KushCanuck
Well-Known Member
I`m going to first appologize for reposting a big quote (which was awesome by the way...)
Do you aerate your feedings at all Stone or is mix-and-feed like a soil application, and let gravity do it`s thing? I`m cranked up for some hempy brother, sorry to bloat this thang on ya. Perlite is my favourite medium all-around, which was a main motivator (have like 6-8 4cu.ft bags just sitting at the Factory, haha), and between You, EC, Flowa, and others now gravitating to hempy ... only makes sense I get some in so I can add my two cents . Thanks for your support Stone, RIU won`t ever let me Rep you ... but I`ll try ...
KC
What a nice post Stone, cleared some things up for me. From what I gather though, EC`s set-up I`d refer to as a Drip-to-DWC concept, whereas the emphasis for you is to still feed (feel free to chime in here EC if you do feed manually, your hempy is boss also mate). In effect, does it then benefit to have your drain hole about a half in. from the bottom or so as to keep some of that watering intact? I immediately scrapped the sock first thing when putting together the first sampler bucket ... Think I will just screen as you have Stone.Mapito is a new hempy medium that consists of stonewool or rockwool cubes and polyurethane foam. It is very stable and reusable, and is supposed to get better with each reuse. It is very expensive, around $25-35 US for 1.5 cu/ft. Which is why I've stuck with perlite for now, till it becomes more popular and widely available.
As my buckets are simple drain-to-waste hempys I don't use a sock. Just str8 perlite in a bucket. I do use a small piece of vinyl screen to cover my drainhole, and prevent perlite from coming out before the roots can hold it in place. The reason the hole is in the side is to create a small reservoir in the bottom of the bucket. This allows the perlite in the upper layers to wick water up to the upper root system, and also allows the taproots to sit in the rez and drink. It also keeps water in the bottom of the bucket, letting the plant get water and nutes while still letting most of the upper root zone to dry out and get plenty of oxygen. Then when you water, you want about 20-40% runoff to "flush" out any old stuff in the rez with fresh liquid. Without a rez you would be watering daily without really ever letting the root zone dry out. Which the whole reason hydro has better growth than soil is because the root zone is always highly oxygenated. A system like eastcoastmo's is a recirculating hempy and uses a aerated rez and a drip ring to feed periodically during the day. More oxygen, more roots and growth.
You can really max out plant size with hempy buckets as they don't have the same issues with being root bound as soil buckets. As you can tell from my plants a 1 gallon bucket will support a fairly large plant all the way thru harvest. My buddy who first turned me on to hempy used 3 gallon buckets and grew monsters, some yielding up to 12 oz and 6ft high. Like me he does nothing more than flush periodically and feed with every watering.
Consider my screens are 11 x 22 in one gallon buckets, I don't forsee any problem using a 2-3 gallon bucket for screens the size you're planning to use. Hope this explains a little more about the concept of hempy buckets and why the rez is needed in the bottom couple inches of the bucket. Let me know if I can clarify anything else as you plan and get setup. Peace
Do you aerate your feedings at all Stone or is mix-and-feed like a soil application, and let gravity do it`s thing? I`m cranked up for some hempy brother, sorry to bloat this thang on ya. Perlite is my favourite medium all-around, which was a main motivator (have like 6-8 4cu.ft bags just sitting at the Factory, haha), and between You, EC, Flowa, and others now gravitating to hempy ... only makes sense I get some in so I can add my two cents . Thanks for your support Stone, RIU won`t ever let me Rep you ... but I`ll try ...
KC