The Hempire Strikes Back!

[Tead]

I have to qualify the following words... these are my impressions and beliefs. They shift often and are written in warm butter rather than stone.

First i wanted to know your take on watering like do you give a dry period or ever let your hempy get light? I was thinking maybe that might be a problem on my end and i still stick to water when the container is light (aka dry) which the more i thought about it the more i realized that since hempys can't be overwatered maybe its meant to be wet all the time and from there that got me questioning if that is the case how often should i water.

I kinda fear talking about this angle really. MANY other successful hempy growers do the wet/dry cycle and consider it very important. I'm the odd man out, so I kinda hate to advise folks on the subject. It might be that my hot and humid environment are the source of this difference... or it could be my perl only medium... or some combo of both.
Pots stay wet in my garden. It seems to take several weeks for pots to dry out fully. If I were to wait for the plants to dry, it might be 2 weeks between feedings.
Plant size and uptake factor into the equation as well... tho not as much as one would imagine. Transpiration is pretty minimal when your humidity is in the 90's.
Another reason to feed frequently is to flush out the old stuff. I worry about water sitting in my 85f-95f pots for more than a few days.
When I put all those ideas and facts into the gumbo, it equals a 3-day cycle for me.

Now you've got me wondering tho... perhaps I'll do a single pot using the 'lift' method and see if it does better than my 3day cycle.

Oh... and perhaps there's a less helpful way for me to answer that query, but none comes to mind. Sorry.

Second thing i was wondering was just more in general cause im curious, do feel as though your 2L is rootbound? Just curious on your findings i would figure hempys would be somewhat like airpots and air-prune the roots but im not familiar enough to be certain.

Oh I'm sure it's rootbound. It's just such a small round for the roots to grow out at all. They have a good way to reach down, but are just really restricted in the horizontal growth.
Not sure about air pruning around the sides. I'll have to see next time I pull one. It should be fairly obvious... if the roots hit the sides and then continue at a 90 degree angle, air pruning would seem minimal. If the roots shot out to the sides and just stopped, that would indicate air pruning.

 

[lexort420]

I have to qualify the following words... these are my impressions and beliefs. They shift often and are written in warm butter rather than stone.



I kinda fear talking about this angle really. MANY other successful hempy growers do the wet/dry cycle and consider it very important. I'm the odd man out, so I kinda hate to advise folks on the subject. It might be that my hot and humid environment are the source of this difference... or it could be my perl only medium... or some combo of both.
Pots stay wet in my garden. It seems to take several weeks for pots to dry out fully. If I were to wait for the plants to dry, it might be 2 weeks between feedings.
Plant size and uptake factor into the equation as well... tho not as much as one would imagine. Transpiration is pretty minimal when your humidity is in the 90's.
Another reason to feed frequently is to flush out the old stuff. I worry about water sitting in my 85f-95f pots for more than a few days.
When I put all those ideas and facts into the gumbo, it equals a 3-day cycle for me.

Now you've got me wondering tho... perhaps I'll do a single pot using the 'lift' method and see if it does better than my 3day cycle.

Oh... and perhaps there's a less helpful way for me to answer that query, but none comes to mind. Sorry.




Oh I'm sure it's rootbound. It's just such a small round for the roots to grow out at all. They have a good way to reach down, but are just really restricted in the horizontal growth.
Not sure about air pruning around the sides. I'll have to see next time I pull one. It should be fairly obvious... if the roots hit the sides and then continue at a 90 degree angle, air pruning would seem minimal. If the roots shot out to the sides and just stopped, that would indicate air pruning.

I would have thought with your kind of heat you would have to water every three days not out of choice. If i water today my pots will be dry and light as a feather in 3-5 days usually. That would be me giving a dry period. Now i know your hesitant to speak of this but why would someone want a dry period in hempys i mean its hydro so wouldn't that mean root in water? I guess even after all this time im still unsure how to view hempys, are they indeed hydro akin to dwc or is it closer to peat moss and coco soilless mixes? I constantly run into a problems when trying to research stuff one big example is that I have a hard time finding things that are about pure perlite hempys specifically. So when for example im trying to narrow down whats wrong with sally i might run across some stuff that sounds like my issues only to find out it was the vermiculite screwing stuff up or the coco wasn't washed before use or other crap that means absolutely nothing to me because im not using that stuff. I guess i also have hard time wrapping my mind around what pure perlite hempys are and how to catogorize them and what rules to follow. Its funny i been growing in this stuff a little while now and have had my faith completely shaked and not sure what to believe lol. Sorry for the ramble hope it makes sense its just stuff thats been on my mind.

 

[lexort420]

Is it normal for ya to water with a ph of 5.8 and runoff be a ph of 7? Cause that is what just happened when i was in watering sally

 

[Tead]

I would have thought with your kind of heat...

Yea... you'd think, but nothing dries quickly at our humidity. For example, we had a quick 10 min shower that ended about an hour ago. Hardly got things fully wet, but that water is still hanging around and it's been something north of 85f. I mowed the lawn earlier today, and tho it had not rained in several days, there were still many damp areas.

I constantly run into a problems when trying to research stuff...

I sure feel your pain. When I went pure perlite, I had many folks try to warn me away and stay with the more standard perl/verm or coco mediums. While I appreciated the words, I'd tried the perl/verm variant and I had experienced the problems it produced in my hot ass wet world.

I guess i also have hard time wrapping my mind around what pure perlite hempys are and how to catogorize them and what rules to follow. Its funny i been growing in this stuff a little while now and have had my faith completely shaked and not sure what to believe lol. Sorry for the ramble hope it makes sense its just stuff thats been on my mind.

Problems have a way of making us feel so very unsure.
I hope you can find a handle on it. I know it's frustrating.

 

[Tead]

Is it normal for ya to water with a ph of 5.8 and runoff be a ph of 7? Cause that is what just happened when i was in watering sally

No... that seems just completely wackadoo. Do you have rot growing down there somewhere? Dig around some and try to see. Use your nose as well. Maybe uncover some tape at various levels and try to check it out.

 

[lexort420]

No... that seems just completely wackadoo. Do you have rot growing down there somewhere? Dig around some and try to see. Use your nose as well. Maybe uncover some tape at various levels and try to check it out.

Will check soon. Im a lttle afraid your getting at something bad here ugh plz let everything be alright lol.

 

[lexort420]

Just took off some duct tape from the bottom and the only thing i saw spots here and there of the dark green algae stuff but the roots were white down in the res. I might swap her to a slightly bigger container. Unsure yet though.

 

[lexort420]

Well i did up pot her roots seemed fine aside from the algae. I hope this new pot gives her plenty of room. Btw while transplanting i noticed that when she is in regular lighting her color looks like its coming back so i hope that its just the grow lights throwing me off. Anyway these are some pictures from after the transplant.

 

[Tead]

Sally's a frustrating girl. Perhaps she'll be happier in her new home.

 

[lexort420]

Sally's a frustrating girl. Perhaps she'll be happier in her new home.

She is very frustrating lol. Im hoping the bigger pot will help its still a hempy so thats good lol

 

[lexort420]

Well here's sally she's doing semi better i think plus i threw the two clones into the flowering box the other day.

 

[Canna Montana]

Well here's sally she's doing semi better i think plus i threw the two clones into the flowering box the other day.

I'm going to post a few charts for you so we can see what's off.

This chart I just received from Arteekay this morning. It shows ph for hydro, and PH for soil.

These two will help with figuring out the issue with the yellow leaves.

Looks to me like a n-p-k deficiency. It'll be easier for you to diagnose it in person though.

 

[Canna Montana]

I talked to nis about it and he thinks your heat might be too high, and maybe overwatered. From what we learned about hempy, you need to feed them, never just plain water since there is no soil to hold the nutes. Hemp is a lot like hydro where you only let them have nutes. No water flush needed.

 

[lexort420]

thank you for the charts i have seen them before lol like a thousand times. I wouldn't disagree with you on the npk deficiency idea cause if i was to take my best guess sally seems to be suffering from nitrogen deficiency also it looks like a magnesium deficiency as well. I been ph'ing to 5.5 like tead told me to do so it can drift up through the range. I don't give plain water unless you count distilled with 1tsp of calimagic in it and that would only be given every 3-4 waterings roughly. I don't think its heat problems granted i haven't been able to get a thermometer/rh gauge yet but i do have a fan blowing across her top and also a fan extrating the hot air out the top. I can put my hand at the canopy and it is warm but not uncomfortable. I use the GH flora trio and calimagic just been afraid of burning the crap out of her because i haven't been entirely sure if the ph issue has been solved and its stated everywhere that if you do have a ph problem adding more nutes isn't gonna do anything but compound the issue so i been keeping the nutes light. I will say i am a wee bit confused why you say she could be overwatered since i didn't think you could overwater a pure perlite hempy. Im open to whatever ideas you or anyone else has at this point since i just want my sally doing better.

 

[Weaselcracker]

You could try different feeding/ph levels on your flowering clones Lex, if you're comfortable doing that, and/or get some more clones going in veg to test theories on. Wouldn't hurt to toss a cheap min/max digital thermometer in there too just to rule out any surprises.

 

[lexort420]

You could try different feeding/ph levels on your flowering clones Lex, if you're comfortable doing that, and/or get some more clones going in veg to test theories on. Wouldn't hurt to toss a cheap min/max digital thermometer in there too just to rule out any surprises.

Do you think it would be ok to take more clones with how sally is doing? I was gonna take clones but then her color started draining again and i didn't think it wise to cause her more stress at this point, although now that i think about it it doesn't really matter i guess. I would be more willing to experiment on clones in veg then the ones in flower cause i just need to get something going in there. I will definitely be getting a thermometer im just too strapped for cash at the moment. I think i will take some clones tonight sally still has some lower green growth that could probably root.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah it totally makes more sense for sure to do tests on vegging plants -not least because you're probably wanting to grow bud more than grow science experiments at this point.
Honestly I haven't noticed much stress on my plants from when I chop branches off, at least I think it's pretty minimal. I try (but not very hard) to avoid taking clones from a plant that isn't feeling well because the clones themselves might have a harder time rooting, but in this case you may not have much choice. The times I've taken cuttings from a screwed up plant they grew fine after rooting and looked like regular healthy plants (assuming I corrected the problem that afflicted the mother) And usually it's easier to change course with a fresh plant than it is to turn the older one around.

 

[lexort420]

Well i just kinda said screw it and decided that sally can't get much worse no matter what I put her through so i been giving her what i initially thought was too high of nutes and it turns out they must not be and it must have been the ph being set wrong atleast so far that is what im lead to believe cause she seems to be doing better. I noticed that ever since i gave her nutes her leaves have been raised up kinda like a upper case Y not sure what it means but it seems to be ok. The clones in flowering seem to doing great they have a nice green color exactly how i want sally to look.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hope your girl will be better

 

[Tead]

Wow... Sally looks a lot better. Her new growth looks spot on. Hell... so much good growth, I can hardly see the curled and boated leaves.