Hey guys always grew in soil with great success and decided to try Perlite hempies this time. Never done hydro before and i've been chasing one problem after another. As a backup I am running a few in 5 gallon FFOF soil. They are doing great. I have 6 transplanted from solo hempies into 5 gal buckets which are doing OK, looks like calmag def but working on it. They haven't hit the res yet. These two hit the res a couple days ago bc they are in the solos still and bad things started to happen. I can't kill these. They are a little over 3 weeks old. I'm thinking it's over fert so I should flush. Flush with straight RO? 200 ppm calmag? They stretched the last day bc I put them in the corner of the room. Thought it may be too hot under the light and didn't want them to dry up. -1000w MH light 24/7 -air conditioned to constant 75deg, light 42" away. 78deg under canopy -55-60% humidity -no bugs Last feeding: RO, 100ppm calmag, 400ppm floranova grow= 500ppm@.5 conversion, ph around 6 (using liquid, ph pen crapped out) heres bubba 76 over the last few days- and the blue dream haze It's like they hit the res and burned, unless it's a deficiency which flushing would make worse. I don't know what to do. I don't want it to happen to the other 6 that are in the 5 gal buckets already. These are going in the buckets as well. What should I do? I thought the hempies would be easier and less messy than dirt but this is a total pain in the ass. Thanks and sorry for the long thread....
After some more research could this be a Nitrogen deficiency? PPM went down from 500 to 430 in 12 hours. Here are a couple of the other girls in the 5 gallon buckets that haven't hit the res yet. This is what the other two looked like before they hit the res. My back is messed up so I can only transplant a couple of them a day. Upping the nutes from 200 (way too low) to 500 is helping. They were worse. Should I give all of them more nutes? Where should I be as far as PPM mid way through week 3 from sprout starting off with RO water at .5 conversion. I have read dozens of threads, articles and there doesn't seem to be a definite answer. I always wanted move from dirt to hydro because of the cleanliness, yields, and control and chose hempy as a first step. I'm regretting it.
I have been running hempy's and doing really well with it,,, But then I had a couple of hydro grows under my belt, so that really helped with some things that soil grows just wont teach you. First of all, they look like they might have had a rough start, but the new Growth seems to look pretty good. Your just about right on the PPM's (i use .5 also), but may be a little high for plants that small. The roots system had not, or has just hit the res, so until they have a root system to support the higher Nute solution, its a good idea to keep them a little on the low side. That being said, they can require you to up those nutes pretty damn fast. This one caught me a couple of times, and I had to really pump up the volume in order to get them to green up for me, then back down to a reasonable level. Also, keep the CalMag going.. Your probably going to need it, so just keep using it with your Floranova, but you don't always have to use it at full dose. How often are you watering them? My 100% Perlites get watered every day under HID Lighting. The CFL's can go every other to every 2 days before getting watered. I also let my PH Swing from 5.8 to 6.1 every time I water. Pretty simple system.. All you need to do is make sure you feed them the right amount of nutes, and the PH is in the right range. Then it all comes down to how often you feed and environment. So far I have yet to accidentally over water, and if I even see a sign of over fert, I simply FLUSH, get back to square one, and then start my feeding again. Since I water pretty much every morning, its easy to make changes. If I want tomorrows feed to be a little lighter, then I simply mix it that way and feed. Then tomorrow, I can mix again, but change the PH a little, and so on. Good Luck with them,, I am sure you will get the hang of it!!
Thanks for the input! This has been literally almost keeping me up at night! They did have a rough start. I had the bright idea of starting them in MG seedling mix because I just got lazy and the trace nutes listed on the bag seemed like they wouldn't affect them as the doses were so minute. I was wrong. They were in bad shape for about a week so they got transplanted into the solo hempies now into the 5 gallon buckets. If you use RO what do bring the initial ec up to with the cal-mag? I've read 100, 200 and everywhere in between. My well water is 7.8 and 109 ppm and i'm beginning to think I may be good just using that and some ph down if I need it. What do you think about that? With the soil the sweetener always took care of the ph and I never had to worry. These ph pens are a severe pain in the ass, expensive, and I don't trust them now. The problem with the liquid kit is i'm color blind. Go figure. What do you use for a pen? Do you feed every watering or just do a light cal-mag feed every few times? Sorry for all the questions there is more to this than I thought there would be and I did A LOT of reading about hempies. They do dry up quick as well! I was upping the ec fairly rapidly for a few days and it looks like I still have a calcium or magnesium def on most of them. Thanks again for the help. I wouldn't have asked if I hadn't done a lot of research and gotten so much conflicting information.
I use 3 Gallon Hempy's as the 5 Gallons are just too big in my opinion, especially for an indoor grow. It will also take longer for roots to hit the res in the bigger buckets. If you have a room that can support the size of a well grown Hempy Bucket plant in a 5 Gallon, then go for it, but my 4x4 tent just cant support Huge Plants,, So I settle for BIG instead. I am also running 2 Liter Hempy's and just growing a bunch of BIG Tops. I use RO Water and when I use CalMag, I find that a Full dose of 5ml per Gallon will give you about 200ppms right off the bat. When I use the CalMag is when I am running the Lucas Formula. Right now I am running the Mix off the GH Flora Series 3 Part bottle, but in lower proportions so I don't fry them up. You definitely need a good PH and PPM pen if you are going to do any Hydro type grow, but I believe this to be true no matter what type. I have the Hanna Multi Pen, but its a big Pain in the Ass, and takes quite a bit of getting used to, so I sure would not recommend it. None the less, you simply have to know your PH and your PPM's or your just shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. Those color test kits are useless after adding nutes to the water, cause they change the color of the water, so dont even bother with them. I also feed every time I water,, I would rather they get their nutrients from the water then themselves, and dont really flush unless I see an issue that would warrant it. I am sure you know that Old deficiency issues on the leaves will not clear up.. Keep an Eye on the new growth and check the old to make sure the deficiency has stopped. If it has not, then you need to first make sure the PH of the water you are giving them is correct, and if that is accurate, then you need to look to your feed and make sure your giving them plenty of what they need. Since I am using the 3 part, it pretty much has everything I need, and If I see a Deficiency, I simply up the PPM's with either more of the 3 part, or some CalMag, and this seems to give them what they were after. Oh and after I add nutes to my RO Water, my PH ends up very LOW, so I have to use PH Up to bring me into the correct range,, and I am not talking about just a couple of drops, I am talking about 1 to 1.5ml worth. I will say, that my Hempy Grows have been the most problem Free. It really all comes down to your nutrients and water. I no longer have to worry about water temps, no pumps and their noise to deal with, I am not constantly checking res PH and PPM's, no Algae Issues,, Its all been pretty care free once you get the hang of it. I also like the fact that they are not locked down like my previous RDWC grows, so I can move them around and really get a good close look at my plants. Let me know if you have any other questions. I threw up a couple of pics of my current grow in 3 gallons.. Another week or two until harvest.
Feed them more. I'm doing a first time hempy grow as well. I was feeding with 400 ppm and they were deficient. They're about 2 weeks old now, and happily taking over 1000 ppm's. (the ones grown from seed) I have clones that I started right away with a higher ppm. I also have a .5 conversion meter. Your first post looks a bit over nuted, but the second post they're deficient for sure. I also ph anywhere from 5.5 to 6.0. Well I gotta throw up some pics too: looking sorry Now blackberry grown from seed that i decided to flower. You can see the bottom leaves and they were deficient. New growth is fine. These are fed anywhere from 900-1200 ppm every other day. You gotta work your way up though, don't raise too much at a time.
Shoot forgot to add, If you're not feeding full strength nutrients in hydro, you need to supplement macro nutrients. Use epsom salt, cal mag, etc..
Yea, i got tip burn when i hit 900ppm, so backed them off, and have been rolling with that ever since,so its really going to come down to strain and conditions like lighting. My plants under cfl wont take the nutes that the plants under 400watt do.
Thank you so much guys for your input and knowledge in the hempy world. I have been very busy. Half and half family and project time tonight. The two solos are transplanted. I think that needed to be done. Much more info and pics to come tomorrow but I have run out of time for today. Updates coming asap! Can't thank you both enough or your experience and suggestions though! I will definitely keep you posted! Should probably start a grow journal. Very discouraging to see the 3 soil ladies doing so well (4 times the size and growing) and the hempies struggling but i'm confident I can figure it out with some help from. It's just a lot of work for me physically. I have limiting factors that prevent me from doing too much in a day and I don't want to take the pain pills the doctors are prescribing when this helps so much better with no addictive side affects. Updates coming tomorrow!