Hempy questions

I'm thinking about going hempy but have some questions.

Was planning on running straight perlite with a top layer of hydrotron to prevent excess evaporation and light from reaching the perlite. Would also make everything in the bucket reusable. Any reason why going this route is a bad idea?

What's the max PPM you would use when watering hempy? Do you alternate with nutes no nutes?

Id like to know as well. My last grow I did about 2inch of coco and the rest perlite as a dtw and my results were pretty good in 2ltr pots. I have always thought about hempy (even made the buckets) but always back out. I'll sub for education.

Rahz said:

I'm thinking about going hempy but have some questions.

Was planning on running straight perlite with a top layer of hydrotron to prevent excess evaporation and light from reaching the perlite. Would also make everything in the bucket reusable. Any reason why going this route is a bad idea?

What's the max PPM you would use when watering hempy? Do you alternate with nutes no nutes?

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100% perlite is very common in hempy's, no need to worry about the evaporation as most of the water settles to the bottom. (I use 3:1 perlite / vermiculite)

light penetrating the perlite is not a major concern but some of us do add 1 or 2 inches of plain soil to the top which will ensure no light hits your roots (plus other added values).....this is called soil capping, introduce to WOH by @WattSaver ......as for using hydrotron, not sure maybe watts can comment

as for PPM, never worried about it....just get your pH in the ballpark, and you may need some Cal-Mag, depending on your water

use nutes with every feeding (after about 2 weeks old)

I run 100% perlite buckets.
Don't worry too much about reusing your medium; perlite is cheap and you're not gonna use a ton of it.
If you don't do the soilcap you need to feed starting day 2-3 with light nute solution providing that you start in rockwool. I've had a couple of seedlings I didn't feed for two weeks and they were just stuck at the first set of leaves.

Awesome, thanks guys. I think I'll be cloning in rockwool with 120 PPM nute solution plus root stimulant and cloning gel. I can just carry over the 120 PPM solution for feeding the first couple weeks.

I'm a firm believer that capping perlite is very beneficial. Not only is it good for stopping light penetration and keeping everything in place, and depending upon the cap material there are added benefits. I like ISK also cap with soil, I recycle my perlite and the little bit of soil that filters through rinses right out. stoneslacker uses a 2" coco cap. The biggest benefit IMO is the roots will grow much nearer to the top of the medium, which gives you a larger root zone in the bucket. with hydroton on top I'm sure the roots will fill all the perlite, but I'm not to sure of how much root growth there would be in the hydroton. Maybe you'll just have to try it.

you can see how solid the roots are solid within the soil cap





young male seedlings from a solo cup hempy


the soil is held together with all the roots

Does anyone use bennies in hempy?

I'm thinking about using a pure trichoderma culture to inoculate the substrate. I will have 23 gallon buckets, so will only inoculate a few to see how they compare to the rest.

Are there any other experiments I can do? I have plenty of buckets.

Rahz said:

Does anyone use bennies in hempy?

I'm thinking about using a pure trichoderma culture to inoculate the substrate. I will have 23 gallon buckets, so will only inoculate a few to see how they compare to the rest.

Are there any other experiments I can do? I have plenty of buckets.

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I've tried Advanced Nutrients Parana & Tranchulia with mixed results. But I only use the hempy bucket for flower not veg. I veg in good soil so it has the natural microbes then throw it into a perlite or coco bucket so there is probably some action still going on.

My question to you is what are you trying to grow in a 23 gal container????
Last summer I tried my largest hempy outdoors. 16 gal with 2 plants in it and it would have produced pounds if the roots hadn't frozen in early Sept. Please let me know what you've got going on.

lol, 23 one gallon buckets, sorry I guess I could have said that differently.

23 buckets taking up about 18 square feet of space. I'm hoping for a week or two at most veg, maybe perpetual depending on how the first grow looks.

Anyway, I'm going to try applying the trich in a couple different ways.

I'll create a sterile medium to culture some trich, wait til the carbs are mostly consumed and refrigerate, then apply the solution once early in flower. I will also try a few buckets mixing the trich powder in with the perlite from the start. I'm thinking about trying something like Great White too, just not sure the bacteria will survive. I have an interest in trich because it can live in symbiosis with the root system... not something that would need to be applied more than once if done right. And I'll have some buckets straight sterile. It should be interesting to see the results. It will be about 2 months before this grow gets underway, so I've got time to think of other experiments.

I have more buckets than I need, so I can fuck some of them up if needed. I've considered using more than one hole, but not sure it will make much difference. I guess I could try a couple with straight coco and/or soil caps on perlite, but am really wanting a system that will allow me to recycle all the substrate. I'm open to suggestions on other experiments.

Also, would like a few more opinions on max PPMs. I've never gone over 1000 in hydro, is hempy nute solution basically the same?

I'm not really the person who should answer the ppm question, because I grow with CRF's. But the few grows I've done in the past few yrs, measuring nutes, I've found 900 to be about the max without any burning. I will say that Hempy does follow the basic rules of any hydro grow.