yeah i love the ice cube tray cloner! i have been using it myself. 100 percent successful when i use clonex.
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yeah i love the ice cube tray cloner! i have been using it myself. 100 percent successful when i use clonex.
how do you know your plants need water in straight perlite? the reason i ask, is because I have never used straight perlite. at least vermiculite can hold a little water. perlite doesn't really hold as much water. so i am afraid that when they need water they wont show it until they NEED water.
verm is a lot like soil, it will slowly dry up. if you know what i mean.
I can usually tell when my plants need water because the leaves will show it.
this is the only thing really keeping me from using perlite alone. im afraid there will be no warning signs.
I would think in straight perlite, you would want to water often to make sure that doesn't happen. but i have no experience with it.
I just see hempy's as hydro and the plants can sit in the water all they want. I have the opposite effect of you. When I water often (once every 2 days), my plants grow faster.
I think the roots dont use the medium as much in straight perlite because it doesn't wick as well as a perlite/verm mix.
Maybe I should always use the perlite/verm mix, it sounds like a better idea to me.
Dubwise- I had gotten them to sprout in shotglass and got tap roots. Just put them in the cups last night so I can't really did the seeds out to do anyting at this point. I have done the same in coco w/ no issues. I will mix some perlite in ASAP but can't iuntil they bet above ground. I am gonna run 12 dwc and 12 hempy buckets 
bobman
Member
You have plenty of time with just perlite. For example I have a few plants that are 14-18 inches tall right now in 32 oz containers. They are rootbound as hell. I checked them this morning and they are light as a feather and slightly wilting. I will water them tonight sometime but i am in no hurry. Perlite is like soil in that regard if your roots are small to your container than you can go a long while(week or more) but as the roots grow into the container it gets shorter and shorter between needing water. Once they get to needing water every 2 days I pot up to the next size and start over. The only reason I do not use vermiculite is because i want to reuse my medium and I do not think it is a good idea to reuse vermiculite. If your worried about using just perlite because of the watering don't be. You will be amazed how long perlite will retain water.
i have never used vermiculite with hempies. The only thing I am curious about is how well the moisture remains near the surface when using vermiculite. It does not affect my plants but the perlite near the top of my hempies dries out quickly. I am always curious if that affect the topmost roots at all. The plants do not seem to mind and I have great results so I do not know, but it bugs me for some reason.
Like I said before i have had some that did not like to stay wet. Especially when I first transplanted. I am dealing with one right now. What I noticed was that the roots on those plants get lazy and do not go to the bottom of the container. It does not seem to affect the plant but something must not be right if every plant's roots fill in the bottom and one plants roots just hang about 2-3 inches above the bottom. Never compared yields with those plants but I would bet they yielded less. Now when I see that happening I let it get dry and let those root expand until I notice it drinking faster. Who knows what is going on just a solution that helped me.
I was wondering once the cutting are ready to be transplanted in 3 or 5 gallon buckets I was throwing around a mix of straight perlite & some Hydroton as the hydroton is moisture retentive and the roots can def draw off them as well.
Any comments on the 2 as a mix 80% Perlite/20% Hydroton..
Any comments on the 2 as a mix 80% Perlite/20% Hydroton..
rc-I use that kind of mix for my tomatoes and so far they love it. I wanted something that would hold the weight of a taller plant better. So far my tomatoes are around 3'tall and seem to be doing fine. (I'll post pics this weekend) I bet it's going to stink when it comes to cleaning out the medium...going to have to build some kind of screen to seperate the roots from the hydroton & perlite. Let me also add that I feed at the same schedule as my other plants in hempies and using this medium ratio has worked so far.
gracias DW 
I used 5 gallon buckets (70/30 perlite/verm) until my op was down due to redoing our house but I was thinking when it's time to get going again try strickly organic in 3 gallon bags but I'm addicted to hempie so I want to try something different and thought the hydrotons would be perfect.
I used 5 gallon buckets (70/30 perlite/verm) until my op was down due to redoing our house but I was thinking when it's time to get going again try strickly organic in 3 gallon bags but I'm addicted to hempie so I want to try something different and thought the hydrotons would be perfect.
I hear ya on the organic front. I too wanted to get going with an organic grow, but I suppose I smoke too much or am impatient when it comes to things like this. These hempy buckets are fast and allow room for error. I'm not suggesting go the way of half assed, but I had so much trouble working with more "advanced" techniques. I had reel it in, and when I stumbled upon this technique, I was so happy. I would like to smoke a little organic bud and see what all the hub ub is about, so maybe I'll throw one girl into the mix and see how she comes out.
The only minor downside to the use of hydroton that I can see right now is the plants tend to need watering a bit more....around every one & half days as appose to two or three days.
The only minor downside to the use of hydroton that I can see right now is the plants tend to need watering a bit more....around every one & half days as appose to two or three days.
I worry about the medium drying out at the top too with straight perlite.
Also i never transplant. I stick my clones directly into a 11l pot. My roots always look just fine at the end of the grow. My plants have never gotten root bound in a 11 liter pot. I veg for about a month sometimes but lately i have been vegging for only 2 weeks because of the strain i am growing.
also you are supposed to water everyday until the roots hit the rez. even if you transplant, i would assume you should water everyday until you know those roots are in the rez. just a little water everyday should do the trick.
Maybe you damaged the roots somehow when you transplanted?
I have grown about 5 different strains now and none of them had problems with watering often. they seem to love it more than anything.
bobman
Member
Who knows every plant is a little different. I let mine dry out so I get a feel for who is drinking alot and who is not. On my last run I feed half every 2 days and the other I waited a little longer like 4 days. There was really no difference that I could tell. Right now I am vegging a few plant in perlite in regular plastic nursery pots. I feed them all at the same time and there is no differnce between the hempies and regular pots in terms of growth. The nursery pots are just a lot messier when you water them.
I can't wait to get set up in my new place & try out the blumats i got for xmas on the hempy buckets ..... should make all this watering confusion come to an end for me .if i watch them closely to see when the blumat feeds ... i should get a better idea how often to hand water as the plant needs it through all stages of growth .
I popped my beans in Rapid Rooter cubes. They looking flimsy now now in another week or two should be ready. I plan on using 100% perlite, actually I wana do 4 hempy pots two with OC+ and two all perlite and use GH or AN nutes. It is my first grow and i wana be sure to get some buds so hempy seems like a way for me. I am going to do bubble buckets as well, but on topic I have 3.5gal pots with holes already drilled for hempy.
headseed
Active member
If you do a side by side comparison be sure to post a grow log/diary/whatever in the Side by Side Grow Experiments subforum, its new and needs inertia to get going!
Yea I am thinking of hempy and DWC. Doing DWC to learn and hempy so i can get some buds!
I popped my beans in RR. They took about a week for true leaves to come from surface and shed seed casing. I soaked my RR in Ph water and superthrive and Oregonism for 3 hrs and placed seed in rooter under some CFLs. Next time I want to soak seeds prior to placing in RR. I also want to place seed in solo hempy and see how good things go from there.
Bonavendura
Member
I was using rockwool and rapid rooters in my dwc rdwc grows ,
cloning is excellent in a pure perlite hempy party cup.
Soon i will begin a side by side of a dwc bucket versus A hempy one.
but after almost a month in those Hempy's i have some conclusions already
cause i was growing mostly in dwc and rdwc in the past.
Growth rates ,
and even growth structure of the plants in dwc
is better versus Hempy's.Somewhat like the plants in dwc develop
with more tight internodes and bigger stems,leafs.
a plus for the Hempy's is that the stems is not so crispy and you
can train them with ease.
Healt of the plants.
It is my first run for Hempy's and maybe i need
some more to master the techinique but i find dwc running my plants
at health around 95%-100% and those hempy's at 75%-80% using the same
recipe of GH products.I am feeding my buckets with EC 2,0 and ph 5,3-5,5
every 3 days.
Work to maintaining the grow.
dwc needs you there mostly to monitor
everything around and maybe adjust the solutions ph but when it comes
to changing the solution in the system it is a HARD work + you need A LOT
of water (changing is mostly every 15 days or you can top off and change
the water 3 to 0 times in the life of a plant).
Hempy's need some work when mixing your media and every 3 days you have
some hmmm serious but not so hard work to do.Every three days i am mixing
almost 40 liters of water and manual water almost 25 plants
Thinks that can go wrong.
Here Hempy's rule the only way that anything can go wrong is by
the only way that I SCREW MY GROW failure of a timer.Anything else
is almost bullet proof.
Dwc can give you a real headacke ,
airpums can and will fail (your plants will die soon)
water pumps (rdwc) can fail
airstones can even fail and need to checked regulary and replaced
water temps must be monitored and keep in a specific range
........ and a lot more.....but timers never fail in DWC
Production and potency
I need some more months to talk about that and make my final judgment
of Hempy's.They look very promising they run problem free is a must
for a start up grow , by far the easiest method and thats why i am and
i will stay here
cloning is excellent in a pure perlite hempy party cup.
Soon i will begin a side by side of a dwc bucket versus A hempy one.
but after almost a month in those Hempy's i have some conclusions already
cause i was growing mostly in dwc and rdwc in the past.
Growth rates ,
and even growth structure of the plants in dwc
is better versus Hempy's.Somewhat like the plants in dwc develop
with more tight internodes and bigger stems,leafs.
a plus for the Hempy's is that the stems is not so crispy and you
can train them with ease.
Healt of the plants.
It is my first run for Hempy's and maybe i need
some more to master the techinique but i find dwc running my plants
at health around 95%-100% and those hempy's at 75%-80% using the same
recipe of GH products.I am feeding my buckets with EC 2,0 and ph 5,3-5,5
every 3 days.
Work to maintaining the grow.
dwc needs you there mostly to monitor
everything around and maybe adjust the solutions ph but when it comes
to changing the solution in the system it is a HARD work + you need A LOT
of water (changing is mostly every 15 days or you can top off and change
the water 3 to 0 times in the life of a plant).
Hempy's need some work when mixing your media and every 3 days you have
some hmmm serious but not so hard work to do.Every three days i am mixing
almost 40 liters of water and manual water almost 25 plants
Thinks that can go wrong.
Here Hempy's rule the only way that anything can go wrong is by
the only way that I SCREW MY GROW failure of a timer.Anything else
is almost bullet proof.
Dwc can give you a real headacke ,
airpums can and will fail (your plants will die soon)
water pumps (rdwc) can fail
airstones can even fail and need to checked regulary and replaced
water temps must be monitored and keep in a specific range
........ and a lot more.....but timers never fail in DWC
Production and potency
I need some more months to talk about that and make my final judgment
of Hempy's.They look very promising they run problem free is a must
for a start up grow , by far the easiest method and thats why i am and
i will stay here
Laughing Jim
Active member
them party cups...
them party cups...
I have an experiment going with those party cups.
The holes are made about an inch up from the bottom, so that there is indeed a small rez there for the roots. It seems to be working just fine.
them party cups...
I have an experiment going with those party cups.
The holes are made about an inch up from the bottom, so that there is indeed a small rez there for the roots. It seems to be working just fine.
dub ... i've been using the walmart cloner with fine vermiculite & its been working great & the 3" plugs that come out are perfect for putting into mini or full size hempys .they are 3 " long & as wide as your index finger ... i just fill my containers with my per/verm mix ... moisten & poke my finger down the center & drop in the rooted plug & thats it . within a few days the roots hit the rez & take off like the space shuttle LOL .
good luck dude .
