Rickle Piiiiick
Well-Known Member
Thought I’d post a grow journal of my hempy style grow for others who may be interested in researching the process. Full disclosure this is my first attempt at hempy, and only my 3rd successful grow in over a decade. My goal here is simple though, benefit from an easy to manage and cheap base hydro nutrient supplementation (Lucas/MaxiBloom) but with a soil type watering obligation. I’m a working professional, who likes his MJ; but I can’t always be tethered to a watering schedule. This is a -somewhat- stealth grow in a converted steel security cabinet (18”x36”x72”) situated in a below grade basement utility room. Along with this being my foray into hempy, it will also be my first attempt at mani-folding/mainlining.
STRAIN INFO:
GROWING ENVIRONMENT:
Grow Space: Steel Cabinet
Growing Medium: 100% perlite (clay pebble topper and in reservoir)
Container: 3.5gal hempy style bucket
Veg Light Schedule: 20hrs On / 4hrs Off
Daytime Temp Range: 74-78F
Night-time Temp Range: 72-74 F
Daytime RH Range: 50-60%
Night-time RH Range: 50-60%
Water: Tap/RO
Water Schedule: 1 hour after lights on, every other day
Nutrient Supplements: MaxiBloom (7g/gal) + ¼ tsp Epsom salt
Nutrient Schedule: Started supplementing nutrients at week 2 (first week of veg) diluted full strength MaxiBloom nutrient mix to 200-300 ppm on the .5 EC scale. Week 3, increased to 400-500 ppm. And week 4 started full strength, 900+ ppm.
5JUL2021: She popped, off to a good start.
End of Week 1 (germination week): Here’s where I abruptly decided to change course and switch to a hempy style grow. Note of caution to others, if you germinate in a starter puck (peat moss or coco) it retains a lot of water for a long time, certainly longer than perlite so it’s easy to water-log the poor seedling, even when the perlite and reservoir are dry. As seen here, she’s not very happy in her hempy solo cup. Everywhere I could find that discussed hempy style growing, failed to really go into enough detail about starting from seed in hempy; so I of course watered too much, too close to the coco puck and stunted her a bit.
The hempy solo cup is fairly straightforward, I poked a small pencil sized hole about 2 fingers up from the bottom of the cup, filled the cup with horticulture grade perlite – because that’s all I had available to me; and gradually watered around the perimeter to encourage roots to grow/chase the water down into the reservoir.
End of VEG WEEK 1: Rough, scraggly and obviously hungry. Giving the perlite adequate time to dry out while desperately needing to supplement (N), was an impossible task. But I am determined to stick to the K.I.S.S/Lucas method using MaxiBloom and tap water, for science…
End of VEG WEEK 2: Chugging along. Still looking hungry, but the new growth tells me the roots have hit the little solo cup reservoir, which means she's about ready for an upgrade...
End of VEG WEEK 3: New digs! She moved into her new/final home earlier this week, more about the setup next…
HEMPY – AUTO FEED & DTW CABINET: Again, the goal her is to be slightly low maintenance in the watering department, while maximizing the grow space, incorporating the mainlining HST technique.
So what we’ve got here is a simple condensate pump situated below 2 oval buckets, each with 5/8” pvc elbows and tubing for drainage. The condensate pump has an automatic float switch that engages the pump after the water reaches a certain level, then pumps the overflow to a 5gal collection jug; which I then in-turn re-use to water my outdoor garden with.
About the buckets. They're supposedly 3.5 gallons, I bought them at Walmart for two reasons, they were cheap (<$3 each) and they were oval. This allows me the freedom to cram 3 in next to each other, side by side if I really needed to; I just poked the holes in the ends rather than the sides. Each bucket is filled with -primarily- 100% horticulture grade perlite, except for the LECA pebbles in the bottom reservoir to keep the perlite at bay, and as a topper because – who likes to look at algae. About the perlite, I’d recommend getting the larger grade course stuff. Horticulture grade can get pretty fine and useless, but it’s all I had access to at the time and it seems to be working ok; so long as it’s washed and rinsed beforehand. That goes for the clay pebbles too. I washed them in mild bleach water, then soaked them for a couple days in water pH’d to 6.0. You don’t want these things throwing the pH of the hempy reservoir off, that is if the intention is to water less frequently like every other day.
Also, I realize that officially “hempy” is suppose to just be a hole in a bucket 2” from the bottom, however this is the most efficient way for me to drain to waste so, pumps and tubing and connectors are welcome.
Above the buckets we have 5/8” black tubing coming out the back of the cabinet for automatic watering via a small 80gph pump situated in a 12gal reservoir outside the cabinet, only for use when traveling forces plants to be unattended for more than a few days. Then there’s your standard humidifier, clip fan and nanny cam - cause I’m a perv like that… All under the glorious frugal gaze of a Bloomspect SL600. Also, the cabinet has two 6” ventilation holes on the right-hand side, with the upper one of course pulling in the fresh air constantly through the cabinet 24/7. This keeps things at a nice temp while supplementing with humidity as needed.
That brings us to today. Still lots of new growth, so I know she’s definitely sipping from the reservoir. But the lackluster lime green color tells me she's still not getting enough Nitrogen from the 7grams of MaxiBloom. I know this system works for many, but perhaps Blue Cindy is just a strain that craves more (N) than what’s being offered. We’ll see how it goes; I’ve been holding off on topping her until after I move her sister into the bucket next to her. Plus, with her rough start I figure the extra growth will help her bounce back from the imminent haircut…
STRAIN INFO:
GROWING ENVIRONMENT:
Grow Space: Steel Cabinet
Growing Medium: 100% perlite (clay pebble topper and in reservoir)
Container: 3.5gal hempy style bucket
Veg Light Schedule: 20hrs On / 4hrs Off
Daytime Temp Range: 74-78F
Night-time Temp Range: 72-74 F
Daytime RH Range: 50-60%
Night-time RH Range: 50-60%
Water: Tap/RO
Water Schedule: 1 hour after lights on, every other day
Nutrient Supplements: MaxiBloom (7g/gal) + ¼ tsp Epsom salt
Nutrient Schedule: Started supplementing nutrients at week 2 (first week of veg) diluted full strength MaxiBloom nutrient mix to 200-300 ppm on the .5 EC scale. Week 3, increased to 400-500 ppm. And week 4 started full strength, 900+ ppm.
5JUL2021: She popped, off to a good start.
End of Week 1 (germination week): Here’s where I abruptly decided to change course and switch to a hempy style grow. Note of caution to others, if you germinate in a starter puck (peat moss or coco) it retains a lot of water for a long time, certainly longer than perlite so it’s easy to water-log the poor seedling, even when the perlite and reservoir are dry. As seen here, she’s not very happy in her hempy solo cup. Everywhere I could find that discussed hempy style growing, failed to really go into enough detail about starting from seed in hempy; so I of course watered too much, too close to the coco puck and stunted her a bit.
The hempy solo cup is fairly straightforward, I poked a small pencil sized hole about 2 fingers up from the bottom of the cup, filled the cup with horticulture grade perlite – because that’s all I had available to me; and gradually watered around the perimeter to encourage roots to grow/chase the water down into the reservoir.
End of VEG WEEK 1: Rough, scraggly and obviously hungry. Giving the perlite adequate time to dry out while desperately needing to supplement (N), was an impossible task. But I am determined to stick to the K.I.S.S/Lucas method using MaxiBloom and tap water, for science…
End of VEG WEEK 2: Chugging along. Still looking hungry, but the new growth tells me the roots have hit the little solo cup reservoir, which means she's about ready for an upgrade...
End of VEG WEEK 3: New digs! She moved into her new/final home earlier this week, more about the setup next…
HEMPY – AUTO FEED & DTW CABINET: Again, the goal her is to be slightly low maintenance in the watering department, while maximizing the grow space, incorporating the mainlining HST technique.
So what we’ve got here is a simple condensate pump situated below 2 oval buckets, each with 5/8” pvc elbows and tubing for drainage. The condensate pump has an automatic float switch that engages the pump after the water reaches a certain level, then pumps the overflow to a 5gal collection jug; which I then in-turn re-use to water my outdoor garden with.
About the buckets. They're supposedly 3.5 gallons, I bought them at Walmart for two reasons, they were cheap (<$3 each) and they were oval. This allows me the freedom to cram 3 in next to each other, side by side if I really needed to; I just poked the holes in the ends rather than the sides. Each bucket is filled with -primarily- 100% horticulture grade perlite, except for the LECA pebbles in the bottom reservoir to keep the perlite at bay, and as a topper because – who likes to look at algae. About the perlite, I’d recommend getting the larger grade course stuff. Horticulture grade can get pretty fine and useless, but it’s all I had access to at the time and it seems to be working ok; so long as it’s washed and rinsed beforehand. That goes for the clay pebbles too. I washed them in mild bleach water, then soaked them for a couple days in water pH’d to 6.0. You don’t want these things throwing the pH of the hempy reservoir off, that is if the intention is to water less frequently like every other day.
Also, I realize that officially “hempy” is suppose to just be a hole in a bucket 2” from the bottom, however this is the most efficient way for me to drain to waste so, pumps and tubing and connectors are welcome.
Above the buckets we have 5/8” black tubing coming out the back of the cabinet for automatic watering via a small 80gph pump situated in a 12gal reservoir outside the cabinet, only for use when traveling forces plants to be unattended for more than a few days. Then there’s your standard humidifier, clip fan and nanny cam - cause I’m a perv like that… All under the glorious frugal gaze of a Bloomspect SL600. Also, the cabinet has two 6” ventilation holes on the right-hand side, with the upper one of course pulling in the fresh air constantly through the cabinet 24/7. This keeps things at a nice temp while supplementing with humidity as needed.
That brings us to today. Still lots of new growth, so I know she’s definitely sipping from the reservoir. But the lackluster lime green color tells me she's still not getting enough Nitrogen from the 7grams of MaxiBloom. I know this system works for many, but perhaps Blue Cindy is just a strain that craves more (N) than what’s being offered. We’ll see how it goes; I’ve been holding off on topping her until after I move her sister into the bucket next to her. Plus, with her rough start I figure the extra growth will help her bounce back from the imminent haircut…
