The Official Hempy Bucket Thread

[NinjaCS]

ok.. day 6 of my experiment.

Soooo, took clones off my mother (clones are extra small as mother plant wasnt quite ready for more clones). I did it this way as kind of a stress test on this type of cloning, as the smaller clones, IMO, are a little harder to keep alive and happy.

Now i've heard that some do this without using domes. well, after looking at them after a day, i decided to throw "domes" on them, as they looked fairly dry. after doing so, they look much better and seem to be alive still, however the dome will probably be coming off tomorrow, which they will be a week old.

Here they are today. Honestly, the only one that is "struggling" is the one with more soil then perlite. (40/60)

 

[dubwise]

@ninja- you may or may not know this....once they root, you're going to have to harden them off before as they come out of the domes. A little more time each day because with the dome the girls will become dependent on the humidity. I'm trying to clone in perlite/vermiculite bare stem this time, rather then using rapid rooter. Just to save a little time and money....The rapid rooters gave me a near 100% rooting success. When I used the dome, it was very tough on the perpetual schedule to ween the plants, but once we began to harden the plants off, they did much better.
@ Japan- that is an awesome idea! I'd like to give that a go, seems totally worthwhile. Thanks!

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

@ninja- you may or may not know this....once they root, you're going to have to harden them off before as they come out of the domes. A little more time each day because with the dome the girls will become dependent on the humidity.

Or just poke a couple of holes in the sides & top - it'll help disperse some of the humidity, especially if there's a small fan near by circulating the air.

 

[NinjaCS]

Or just poke a couple of holes in the sides & top - it'll help disperse some of the humidity, especially if there's a small fan near by circulating the air.

Yeh, this is what i normally do. just poke some holes in the dome. already started this today. We'll see how they look in a day or two.

 

[bobman]

This is my first attempt to start seedlings in straight perlite for hempy. Should I ph adjust my water down to 6.2 for these first couple of weeks? For my first feeding what would you guys recommend strength wise.

thanks

 

[RoachClip]

If your starting from seedlings I wouldn't feed them anything for the first 2 weeks just RO water and then once their perky and at their 3rd week of growth start feeding but at 1/4 strength. * Also their are many other experienced HB growers here who can also help give their opinions as we each have our own methods and none of us would steer you the wrong way.

NinjaCS > I would like to see how your experiment comes out.

 

[dubwise]

bob-what is the quality of water you're using? Roach is dead on, don't feed 'em anything right now. They'll tell you when they're ready to eat. Then start small and build up. I just started 14 seeds in perlite/vermiculite a few days ago and this morning all but one had sprouted. Straight water, no adjustment needed. Good luck!

 

[bobman]

thanks man. I have an ro unit. so i will just use the water from that and not ph it. I usually clone in straight vermiculite so I was surprised that i could not find anything on doing seedling in perlite. just planted them last night with the tap root down. I will just add a liitle water daily. Is that to much in my hempies I usually go 3-6 days depending on root size to container? I do not want to over water even though I heard you can not overwater I am shocked how well perlite retains water.

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

bobman, just so I'm clear as I've been medicating....
you have some seedlings in straight perlite. They aren't clones but actual seedlings?
Did you just place the seeds in the perlite and now they have sprouted?
Or are they in some sort of plug (i.e. rapid rooter type, etc...)?

If just the seed, now seedling in straight perlite - it's possible you might need to add just a wee bit of water every few days or maybe once a week.

If you like the ph @ 6.2, it should be fine There are so many arguments/discussions on this that I don't want to start here - the beauty of the Hempy method is it's simplicity. If you're using RO already, I personally wouldn't even bother ph up-ing/down-ing - just added steps. If your ph is consistently way off, then maybe it's worth it. I check my water several times a year, usually around the change of seasons or after days in a row of rain or a big snow storm (also if there's some construction nearby too). My ph fluctuates from day to day slightly, but I feel it's helps the plants uptake different nutrients better with the fluctuations (broader spectrum one could say).

If it's a seedling in a plug, I doubt you would need to water the first week or two. Really depends on your relative humidity. I know where I live, things dry out very quickly but the relative humidity is around 15-20% typically (I can hang a soaking wet towel and within hours, it's fairly dry!).

Daily watering is probably overkill but then again for all I know you might be using a dropper to water - in which case it'll probably be fine.

Long story short - you're probably fine. Maybe not water every day but watch your perlite.

 

[bobman]

yeah straight perlite. germed until the tap root showed then put them in perlite last night. thought i would give it a try. dumb of me but I just do not want to deal with soil anymore. since the seedling tap root is so close to the top of the perlite I am a little afraid of it getting dry. I guess I will do a dropper of water on it once a day. I do not think it will hurt it. probably give it less than an ounce a day. I do not know why I do these things sometimes I cant help but try something new. I just want to get past these first few days and then I think it will be easy

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

yeah straight perlite. germed until the tap root showed then put them in perlite last night. thought i would give it a try. dumb of me but I just do not want to deal with soil anymore. since the seedling tap root is so close to the top of the perlite I am a little afraid of it getting dry. I guess I will do a dropper of water on it once a day. I do not think it will hurt it. probably give it less than an ounce a day.

Should be fine. Soil can be a pain. Perlite is fairly easy. If the seedling tap root is very close to the top, just watch it. Doesn't sound like this is your first go around so I think you'll recognize if it's getting dry. Perlite does hold some water but it is pretty hard to overwater, but it can happen.

I do not know why I do these things sometimes I cant help but try something new.

It's good too. You always learn more that way. Sometimes you learn a better technique, sometimes it just reinforces that what you were doing before was correct.

I just want to get past these first few days and then I think it will be easy

Don't stress yourself. Sounds like you're doing fine.

 

[dubwise]

I suppose you can kind of overwater....if your perlite starts getting a little algae on the top, it's too much. But as Ty has stated, just a little bit of water every couple of days does the trick. If you do get the algae, I ease off of my frequency of watering and add a little bit of perlite around my plant. fwiw-we direct sew our seeds into the planter and only use rr for cuttings. I've tried multiple times to plant the clones directly into the medium, but I've had poor results.

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

I've tried multiple times to plant the clones directly into the medium, but I've had poor results.

Same results here. Very poor. Though when I used Schultz TakeRoot powder, it did improve the results. Went from 20-30% survival rate to about 60% but still not good enough for me. So I use Schultz & RR plugs - 100%.

 

[dubwise]

I've not used the Shultz. I use to use Olivia's and had about 80% rooted clones, then switched to liquid karma and I'm real close to 100%

 

[RoachClip]

I had an Idea but never tried it myself but has anyone ever used a rockwool cube and then drop that in perlite or 70/30 perlite/verm with the cube sitting right dab in the middle covered and see how it goes? Just an Idea.

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

I had an Idea but never tried it myself but has anyone ever used a rockwool cube and then drop that in perlite or 70/30 perlite/verm with the cube sitting right dab in the middle covered and see how it goes? Just an Idea.

Has been tried. Some people love rockwool, others hate. I'm in the latter. Messes with the ph too much. Can be very easy to overwater. Plus the crap doesn't breakdown very well when it ends up in the landfill after harvest. Just my 2 cents but it's not even worth half of that.

 

[RoachClip]

na everyone's opinion counts and yours are welcome here any time we all learn from each other and always remember rome wasn't built in a day

It's like throwing darts at a pub you keep throwing them and one might land in a friends arse or in the neck but after a while you will hit the bullseye

 

[Ty_Kaycha]

please feel free to give the rockwool a try as you might have better results or might like it better. different methods work better for different people. what works for some might not work for others and vice versa.
just take note of the cons I mentioned before, especially the easy to overwater part.

Of course if you are gifted some plants that are already in rockwool, then it's easier just to go with it then to try to get the plants out of the cubes. Gotta work with what you got. If you already have a bunch of cubes around from other projects, then I too would probably go for it just to use them up. But would not go out of my way to purchase cubes just to test this out. Not worth it. <-again 2 cents worth

 

[RoachClip]

I'm going to be switching over to this within the next year after my grow room is built and redesigned with light movers and freshly painted and shed the tent.

http://cch2o.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=31&products_id=96

 

[Japanfreakier]

I know some growers who clone in mini hempy buckets and get 100% success, I can't do it but they can so it can be done, I suck at it, like 40~50%.