100% Perlite Hempy question.

Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
Can I put a rooted clone into a 3 gallon all perlite hempy bucket and grow it for 3-6 months without having any watering/root problems?

How do I know when to water 100% Perlite hempy buckets because the top of the perlite is always dry?

I tried 75/25 Perlite/Vermiculite and while that combo worked great for veg, later in flower I was drowning the roots I think.
 
Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
♦
rkymtnman said:
please explain.

but to answer your question, 100% perlite will work. i've done both and i thought the perlite/vermic (the original hempy formula) worked better.
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I take rooted clone and place in 3 gallon hempy buckets and veg for 30-45 days. As the plant gets older every timei I water my lower anf inner leaves droop badly, turn yellow and die.

I can veg fine in perlite/vermiculte but cannot if I run a rooted clone and try to finish in the same pot. As the plants get older they seem to drown easily.
 
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rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Earlyriser76 said:
my lower anf inner leaves droop badly, turn yellow and die.
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as the plant matures, if lower leaves aren't getting enough light, the plant will use up the energy in them and they die off. that's pretty normal.

are you sure they are getting the correct nutes in late flower and that is the cause?
 
Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
as the plant matures, if lower leaves aren't getting enough light, the plant will use up the energy in them and they die off. that's pretty normal.

are you sure they are getting the correct nutes in late flower and that is the cause?
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I've tried 3 different nutes. Same result.

I can veg some of the most beautful plants I could imagine and nearly kill everything I have done in flower. Something is very wrong.

My guess is I need to put the rooted clone into a 1 gallon and veg there, then put the 1 gallon into the 3 gallon, then flip.

I'm trying to go from rooted clone to chop in the same pot and something is going south in early flower.

It's doesnt' droop after watering and die in veg unless it's late in the veg cycle which tells me..it's water related and a likley a root drowning problem.

I'm trying a run with straight perlite now and if I still have problems I may have to do a major medium change.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Earlyriser76 said:
My guess is I need to put the rooted clone into a 1 gallon and veg there, then put the 1 gallon into the 3 gallon, then flip.
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i started my clones in 5 gal hempys. just had to hand water until the roots hit the res.

what nutes and additives are you using? what EC/ppm do you feed at when they have problems?
are you pH ing it?
 
Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
i started my clones in 5 gal hempys. just had to hand water until the roots hit the res.

what nutes and additives are you using? what EC/ppm do you feed at when they have problems?
are you pH ing it?
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I get the same results with Maxibloom 5-7 grams per gallon and Mega crop at 5-6 grams per gallon. I haven't really checked ppm lately but it's in the 1000-800 range last time I checked.
My tap is 187ppm.

I was running 100% maxibloom from the K.I.S.S. hempy thread until I started having all these problems. I tried Mega Crop both in the new and old formula and both were a fail.

PH doesn't change from veg and I use the test strips to montior it. It always seems to be in 6ish range.

It has something to do with too much water on the roots later in the plants life cycle.

I hand water every time. What do you mean only until it hit the res?
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Earlyriser76 said:
It has something to do with too much water on the roots later in the plants life cycle
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that's what i'm having trouble understanding. the roots generally are a solid mass between the bottom of the bucket and the hole in the side which is where the majority of the water stays.

Earlyriser76 said:
I hand water every time. What do you mean only until it hit the res?
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i meant i hand water very frequently when they are clones and before their roots reach the bottom of the bucket. that's usually at least a week. once they hit the bottom, i water maybe every other day until they start getting really large,
 
B

Bushy Bill

Member
I have plants 33 days since flip in 2 gallon hempys . They were vegged in the same buckets . No problems . I water every other day useing Dyna gro liquid nutes . No experience with powders .
 
B

Bookush34

Well-Known Member
One thing I had with my Hempys when I got into them was the drain getting plugged and bucket was holding way more water then intended.

I run 100% Perlite on the top and from the drain to the bottom I have Hydroton.

Also check your run off. I find my hempys build up over time.
When my run off gets above my feed PPM I give them a flush.

I have had run off of 1800ppm while only feeding 1000ppm. Plant was not happy.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Bookush34 said:
One thing I had with my Hempys when I got into them was the drain getting plugged and bucket was holding way more water then intended
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yes me too.

i would just take the same drill bit and ream out the hole and it woudl start draining well again.
 
Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
Bookush34 said:
One thing I had with my Hempys when I got into them was the drain getting plugged and bucket was holding way more water then intended.

I run 100% Perlite on the top and from the drain to the bottom I have Hydroton.

Also check your run off. I find my hempys build up over time.
When my run off gets above my feed PPM I give them a flush.

I have had run off of 1800ppm while only feeding 1000ppm. Plant was not happy.
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I'm going to test this morning. How did you you go about flushing to get your PPM's back in line?
 
Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
I'm feeding at 1017 and my run off is 1431. PH is 6-6.2.

It takes 6 gallon of water to flush 3 gallons of Perlite. I flushed a pot with just plain tap water and my runoff is now at 238 and my tap is 187 PPM.

That could have been my problem. I like the idea of hydroton in the bottom too.
.
 
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Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
I just flushed18 gallons of perlite then fed my 6 plants until my runoff was reading 800-900 ppm.

Rather than flush all the way back to tap water level PPM could I have just watered with plan water until my runoff was in range? Was there a need to flush everything then refeed?
 
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B

Bookush34

Well-Known Member
I use to just flush with PH tap water.

Now I run a line over from the RO filter. Let it run till the run off is what I want.

I would leave the flushing water in for a day then feed the next day.
 
Earlyriser76

Earlyriser76

Well-Known Member
Bookush34 said:
I use to just flush with PH tap water.

Now I run a line over from the RO filter. Let it run till the run off is what I want.

I would leave the flushing water in for a day then feed the next day.
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Thanks. I hope this fixes my problem.

I have been flighting this for several runs. I grow fine in veg but in flower my plants always suffered badly.

I've tried all kinds of things to stop this from happening but it never occured to me that there might be build up of nutes in the res. It didn't show up in veg because there was no build up UNLESS it was LATE in veg.

It seemed like there was a curse on my flower tent because every time I put plants in there they almost died. It wasn't the tent at all but the fact that by the time I got the plants ready to flip I had enough time to build up excess nutes in the res.

If you remember the original Hempy bucket thread said to water until you get 10-20% runoff each time inorder to refresh that res. I haven't been doing that at all and now I see why I should have listened to Hempy.

The good news is I know to watch my runoff now and don't need to change anything about my grow.
 
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Bookush34

Well-Known Member
Earlyriser76 said:
Thanks. I hope this fixes my problem.

I have been flighting this for several runs. I grow fine in veg but in flower my plants always suffered badly.

I've tried all kinds of things to stop this from happening but it never occured to me that there might be build up of nutes in the res. It didn't show up in veg because there was no build up UNLESS it was LATE in veg.

It seemed like there was a curse on my flower tent because every time I put plants in there they almost died. It wasn't the tent at all but the fact that by the time I got the plants ready to flip I had enough time to build up excess nutes in the res.

If you remember the original Hempy bucket thread said to water until you get 10-20% runoff each time inorder to refresh that res. I haven't been doing that at all and now I see why I should have listened to Hempy.

The good news is I know to watch my runoff now and don't need to change anything about my grow.
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Definitely need to water to run off.

Keep a eye on the run off ppms and you should be ok.

My run off PH never changes much.
But might be worth checking.
 
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