Sickomindo
Well-Known Member
Yeah I agree Yankee thanks for your advice I still think I didn't flush enough and or my cure might be suspect. I'm really not sure what the guy above me has beef with
World Of Hempy
- Thread starter Moebius
- Start date
Sickomindo
Well-Known Member
This was right before chop
Attachments
Serverchris
Well-Known Member
What air stones do you use, I've had trouble keeping them clean just running Dwc so I imagine they would get stopped up worse like that.
yankeetransplant
Well-Known Member
I use a basic 1 inch barrel style....I use grow rock in the bottom of the bucket just above the 2 inch drains....stone flat on the bottom....then a 4:1 perlite to vermiculite mix......It doesnt need to be fancy..DWC need a LOT MORE attention to your airstones....the plants life depends on it...In a hempy, they are not fully submerged all the time....ths 1st day or so after watering the rez has standing water....this is when it benefits from it....ANYTIME roots are submerged, they appreciate the air....a basic hempy requires allowing Most of the water to ne depleted before adding more...many ppl dont have the patience to wait till they are REALLY READY for rewatering, and it benefits them greatly....There is a myth that a hempy cannot be over watered....Unless your running a very high perlite ratio, they CAN remain to wet....ESPECIALLY true for coco coir users....even a 50/50 mix of coco/Perlite can be too wet if it constantly watered....Same as a 50/50 perlite/vermiculite mix.....just because they may not die from it, they certainly can have roots that are NOT 100% happy.....Its all about the roots!!!!....ANY extra oxygen is good...give them an airy mix and dont let them go bone dry and they will reward you.....This Hempy bucket design will grow plants just as good as ANY hydroponic set up and in many cases, even better.....Even a nervous overwaterer, can use this...the 4:1 mix is too dry to hurt the roots, even if watered too much...AND that addition of the airstone in the rez keeps the roots down their happy...Bubbles also create a lot of little voids in the water, so more water naturally moves toward the airstones....This creates a mixing of any standing water...slow, but it does...benefits, pH stability, oxygenation, and, in turn, happier roots...my stones stay clean for a crop and then I just replace them for the next one...you can boil them, blow air thru them and let them dry out if you want to re-use....And yes, my DWC stones (when I did water culture) got more boogered up than these do...
Rakin
Well-Known Member
I use river rock in mine outdoors. Helps weight the bucket and I get it for free. I use amended peat and perlite as my medium. This year I added coco to that. I grow some trees in my 5gal hempys
yankeetransplant
Well-Known Member
Even If I didn't use an airstone, I would still use a hydroton, river rock, expanded slate or anything similar to fill the reservoir area...I have always found the roots like to curl up in a mass right on top of the rock and drops whatever feeder roots it needs down into the rock rez.....the way it piles up on TOP of the rocks, tells me the roots don't like to bunch up IN the very wet rez, but finds and responds nicely to that water table....The biggest root mass sits right on top of the food and water source and eats and drinks as needed....Its a beautiful thing....Dumping your medium after a grow tell a good story about your systems root health....I like to find THICK ropelike roots coming out of the stalks just under the medium level, and a nice white tangled mess piled up on top of the rocks.....as they grow, they drop more and more feeder roots down into the rez....
As you noticed, having that rock rez is a great ballast to keep taller plants upright....Nice trick for hempy plantlet growers, even with a straight drain to waste container...Of course river rock is a lot heavier than hydroton or other Expanded rock and I found they both work as well as the other...Had one of my best crops ever (about 3 crops ago) had about dime size river rock in the bottom....In a Hempy bucket, its having some type of rock rez and not about the type of rock.....My medium is ALWAYS 4:1 Perlite to Vermiculite...thats a pretty dry hydroponic mix, so those roots seek out the source and pile up....I hear a lot of comments about airstones and rock reservoirs don't help, BUT THEY DO....I have done it both ways and it works better....I'm not saying a standard Hempy bucket wont grow good meds, cause it will....ANY TIME I can do something that I know improves the quality, I DO IT!!!.....lots of little improvements add up to BIG gains and better quality.....YT
As you noticed, having that rock rez is a great ballast to keep taller plants upright....Nice trick for hempy plantlet growers, even with a straight drain to waste container...Of course river rock is a lot heavier than hydroton or other Expanded rock and I found they both work as well as the other...Had one of my best crops ever (about 3 crops ago) had about dime size river rock in the bottom....In a Hempy bucket, its having some type of rock rez and not about the type of rock.....My medium is ALWAYS 4:1 Perlite to Vermiculite...thats a pretty dry hydroponic mix, so those roots seek out the source and pile up....I hear a lot of comments about airstones and rock reservoirs don't help, BUT THEY DO....I have done it both ways and it works better....I'm not saying a standard Hempy bucket wont grow good meds, cause it will....ANY TIME I can do something that I know improves the quality, I DO IT!!!.....lots of little improvements add up to BIG gains and better quality.....YT
Rakin
Well-Known Member
Last years hempy garden in July.
Last years jalapeño hempy in November before going dormant for the winter. Got 7’ tall! I was harvesting over a pound of jalapeños every 2 weeks in the peak of the season.
Jalapeño hempy coming back to life a couple of days ago after being kept dormant over the winter in the garage!
Last years jalapeño hempy in November before going dormant for the winter. Got 7’ tall! I was harvesting over a pound of jalapeños every 2 weeks in the peak of the season.
Jalapeño hempy coming back to life a couple of days ago after being kept dormant over the winter in the garage!
yankeetransplant
Well-Known Member
Very cool....Cant argue with results like that....A Hempy bucket is a nice shortcut to great results WITHOUT the compromise of quality....since 1979, I have tried EVERY hydroponic system that came out...now 39 yrs later, I grow exclusively Hempy....There are SO MANY way, but for cost, simplicity, ease of use, Hempy buckets rule....YT
Rakin
Well-Known Member
I have to agree. And so many different mediums and containers can be used. I’ve used 20oz pop bottles all the way to 5gal buckets and have never paid for a container. Last year I had an heirloom tomato plant in a 2gal bucket that got 7.5’ tall and then I cut top half off late season and it grew back up to 7’ again by first frost. I couldn’t believe it.
Rakin
Well-Known Member
Cool. Keep us posted over the season. I’ve never used a smartie but considered it with the compost I make.
ogbman
Active Member
Enjoyed the smarties over the winter. As the weather climbs to triple digits already the regular pots and buckets w/ res is quickly becoming my preference for the heat.
jela10
Well-Known Member
Well, Well, Well, Look who’s back from the future! Just stopped in to say Hi to all my old Hempy Brothers and Sisters. I was a contributing member of this thread for the first 400 pg’s until I had to stop growing due to the “25 mile dispensary rule” and retired from work too. My retirement since ’15 has been a wonderful thing. I can only wish you all get the chance to make it there….so stash everything you can in those 401K’s. Even though a registered MMJ patient, my move to a cooler more rural climate still found me within a 25 mile distance to a dispensary (they are everywhere in this state). So I haven’t grown a thing but fucking flowers, veggie’s and fruit tree’s which all grow quite well here. One good thing I did upon retirement was learn to brew beer and man do I have the setup now. I’ve actually been competing! Hop’s, marijuana’s only relative, are a wonderful thing…I like putting them together in the same arena from time to time. Looks like we have another recreational legalization on the ballot for this November….watching anxiously, cause if we do, I’m gonna rock that Hempy!
nonamedman420
Well-Known Member
hey, not to hijack this thread, but what kind of nutrients are you running with that outdoor tomato hempy? and if you don't mind, what E.C. or ppm are you targeting for your feeds? initial ph? and watering style? (feed, feed, water or the like), and do you water every X amount of days, or do you wait till it's about dry before watering?
Rakin
Well-Known Member
Megacrop 6-7 grams per gallon depending on needs (wind, temp, humidity, blossoms). I use 7 to get them to really take off and back it off for high wind heat and to fruit. That puts it around 600-700 ppm for nutes in tap water that is 200-300 ppm already.
Nutrient ph is around 6.0-6.2 and runoff is 5.6-5.8. I water daily and right now they are using 1.25-1.5 gal per plant a day when the sun is out. I feed everyday and if there isn’t any rain for a while I will back off the nutes every now and then. You don’t want the tomato plants to dry out if you can help it.
Medium is 1-1-1 peat-coco-perlite with about a cup or so of peletized dolomite in every 6 cu foot of medium to buffer the peat, I will probably bump that up a little. Bottom of bucket is river rock up just past hole.