The Official Hempy Bucket Thread

[marywanna2]

good idea roach...

i've always just rinsed it as i needed to...

your way is easier and it eliminates the step of wasted motions involved in taking an amount out of the original bag and putting it in something else to rinse away the perlite powder... over and over.

buy a new bag. poke a few holes and just hit em and quit em... gitter done way quicker your way.

 

[dubwise]

If you plan on using large quantites of perlite/vermiculite....we took a 55gal. plastic drum, cut a large opening in it lengthwise. Laid the drum on its side and filled it with 3 parts perlite 1 part vermiculite. A few small holes were drilled along the bottom (lengthwise) of the drum for drainage. You can batch mix 50-60lbs. of medium at once and keep some on standby ready to be used. Also, with the large opening, when the plant has been harvested, you can shake out the medium from the roots back into the drum, flush and reuse.

 

[marywanna2]

nice idea dubwise... a SAFE idea....simple, appropriate, functional and economical... thanks for taking the time to share it here.

 

[RoachClip]

Dub has some sound advice and cuts down the time but all in all it's always proper to rince our the perlite as I have found that to be one of my rookie mistakes at first and was my last mistake but we live every day learning something new every day and this site with great peeps makes this a happening place to be if you want to learn and grow properly.

Props Dub

 

[Japanfreakier]

I use a giant pasta strainer, holds about 4 liters at a time.

 

[RoachClip]

Sup JF that's also a great Idea but I buy 50 lb bags and for me putting holes in the bag and using a garden hose with a power sprayer on the end works great and has many uses but for smaller grows with peeps who just need a small amount that would work well

 

[dubwise]

Since we're on this topic....how long do you all wait for the medium to dry after it's been rinsed? Does it matter?

 

[marywanna2]

i don't believe it would matter... prefer to work with it wet anyway...

 

[RoachClip]

When I first started growing I didn't even wash anything and just took a large rubbermaid container and mixed the soil & perlite & vermiculite and filled my plastic cups but what was fucked up was after my plants started to go from the veg room into the flowering area I started seeing these flies and I opened the rubbermaid container and it was Infested with gnats and I had to throw every bit of the soil mix out and it was so heavy I busted my balls trying to be stealthy carrying a lime green container down 14 stairs in a duplex without having anyone notice me dumping it into the dumpster.

 

[Japanfreakier]

Since we're on this topic....how long do you all wait for the medium to dry after it's been rinsed? Does it matter?

I use it right after. I imagine that it lowers what ever your target EC is by a wee bit but you grow by what your plants tell you anyway so it really doesn't matter.

 

[marywanna2]

actually, i never reuse any medium for cannabis... just recycle it for outdoor veggies... i may give it a try now that i know others do it... and the veggies do seem quite happy.

 

[stonethecrow]

ok im a plant killer i think.
ive been reading up on cloning and see youre supposed to use weak lighting now should i treat my seedlings the same as a clone and what wattage do i go by, my cfls are 100 watt equivelant but only 23 or 32 (cant remember and i threw the box away) actual watts.

out of my 6 seeds only 4 popped and 2 of those 4 didnt last long now i have another shriveled dead one and the first to pop and best grower of all is shriveling now too. i started them with one bulb and went to 2 so i think that was my mistake right??

i have more seeds to try so is the lighting my problem or could it have been the 1/4 strength seaweed i added a week after i started??

 

[dubwise]

I don't think that the light is your issue. What are the other factors like? What are the temps and humidity? FWIW-you may want to use bag seeds before spending a bunch of money on seeds, just to get your methods right. Also, I don't think that the seaweed did the damage either, but without pictures, it's hard to tell.
We clone and start seeds under a 250w T5 fixture and only have problems we have are when our temps are too high or too low.

 

[marywanna2]

dubwise: how far do you keep the t5's away from the tops of the clones/seedlings?

stone: a warm and constantly moist, but not waterlogged medium is critical at first when the initial root system is starting... seedlings will shrivel up and die if they don't quickly begin developing roots...

also old seeds will do what you described. seems like their initial, built-in nutrition supply is diminished... i have seeds from as far back as the late 70's to mid 80's.... sometimes i have to try and germinate many 100's of them to find even one that will survive the seedling stage... the ones that do usually are weak plants.... why do i even try? hope springs eternal... want to recover older lost gene pools, if possible.

good advice above re: using cheap seeds until you get the process down.

 

[dubwise]

I keep my t5 about 3' away.

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

Seedlings & seeds hardly need any light. Sounds like you're cooking them with too much light. Like Dubwise said, 3ft (about 1 meter) away is plenty. I used to just place mine on the kitchen counter for the first couple of weeks - no special lighting. Now with the way I grow, I move my light up as high as they will go for the first couple of weeks. After those first couple of weeks, I move my lights down about a foot down every week until the light is about a 8-10 inches above the plants. Plants are now healthy & strong and ready for flowering usually. This method does tend to cause the plants to stretch a bit & I know some people don't like stretch, but I like some stretch as it seems to help with avoiding mold and air seems to be able to circulate around the branches better. Just my preference.

 

[Lack]

ok im a plant killer i think.
ive been reading up on cloning and see youre supposed to use weak lighting now should i treat my seedlings the same as a clone and what wattage do i go by, my cfls are 100 watt equivelant but only 23 or 32 (cant remember and i threw the box away) actual watts.

out of my 6 seeds only 4 popped and 2 of those 4 didnt last long now i have another shriveled dead one and the first to pop and best grower of all is shriveling now too. i started them with one bulb and went to 2 so i think that was my mistake right??

i have more seeds to try so is the lighting my problem or could it have been the 1/4 strength seaweed i added a week after i started??

Seedlings can deal with bright light much better than clones. Clones can deal just fine after rooted, but while they're rootless, yeah they should be out of direct light. I set mine in the shade from a 45w cfl and they are always fine. Seedlings are different, they go under the big lights after they get about two sets of leaves on em. I've put seedlings under a 400w hps really early on and they always do really well and never get lumen burn or have any other problems. If you grow a seedling under dim light you will have a stretchy, viney plant. I doubt light killed your plants.

For your seedling problem, are you sure you have the basics down? Is your ph right? How much nutes are you giving them? A ph of 6 to 6.4 is good for starting beans. Good luck, I have never had an ordered bean that didn't grow, if you need some help feel free to pm me and I'll tell you my method. GL!

 

[NinjaCS]

so, took some clones off my mother and used a modified hempy using 16oz cups. Thought I'd do a minimal side by side with different media and rooting hormone. Not thinking the perlite would be good enough, i mixed

1 cup with just perlite,

1 cup with half perlite, half FFOS.

1 cup with 3/4 perlite 1/4 FFOS

and a couple more in between. We'll see which ones work out best. The reason i used FFOS is because i actually grow in soil and these clones will actually end up back in soil, because wont be converting to the hempy bucket until my next harvest so that i can go grab some hydro nutes, new buckets etc etc.

After 2 days, I'm really surprised to see that all 5 clones so far are still alive. Minimal drooping on any of them.

 

[dubwise]

@ Ninja- glad to hear your experiment is running well.

 

[NinjaCS]

@ Ninja- glad to hear your experiment is running well.

Yeh, if this works, will be the way i clone from now on. Real simple, and takes a lot of the "worry" out. So far, so good. Im also trying some with a dome, and some without. Dome meaning another 16oz cup over the top

ill get some pics up a lil later when i go out to the shed