the only time i have to open my tent is when i need to check on the girls. ill be dialing in the optimum amount of water needed in the rez to completely water all the buckets. I want to be as efficient as possible. so if i can get away with using less water i will. this will save on the nutrients needed as well. im just looking for a bit of run off then from then on thats all i need.

really simple set up that makes a sog using hempy buckets way less time consuming. ill take some pics and post it up as soon as its up and running. i got a ken's gdp and a serious ak47 mother. havent decided which to run yet or i might do a half and half kinda thing. we will see. these phenos are very similar in growth rate and structure which is why i decided to mother them specifically for this application. i love these two strains and i cant wait for this to happen =). oh yeah as far as nutes... im using cns17 grow/bloom for coco, ripe, liquid karma, calmag, hydroplex, and sweets berry by botanicare. if you got any questions let me know...

 

[supchaka]

Over the years and different mediums I've used and reused, pretty much anything you can think of. I've found that things just don't always go as clock work as when I use new every time. For that reason I don't reuse my stuff anymore. There's zero unknown variable when starting fresh every time. Yeah it's more expensive but I figure how much am I really spending in comparison to buying someone else's meds. It's just a little higher level of piece of mind for me. And if I do switch to purely hempy, the perlite I buy is $19 for 4 cu ft. When its done I mix it into my garden soil.

 

[WattSaver]

So this run I'm running 1 coco and 2 perlite w/ soil cap, for comparison, well the perlite got off on the wrong foot, and yes it was my doing's.

With the coco I found out I didn't need to adjust the ph of my feed water. And I wasn't sure how much was due to the coco or the effects of pre-loading with OC. So to start the perlite buckets I didn't adjust the ph of the feed water. I tested overflow out the hole, and found the ph in and out were within .2 I ended up with a mild ph lockout during the first 7 days in the bucket. Next watering adjusted to 5.9 out was 6.0 and the ec gained 1.2.

Now with this new info I can say that using OC is ph neutral, and the coco is responsible for the ph buffering. I don't know how this would relate to using brightly colored bottled nutes, but my experience with most of them was that they weren't ph neutral.

I'd be really interested in seeing In/Out (ph & ec) with other nutes through coco.