Hempy Headquarters

[Rickle Piiiiick]

Update of my Blue Cindy Hempy-ish grow:

Here's the last time you saw her:

And here she is now:

I don't want to bloat this thread with a bunch of my pics and details, so I started a journal here if anyone's interested in taking a look. Probably missing a ton of useful info, so please feel free to ask questions.

 

[Raventokes]

Hello all. Just a quick update. The Purple Micro Dot seedling are doing well. One of them sunk and never made it pass the water soak ( that’s 2 I lost in the past 2 weeks that way.) I am going to try skipping the soak next time. I unfortunately lost the first one to pop to dampening off. The plastic bag, even though I put a hole in it did not let the plants breathe well. I removed the bags from the rest and started wadhering the next day. The 4 remaining seedlings are doing fine!

The two Key Lime Crush autos are doing great as well.

I am having so much fun with this. I Ordered 12, 2 gallons buckets form Lowe’s. How could I not at around 3 bucks each! And a 4 cubic foot bag of perlite. With the bag of Mega Crop that’s every thing I need to grow 12 plant for a little over 100 bucks. I can’t get a quarter ounce around here for that! ( just a few dollars short if I am being honest )

 

[FelipeBlu]

Ahh - another hempy convert

 

[Azimuth]

I'm converting over to perlite hempy and need suggestions for simple and inexpensive nutes.

Given the later stage flowering issues some are having with MC, what are the reactions to trying either GH three part or the Jack's nutes?

Other, better, suggestions?

I'd rather not have to test pH or test TDS's, but if necessary what are recommended meters?

 

[Lazarus13]

@Azimuth I've been through a few different brands of nutrients and in my world the one I settled on is the maxi series from GH. Inexpensive, easy and does what I need it to do. I do have to supplement with Silica and calmag for most of my girls but I only started that when I switched to LEDs and I started seeing some deficiencies. I also play around with the series' bloom enhancers from time to time when I think they can benefit. However, I have grown great big beautiful plants with just the base nutrients.
I have had a few strains that just did not seem to like them and I've had to modify my applications but most do very well.
I do need to pH adjust since it drops my tap water down but the silica helps with some of that.
As far as meters go... You can go big and get a bluelab or ohaus but I picked up an Apera pen 6 years ago when I started growing and it just died last month from me dropping it in my nutrient solution one too many times. I bought their better pen this time and I'm really happy with it. Think It was like, $80 or something.
That's just my 2 pennies... Your and others mileage may vary.
I will add that until a year ago I was using mc. I got a couple bad bags tho and my med stock took a hit. I still have a2 lb bag somewhere...

 

[FelipeBlu]

I don’t know about GH - I’m pretty happy with MC with a bit of Epsom salt. I think a lot of the mid-late flowering issues are due to excessive dosing. There really should be no need to go over 5.5 - 6g/gal.

I have an Apera pen too

 

[Azimuth]

I don’t know about GH - I’m pretty happy with MC with a bit of Epsom salt. I think a lot of the mid-late flowering issues are due to excessive dosing. There really should be no need to go over 5.5 - 6g/gal.

I have an Apera pen too

So the one formula from start to finish works as well as reducing nitrogen and increasing phosphorus that the other nutes seem to all do when moving to flower?

 

[Azimuth]

And is a pH pen sufficient or do I need a TDS pen also?

 

[FelipeBlu]

One formula - no need to boost phosphorus.

I use a TDS pen also, but it’s mainly because my MC is a couple of years old and some got hydrated at some point and weighing it doesn’t provide an accurate measure. Therefore, I check TDS to ensure the correct dose.

 

[Azimuth]

ROOTS!

I finally have roots on my NL5 cut from 23 days ago. I had to float it out to see them, but they are there! So, there's my first hempy success as I started it in a hempy cup with a dome.

I've ordered some nutes, a pH pen, and some cal-mag so I can do this by the book before I venture off into my organics nutes. I figured that, since this hempy thing was completely new to me that I probably should follow a tried and true formula before venturing off into a land nobody has seemed to have conquered.

The cut was initially dunked into a fresh aloe leaf and then put into a hempy cup with lid. I left it untouched for three days and then started removing the lid for a bit each day for 10 days. Then I reversed it and only had it domed for a few hours a day, and I replaced the water with a good flushing every other day.

So, now onto the growing. I should have my supplies in a few days and am looking forward to having some plants look as nice as many on this thread have.

 

[FelipeBlu]

 

[bluter]

So the one formula from start to finish works as well as reducing nitrogen and increasing phosphorus that the other nutes seem to all do when moving to flower?

MC runs hot through flower a bit. it's not hard to compensate.
both jacks and gh nutes will work great in hempy. cost per feeding goes up though.

And is a pH pen sufficient or do I need a TDS pen also?

i would use both as a beginner. it will get you used to the levels you need to hit. over time you'll find yourself needing them less and only referring to them on a maintenance basis. getting used to your ec/ppm levels will help immensely if you switch up your nutes or media.

if you run hempy you'll use the ph meter all the time.

 

[Azimuth]

And how do you guys store your pH meters? I've heard talk of not letting them dry out, not storing them in r/o water but rather needing some sort of special solution, etc.

 

[FelipeBlu]

Yes, there is a solution.
Store your electrode in a solution of 4 M KCl (298g KCl in enough water to total 1L of volume). If 4 M KCl is not available, use a pH 4 or 7 buffer solution.
DO NOT store electrode in distilled or deionized water—this will cause ions to leach out of the glass bulb and render your electrode useless!

And calibrate at least every couple of weeks.

 

[Azimuth]

Ok. Thanks.

That seems like a pretty important detail that doesn't get talked about much when discussing/growing hydro. Maybe it's just obvious to everyone else. I stumbled across a mention in a really old thread. Almost by accident. Glad I did.

 

[bluter]

Ok. Thanks.

That seems like a pretty important detail that doesn't get talked about much when discussing/growing hydro. Maybe it's just obvious to everyone else. I stumbled across a mention in a really old thread. Almost by accident. Glad I did.

decent meters will often ship with the fluid, or at least have the bulb in fluid. cheaper or crappier ones often do not, and can be bad out of the box at times.

 

[Azimuth]

And how about the TDS meters? Do they need to be stored in fluid similarly or are they a different animal?

 

[FelipeBlu]

I just rinse off the electrode and shake to dry

 

[bluter]

And how about the TDS meters? Do they need to be stored in fluid similarly or are they a different animal?

they have a couple fairly robust little electrodes. the ph meters are the ones with a delicate bulb.

 

[Azimuth]

Got my meters today and took pH readings for tonight's watering.

7.41 out of the tap
6.44 after adding my temporary nutes
5.44 after adding 1/2 tsp lemon juice

356 PPM

It occurred to me after I had watered in that maybe I should have let it sit for a bit before measuring the output. How soon do you guys measure pH after adding in your nutes?

Also, given my high pH out of the tap, I wonder if that's why my hempy plants didn't seem to respond to my organic nutes. I always thought needing lower pH had more to do with the level the salts that transport the nutes needed to dissolve and release them to the plant and that it didn't matter for organics, but maybe not.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?