Soil nutrients for hempy

[Xcessie]

Hi there and good evening.

I've just joined the forum and I'm eager to get the right answer before I introduce myself.

So

I'm on a very tight budget and I haven't got much time on my hands.. I've just managed to get hold of a grow tent and grow light along with ionic soil nutrients.

I'm extremely excited about running a hempy grow and using just 100% perlite it seems I can't go wrong. Especially with over watering.

Can someone tell me if I could get away with using dedicated soil nutrients or do I really need to use hydroponics nutrients.

Thank you

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Ideally you will need hydroponic nutrients which are PH corrected before feeding.

Depending on the size of hempy res or the point where it over flows from the hole may dictate how often you will need to feed.


On a side note adding vermiculite to the perlite mix helps retain moisture/feed in the hempy bucket which may save a day or so in between feedings, always feed never use plain water.

 

[Xcessie]

Thank you very much for replying. I totally forgot I created an account here and I can't remember creating this thread.

Thinking about it though... can I do the hempy with like say a 70 % ratio of perlite and 30% soil. Just so I can use the ionic grow and bloom soil nutrients which is what I currently have.

 

[Weaselcracker]

i googled that stuff. It’s regular soluble nutrients the same as you’d use for hydro or any other style.
I think the ’soil‘ part may be that the ph is balanced for soil- by the sounds of it. Whether some ph-down will easily adjust it for you, I’m not sure.

The mixed soil/hempy thing wouldn’t work too well IMO.
Mix up a batch and see if it will adjust to hydro ph. Around 5.8.

 

[Xcessie]

Thanks again.

@weasel

So are you saying I can use the ionic soil grow and bloom nutrients in a hempy grow. I see that you can also buy this range for coco and I believe its that, that I'd need to use in order to get things dialled in correctly.

The guy that I got my kit from told me that I wouldn't need to ph using the ionic nutrients as the stuff ph buffers really well in scottish tap water. So I don't know if this is true or what. I take it that means I wouldn't need to use ph down.

Cheers.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Soil pH range (around 6.5 ish) is not the same as what you would need for hempy which uses the hydro PH range (around 5.8 ish).

Generally speaking the pH of your nutrients is less important in soil than it is with with hempy. In a hempy grow it is very important that your nutrients and water are at the right pH level

That means you will need a pH meter and some PH-up and PH-down solutions.

Like I said, those nutrients might be very difficult to adjust to a different PH range, given that they appear to be designed to be stable at a soil ph. But you really have to find out more about them.

So you might want to clarify the situation with the guy you bought it from- and tell him that you are not growing in soil. Otherwise- if those nutrients cannot be adjusted and you can’t return them, you might be best to just do a soil grow instead.

 

[Xcessie]

Soil pH range (around 6.5 ish) is not the same as what you would need for hempy which uses the hydro PH range (around 5.8 ish).

Generally speaking the pH of your nutrients is less important in soil than it is with with hempy. In a hempy grow it is very important that your nutrients and water are at the right pH level

That means you will need a pH meter and some PH-up and PH-down solutions.

Like I said, those nutrients might be very difficult to adjust to a different PH range, given that they appear to be designed to be stable at a soil ph. But you really have to find out more about them.

So you might want to clarify the situation with the guy you bought it from- and tell him that you are not growing in soil. Otherwise- if those nutrients cannot be adjusted and you can’t return them, you might be best to just do a soil grow instead.

Thank you for your swift replies.

Looks like I'll just go ahead and run a soil grow instead even though I was trting to stay away from doing a soil grow as my first couple of grows in soil provided me with crap weed coupled with deficiencies that I couldn't fix. It put me off growing all together. It had to be down to the tap water as I ran an outdoor grow last year growing under a canopy so I could control the water intake and the quality of the smoke was too notch. I collected rain water and didn't even feed the plants any nutrients whatsoever.

On another thought.

I found it easy to overwater in soil. The idea of doing a hempy seems to make me understand that overwatering wouldn't happen so easily. But where the measurement of pH and ec comes into it I'm put off. So maybe I will cancel the hempy grow.

Thinking about it. I also have this stuff called formulex which seems to be suitable for veg and bloom. I just goggled to ask if Growth technology Formulex can be used as a hydroponic nutrient and the answer I found was yes. But I'd still need to measure the EC and ppm of feeds etc. Wouldn't I.? I'm just trying to find the most simple way of growing weed. If my outdoor grow in pots with rainwater feeds provided me with decent weed then maybe a soil grow with rain water might be the way forward.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Rainwater is basically the same as distilled water- pure water. While tap water usually has some minerals like calcium in it.

The key to success will be your soil mix and whether it’s a good one or not.

Yes with hempy you are going to have to monitor ph -unless you can find some sort of nutrient that is already at the right ph level. The EC/ppm (strength of the mix) doesn’t necessarily need a meter- you can usually do it by measuring - such as by a certain ml/gallon.