World Of Hempy

It's been a week so do u think it will take another week to hit the Rez?

I've been having some issues with my 1st coco run. I'm fighting a CA deficiency, I just can't seem to build up the buffer in the coco. And I don't want to over hammer them and create a lockout, that would be the proverbial from bad to worse.

I'm using roots organic brick coco. I used ph 6 with 10ml/gal cal-mag (botanicare). With transplant to 3gal hempy I used 5ml/gal cal-mag. Within 1 day the first plant showed lime green new growth. The others followed soon after, but none of the others seem to be as bad. Here's the kicker, they are just starting to show sex, and the worst one is going to be a girl for sure, but the others look like they are going to be boys. I'm not throwin' them out just yet, cause they are JUST starting to show. Even though the ugly one is lime on top she still grew 3" in height last night.

These taken a few days back,

smoothness said:

It's been a week so do u think it will take another week to hit the Rez?

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Not really sure how long it will take.

Here are my thoughts on how to accelerate the roots diving. I'd water twice a day (I'm guessing a qt will be enough to start) Water just under the footprint of the plant canopy. As the plants grow and spread increase water area to match. This isn't something I have personal experience with, but I know that root and canopy lateral spread are related. And if you water the whole mass of per/verm mix every time there could be some nute salt buildup in the areas where there are no roots to uptake the nutes. You are running a drain to waste sort of system until you find the rez. One point to watch for, in perlite when you think the roots are in the rez and the plant just jumps in growth, the roots are most likely still a few inches above the hole, but with the wicking of the perlite it's a near saturation zone. And with my early experience with coco the saturation zone may be even further above the hole.

WattSaver said:

I've used dynamite. I can't remember if it was the red or purple, I do know it was a 13-13-13, and I didn't think it was organic. So I might not have used the same product. The one I used worked well, and seemed to work better than the osmocote in hi temps. But in the end I get better results more consistently using the Osmocote. I did try one organic CRF, it was the fox farms Marine Cuisine, and it didn't perform nearly as well as the OC or DYM.

I've never seen a hempy bag or a bag that would be a good candidate for hempy. I personally wouldn't try a bag for fear of a tear in the rez area. Just keep your eye out and you can find cheap to free items that will work great for hempy.

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Yeah I kind of figured that about the bags. I really want to try out the Dynamite Organic CRF. Maybe I'll do a side by side with Osmocote. Thanks for the info! I think Hempy is going to be my preferred method of growing.

WattSaver said:

I've been having some issues with my 1st coco run. I'm fighting a CA deficiency, I just can't seem to build up the buffer in the coco. And I don't want to over hammer them and create a lockout, that would be the proverbial from bad to worse.

I'm using roots organic brick coco. I used ph 6 with 10ml/gal cal-mag (botanicare). With transplant to 3gal hempy I used 5ml/gal cal-mag. Within 1 day the first plant showed lime green new growth. The others followed soon after, but none of the others seem to be as bad. Here's the kicker, they are just starting to show sex, and the worst one is going to be a girl for sure, but the others look like they are going to be boys. I'm not throwin' them out just yet, cause they are JUST starting to show. Even though the ugly one is lime on top she still grew 3" in height last night.

These taken a few days back,

Click to expand...

Even with coco specific nutrients (e.g. Canna Coco A&B, with their own bagged coco coir), I have to add Cal/Mag from day one.....even fresh seedlings show that lime green needing attention. I've just made it standard practice to run 5ml/gal from day one of the nute schedule. Cal/Mag has been one of those nutrients that has never impacted my grow negatively with regular use. I do put it in first when I mix nutes...old habit from reading here on RIU...helps buffer the mixture.. I use R/O water however and that may be the root cause...I never have to monitor my pH with this combo. I have two sprouts right now in coco that are feeding from Canna "Start" since they popped ...and I can tell they will need some cal/mag soon.

at present im on my 1st hempy grow using a base of 3" of perlite topped off with coco, would there be any benefit in mixing the coco with perlite above 3" of pure perlite, the hempys are standing in a res rather than having the res inside the bottle, the coco is wicking water up better than i anticipated and is still quite damp when i come to water every third day should i wait longer to water them or is coco that good that i could water everyday without problem, and would it be beneficial to have an airstone in my res, couldn't hurt right?

After soaking the mysteriously new "Mapito" medium for 24hrs in R/O water and light nutes (5.8ph @ 430ppm), I transplanted two of the G13 PE's into 2 gal hempy buckets as their final home. I might see some issues....the leafs were so close to the bucket edge that placing the chunky, nutrient enriched media around the root zone caused some contact with the leafs. Lifting the leaflets with my rubber gloved hands (a must with rockwool to protect your skin) made contact even more abundant. I made sure to spray all leafs top and bottom with Arrowhead drinking water (very neutral pH, no secret). I did not use perlite in the bottom per advice here on RIU...we will see how it goes with watering frequency and most importantly water quantity per feed. I had things so good with chunky # 3 perlite in the bottom of my coco hempy's....like an even 1 gallon per bucket per feed with the hole 2" from the bottom. Also I've heard rock-wool can cause some pH swings and coco was a no-brainer in that respect. Anyhow, if you go this route there is some work to it...rinsing, nute pre-cheging and then mixing every thing up to ensure consistency. The polyurethane foam chunks do float to the top when soaking. Not to mention wearing a breather mask with the open bag (which is loaded with airborne offtake when open) and several pairs of nitrile gloves while mixing/handling. There too, bagged Canna coco was supreme in ease of start-up.

ineverveg said:

at present im on my 1st hempy grow using a base of 3" of perlite topped off with coco, would there be any benefit in mixing the coco with perlite above 3" of pure perlite, the hempys are standing in a res rather than having the res inside the bottle, the coco is wicking water up better than i anticipated and is still quite damp when i come to water every third day should i wait longer to water them or is coco that good that i could water everyday without problem, and would it be beneficial to have an airstone in my res, couldn't hurt right?

Click to expand...

The word is.."you can't over-water coco"...it's that good at holding air too. You won't even need an air-stone...but it wouldn't hurt either unless you're feeding algae and bacteria too (essential to their lives as well).

jela10 said:

The word is.."you can't over-water coco"...it's that good at holding air too. You won't even need an air-stone...but it wouldn't hurt either unless you're feeding algae and bacteria too (essential to their lives as well).

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yeah this stuff is too good to be true, even tho my girls look ok i was getting concerned about the moisture they had after 3 days, cheers man

Well the neon girl needed water this evening so I bumped up the cal-mag to 10ml/gal, see if I can build the buffer.

WattSaver said:

Not really sure how long it will take.

Here are my thoughts on how to accelerate the roots diving. I'd water twice a day (I'm guessing a qt will be enough to start) Water just under the footprint of the plant canopy. As the plants grow and spread increase water area to match. This isn't something I have personal experience with, but I know that root and canopy lateral spread are related. And if you water the whole mass of per/verm mix every time there could be some nute salt buildup in the areas where there are no roots to uptake the nutes. You are running a drain to waste sort of system until you find the rez. One point to watch for, in perlite when you think the roots are in the rez and the plant just jumps in growth, the roots are most likely still a few inches above the hole, but with the wicking of the perlite it's a near saturation zone. And with my early experience with coco the saturation zone may be even further above the hole.

Click to expand...

Okay thanks so much wattsaver and shivaskunk and whoever else hhelped me so far. Another question... I hear pot size is related to plant size in soil but for hempy does a 7.5 gallon bucket mean 50 percent bigger plant size then a five gallon? I just want to be reassured that all this waiting would benefit me somehow in the near future down the road. And i noticed that since I raised my lights that there is lil to none secondary growth tips, unlike when I had it three inches away. I was hoping when I get my mh:hps lamps that more secondary growth will grow without having to top them much.

btw wattsaver the trash bins dimensions are: Product in Inches (L x W x H): 14.5 x 11.25 x 17.75. im thinking about going with something like this for the remaining untransplanted 3 plants : Product in Inches (L x W x H): 16.5 x 13.0 x 12.25. is wider and longer but short better then thin and tall?

smoothness said:

btw wattsaver the trash bins dimensions are: Product in Inches (L x W x H): 14.5 x 11.25 x 17.75. im thinking about going with something like this for the remaining untransplanted 3 plants : Product in Inches (L x W x H): 16.5 x 13.0 x 12.25. is wider and longer but short better then thin and tall?

Click to expand...

I've always felt that wider is better than taller. And if you check out all the different grow pot, bag, airpots etc. you'll notice that none of them are over 12" tall. My 3gal buckets are just over 11" tall. Even the large 20gal soil smart pots are only 14" tall. So I'm thinking that around 10" growing medium depth is pretty much the sweet spot.

Generally speaking the larger the container the larger the plant you can grow, but if you want to get full use of the larger container, you have to increase the veg time to get a more mature plant. For building mothers like your doin' smooth, some 2gal buckets would be plenty.

The reason we all use hempy (well one reason) is that the yield is better in hempy compared to the same size soil container.

Indoors I've personally yielded over 6oz in a 3gal, caveat - It was an old mother that had been in veg for over 4 months, and it got the light to itself for the last 4wks.

In the end your growing environment (conditions & limitations) will determine the yield for your grow.

well ive been vegging for 7 weeks already got another 4 to go. what light did u use to get over 6oz in a 3gal?

smoothness said:

well ive been vegging for 7 weeks already got another 4 to go. what light did u use to get over 6oz in a 3gal?

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It was under a 2' square hood with 2 - 400w CMH bulbs. In a 4' square area by itself.

Ok, First time grower here.

I have about a 10" bucket with a 6" pot sitting in the cap of bucket.

The media is aquarium rocks they won't wick well like media made for hydro so i made 4 wicks from an old t-shirt.

I have 4 wicks going from bottom of bucket to top of pot through the drainage holes on the bottom of the pot.

The problem:
I have let about an inch or less of the wick sit in water for over 12 hours and the top of the wick is still dry(i let it come out of the aquarium rocks from the top to test moisture)

the t-shirt wick is about 2" wide and 10-11" long although it curled up on itself so it is not that wide. When i look into the reservoir though, the wick seems to be completely wet.

EDIT: Do you think it is because aquarium rocks are too heavy and it squeezes the water out of the wick that is within media?
It seems the wick that is within the media is moist but the tip coming out of the media is still completely dry... I'm going to add 2 more wicks making it a total of 6 wicks for now.
Would socks work better than a t-shirt?


Any tips?

WattSaver said:

It was under a 2' square hood with 2 - 400w CMH bulbs. In a 4' square area by itself.

Click to expand...

i was toying with a few cmh bulbs but they cost a fortune because you can only get them from America ,wjth delivery they are around $60 each, its good to see a plant plant hit yields like that under cmh because they dont get enough respect for what they are, great for keeping he heat down!

ineverveg said:

i was toying with a few cmh bulbs but they cost a fortune because you can only get them from America ,wjth delivery they are around $60 each, its good to see a plant plant hit yields like that under cmh because they dont get enough respect for what they are, great for keeping he heat down!

Click to expand...

I really like the bulb and the benefit of an open un-vented hood. The price dropped here in the states. I can now pick em up for $36/ea. I just wish that Phillips would make a 600 or 1000w model.

stonedream said:

Ok, First time grower here.

I have about a 10" bucket with a 6" pot sitting in the cap of bucket.

The media is aquarium rocks they won't wick well like media made for hydro so i made 4 wicks from an old t-shirt.

I have 4 wicks going from bottom of bucket to top of pot through the drainage holes on the bottom of the pot.

The problem:
I have let about an inch or less of the wick sit in water for over 12 hours and the top of the wick is still dry(i let it come out of the aquarium rocks from the top to test moisture)

the t-shirt wick is about 2" wide and 10-11" long although it curled up on itself so it is not that wide. When i look into the reservoir though, the wick seems to be completely wet.

EDIT: Do you think it is because aquarium rocks are too heavy and it squeezes the water out of the wick that is within media?
It seems the wick that is within the media is moist but the tip coming out of the media is still completely dry... I'm going to add 2 more wicks making it a total of 6 wicks for now.
Would socks work better than a t-shirt?


Any tips?

Click to expand...

First a couple of ???.

What is the grow medium in the 6" pot? Soil or more aquarium rock?
Does your 10" deep bucket have a same size opening as the 6" pot above? I guess I'm asking if the bucket supports the pot above.

I've got a couple of options depending on the info, and they have nothing to do with wicks.

WattSaver said:

I really like the bulb and the benefit of an open un-vented hood. The price dropped here in the states. I can now pick em up for $36/ea. I just wish that Phillips would make a 600 or 1000w model.

Click to expand...

i just bought a round of new 400w and 600w hps but i will replace them all at the same time with cmh when these are done. I dont think the MJ world are on cmh yet ,mainly sold as street lighting, they have many advantages though in growing