Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2016

Hey everyone. This will be my first grow journal, decided to do one since I got some seeds from CropKingSeeds. All my previous grows have been different bag seeds with decent success rates in soil. Now I am moving on to HempyBuckets to further my experience and hopefully keep things more simple and clean. I have experimented with nutrients in the past as well so I should be ok... Here is some info for my operation.

Strains:
2 x Candy Cane Autoflower - Feminized
60% Indica, 30% Sativa, 10% Ruderalis
Flowering Time - 7 weeks
THC - 17.81% CBD - 0.1% CBN - 0.4%

2 x Amnesia Haze Autoflower - Feminized
Sativa Dominant
Flowering Time - 8-9 weeks
THC - 15.50% CBD - 1.21% CBN - 0.4%

Setup/Equipment
Home made 4'x4'x6.5' tent/enclosure
400w HPS light w/ batwing reflector
1 - 6" fan inside tent
1 - 30" tall fan outside tent
No exhaust system yet (reason for fan outside of tent)
GH Flora Series 3 part - Micro, Gro, Bloom + ArmourSi
RO water, ph'd after nutrients with ph drops for now.
4 - 16oz Hempy solo cups - 80% Perlite / 20% Vermiculite
4 - 5gal Hempy buckets for potting up - same medium mix as cups
Thermometer + Hygrometer

**No pictures yet as I decided late to start a real journal. Pics will start with them at 11days old when I get them uploaded to my computer and posted.

Germinated seeds on March 10th - Put 2 of each seed in room temp RO water for 16 hours in dark warm area. Then transferred to moist paper towel on plastic plate and placed on top of satellite receiver for warmth.

Planted seeds March 12th/13th - Planted all 4 seeds into my labelled hempy solo cups and covered top lightly with plastic wrap as my humidome as I have some other photoperiods growing and need to keep my RH a little lower for them. They will all be grown from 12/12 light cycle this time around until my photo girls are harvested and out of the room.

All the girls broke ground March 15th - Looking healthy and green. Lightly watered twice a day for first 5 days then once a day after that with about 20% runoff.

March 20th - Girls are looking good, starting on 1st and 2nd sets of leaves. Mixed up a light feeding at half strength of what GH's feeding chart says. Fed daily with runoff.

March 25th - Still looking good as far as I can tell. Haven't hit the reservoir yet but all have nicely developed 2nd and 3rd sets of leaves going. No nute burning or other side effects from the half strength mix so tonight I will mix up a full strength feeding going by GH's feed chart and feed them that mix starting tomorrow.

I am working on getting my pictures uploaded to the computer. for some reason I cant get them off of my phone right now. Should have used my camera and wouldn't have had this issue. (go figure lol) Will get those up for everyone as soon as I can. Happy reading and hope everyone enjoys the ride. Will try to update with pictures every couple of days. Any tips are always welcome, I will never turn away some good advice if needed. Thanks guys, will keep you all posted.
 
Re: dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane + Amnesia Haze - 2

Well Dick, sound like you've got things in hand. I'll just wish you luck and I'll be waiting for some update pics. Glad you started a journal to share your experience with the community here.

KiG :green_heart:cheers
 
Re: dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane + Amnesia Haze - 2

Finally got my picture issue all figured out. Between my crappy phone and the darn laptop i've likely earned a few grey hairs haha. Anyways here are my pictures for day 11 and the real beginning of my grow journal. Hope you all enjoy and if you see anything I may be missing be sure to point it out. Thanks in advance everyone!!

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Here we Have all 4 girls from CropKingSeeds along with packages and my free pins that came attached
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Both Candy Cane girls, 1 is a little slower than the other but im sure she will catch up.
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Top view of both Candy Cane Autos
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Both Amnesia Haze girls, again, 1 is a little slower than the other and also is showing some slight yellowish color. Seems to have gotten a little better since they are being fed now and not just water.
amnesia11top.jpg
Top view of both Amnesia Haze Autos
 
Re: dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane + Amnesia Haze - 2

Thanks for subbing up dreadednorth. Hope you enjoy the ride.
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

**Update for March 27th**

Not anything new to report since yesterday, girls are still looking healthy. The bit of yellowish color that was on the one Amnesia Haze has receded so that is always a good sign.
Fed all 4 this morning as the reservoirs were pretty much empty. They are likely evaporating sort of quickly due to a low Rh of around 40%. Trying not to hike up my RH because of my bagseed photos that are in the tent as well. The low RH comes from me having the tent door cracked a bit for a fan to blow in fresh air, the basement has a very low RH level. Temps are usually pretty stable between 24-26Celcius while doing this. (all depends on basement temp and how often my furnace runs)
No new pictures for today since nothing has changed, will post some tomorrow and keep up on that every couple of days. Hopefully they hit that reservoir soon and jump up a little with new growth.
Thats all for now everyone, thanks for stopping by!!
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Well, I know I wasn't going to take any pictures today, but I did. I was having a closer peek at some of my bag seed girls and cleaning up the tent some, and I decided to have a look in my hempy cups holes to see if there were any roots peeking by chance. To my avail, there was a nice size root showing in 1 hole on both of the amnesia haze ladies. (None showing on the candy canes yet) So I am sort of expecting to see some drastic change in the next couple of days in these 2 and not far behind should be the candy canes.

**Props to Crop King Seeds for the nice quality seeds and great service. Keep up the good work everyone**

Now, what everyone always is waiting for.. lol Picture time!! I decided to take these pictures today since I seen the roots in the reservoir of the Amnesia Haze ladies. They say with hempys I should see some exponential growth when they hit the res. Lets see!

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Here we have all 4 autos sitting together. Little bit of difference from 2 days ago.
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This is both of the Candy Cane girls sitting together.
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And then the 2 Amnesia Haze ladies.


Kind of wish I could take the pictures inside the tent but with that HPS light it makes everthing seem really oragne with black lines on the camera. Cant seem to find a decent setting to clear it up and make things look the way I see it. Any tips on that would be great. My camera is pretty advanced compared to some cheaper ones so I may be able to change something to help it out.

Anyways, best of luck to all our fellow growers. Have a good day!
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

**Update March 29th - Day 15**

Starting to see some more change in the auto girls today. I look periodically thru the day so sometimes it doesn't look to me that there was much difference until I put the pictures side by side. I would say they are all drinking from the reservoir by now for sure, all the water has been gone the last couple of mornings. ( Mind you some would evaporate due to the light and lower RH for my photo girls )

I am now feeding full strength GH nutrients on the week 2 schedule for the flora series. ( they have had 2 feedings at this strength as of this morning, tomorrow will be just RO water ) Right now the are receiving - 4ml of Micro, 5ml of Gro, 1ml of Bloom and 0.5ml of Armour Si. I will keep going with the feed, feed, water schedule as well to help flush and use up any salts and nutrients to help avoid any issues. I have read lots that the plants like a good plain water feeding in the rotation as well.

Still trying to decide whether or not FIM these autos or not. I have also read into this topic and majority seem to say dont do it but some have had good success with it. If i do decide to do this what node should this be done at for an autoflower? Any suggestions on the do's and dont's will be considered. Thanks in advance.

Otherwise not much else has changed. I will throw up some pictures for everyone with a brief description below for all to have a look.
(I will also now try adding a medium sized photo linked to the original and see how that works, maybe save some page space)

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Here are all 4 of the girls, looking healthy, hanging outside the tent while they get photographed.
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These ladies are the Amnesia's, I have noticed most of the difference with their new growth and how much thicker it has grown. One is still pulling ahead of the other but that is fine.
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Here is a top view of the Amnesia ladies. This is where you can notice the leaves have gotten thicker.
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And now the Candy girls, short and stout but growing nicely with their nodes nice and close together.
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Top view of the Candy Canes.. Thickening up some as well.
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Here is a view of them back inside their room under the light, surrounded by their bagseed experimental lady friends.
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And a final shot from just outside the room with everyone in there. The older ladies all praising the young autos.

All seem to be doing well so far and will keep this journal strictly to my autos. Just figured i could add a couple pictures of my rigged up space with all them together. Like i said the bagseeds are just some side experiments, I dont expect a lot out of them. They are my first actual tent grow (always grown outdoors or in a large room/garage) so I wanted to use them go get everything worked out and have some buds for extracts.

Happy growing everyone! As always, best of luck to all. Thanks for stopping in.

P.S. Any critiques, suggestions and comments are always welcome.
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Ok so the medium sized pics are the same size as the originals. Maybe next time i should use thumbnail, linked to original? Lol, will figure all of it out eventually.
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Ye seen ya post in FAQ's & decided to pop over for a gander...

I would lay off full strength application of nutrients as you are getting a touch of dark green in the leafs which might eventually lead to nitrogen toxicity.

A plant that size would only at best require 1/4 rate application of nutrients & slowly increase as she gets bigger.


Potting up...

If you are sure about the girls having a suitable root mass then why not, but you are going to stick em in a great big ol bucket... this may require hand watering daily/perhaps twice in till those roots find the res for a couple of weeks etc


Not overly sure about the capillary action or wicking of water towards the surface of the pot tho with perlite but it seems ok from what i've read... only done one hempy grow myself but i used vermiculite in the mix which helps retain moisture with in the medium to help buffer the early stages of potting up into the main hempy.

1 part vermiculite 3 parts perlite.



Not really into feed, water, feed regime with hempys & perlite etc as it may cause defs whilst just using plain water in between more so in flowering tho.

As perlite has little CEC (cation exchange capacity) basically means it does not hold onto nutrients very well where as vermiculite will for a duration of time, hence the use will help buffer things.


But would treat hempys with perlite etc as any other water based hydroponic system with correct PH & feed with watering.
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Hey Fuzzy Duck, thanks for the info. Will take the advice and lay back some with the nutrients, I see what you mean with the darker leaves right around the tips. I did my transplant this afternoon when I got home from work. I really wanted to get this done as I came home to some green algae starting to form on the top layer of perlite in my 2 candy canes. ( Will put this in my update for everyone to see ) It really worried me that it was going to get worse and FAST because I didnt see it there last night before lights out.

Could I add some hydrogen peroxide in my feeding or just to RO water to help clear up any further issues with this? ^^^

As well I do have about 20% vermiculite in my mix for the buckets, did quite the research on that part and all the different things people were trying. I decided to go the original hempy way and see how it fairs out for me.

That does make more sense as well to treat it like a hydro setup. I will go to feeding every water until flower time. As always I do ph test my mixtures, they are right between 5.5 and 6.

Thanks a lot for the advice. First go at hydro/hempy style so I certainly do appreciate it. Lots to learn over here!
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

**Update March 31st - Day 17**

Hey everyone, time for a big update today. 2 separate ones to make it easy.
Plants are still healthy and growing, not as quickly as one would have hopes but they are growing. I got home from work this afternoon though to find some green algae growing on the top surface of my 2 candy cane girls. I sorta freaked out of course, haven't had this happen before. I have been waiting for the time to transplant all my girls into their bigger buckets, and this gave me all the reason I needed. ( I will add more about this in my 2nd update for today to do with my transplanting ) I have been given some advice from Fuzzy Duck to cut back my nutrients from full strength for now while they are still small and gradually up it over time as they get larger. As well I will be feeding every time they need water now instead of my plans of having just water every 3rd time. (I will always take the kind advice from someone with more experience than I :thumb:
Thanks again Fuzzy Duck for the help there..

*Would hydrogen peroxide be something I can add to my feeding to help clear up any unwanted bacteria that may still be present after my transplant? If this could help prevent anymore algae, how much would I use in with my nutrients? Or can I mix it with nutrients at all? I will do some research shortly and see if any answers come up here that I can compare to.

Not much else to report on the basics of the last couple days. Things are still going as normal except the couple of changes to my daily routine. Here are some pictures of all the girls before they go for their transplanting.

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All the girls standing nicely
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The amnesia haze sisters
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Candy cane twins
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And here is the algae forming on the perlite in 1 candy cane.
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The 2nd candy cane with little algae
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

**2nd Update - March 31st - Day 17**

So... As mentioned in my previous update, I found some green algae in 2 of my hempy cups when I got home this afternoon. I was already thinking about doing my transplant very soon, but this gave me all the assurance I needed to make a quick decision and get things done before it was lights out time and risk another whole day of this green crap possibly growing and taking over. I didn't see it at all the night before.

Anyways, this is my update on how the whole transplant ordeal went for me and what I did. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the process, I was working by myself so I will try to describe it as best I can.

-First of all I gather up my supplies - catch basin, empty bucket, filled hempy buckets, small gardening shovel
-I place the empty bucket and the hempy bucket inside my catch basin
-Removed a couple inches of the perlite/vermiculite medium from the hempy bucket, putting excess into the empty bucket and dug a spot big enough for the plant going in to sit.
-Pulled a solo hempy from the tent to be transplanted, scraped up some of the surface to remove that green algae I found. Holding the plant over the catch basin, I placed my fingers in the cup under the plant for support and tip it over just enough it would slowly slide out of the cup and lay flat in my hand. ( I pushed in on the bottom of the cup with my finger to help get it moving )
-Now with the plant laying in one hand, I dropped the cup, placed my other hand around the neatly formed root and perlite cone to help keep it all in tact and got it over top of its new hempy bucket home.
-To get a little more depth inside the bucket, I pushed away some of the perlite/vermiculite with my fingertips as I was lowering it into the bucket to ensure the plant and roots were low enough in the bucket.
-I then supported the root cone (which surprisingly held up well) with one hand, and used the other to fill in the space around it with the remaining mix that was in the other bucket.

And that's pretty much it. I have never worked with straight perlite/verm mix before so I wasn't sure how well it would hold up with the amount of roots i had after a couple weeks of its life. The root ball wasn't hard packed but held up just enough that I wasn't breaking roots off in the process. All in all I think it went ok, only 1 plant that I didn't get quite as deep as I would have liked. I wasn't going to try and disturb it anymore than I already had. Tried my best not to shock the little girls or shake them up. Will find out soon how it all went!!

Here are some pictures of the girls after the transplant..

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This is all 4 sitting in their new buckets surrounded by their friends
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Amnesia Haze 1
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Amnesia Haze 2
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Candy Cane 1
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Candy Cane 2


Thanks to everyone who stopped by to have a look. I am out for now. Will update again in a couple days or if something drastic changes. Comments and suggestions welcomed by all :)
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

The algae is just exposure to the light source & a reaction to the nutrients/water, it happens with some inert mediums tho.

Now a little tip would be to cover the surface area to prevent light exposure some thing like white plastic sheeting, mylar etc cut in to a round disk with a cross cut where the plant would be & a one slit all the way to the edge of disk, you should be able to slide this on & off quite easy as an example.

Or you could top dress with clay pebbles or pea shingle etc if you wanted to but slightly more fiddle to deal with at the end of the grow.

But once plants get bigger & cover/shade the medium algae should not be a problem i think.


Hydrogen peroxide might work, just having a hard time recalling info from the old grey matter between my ears at the mo, but seems like a more expensive option over shading.


An old pic i'm quite proud about as you can get some pretty impressive results with hempys :high-five:

PICT000266.JPG
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Thanks again Fuzzy Duck, that's a great idea to cover up the medium. I had read of this before and somehow forgot it with all the overflow of research and knowledge being taken in lately. I will use some of my leftover poly and lay it over the medium white side up and hopefully that will be enough. If it still seems to progress I will look further into the hydrogen peroxide method. I do have a bottle on hand just in case it gets out of hand.

By the way, that is a fabulous auto you grew, very nicely colored buds. That is the kind of plant I am working towards. My main goals are to get my tent set up better and get some proper air exchange going on. Just do not have the funds as of right now and am making due with what I have for this grow. Next one will be a little more upgraded I am hoping :)

Thanks for the info once again, greatly appreciated.
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

**Update April 3 - Day 20**
(3rd day after transplant)

Hey again everyone. Here with another update and pictures. The girls seem to be doing fine after their big transplant day. I don't think they ever skipped a beat either, they stayed nice and perky, no droopiness or out of place signs of stress.
They have still been getting regular feedings every day, I have not filled the reservoirs yet, just watering around the outside of the base of the plants each day making things good an moist inside and getting them roots moving and searching downward. I plan to start keeping the reservoirs filled up in a couple more days in hopes the main tap root has reached its way to the bottom by then. Also for the feedings, I forgot to mention I have started using the feed chart that I found on another thread in this forum for the GH line of nutes instead of the one posted on their website which is more for a variety of different plants. They have been taking the half strength very well with no signs of deficiencies that I can tell. I may try bumping them up a little more in the next day or 2 to see how they react and if they take it in well.
Since I didn't really get any extra feedback or info on FIMing these ladies while they are so short I had decided to FIM one of each (the bigger ones for easier access to the cut area) and see the differences for myself and how they react. So far things are good, they are still growing. I have noticed the new growth at the nodes increasing in size since the cuts were made so I am guessing I did not stress these plants to much between the transplant and FIM of 2. They may have slowed some but didn't stop. :thumb: YAY, GO ME .. haha
Not to much else to report today that I can think of. I will be adding some poly to lay over top of my medium in side the buckets to help keep the algae issue from coming back. Thanks for the info from Fuzzy Duck.
Otherwise everything else is about the same. I moved one of my fans to better circulate air around the containers. Temps are still normal at about 22-24 degrees celcius during the day with the door open for my fresh air blowing in. Goes down to about 16-18 degrees at night with the door closed. RH during the day is around 40% with the door open. This goes way up at night to like 74-78% at night because I have to close the tent door to keep out light. (That is my only big issue that is uncontrollable at this time)

Anyways everyone, here are my pics for the day and a brief description.
(I have labled each strain by #1 and #2.. The ones labeled #2 are the ones that got FIM'd)

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Here are all the girls inside the tent sun bathing
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Here is Amnesia #1 - Healthy overall, first set of leaves are still discolored but all the newer ones are looking good to me aside from some slight twisting of the leaves.
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Here is the top view of Amnesia #1
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This is Amnesia #2 - Still standing nice and tall compared to her sister. Same nice greeny color to her foliage. This girl was FIM'd although it looks like it was topped, the leaves that were growing at this node broke some as I was trying to get in there for the cut so I removed them all together. New growth has begun at the 2 nodes below, so far I am pleased.
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This is the top view for Amnesia #2 - nice and clean looking with her FIM job. <--- haha "FIM job" :laughtwo:
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Here we have Candy #1 - This girl is really surprising me to say the least. Just look at that node spacing!! And the growth coming out from the nodes is really starting to take off. Hopefully she has more good surprises to come as she progresses. Healthy to say the least, lighter new growth seems to darken up a little as she grows. Doesn't seem to dark to me for N toxicity, will keep an eye on it.
candy1top.JPG

Here is the top view of Candy #1 - Here you can see the lighter and darker coloring I mentioned.
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And here is Candy # 2 - My other FIM'd girl, slowly starting her new growth at the lower nodes. Again she was the taller of the 2 and the nodes are spaced more than her sisters. She got to keep her top new leaves after her FIM job, guess I as a little more gentle with her than Amnesia #2
candy2top.JPG

And last but not least, the top view for Candy #2 - Same coloring thing going on as with her sister, I am going to say for now it is normal since both are looking to be the same and appear to be happy and healthy.


Anyways that's it for today my fellow :420: peeps. Hope you enjoy the eye candy that I will not forget!! haha - get it? Candy cane = eye candy and Amnesia Haze = I will NOT forget.. lol (crack myself up some times)

As always everyone, best of luck in your grows and take care!
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Welcome to :420: Dick23rk, glad to have another from Sask. here.
The algae you see on the top of the perlite don't worry about it, it will go away next watering or as soon as the top dries out. The use of cover over the perlite media is good to keep the moisture from evaporating to quick as the roots search downward for food. I have 2 oscillating fans running and I get no algae as the top dries out quick.

Check out my link below. I'm running 100% perlite for clones, seedlings and veg, all the way through to harvest. I'm still figuring things out with my grow, I've had some problems earlier but I have it all sorted out as of now. Fingers crossed I make it to the end.

PS. I'm subbed for this grow! Best of luck
 
Re: Dick23rk's 1st Journal - 1st Hempy - CKS Autoflower Candy Cane & Amnesia Haze - 2

Good update Dick23rk :thumb:

Should be a couple of weeks in till the roots get down to the res the first week is reasonable critical for a daily dose of nutrient/water as to stop em drying out to fast, 2nd week every other day should be ok to encourage the roots to go looking & grow down towards the res.

In the veg the res don't need to be changed to often at best every few days.

Res change of a hempy is about 10 to 25% run off to keep PH & PPM/EC suitable for growing.

In flowering every other day is good, other wise PH change, PPM levels will alter if left longer which may cause slight problems.


Anyway here's the old link to the hempy journal if you wish to take a gander - Fuzzy & the Hempy Bucket - Chrystal F1 Hybrid


Ye i know the early days of research can be quite mind boggling & some times conflicting from other stuff read, it is just working it out !


Feel free to ask questions tho & always good for a banter about stuff :high-five:



Ye the auto grow was my first ever & a bit of learning curve for myself i'm not sure if i'll go back to auto's tho as i prefer photo period feminized seeds & F1 seeds mainly.
 
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