Nutrient frequency question.

[DrDee]

Greetings guys,

Robbie, my Hempy Bucket plant just keeps chugging along. It was a White Widow clone that I stuck in it (almost as an afterthought). My big purchase was a 3 gallon bucket which I drilled a hole into and filled with hydroton. I have limited hydro experience so I don't have much to compare it to. But it's still alive and growing buds. It's about 2' tall. I should have given the plant a little more veg time but I'll certainly report back after harvest. It's what I needed to break into hydro. Something quick and dirty!

So you essentially did hand watering hydro? Very similar except for the little res at the bottom. Hempy uses a perlite/vermiculite mix and he claims he's gotten 14 oz off one hempy bucket plant. I've seen people use this concept in 24 oz drink cup all the way up to a 5 gallon bucket.

 

Suko, I think I may follow your lead and bump my feeding times up to 30 minutes. Hydroton retains a bit but why not give them maximum time to absorb nutes and water? The whole nute burn issue is still a mystery to me. Like is it one specific nutrient that is worse or is it some sort of accumulated osmotic effect? In dirt, it's important to water a plant first before feeding. That's because if you feed a strong nutrient mix to a thirsty plant, it will suck it all up too rapidly increasing risk of burn. (or that's my understanding) So I'd think Ebb&Flow would be the same situation. I'm watching the ppm closely because I sort of screwed up by adding pk 13/14 to my res, not realizing how much it would cause my pph reading to rise. My reading was 1900 so I added as much water as I could fit. If it's too high this morning I'll pull a couple gallons from the res and dilute it some more. Live and learn...

 

OK Cloner, so basically what you're saying is that it's important to match the medium to the system. You would never use hydroton with run to waste because you'ld end up wasting most of your nutrients. Your suggestion that a mix of two retention types seems to work better certainly makes sense. And I think the reason is because we don't really have the perfect medium available to us yet. Rockwool comes close but there certainly are issues...cost and disposal being two big ones in my mind.

 

I'm totally unhappy with my coco experiences. I've tried two different cocos and still I find they tend to get waterlogged...even one which was pre-mixed with 40% vermiculite! I'd use pea gravel if it weren't so heavy.

 

So far I'm pretty pleased both with my hempy bucket experiment and my ebb&flow. Those two pictures above are areas that are right next to each other in my flower room. There's a light mover on a track for better light distribution. So I'm thinking where the mixed plants are located now, I could put 6 or 8 hempy buckets under a scrog screen (3'x7.5') and advance the design a bit with drip feeders on a timer and drain hoses to collect the run-off. My laziness is revealing itsself! I'd like things as outomated as possible...that's my goal. Then all I'll have to do is harvest and smoke!

 

Cheers and be well,

Dee

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Then all I'll have to do is harvest and smoke!

 

 

Well they warned us pot will make us lazy...watching cheech and choong should have opened our eyes..

 

 

rob

[nouseforaname]

hey,

Im not sure which coco fibre u used granulated compressed block etc(canna, cocopeat, dutch master ?? ) some shouldnt be sold as pot and play as they need to be cleaned then wrung out.. then watered with plain or nuted water then planted out to be used.. or recycled for a second cycle.. another thing is vermiculite holds like 3 times the water of perlite or clay.. while not much difference might been all you were out with the mix...

 

 

p.s body couldnt handle:wacko: doing creative writing and too many variables to decide what system to go.. would only run wet to bone dry in a run to waste rockwool type system with a flush each two weeks as when its dead dry it sucks up everything thats left.. but if you want some help just ask next time we yack and im activly lazy

[DrDee]

hey,

Im not sure which coco fibre u used granulated compressed block etc(canna, cocopeat, dutch master ?? ) some shouldnt be sold as pot and play as they need to be cleaned then wrung out.. then watered with plain or nuted water then planted out to be used.. or recycled for a second cycle.. another thing is vermiculite holds like 3 times the water of perlite or clay.. while not much difference might been all you were out with the mix...

 

 

p.s body couldnt handle:wacko: doing creative writing and too many variables to decide what system to go.. would only run wet to bone dry in a run to waste rockwool type system with a flush each two weeks as when its dead dry it sucks up everything thats left.. but if you want some help just ask next time we yack and im activly lazy

 

Cloner,

My mistake above on that coco mix...it was 40% perlite (not vermiculite) and still would stay wet and heavy for a week. The plants have grown larger so are sucking it dry faster but still I see no advantage to using it over dirt. That was a bagged ready-to-use product (Botanicare). I also bought some bricks (GH) which had to be flushed of salt and that was a fairly fine grind too. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how coco should be used. Many guys are getting great results using it as a hydro substrate and watering run-to-waste every couple hours. Never dries out. I can't imagine that would work with a fine coco. There are so many brands and I live over 200 miles from the nearest hydro shop. If I do mess with coco anymore, it will only be with a coarser well draining brand. And thanks much for your offer...I'm always gettin' into trouble and needing a hand...

Peace,

Dee

 

PS: Robbie, I'm a lazy bastard whether I'm stoned or not...

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Yeah that's the prob, catching it at peak oxygen exchange without letting it go too far...crazy baby...

 

Argh,,,making it sound harder than it is, but if you could crack that side of things, I think it'd improve overal growth size.

 

How ya brought up effects how you view everything you know? I started growing in a very dry environment on rugged hillsides. Basically I spent every day hauling water to plants. At the same time, I had mates that grew up "dryland framing" in the true sense of the word on small broadacre farms, and growing pot also.

 

They would laugh at my concern, I hate to see plants hit the ground in even a midday wilt, but yet this is perfectly natural for plants in the midsummer grow...no matter if they were watered heavily that mornign even. This is why many outside growers wont plant until midsummer, to avoid that summer stretch of carting water.

 

but here's the thing, the guys I know who grew up in these remote dry places and used to seeing crops laying on the ground exhausted would never water a drop unless immenent death was about to occur. I still say overall weight was increased my way, they say potency was increased their way, but one thing I noticed without a doubt and that was how large their plants got after heavy rainfall passed, the ground dried and a period was reached where oxygen was more available than moisture.

there was alwaysa point when the ground dried out theirs would accelerate like mad, while mine wouldn't go backwards by any means, but just steadily plod along.

 

I was also amazed the first time I grew in deep water culture, could not believe my eyes, that using a bubbler would allow to grow in constant water..

 

I suppose all that can be said to compare the two ways of growing (insid and out) is they're as similar as chalk and cheese. But I do keep it in mind always,and wonder just where thast point may be that could give it that mad bloom period. MAybe with constant oxygenation it just is at peak always, and maybe it's just a dud question.

 

As for cocco, I know someone who swore by it, he did very well with it while all I read elsewhere was bad news. Do you stil use cocca cloner?

 

rob

[nouseforaname]

hey rob,

Gone away from the coco but not because i dont like it just doesnt suit my needs... alot of effort to use if it was just washing it out is ok but the hand wringing out and back breaking work to move it.. If the current grow suited the extra work load needed to reuse coco would be doing so... But the fyto and perlite even clay are easier in that respect atm so thats where im at.... I do know exactly what growth spurt you are talking about there rob but its very hard to stay in that area indoors as you get dry pockets that wont rewet easily atleast in coco... Used to find it in 30-50 ltr mums of coco handwatered every 2nd - 3rd day... but bit too far and you would have to soak pot in resy for a while or unpot break roots up and repot in same size pot...

[DrDee]

Gentlemen (and you too Robbie)

I took a few shots of my Hempy bucket test. I hadn't really examined the plant much because it's sort of buried in the jungle of taller plants. It would have done better with the light closer but nevertheless is doing great and is industriously building a central cola.

 

The one shot of the bucket is essentially the entire tutorial. After that fill it with medium and clone and add nutrient solution. You need to water it by hand daily until the roots make it down to the internal "res" I don't know why it works but it does.

 

The shot of the bucket with a smaller plant to compare it to shows those two plants because they were started at the same time. My E&F system was having problems so it's not a fair comparison. I just used that shot to show how the bucket plant is doing. It got little veg time and could have benefited by more.

 

Dee