Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Looking great Munki!

So, what do you think of the Hempy method so far?

Feels like what I imagine a soil grow would be like except I need to water more often. I think an ebb n flow autowatering system is better, but it is more complicated. If I had a better method of collecting runoff while the plants are in the tent, it would make it easier. Something like a flood table that drains to a collection bucket.

 

[Setting Sun]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

I think that's exactly how DocBud set up his buckets, on a flood tray that drained to waste, but you could drain and collect.

I've also seen growers install 1/2" fittings and drain hoses to each individual bucket, and then run them to a drain/collect container.

Hempy purists will frown at such sacrilege .


I like Hempy buckets a *lot*, but I need a vacation solution also, and the 2-3 day res reserve, just isn't enough.

I'm going to set up a really simple recirculating drip system with 4 hempy buckets sitting on top of the lid of a tote. I'm going to aerate the water in the tote, but not because I have to.

With a power outage, I'll still have regular hempy buckets with 2-3 days of water reserve, so that gives me peace of mind.

Actually, the plant I have in a regular Hempy bucket with perlite/turface 70/30 only needs watering every 4 days, so increasing the percentage of turface to 40-50% could extend that quite a bit. I think it would still have decent aeration with that mix using coarse perlite.

 

[619ster]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Ooooh! Oooooh!! Count me in. You look great thus far. Can't wait to see how things turn out. Fingers crossed for all females

 

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Flower Day 3. I think I can officially name the Ogre plant Princess Fiona as I could spot pairs of fine white hairs popping out in a few spots. She can't wait to bloom. I'm so excited to see what she can do. I'll need to take cuts soon but I don't want to take too much from her. I'm just too greedy with the buds she'll put out!

Watered and fed Ogre and Master Kush today.

Master Kush

Fiona (Ogre)

Blueberry Wowie

Satori 3

Satori 1

 

[The Lurker]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Nice job, Munki! Good to have access to multiple lighting units so you can adjust them to your canopy too, as opposed to just adjusting your plant heights from the bottom or training them. Put light where you need it!

Hey, what kind of 2G buckets are those? Looks sorta like a bucket-in-a-bucket...

Feels like what I imagine a soil grow would be like except I need to water more often. I think an ebb n flow autowatering system is better, but it is more complicated. If I had a better method of collecting runoff while the plants are in the tent, it would make it easier. Something like a flood table that drains to a collection bucket.

I like Hempy buckets a *lot*, but I need a vacation solution also, and the 2-3 day res reserve, just isn't enough.

I'm going to set up a really simple recirculating drip system with 4 hempy buckets sitting on top of the lid of a tote. I'm going to aerate the water in the tote, but not because I have to.

With a power outage, I'll still have regular hempy buckets with 2-3 days of water reserve, so that gives me peace of mind.

Actually, the plant I have in a regular Hempy bucket with perlite/turface 70/30 only needs watering every 4 days, so increasing the percentage of turface to 40-50% could extend that quite a bit. I think it would still have decent aeration with that mix using coarse perlite.

Been thinking about that as well...I'm a DWC guy, so that's what I like to fall back to. We'd prefer the simplicity of a Hempy, and have a vacation fudge factor as well...I'm willing to get away from simple a bit if it'll keep the plants healthy, though.

Instead of just a tote lid, why not go with a full (shallow) tote? You could fit several buckets into those. Get a standard mesh bottom pot, and drop it in a regular Hempy just a little larger in size. Now you've got a DWC pot that you can take out of the regular Hempy anytime and drop into a Rubbermaid DWC tote whenever you're ready to take off for that exotic sandy beach. Call it a two-stage container. Poking a bunch of holes in a Hempy might work also, just not as well...or give you the same flexibility. I'm a big fan of modular systems.

What about the tote lid itself? Take the empty pot, turn it over, and draw an outline of the buckets on the lid, and set it aside until you need it. Cut out the (slightly smaller inside of the) outline of the pots, and there's your algae-safe DWC lid when you're ready to rock n' roll. Add your airstones, mix your nutes, and you're done...
-----

Nute-wise, not sure how OC+ works with constant immersion...perhaps mix your CRF into the bucket's top-half and top-dress only, and use pure perlite, perlite/coco/whatever in the bottom 1/2-1/3 that might be submerged. Maybe even run a 1/4 strength GH nute solution in the tote--? Don't want to over-fert either, but it sounds doable.

If you were doing a ScrOG screen, that could be a bit trickier...might ditch the totes, get a cheap Coleman Cooler with a built-in leak-proof drain (Or a larger one that might fit 3 across), and now you never have to take the bucket (or rather, mesh-bottom pots for these) out of the coolers. Just elevate 'em a bit and they're easy to empty for res changes/drain-to-waste or whatever you're runnin'. A Hempy and DWC in one with air-pruned roots, and the screen stays in place. Get a plywood base with some casters, and there's your modular ScrOG that'll wheel from place to place. Easy as Paris Hilton...

That could give you anywhere from 1-2 weeks, esp. if you set up a separate res. to autofill the totes when they get low. We're starting to get away from the simplicity factor with that, though...

Heck, I might just do my next DWC in one of those coolers instead of thin plastic. The nutes in a res like that should stay nice and cool...
--------

Speaking of cooling, why are Water Chillers so damn expensive? There's got to be a DIY solution that's cheaper. Haven't scoured the net yet, but I ran across this portable Thermoelectric Cooler on Coleman's site. Supposed to be plugged into a cigarette lighter, but that's easy to get an adapter for. There's a Larger One from Koolatron. Like anything else, prices are much cheaper away from the vendor's official site...

Don't think those have a temp control, but with a dimmer switch and some trial/error (or go and get a proper thermostat control), not to hard to throttle the cooling back to something that would work for whatever system you're using it for... and, it's not $500-700. Could keep a standard reservoir or recirculating drip system at a decent temperature even in a hot room with one o' those.
----

It's stuff like this that keeps me from going to sleep at a decent hour, some nights...

Any thoughts?

-TL

 

[Tunes420]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Looking great brother grower....those lights veg some super healthy plants

 

[Herb Fellow]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Just caught up on your grow and am greatly pressed. LED's are doing a wonderful job (with your help of course). +

 

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Nice job, Munki! Good to have access to multiple lighting units so you can adjust them to your canopy too, as opposed to just adjusting your plant heights from the bottom or training them. Put light where you need it!

Hey, what kind of 2G buckets are those? Looks sorta like a bucket-in-a-bucket...





Been thinking about that as well...I'm a DWC guy, so that's what I like to fall back to. We'd prefer the simplicity of a Hempy, and have a vacation fudge factor as well...I'm willing to get away from simple a bit if it'll keep the plants healthy, though.

Instead of just a tote lid, why not go with a full (shallow) tote? You could fit several buckets into those. Get a standard mesh bottom pot like These, and drop it in a regular Hempy just a little larger in size. Now you've got a DWC pot that you can take out of the regular Hempy anytime and drop into a Rubbermaid DWC tote whenever you're ready to take off for that exotic sandy beach. Call it a two-stage container. Poking a bunch of holes in a Hempy might work also, just not as well...or give you the same flexibility. I'm a big fan of modular systems.

What about the tote lid itself? Take the empty pot, turn it over, and draw an outline of the buckets on the lid, and set it aside until you need it. Cut out the (slightly smaller inside of the) outline of the pots, and there's your algae-safe DWC lid when you're ready to rock n' roll. Add your airstones, mix your nutes, and you're done...
-----

Nute-wise, not sure how OC+ works with constant immersion...perhaps mix your CRF into the bucket's top-half and top-dress only, and use pure perlite, perlite/coco/whatever in the bottom 1/2-1/3 that might be submerged. Maybe even run a 1/4 strength GH nute solution in the tote--? Don't want to over-fert either, but it sounds doable.

If you were doing a ScrOG screen, that could be a bit trickier...might ditch the totes, get a cheap Coleman Cooler with a built-in leak-proof drain (There's A Larger One that might fit 3 across), and now you never have to take the bucket (or rather, mesh-bottom pots for these) out of the coolers. Just elevate 'em a bit and they're easy to empty for res changes/drain-to-waste or whatever you're runnin'. A Hempy and DWC in one with air-pruned roots, and the screen stays in place. Get a plywood base with some casters, and there's your modular ScrOG that'll wheel from place to place. Easy as Paris Hilton...

That could give you anywhere from 1-2 weeks, esp. if you set up a separate res. to autofill the totes when they get low. We're starting to get away from the simplicity factor with that, though...

Heck, I might just do my next DWC in one of those coolers instead of thin plastic. The nutes in a res like that should stay nice and cool...
--------

Speaking of cooling, why are Water Chillers so damn expensive? There's got to be a DIY solution that's cheaper. Haven't scoured the net yet, but I ran across this portable Thermoelectric Cooler on Coleman's site. Supposed to be plugged into a cigarette lighter, but that's easy to get an adapter for. There's a Larger One from Koolatron. Like anything else, prices are much cheaper away from the vendor's official site...

Don't think those have a temp control, but with a dimmer switch and some trial/error (or go and get a proper thermostat control), not to hard to throttle the cooling back to something that would work for whatever system you're using it for... and, it's not $500-700. Could keep a standard reservoir or recirculating drip system at a decent temperature even in a hot room with one o' those.
----

It's stuff like this that keeps me from going to sleep at a decent hour, some nights...

Any thoughts?

-TL

Right on, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm not sure that you could move between hempy and DWC, but maybe I'm just not imagining it correctly.

For a cheaper cooling device that can drop fluid temps below ambient temps without active refrigeration, check out evaporative coolers A.K.A. "bong coolers" on the web. If used in a secondary cooling loop, it could do well for those in lower humidity environments. It works on the same principle as swamp coolers and is the same cooling tech used for many nuclear power plants.

 

[Setting Sun]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Been thinking about that as well...I'm a DWC guy, so that's what I like to fall back to. We'd prefer the simplicity of a Hempy, and have a vacation fudge factor as well...I'm willing to get away from simple a bit if it'll keep the plants healthy, though.

Instead of just a tote lid, why not go with a full (shallow) tote? You could fit several buckets into those. Get a standard mesh bottom pot, and drop it in a regular Hempy just a little larger in size. Now you've got a DWC pot that you can take out of the regular Hempy anytime and drop into a Rubbermaid DWC tote whenever you're ready to take off for that exotic sandy beach. Call it a two-stage container. Poking a bunch of holes in a Hempy might work also, just not as well...or give you the same flexibility. I'm a big fan of modular systems.

What about the tote lid itself? Take the empty pot, turn it over, and draw an outline of the buckets on the lid, and set it aside until you need it. Cut out the (slightly smaller inside of the) outline of the pots, and there's your algae-safe DWC lid when you're ready to rock n' roll. Add your airstones, mix your nutes, and you're done...
-----

We may have somewhat different needs and motives for complicating the simplicity of passive hydro.

I need a hydro system that automates watering, both to decrease my labor and give me the ability to be away from the grow for at least 5 days, and I need a system where my plants will survive a power outage of up to 2 days or so, because that can happen around here, although typically the power stays off for less than 24 hours.

So the system I'm thinking of putting together is designed around those needs.

Any kind of DWC, where the roots are submerged in water oxygenated by a pump, won't work, unless I set up a battery-powered air pump as backup, and that's just too much hassle and overly complicated for what I need.

In order to have peace of mind about things, I want a system that uses a large volume of media that can retain water for a few days, and Hempy buckets already fit that bill. In order to extend that 3 days, I need to automate, and if I'm going to automate, I'd rather recirculate than run to waste because it's no more work to set it up as a recirculating system, and I will be able to turn my drip down and run it 24/24 for continuous feeding if desired.

One of the things I like about the design I'm considering is that because it uses regular Hempy buckets (with a drain fitting in the hole), I can move them anywhere I want. I'm planning to have two of these hydro systems, one in each tent, so I can swap buckets between tents easily, or I can take the plants outdoors, or anywhere else I want to grow them out.

I can't do that with net pots, and again, I can't risk having roots in dead water from a power outage, so DWC is not an option. If I was home and the power went out, I could rig up some 12v DC air pumjps, but if I'm not home, not good.

Nute-wise, not sure how OC+ works with constant immersion...perhaps mix your CRF into the bucket's top-half and top-dress only, and use pure perlite, perlite/coco/whatever in the bottom 1/2-1/3 that might be submerged. Maybe even run a 1/4 strength GH nute solution in the tote--? Don't want to over-fert either, but it sounds doable.

Two options with my design. Run OC+ in the buckets and just water in the tote, or skip the OC+ in the media and just run regular hydro nutes in the tote. Either option should work fine.

If you were doing a ScrOG screen, that could be a bit trickier...might ditch the totes, get a cheap Coleman Cooler with a built-in leak-proof drain (There's A Larger One that might fit 3 across), and now you never have to take the bucket (or rather, mesh-bottom pots for these) out of the coolers. Just elevate 'em a bit and they're easy to empty for res changes/drain-to-waste or whatever you're runnin'. A Hempy and DWC in one with air-pruned roots, and the screen stays in place. Get a plywood base with some casters, and there's your modular ScrOG that'll wheel from place to place. Easy as Paris Hilton...

There are some very nice Coleman coolers called "Party Stackers" that would be great for growing. They don't come with drains, but the sizes are good, and the lids would be much easier to drill out for net cups than the double-wall hollow lids. They probably don't insulate quite as well as their more expensive coolers, but still far better than a regular tote.

With a drip system like I'm planning, res temps aren't nearly as critical as with DWC, so no worries about chillers, swapping frozen bottles, etc.

Speaking of cooling, why are Water Chillers so damn expensive? There's got to be a DIY solution that's cheaper. Haven't scoured the net yet, but I ran across this portable Thermoelectric Cooler on Coleman's site. Supposed to be plugged into a cigarette lighter, but that's easy to get an adapter for. There's a Larger One from Koolatron. Like anything else, prices are much cheaper away from the vendor's official site...

Don't think those have a temp control, but with a dimmer switch and some trial/error (or go and get a proper thermostat control), not to hard to throttle the cooling back to something that would work for whatever system you're using it for... and, it's not $500-700. Could keep a standard reservoir or recirculating drip system at a decent temperature even in a hot room with one o' those.

----

or, you could run a drip system .

It's stuff like this that keeps me from going to sleep at a decent hour, some nights...

Any thoughts?

-TL

Many, many thoughts, twisting and turning long after the witching hour has passed.

I thought I saw you there .

 

[The Lurker]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Cheers mate. Good ideas with the swamp cooler there too Munki. I'll have to do one sometime and take pics so you can see what I mean. These would be a normal Hempy and become something else *only* when you go on vacation...a transformer bucket. SS's idea is simpler and more practical for his needs...with your E&F, maybe an alternative method.

Never had many problems with res temps myself, but once you start thinkin' 'bout this stuff...

We may have somewhat different needs and motives for complicating the simplicity of passive hydro.

I need a hydro system that automates watering, both to decrease my labor and give me the ability to be away from the grow for at least 5 days, and I need a system where my plants will survive a power outage of up to 2 days or so, because that can happen around here, although typically the power stays off for less than 24 hours...

Damn, your power's out that much? I guess I'm not moving to LA anytime soon! Forget DWC, it'll drown your roots with the O2 off. At least a drip system just stops watering (unless it's passive) when the juice is out. For what you're doing you've got the right idea.

A passive drip system using just gravity could work with your setup pretty well, also. But if it's active, you've got enough water in the medium to last until the power kicks back on, as you mentioned. Good enough for your purposes.

Another reason I'm going off the grid with my next place...kinda hard to turn off the Sun. Always runnin'.

...and that's just too much hassle and overly complicated for what I need.

I can't do that with net pots...

Did I mention I'm a fan of Heath Robinson? Who knew, right?

(I'm a fan of the 'other' Heath Robinson, too... )

Always liked those toys where you drop a marble in the top and it goes through a series of chutes and sliding mechanisms...

I wouldn't use net pots in my original concept either, just the ones like regular pots with the bottom 1" or so (mesh) acting like air pots (like a liner) - dropped into a bucket. Or just use the liners by themselves if it's a ScrOG and you were thinking of airstoning (is that an actual word?) them later...totes/coolers are just there since you wouldn't be able to move the screen by then...'just in case'...

Otherwise you might as well go full DWC rather than screw around with Hempys (not for you where the power keeps going out, though. That sucks!)

Or - 'you could just use a recirculating drip system.'

There are some very nice Coleman coolers called "Party Stackers" that would be great for growing. They don't come with drains, but the sizes are good, and the lids would be much easier to drill out for net cups than the double-wall hollow lids. They probably don't insulate quite as well as their more expensive coolers, but still far better than a regular tote...

Yep, saw those! Looked good, I'm just becoming a lazy bastard these days and would rather not run a line into the bucket to drain or (worse) try to DIY a tap in that. Don't trust silicon to hold. And definitely easier to hollow out the top. Cheap and easy to add more stackers wherever you want...

Many, many thoughts, twisting and turning long after the witching hour has passed.

I thought I saw you there .

Yep, that was me...just at the corner of your peripheral vision. Good eyes!
------

Lots of things I still want to try at some point - such as Laser Irradiation Of Seeds for better germination and overall plant vitality. A number of studies have been done on this in the past couple of decades, using lasers in the 5-10mA power range.

More results:

Effect of laser pretreatment on germination and membrane lipid peroxidation of Chinese pine seeds under drought stress

Effects of Different Doses of Low Power Continuous Wave He-Ne Laser Radiation on Some Seed Thermodynamic and Germination Parameters of Sunflowers

Representation of He-Ne laser irradiation effect on radish seeds with selected germination indices

Been looking at 650-660nm lasers instead of 632.8nm (helium-neon) used in some of the above studies, since the latter only have ~55% absorption efficiency from Phytochrome.

=> There's a thread on another board where someone's now trying this specifically with mj; if you're interested PM me and I'll send you the link.

Got any spare seeds lying around, Munki?
------

In the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna - "Never Mind."

-TL

 

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Flower Day 4. It appears my theory about smell possibly determining sex is wrong. I believe I have identified the Master Kush as female and am pretty sure the Blueberry Wowie is as well. If it is, I should know in another day or two. The Satori haven't shown yet but they are younger than the bagseeds so I'm not worried.

Watered and fed all plants with the Blueberry Wowie getting a weaker solution (20 % watered down).

The cloning will need to happen soon.

Ogre

Really hard to get pics of them, but look in the circle.

Master Kush

Shot of the pistils on the MK.

Blueberry Wowie

Satori 1

Satori 3

 

[herbsnbuds]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

I'm interested to see if my original hypothesis was correct about about all except the Satori 1 & 3 are female. Keep us posted and looking good!!!

Congrats on the females also!!

 

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Flower Day 5. Fed and watered Satori 3, Ogre, and Master Kush. It's getting crowded in the tent!

Ogre

Master Kush

 

[GrownManHollr]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Congrats for the 2 girls showing their stuff!

 

[Setting Sun]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Damn, your power's out that much? I guess I'm not moving to LA anytime soon! Forget DWC, it'll drown your roots with the O2 off. At least a drip system just stops watering (unless it's passive) when the juice is out. For what you're doing you've got the right idea.

We moved from LA to the Central Coast 23 years ago. The utilities in LA were fine, but up here it's much sketchier. It happens often enough that it should be a concern for anyone dependent on it.

A passive drip system using just gravity could work with your setup pretty well, also. But if it's active, you've got enough water in the medium to last until the power kicks back on, as you mentioned. Good enough for your purposes.

I've been eyeballing these for a long time.

707600 - Easy2Grow Autopots

Talk about lazy growin'

Another reason I'm going off the grid with my next place...kinda hard to turn off the Sun. Always runnin'.

I was talking to someone a few weeks ago who lives off the grid in the Alaskan wilderness. All of his residential lighting is LED.

Did I mention I'm a fan of Heath Robinson? Who knew, right?

(I'm a fan of the 'other' Heath Robinson, too... )

wheelo and I had a discussion about the Heaths a while back in PM. I'm a fan of both also .

Always liked those toys where you drop a marble in the top and it goes through a series of chutes and sliding mechanisms...

Me too. Check out this video, no camera tricks.

YouTube - Honda Commercial Rube Goldberg

Otherwise you might as well go full DWC rather than screw around with Hempys (not for you where the power keeps going out, though. That sucks!)

I probably will risk it sooner or later and do a DWC grow. I wouldn't need a chiller or anything in this clime most of the year.

These DIY projects are one of the most fun things for me about growing herb.

take care TL

 

[zzoomm100]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

My Satoris showed their sex on day 8 Munki, just for reference.

I'm pretty sure that I've got the skyrocket pheno as my plant is 5 feet tall right now and still growing a little bit every day. I'm 24 days into flowering. And my Satori is only in a 3 gallon bag of FFOC so I'm hoping it stops.

This Satori is a thirsty plant. It needs more water than the 2 Cannasutra plants I have next to it. It really lets you know when it needs water and when it's been sated too. Very demonstrative plant.

I took some pollen off of one of the biggest and baddest plants I've ever seen, a Satori male. Just a couple pinches. I hope it's enough to make some seeds with a branch of this Satori as well as a branch of a Cannasutra. Never tried it before. Hope it works.

You have a nice aesthetic Munki. I'm really interested in the LEDs too. I'll be watching.

 

[Matanuska Valley]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

So what happen to the pre-flowering plant Munki...?

 

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

My Satoris showed their sex on day 8 Munki, just for reference.

I'm pretty sure that I've got the skyrocket pheno as my plant is 5 feet tall right now and still growing a little bit every day. I'm 24 days into flowering. And my Satori is only in a 3 gallon bag of FFOC so I'm hoping it stops.

This Satori is a thirsty plant. It needs more water than the 2 Cannasutra plants I have next to it. It really lets you know when it needs water and when it's been sated too. Very demonstrative plant.

I took some pollen off of one of the biggest and baddest plants I've ever seen, a Satori male. Just a couple pinches. I hope it's enough to make some seeds with a branch of this Satori as well as a branch of a Cannasutra. Never tried it before. Hope it works.

You have a nice aesthetic Munki. I'm really interested in the LEDs too. I'll be watching.

Thanks for sharing your Satori experience. Nice to have something which to compare my grow.

So what happen to the pre-flowering plant Munki...?

Still in that same state but now appears to be stretching about an inch per day.

Congrats for the 2 girls showing their stuff!

Thanks GMH.

 

[psyence]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

lookin good Munks

 

[Munki]

Re: ! Munki's 576 Watt LED & Hempy Style Flower Power !

Flower Day 6. Fed and watered all plants. Ogre has reached 27 inches in height!

Took clones from Ogre (5 cuts), Master Kush (3 cuts), and Blueberry Wowie (2 cuts). Not many I know, hoping they take. Master Kush was challenging to clone as all shoots on it have been getting woody, hollow stems quickly. Very few obvious ones to sacrifice.

Here are my cuttings in my wick cloner.

Ogre

Master Kush

Blueberry Wowie

Satori 1

Satori 3