The Hempy Collective

when dealing with tap water even when ph adjusted it can often rebound back up because of a high buffering capacity. even when ph is kept under control you will still eventually build up salts especially in soil this causes various problems. i sometimes use a small amount of tap to replenish minerals as you said but only at a ratio of 1 to 10. if your using a good complete fert line up its not normally needed. i have done grows with tap only i had much better results overall with the ro or distilled the huge majority of knowledgeable growers would agree. there are some areas where the tap is of low ph and dissolved minerals in which case its fine to use. but in most places its very alkaline and not desirable as an example my tap has 300 to 375 ppm dissolved solids and a ph of almost 8.

bicycle racer said:

the huge majority of knowledgeable growers would agree.

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That is just false. Unless you have numbers to back up such a statement please don't make it.

there are some areas where the tap is of low ph and dissolved minerals in which case its fine to use. but in most places its very alkaline and not desirable as an example my tap has 300 to 375 ppm dissolved solids and a ph of almost 8.

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I would use RO is your area too. My entire aqua shelf is under 100PPM. Perfectly fine. I would say under about 250PPM @ .5 is fine.

doogleef said:

That is just false. Unless you have numbers to back up such a statement please don't make it.



I would use RO is your area too. My entire aqua shelf is under 100PPM. Perfectly fine. I would say under about 250PPM @ .5 is fine.

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what is .5???

Question for any of you.... Have any of you done a full grow in 2 liter bottle little hempy buckets? I know that with hydroponics the root system does not have to be huge and the plant can continue to grow well as long as you keep supplying the roots with as much nutrients as the plant needs. Right now, plants about 3 feet tall with some leaves as big as your hands, still just in 2 liter bottles using 100% perlite, and obviously probably should be transplanted, but at the same time I'm very curious just how large they can get if left in 2 the liters and watered often enough. What do you guys think?

rollanotherbowl said:

Question for any of you.... Have any of you done a full grow in 2 liter bottle little hempy buckets? I know that with hydroponics the root system does not have to be huge and the plant can continue to grow well as long as you keep supplying the roots with as much nutrients as the plant needs. Right now, plants about 3 feet tall with some leaves as big as your hands, still just in 2 liter bottles using 100% perlite, and obviously probably should be transplanted, but at the same time I'm very curious just how large they can get if left in 2 the liters and watered often enough. What do you guys think?

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Heu man, here is a pic of my Himilayan Gold in a 2 litre bottle. She has been in there for awhile, considering the recoop time from topping. I have just now really seen good roots coming into the rez., in the last week or two.

I am also tring to see how big some girls will get in the 16 oz. solo cups. I want to try a sog grow in these plastic cups and see how it works all the way through flower, Pic 2 is where i am at so far.... nothing special yet!LOL!!!

doogleef said:

You, obviously, need to watch PH but other than that any municipal water source is going to be fine for use. In fact, there are a lot of micro nutes in tap water that you must replace if you use RO. If you have hard water they make micro nutes to match. Stating that RO or distilled will give much better results is opinion not fact.

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i never ph... i fill empty milk jugs with a garden hose, leave them uncovered overnight for chlorine evap, and put the nutes in... i dont even accurately measure the nutes...
I have small 16 oz styrofoam cups for buckets...

2 days ago on 1 month flowering date, i had to build stands for the bottom of the cups... the buds on top are so heavy, they were tipping the cups...

i love hempy...

and it loves me...

rollanotherbowl said:

Question for any of you.... Have any of you done a full grow in 2 liter bottle little hempy buckets? I know that with hydroponics the root system does not have to be huge and the plant can continue to grow well as long as you keep supplying the roots with as much nutrients as the plant needs. Right now, plants about 3 feet tall with some leaves as big as your hands, still just in 2 liter bottles using 100% perlite, and obviously probably should be transplanted, but at the same time I'm very curious just how large they can get if left in 2 the liters and watered often enough. What do you guys think?

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see post above

all the guys who write the books and most breeders i know would agree tap is in most places as i said not desirable. if you have 100ppm or less and a low ph consistently great most areas do not in the us. you can make most things work i have grown with tap. i switched to ro and everything is easier to control no ph swing no unknown factors or variations to deal with. not to mention whatever chemical is used to treat tap these chems(chlorine or chloramine) kill beneficial funguses and bacteria normally you can aerate chlorine away but chloramine is more stable and harder to get rid of. put simply you can make tap work but if you use ro everything is easier why make things more difficult if you dont have to.

hey so when watering your supposed to fill the whole bucket???

you water until there is some drainage from the resevoir this keeps things fresh and eliminates nutrient build up.

masterganja said:

hey so when watering your supposed to fill the whole bucket???

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dont just pour untill the water runs, but water slowly until you can see the water at the bottom of the hole. After a few waterings, you'll figure out exactly how much to put in.

shnkrmn said:

LOLOLOLOLOL. You are the wisest person on RIU.

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LOL...i wouldent say that now.
Hey guys what does foliar feeding mean?
sorry

SourDiesel420 said:

LOL...i wouldent say that now.
Hey guys what does foliar feeding mean?
sorry

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It means putting nutrients in a spray bottle and spraying your plant so the leaves take the nutes in. Useful to quickly correct a deficiency or if your plants get pH lockout, you can still feed it while correcting the problem.

thanks lil mafia

lilmafia513 said:

Heu man, here is a pic of my Himilayan Gold in a 2 litre bottle. She has been in there for awhile, considering the recoop time from topping. I have just now really seen good roots coming into the rez., in the last week or two.

I am also tring to see how big some girls will get in the 16 oz. solo cups. I want to try a sog grow in these plastic cups and see how it works all the way through flower, Pic 2 is where i am at so far.... nothing special yet!LOL!!!

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Looking good. They will get muchhhh bigger than that in the 2 liter. As I said, they've reached about 3 ft tall now and fairly bushy. just wondering just how big they could get. no worries about the 2 liters tipping over because they are sitting in something that doesn't allow them to fall over. I'm really curious just how big they'll get. It would be really cool to see them 5-6 ft tall just in 2 liters! lol

koncyse said:

see post above

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Sounds like a good sign. About how tall were the plants? This was in 16 oz cups right?

hey i only have vermiculite no perculite and i dont know when the next time is that ill be able to get some would there be a way to do a hempy bucket without perculite?

hello fellow hempy growers! quick question, i'm using 100% perlite, and from time to time, in random buckets i have green algae (it least i assume it's algae). doesn't seem to be harming the plants as i scoop it out whenever i see it, but i still don't like seeing it! i have some hygrozyme en route...hoping that takes care of it...does anyone else w/ a perlite only mix have this problem? has anyone used hygrozyme for algae in a hempy? i've heard good things about Zone, from dutch masters, it's supposed to keep that type of shit from growing in high-res temps...
also, i just transplanted from 18 oz solos, to 5 gal hempys a week or so ago...in my 18 oz cups, a mere 5 or 6 ozs would cause runoff out the res, now it's upwards of 60 ozs!! i did an initial watering (till runoff, like usual) and 2 days later i could tell from weight that there was still a ton of water in there! i tipped them all to get as much excess water out as i could, and since have been only adding 16 or so ozs (a spray bottle full) to each plant...
will not watering til runoff build up salts to an unacceptable level? i'm assuming that once my plants grow further, they won't have too much a problem getting rid of the water, but until they grow big enough for that, i really don't feel comfortable with water sitting there for days at a time...i was thinking about putting a new drain hole directly below my hole (going from 2" up to maybe 1 1/2") but i don't know if that's a good idea because of when they get bigger...
i'm sure at least one of the hempy growers here have came across this situation, what did you do to fix this problem?

dont go from 18oz cups straight to 5 gal buckets .. step up to a half gal then 2 gal then 5 gal or something like that just my opinion as for the algae i dont think it will hurt anything but for piece of mind put somekinda dark plastic on the tops of yer buckets

masterganja said:

hey i only have vermiculite no perculite and i dont know when the next time is that ill be able to get some would there be a way to do a hempy bucket without perculite?

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anyone know??