Running two weeks behind you means I get to copy your technique with nutrients. It's almost sacrilegious for SweetSue to be using nutrients. Lol!
- Thread starter
- #442
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
Logic would suggest that the same nutes that worked for your plants before hempy will work after hempy. That is what I'm going to do.
I just think we'll have to feed more often, since there won't be the soil microbes in the perlite. We'll have to supplement with extra elements, however you want to brew them. Of course, everything is going to have to be fed in liquid form.
- Thread starter
- #443
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
I was surprised that the Perlite-Vermiculite mix was still moist today. I will feed the first time I have to water. I made up two gallons of nute water at the usual strength I was giving the Juveniles before transplant.
I've seen several schedules, from feeding every 2 or 3 days, to feeding once a week with waterings every 2 days. Since my pots are 4 gallons, I'm going to use the finger method the first week, and when I think it is dry, tip the bin towards the hole and see if anything come out. If not, I'll water or feed, depending on the day of the week. (I feed on Sundays).
I've seen several schedules, from feeding every 2 or 3 days, to feeding once a week with waterings every 2 days. Since my pots are 4 gallons, I'm going to use the finger method the first week, and when I think it is dry, tip the bin towards the hole and see if anything come out. If not, I'll water or feed, depending on the day of the week. (I feed on Sundays).
- Thread starter
- #444
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
I just realized in my last post, I didn't factor in that the roots may have not reached the reservoir yet. I'll have to wait till I know the roots are using the reservoirs before I use the tilt the bucket method. I'll just rely on how damp the medium is about half-way down in the pot, and also keep track on what the leaves are telling me.
This should be very workable for you. When those roots hit you'll know it almost immediately. I have the same thing happen when my little ones finally get big enough that the roots exit the pot into the perlite in the SWICK reservoirs. They just explode in growth.
- Thread starter
- #446
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
Sweet Sue: I don't see a functional difference between your SWICK and Hempy. Both use a reservoir, only SWICK's is bigger and you used soil in the pots.
How often do you have to water the SWICKs?
How often do you have to water the SWICKs?
You should keep in mind that Tead waters every 3 days. If one increases the time between, one might need more water.
- Thread starter
- #448
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
Tead: I think that is going to be my schedule, too. I fed them all today with my usual nutes, and this was day 3. Only one plant was wilted, and that was in Perlite only. Those in the Perlite-vermiculite mix were not. However all were very light and no water came out of the holes when I tipped them.
I did not drain to waste, however. As I usually do in soil, I used a turkey baster and sucked up the runoff, and made sure the edges of the medium were soaked too, because the roots like to snuggle up along the sides of the bins. That uses up about half the runoff, and the rest goes to a plant that needs more. I will probably have to flush once in a while to get rid of built-up salts. How often do you recommend I flush? Once a week? Once a month? It's not something I have done on a regular basis, until 2 weeks before harvest.
EDIT: I used 4 gallons of nute water, rather than my usual 2. Again, you are right, as usual!
I did not drain to waste, however. As I usually do in soil, I used a turkey baster and sucked up the runoff, and made sure the edges of the medium were soaked too, because the roots like to snuggle up along the sides of the bins. That uses up about half the runoff, and the rest goes to a plant that needs more. I will probably have to flush once in a while to get rid of built-up salts. How often do you recommend I flush? Once a week? Once a month? It's not something I have done on a regular basis, until 2 weeks before harvest.
EDIT: I used 4 gallons of nute water, rather than my usual 2. Again, you are right, as usual!
Wow. You're getting a lot more drying action than I. I'll assume it's humidity related. I float in the 80s and 90s.
I wouldn't re-use the water that comes out... at least not in my hempy pots. The whole idea is to flush out the old when you feed, so putting it back thru the system would seem to be counter productive.
I do use it in my outdoor garden.
I don't usually flush unless I run into a problem and want to get the previous mix out, or at the end of a grow. Oh... and I flush between veg and bloom. The osmos get no flushing at all.
Many do flush on a regular basis. A week seems too much, and a month seems too little. Maybe every 20 days? But all that's just a guess on my part.
I wouldn't re-use the water that comes out... at least not in my hempy pots. The whole idea is to flush out the old when you feed, so putting it back thru the system would seem to be counter productive.
I do use it in my outdoor garden.
I don't usually flush unless I run into a problem and want to get the previous mix out, or at the end of a grow. Oh... and I flush between veg and bloom. The osmos get no flushing at all.
Many do flush on a regular basis. A week seems too much, and a month seems too little. Maybe every 20 days? But all that's just a guess on my part.
- Thread starter
- #450
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
Yes, you would think that summer humidity would be higher than 60, but that is about as high as it gets here. Further South, where it rains all summer, the humidity is a whole lot higher. In winter, my RH can get down to 15%! I'm holding at 50% in the grow and bloom units right now.
I will reuse the runoff only in my soil bins, then. If I see any stress, I will dump the runoff altogether. This was only my first feed, so I can't do much harm this time around, as long as I don't do it again, eh?
I thought that two times through would ensure that all the medium got fed. But if that is unnecessary, I'll change my ways.
I will reuse the runoff only in my soil bins, then. If I see any stress, I will dump the runoff altogether. This was only my first feed, so I can't do much harm this time around, as long as I don't do it again, eh?
I thought that two times through would ensure that all the medium got fed. But if that is unnecessary, I'll change my ways.
Now I do water slowly from the top turning my container as I go and watering evenly over the top. Just like watering a soil plant.
In my 2L hempys, I plug the hole with my finger and let the pot fill with water until the top layer of perlite floats just a bit. This fills the entire inside of the container evenly. I still pour my water evenly over the surface tho. Then I release the hole and let it go.
In my 2L hempys, I plug the hole with my finger and let the pot fill with water until the top layer of perlite floats just a bit. This fills the entire inside of the container evenly. I still pour my water evenly over the surface tho. Then I release the hole and let it go.
- Thread starter
- #452
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
I actually will do both, depending on my mood, and how much runoff I want to deal with. The grow and bloom areas are so tight now, that getting the gallon jugs in there to water correctly, esp in the far back corners, is hard to do. I have short arms!
I pull mine out of the tents to water them. It's just much easier for me to deal with the runoff in the shed rather than trying to navigate inside the tent.
You can unscrew the spray tip from your garden sprayer and use it to get into tight spots if you need.
You can unscrew the spray tip from your garden sprayer and use it to get into tight spots if you need.
- Thread starter
- #454
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
LOL! Yes, you have property, a secured yard, a shed. I have 3 - 8-9 sq ft units in a 9' X 8 ' grow room inside a single-wide trailer, in a neighborhood that anything of value at all must be locked away, preferably in the house. No way is a garden hose coming into a place constructed mostly of 1/4" sheetrock and pressboard floors! * wiggles eyebrows *
However, I COULD get a pump sprayer with a wand, so I can control water flow in those hard-to-reach corners. That is the only "garden sprayer" I can think of that will work for me inside. It might make the whole watering process easier. Thanks for the Idea, Tead!
I have placed tape over the holes for the first few waterings when the plants' roots were of insufficient length to reach the reservoir portion of the bottles. I suppose that my finger would have worked - but I wanted to give the roots a soak for a couple of minutes, and trying to cover several bottles' holes at the same time with my fingers was... inconvenient
. With tape, I could water every bottle, wait an additional minute or two, then go back and remove each piece of tape in order (generally whilst holding them over a bucket).You have my sympathy. I often tell myself not to leave anything outside (especially packages that get delivered once in a blue moon). But, in truth, that is mostly because of people who might be "passing through," as opposed to other residents of the neighborhood. I have forgotten things and they were still there the next morning. And I have left a moderately expensive lawn mower out "once or twice" when I was having more difficulty than usual breathing or when my limp progressed to me more or less dragging one leg, and by the time I finished mowing it was a struggle just to walk, so I went inside "for a few minutes." Each time, I dreaded going back outside, but the mower was always right where I put it (occasionally, with the gasoline container nearby).
I wonder if it is because residents of my state are allowed to carry firearms (both openly and concealed), lol? I have read many times that crime rates are often lower when a higher percentage of the population is known to be armed. That does vary somewhat (my guess is that there might be some correlation with the statistics for alcohol use). A thief might think twice if/when there is a reasonable expectation of being shot (especially <COUGH> when there is a pig farmer or two not too far away
). Just one of the reasons I am for open-carry. I am not a big fan of concealed carry, because I don't wake up in the morning hoping to get a chance to shoot someone, lol, and value the deterrent effect of a visible firearm and the increased likelihood that it won't be necessary to use it.If you do, and decide to remove the adjustable piece from the tip for any reason, I suggest you test the operation in a bathtub, lol. I removed one once, thinking I'd get a much higher flow rate (which did turn out to be true). The water shot out in four streams - none of which went towards the direction that the wand was pointed in, lol. After that experience, I decided that just turning the adjuster out until it gave a stream, while flowing much less, was enough. It was still better than the mist/spray pattern in terms of volume.
There's a little plastic piece that fits inside the tube pretty solidly. I pull it out with my teeth. It's what splits the water into 3 or 4 streams. Once you pull that piece out, the full capacity of the tube comes out... sometime a bit too strong.
Details... they're endless.
- Thread starter
- #457
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
Pliers work too... I should probably be using them myself as Tead's chompers seem to be on a downhill slide as well.
- Thread starter
- #459
AKgramma
Well-Known Member
TS, more great ideas! TY!
BTW, we have open carry and concealed here, too. It's probably why the Old Timer who lives on one side of me never gets vandalized, whereas the lady on the other side gets vandalized all the time. We had someone shoot out a bunch of windshields two nights ago on our street, except for mine and the Old Timer with a pistol. It's too much to hope that my HCP plates had anything to do with being left alone. Maybe luck, maybe they ran out of BBs.
BTW, we have open carry and concealed here, too. It's probably why the Old Timer who lives on one side of me never gets vandalized, whereas the lady on the other side gets vandalized all the time. We had someone shoot out a bunch of windshields two nights ago on our street, except for mine and the Old Timer with a pistol. It's too much to hope that my HCP plates had anything to do with being left alone. Maybe luck, maybe they ran out of BBs.
Are you assuming that TS isn't wearing dentures?
That would be an incorrect assumption (well, partially
). There are... one or two... folks around here who could tell you a horror story about me that ended in my getting dentures. The short version (and good news :rolleyes3 ) is that I lived.Hmm... About 30 years ago, Mom was getting into her car at a store to drive away when some punk tried to take her purse. She held onto it, so the miscreant tried to shove her over so he could jack(?) her car. He quit when Mom shot him in the leg with her .38
. He crawled off, bawling, and Mom sat there for a minute or two (trying to recover her hearing, methinks), then she went to a pay phone and called a cop that she knew to ask what she should do. The cop asked if there were any witnesses (nope) - then told her to go home and clean her pistol.You know, the average BB-vandal will stop and take up another hobby... when he hears a shotgun being fired at close range. Digital video setups are (relatively - says the poorest guy in the room, lol) cheap these days. Someone in your neighborhood ought to take up a collection and set up one of the ones that have four or eight cameras and a recorder. Or... Actually, it'd be better off if someone who had the money just quietly bought/installed one solo - because the vandal may well live in your neighborhood, and would almost certainly just go bother others if he knew about the cameras. And if you get the person on video, you can take it to local LEO if it's an adult, or drag the SoB to his house and threaten to kick the <BLEEP> out of the parent(s) unless they immediately give their little b@st@rd some "old-school" discipline.
My teeth... I probably removed a good bit of their protective layers by eating lemons (with lots of salt) every chance I could from right around the time I could walk until, well, the last time I could afford to buy a lemon, lol. And then I spent ~10 years in a profession that involved harsh acids and other chemicals being used and in the air almost constantly (and working for people who didn't see the benefit - to them - of providing any kind of masks/respirators) - which pretty much finished most of them off. It didn't help that I usually had a cigarette hanging out of my mouth when I was working (hey, I couldn't breathe there anyway... might as well have a menthol).
So I've long ago given up using my teeth as a redneck tool set. If I had known then what I know now... Well, okay, I'd have still kept working there. I was married through most of it and, err, she needed the money. But I might have started spiking the boss' coffee with a little hydrochloric acid. (I know, I know, God will balance all wrongs - but surely He must be awfully overworked in that regard, and could use a little help once in a while.)
Anyway, what? Oh, yeah, now I remember: Protect your teeth, you'll be sorry when they're gone (and even sorrier when they are merely on the way out). And eat more LEMONS!