A simple hempy newb tutorial. I am not an expert or master by any means, I am a newb too, this is just WHAT I DO! The method is Hempy, a simple passive hydroponic system. You will need a few things to start. There are variations to the method, including adding an air stone to the res, I have heard that the creator of hempy has said that this is unnecessary and over complicates hempys simple nature. I use these 13litre (3.4gallon) black plastic bins from the local 'super' hardware, they are $3 each . Square shape is best so they all fit nice together under the light. They don't have to be this size, you could use a big Coke bottle cut at 3/4 if you wanted to
(not mine but I did start my clones in plastic drink bottles)
View attachment 2730236Make a pencil sized hole 2 inches from the bottom(measure from the inside). Use a drill or I heat up a Philips head screwdriver over the stove . This provides a small reservoir at the base with the excess overflowing out the drainage hole. The plant soon puts its roots down and starts feeding from this reservoir. I sit my hempy buckets in shallow plastic containers to collect the excess. I do not re-use the excess, though some people do.
View attachment 2730243Now for the medium, I use a 2-1 Perlite/Vermiculite premix
View attachment 2730247 Some people use perlite only, some people use 10-25% vermiculite. Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass and Vermiculite is a hydrous, silicate mineral and helps with moisture retention. Perlite and vermiculite are inorganic, they do not contain nutrients. Some use coco, coco/clay or a perlite/coco mix. I pay $25 for this mix. I'm sure you can buy it much cheaper elsewhere buying both in bulk and mixing yourself. It's really dusty so I empty it into a big tub half full of ph 5.8 water and soak it a bit, mix it around a bit, then it goes straight into the bucket. Compact it somewhat, the excess water will flow out the hole. I have been using these cheap ph pens
I'm on my third in a few months, don't be like me, get yourself a decent (and WATERPROOF) meter to begin, it's a worthwhile investment. I am soon to spend $150 on a half decent meter. I keep my ph at 5.8 throughout though some say 6.0 - 6.1 is best for hempy. My runoff is 5.8. My current ph pen is calibrated often as honestly these are just junk pens. I have a tds/ppm meter, just a cheapy also, but I haven't had an issue with it and it still seems to still work fine. I would not recommend starting a hempy grow without at least a cheapy one of each.
You can use any hydroponic nutrients .I use rainwater, Dutch Master Gold nutrients
View attachment 2730262(I buy the 1litre ones!) and use the Flower A/B for flowering and Grotek Calmax, a Calcium, Magnesium and Iron supplement
And in flower I used this Monsta Bud product containing fulvic, gibberellic and humic acids amongst other things.
I believe I went a bit hard on the nutes towards the end of my first grow. My advice is, start with a low dosage of nutes and gradually increase. Feeding schedule will obviously depend on strain and size of plant, I will underfeed these if anything, I doubt I will go beyond 1000ppm this time. As well, I fed every water with an occasional ph water flush, this time I will feed, feed, ph water, feed, feed, ph water. Just go easy on nutrients and back off at any sign of burning (brown leaf tips, ect). Seedlings are commonly started in cups
or in rockwool cubes (just replant the whole cube) Even starting seedlings in soil, there is not much harm done by delicately washing the soil off the roots and replanting in the hempy mix (not ideal of course and could possibly transfer virus, pests or bad bacteria, idk). Your little hempy seedlings or clones will need to be watered once a day until the roots hit the reservoir. And I water every three days in veg and every two days in bloom. It is basically impossible to overwater in hempy, eliminating a common 'newbie' problem. The nature of hempy also makes it hard for root rot to thrive and another advantage is the absence of pumps or moving parts. One of my first grow girls was in DWC,
and yielded a lot more than the hempys, however I like the ease of the hempy style. I find the hempys don't need as much work and attention and they are easy to move around if required. In addition to my notes
here's a hempy thread
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/59705-hempy-collective.html and here's the mainlining thread again
https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-old-school-organics/542308-main-lining-thread.html