Hempy Headquarters

[FelipeBlu]

It can take some time for the pH to stabilize - depending on the buffering of your nutrients. Do you have access to an analysis of your water? The concentration of bicarbonates can be a factor.

I usually mix my solution the day before I need it. That seems to stabilize it enough for me.

 

[FelipeBlu]

Also, given my high pH out of the tap, I wonder if that's why my hempy plants didn't seem to respond to my organic nutes. I always thought needing lower pH had more to do with the level the salts that transport the nutes needed to dissolve and release them to the plant and that it didn't matter for organics, but maybe not.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

My experience with “organic nutrients” has been that this approach provides for the herd of microbeasties, which then provide for the plants. In this case, pH of the water doesn’t factor very much. With mineral salts, the nutrients are directly available to the plants. But only at the proper pH. Make sense?

 

[Azimuth]

My experience with “organic nutrients” has been that this approach provides for the herd of microbeasties, which then provide for the plants. In this case, pH of the water doesn’t factor very much. With mineral salts, the nutrients are directly available to the plants. But only at the proper pH. Make sense?

Well, I'm wondering if the organic nutes that have been predigested by microbes in the process of making them, make them behave more like the salt based nutes in that pH is important.

Something I'll have to test, I suppose.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I'm sorry but I'm too lazy to read through 200 pages to see if I can get my answer. So I'm just going to ask. I've been wondering about Hempy grows for a while now. The part I'm wondering about is the up-potting. Does the roots hold the perlite together ? It seems like it would all fall off when you went to up-pot.
Also, since there's no soil.... I'm guessing it would be treated as Hydro with a 5.8 pH ?

 

[Rickle Piiiiick]

I'm sorry but I'm too lazy to read through 200 pages to see if I can get my answer. So I'm just going to ask. I've been wondering about Hempy grows for a while now. The part I'm wondering about is the up-potting. Does the roots hold the perlite together ? It seems like it would all fall off when you went to up-pot.
Also, since there's no soil.... I'm guessing it would be treated as Hydro with a 5.8 pH ?

You would be correct on both assumptions. At least in my limited experience, each time I've removed them from my solo hempy cups, the majority of the perlite just falls apart, but there is quite a bit still packed in with the roots.

I figure as long as you're quick about it, and have the transplant hole ready to go, it doesn't appear to shock them too much. I'm sure others with way more experience growing in hempy can chime in on ways they keep it together. I also only transplant once, from solo cup to final bucket.

I thought I had a better picture of when I actually took this plant out, but you can at least see the concept here. Pro-tip, make sure the hole is decent size bigger/deeper than what you think the transplant will fill.

I just grabbed her by the base of the stem at the jiffy puck, squeezed a bit all around the cup to loosen it up a bit, then just had to tilt the cup over and kind-of poor everything out into the hole.

 

[FelipeBlu]

You can up -pot one of two ways - either plug the hole, fill the cup until the perlite floats, wiggle the stem a bit and lift - or when dry, squeeze the cup a bit and then lift out as a cup-shaped entity. It the latter, it helps if you let the roots really take some time to fill the perlite.

Either way, this plant is tougher than you might think. Don’t worry so much.

 

[Rickle Piiiiick]

plug the hole, fill the cup until the perlite floats, wiggle the stem a bit and lift

See, now that's a much better idea! I'll be giving that a try next time.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I just rinse off the electrode and shake to dry

they have a couple fairly robust little electrodes. the ph meters are the ones with a delicate bulb.

Yeah, an EC meter just measures resistance, like an ohm meter. (And performs a calculation.) Not much to fail on the things.

 

[Azimuth]

So, fried my first pH meter. Got too wet I guess and stored it flat. Wouldn't turn on so opened up the battery compartment and they were all wet and rusting.

Have to order another.

 

[bluter]

Yeah, an EC meter just measures resistance, like an ohm meter. (And performs a calculation.) Not much to fail on the things.

hi ts

haven't seen you here much. hope all is going well.

 

[bluter]

So, fried my first pH meter. Got too wet I guess and stored it flat. Wouldn't turn on so opened up the battery compartment and they were all wet and rusting.

Have to order another.

oh shit. the better ones seal. if you dunk them a couple times it won't matter, but they're not meant to be a submarine.

my personal favorite is the apera 60 series. you get a solid professional meter with the same performance as products costing 30 - or more %. hanna, and blue lab are also solid.

 

[FelipeBlu]

Yeah, an EC meter just measures resistance, like an ohm meter. (And performs a calculation.) Not much to fail on the things.

Hey TS! Good to see ya around, man!

 

[Tennessee Tim]

I take the batteries out of most of my tools, every time I put them up. I have had new , but bad, batteries ruin expensive meters and other tools. No immersion in water needed to ruin a tool with batteries! Hello TS and all you other old timers!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Hello TS and all you other old timers!

I'm still a pup!

Okay - but I'm younger than you .

 

[FelipeBlu]

l’m still a pup somewhere in my addled gray matter. But the body is starting to really feel the effects of time.

 

[Lazarus13]

Oh man, what a trial the last few weeks have been. It got so hot my plants were struggling and then, from somewhere, damn mites. I chopped a bunch of girls early. Broke my heart. They'll still be good for CCO though. Now I'm scrambling to clean and get things back up and running.

 

[FelipeBlu]

What a drag, man!

Best of luck on the next grow - after the massive nuke and sterilization!
I just know that you will make a come back!

 

[Tennessee Tim]

I have some hops vines that sometimes get loaded with thrips, whiteflies and mites, near a cannabis grow location. I have to organically treat the hops vines to keep them from finding their way to my other plants. What a bummer( and expense!) when that happens! I do not even walk near the hops vines before going to my plants! I change clothes(including hat and socks/shoes), if I touch or examine the hops, before going to my gardens. What a pain to like homebrew and pot so much. If I did not love my homebrew with fresh organic hops so much , I would dig them up!

 

[FelipeBlu]

I’m not surprised that hops are pest magnets also, but isn’t it weird that both hops and cannabis are wildly aromatic with powerful terpenes, and pests don’t seem to mind? And they don’t seem to deter deer or rabbits either.

So what are the terpenes for? Maybe just to attract humans - who will cultivate it once they experience the effects? Hmmm..

 

[FelipeBlu]

I posted this to another thread and it was suggested that I post it here as well:

You really can’t grow at your best in hempy without a good pH meter.

In hempy, aim for 5.8 after mixing all nutrients. It’s okay to go as low as 5.6 once in a while, but since anything in the reservoir will drift up, never go over 6. Really try to hit 5.7-5.9 in flower. The plants will need daily fertigating, so it’s important to be consistent and accurate.

Another point - If you know that your water quality/pH is consistent, you only really need to measure/verify your final pH whenever you increase the fertilizer dose - it shouldn’t change in-between. So it isn’t as labor-intensive as one might think. It isn’t like maintaining a DWC or Flood/Drain reservoir.