Hempy's Perpetual Harvest in 90 Days

[HappyHemphog]

Very awesome thread Hempy!

I'm sure there are a lot of folks out there like me who logically understand the mechanics of a perpetual harvest, but haven't given a lot of thought to the details. Having it laid out like this is very helpful and informative.

Thanks!

Thanks NiteTiger,

That was the exact reason I made the presentation. My buddys knew what I was trying to do but just didn't understand how it all actually worked.

i usualy dont follow to much hydro hempy but ive followed all you thraeds so far you got a way of breakin it down that keeps me readin. your a great addition here.

Thanks SM,

I've been trying to post as much information about what I have learned setting up a really first class system in hopes that I can inspire others to build their own weed machines and wean themselves from the teat of the local shady drug dealer.

Cheers!
Hempy

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Fabulous thread mate....really great way of exlaining the whole perpetual thing to any1 who doesnt get it....and the pics just make it easy peasy.
Be lucky mate

 

[Fire]

wow...love the diagrams

very professional looking :smile:

 

[Guest]

I'm impressed. Better yet, I'm intrigued... hmm... ideas ideas ideas. I've always wanted to do a perpetual setup.

 

[blackfin]

you might have answered this already...but how do you deal with the different nutrient requirements

 

[Guest]

Hell yea, very very nice. This diagram is perfect for someone who is less experienced trying to get a perpetual harvest going early in their career. There are so many things to consider and worry about, it helps a ton for the actual routine to be scheduled.

I just spent about $15 getting this thing printed off real nice and added to my accumulating grow bible.

Absolutely excellent work, and an invaluable contribution to the general knowledge base. Keep up the good work man, and I wish you many bountiful harvests.

PS: Despite all this masterful work, I must admit that I like your avatar the most

spliff

 

[HappyHemphog]

you might have answered this already...but how do you deal with the different nutrient requirements

Every bucket gets the same basic nute regime from the controller. Where I do deviate is the first and last weeks.

When a new plant is put in flower, the WF bottom bucket is drained and cleaned. Once put back in the system I add a gallon of plain RO water to the bucket, then open the valve allowing main nutes to mix in. Then I drop the plant in and it's effectively getting a half strength bloom formula that ramps up as the nutes in the bucket are used up.

For the last week, I cut the valve to the bucket off and start adding only water to the bucket by hand for a flush. I've got a pump on the way I am going to use in my next modification that will allow me to pump dry any bucket by temproarily shutting off valves to all the other buckets. Then I will be able to suck the bucket dry and add plain water to give a really good flush for final week.

Thanks for all the compliments and I am glad everyone is finding this useful. And by all means feel free to post questions!

Cheers!
Hempy

 

[truecannabliss]

Hey there bro i got a problem maybe you could shed some light on, I am doing my first ever DWC and at 8 weeks i began feeding her plain water, after 3 weeks of this i checked the EC and it is 2.6!!!!!!!! I cant figure out why, the plant seems to be flushing, the leaves have been yellowing and coming off at a nice rate and the plant generally looks healthy but still she is full of nutes.........is it possible for the nutes to drain from the plant into the bucket? i am gonna totally empty the DWC and refill with plain ph'd water, do several times for 2 or 3 weeks till EC has dropped and then harvest her, luckily she is a Haze x Kush so will easily go the 14 weeks.
Peace

 

[HappyHemphog]

I don't measure in EC, so I am not familliar with the numbers used.

Plain water will suck nutes out of the roots of a plant but I am not sure of the exact process. Basicly the roots have a higher concentration of nutes so they are absorbed back into the water.

 

[I.M. Boggled]

Awesome Presentation. A classic thread is born.
A very practical and logical arrangement.
A pair of 6oo's on a couple of movers, energy efficient too, gotta love it.

When I started my latest growroom, my partners were of the full-cycle growing mindset. Use all your growspace for veg, then switch to flower and have one big huge harvest.I wanted to go for a perpetual harvest that would produce a smaller amount more frequently. I didn't like the idea of having to try and budget my weed for 3 months cause I know I would run out before next harvest was ready.

This system certainly solves that potential "dry spell" dilemma.

 

[Guest]

Awesome Thread Hempy!

looks like we got a graphic designer here... did you use PS or what?

I run perpetual harvest also dude! I have a eurogrower and 1 waterfarm for flowering and then the megagarden for vegging and I just take clones from my vegging clones perpetual is awesome really I never measure stuff either... I just harvest a plant every 1 or 2 weeks depending on a variety of things


im adding a turbogarden to my flower room soon so I'd be harvesting 2 plants a week with that thing probally

great thread

 

[HappyHemphog]

Awesome Presentation. A classic thread is born.
A very practical and logical arrangement.
A pair of 6oo's on a couple of movers, energy efficient too, gotta love it.

This system certainly solves that potential "dry spell" dilemma.

Sweet! The I.M. Boggled Seal of Approval!

Awesome Thread Hempy!

looks like we got a graphic designer here... did you use PS or what?

Thanks BongSmoke! The presentation was done in MS PowerPoint, exported to GIFs, then edited in Photoshop/ImageReady for web display.

Cheers!
Hempy

 

[HairlessCaveApe]

Hey Happy! Its good to see ya got it down like that! and Its one thing to do it but to be able to do it and show other Folks how to do it is a beautiful thing! :smile: I do a simular thing and I was wonderin how long it took you to come up with your current nute formula? I was also wonderin how high your ppm's are. I run a perpetual aero room and I know the amount of tryin that goes into figurin out how to feed everything out of the same res. It took me better than 2 years to get it the way they like it and I have a simular rotation tek that I do on a 2 week basis. -Puff Hardy Brudda! -Theres more in the drier and more in the jars!

 

[HappyHemphog]

Hey Happy! Its good to see ya got it down like that! and Its one thing to do it but to be able to do it and show other Folks how to do it is a beautiful thing! :smile: I do a simular thing and I was wonderin how long it took you to come up with your current nute formula? I was also wonderin how high your ppm's are. I run a perpetual aero room and I know the amount of tryin that goes into figurin out how to feed everything out of the same res. It took me better than 2 years to get it the way they like it and I have a simular rotation tek that I do on a 2 week basis. -Puff Hardy Brudda! -Theres more in the drier and more in the jars!

I had originally been using the standard 1-2-3 Bloom formula for GH nutes but the more I read, the more I understood why the Lucas formala was better (No Grow, enough N without it and less N in flower is a good thing). So about two months ago I switched. I stopped getting "the claw" on my colas when I did.

I've recently started adding new Liquid KoolBloom from GH (5ml/gal). It's really killer stuff! My buds are no longer wispy and have some serious meat to them. I plan on trying other GH addatives as time and money permit.

When I make a batch of nutes I get 1100ppm. The buckets furthest from the rez will creep up to 1200-1300. If I am seeing any burning, I add a gallon of fresh water to those end buckets before releasing the new nute batch into system. I've found that my Royal Hawaiians like the higher nutes and really do well in the end buckets.

Cheers!
Hempy

 

[HairlessCaveApe]

Sweet! I use the Kool Bloom myself, I got the powder tho. -Blessins!

 

[Verite]

Vewy impwessive.

 

[!!SMOKEGANJA!!]

hempy quick question for ya. Im new to all of this so bear with me Your setup has a controller bucket, so basically a controller bucket just keeps all the individual units topped off then? If Im thinking right about that, then it leads to my next question, since your system is not recerculating it allows you to adjust each individual unit to that specific plants needs by prefilling a given unit with a different nute mix?

If Ive got it right then Im really liking this controller bucket deal. I want to get a perpetual system like you but I didn't know what I was gonna do about having plants at different stages with hydro. Individual buckets would be a bitch to maintain (having to top off each bucket every few days).

 

[HappyHemphog]

hempy quick question for ya. Im new to all of this so bear with me Your setup has a controller bucket, so basically a controller bucket just keeps all the individual units topped off then? If Im thinking right about that, then it leads to my next question, since your system is not recerculating it allows you to adjust each individual unit to that specific plants needs by prefilling a given unit with a different nute mix?

If Ive got it right then Im really liking this controller bucket deal. I want to get a perpetual system like you but I didn't know what I was gonna do about having plants at different stages with hydro. Individual buckets would be a bitch to maintain (having to top off each bucket every few days).

That's exactly what the controller bucket does.

The one drawback, and you touched on it, it's not a recirculating system so all the plants get the same nutes regardless of stage of growth. But I do some hand watering in the first and last week of a plant, watering down the bucket either for an intro into the nute regime for a new plant or to dilute and flush a plant in it's last week.

The key to being able to do this is the valve modification I've done to basic system, adding a valve on each bucket. This allows any given bucket run a special nute regime. If I wanted to test some specific addative, I'd use one bucket isolated from main controller and handle that one bucket by hand.

I guess I got lucky with the Lifesaver and Royal Hawaiian because they both seem to like the same nute regime that I am using. That's the other trick, finding a strain that will work with the system your using.

Cheers!
Hempy

 

[resinryder]

Very informative thread HHH. Thanks for sharing the love bro.

 

[!!SMOKEGANJA!!]

Thanks for the quick reply Hempy

I was just checking out those mods your speaking of, I really like that you put a valve on every unit, great idea that I will be using in the near future. Im glad I found this thread, you just made my life so much easier. It sounds like with a reservior and controller hydro is less work than dirt, and cleaner.