Coco Coir Hempy 1k Trial

[Vishus]

Welcome fellow growers to my experience.

Let me introduce myself... My father was a grower in the house I grew up in for many years without my knowledge. I fell in love with Cannabis at thirteen and never looked back. I started trying to grow on my own in my late teens, but my mom kept killing all my starts she would find strewn about our property [I thought I hid them well...].

One day she gave in and told me to stop planting random beans around the house and get serious. I was informed that if I was to continue pursuing my desires, I would have to do so in the safety of our hidden room in the basement. What?! They came to me and presented a copy of Ed Rosenthal's Grower Bible and an old 1k MH that the bulb screwed directly into the ballast. Good times...

Anyways, many years later I am doing it all over again. Always been an avid soil user but have been looking into dabbling into a hydro system and mindset for a year or so now. I found the Hempy system to be the most appealing and reasonable for my needs. The no cost to run the system is nice, nice too.

So, I have a closet approx. 5 x 5 x 8 for Flower and a 4 x 4 x 7 tent for Veg. Rental property but I had to cut a hole in the closet ceiling to exhaust into the crawlspace above.

Equipment:
Flower
x1 Lumatek digital 1k ballast
x1 Blazer 6" reflector
x1 6" inline 340cfm
x1 6" booster 200cfm
x1 6" cannon carbon filter
Veg
x1 Switchable 400w ballast
x1 20" x 6" cool tube
Random whatevers

Alright, so I had a few clones in dirt in Solo cups. I chose the heartiest two at the time, being a Pineapple Chunk [Pineapple pheno] and a Deadhead OG [Lemon-Fuel pheno] and rinsed their roots gently and thoroughly, freeing virtually all soil debris free.

I prepared two 4gal kitty litter buckets with a 2" layer of Hydroton at the bottom, followed by a mixture of 4 parts Coco Coir to 1 part Perlite. Both clones were inserted in the medium and fed General Organics WK1. Hempys to come will be fed Canna, but these two will only be fed the GO line and Bloomtastic at some point.

Deadhead OG

Pineapple Chunk

[Sorry for the picture quality.]

Ok... So I actually need to catch you guys up but I gotta run.

 

[Warped1]

Looks good Vishus, welcome to ICMag

 

[ChaChaChiba]

Wow that's a nice grow; good idea to use those kitty litter buckets.

 

[Vishus]

Thanks guys. My apologies I never got to follow up. I was doing this grow in Atlanta, GA while on intensive probation and it was really scary to say the least. I did finish this trial with approx. 5ozs from the Pineapple Chunk and 6ozs on the Deadhead OG. I still run hempys and I no longer live in Atlanta and am now in a legal state.

 

[Vishus]

Wow that's a nice grow; good idea to use those kitty litter buckets.

I try to source as much free, non-detrimental grow supplies as I can. Usually, it is just buckets. I get food safe buckets from the bakery department of grocery stores and and the like. I use to hit up freecycle for people's old kitty litter buckets as I love them for their shape and pushing them tightly together as to not waste space or light when the plants are young.

 

[Vishus]

I feel like I cheated those of you who were interested in this grow for whatever reason. Though I can not go back and show you the progress I made with these ladies, I can attempt to show you my success with hempys if it isn't taboo to pick this thread back up.

So I live in Denver, CO now. I kind of ran away from Atlanta. Life was getting out of control there and even though I was doing pretty well for myself financially, I wasn't able to do well in any other area...

Right now I'm in a condo I leased but my landlord in a douchebag and this place is less than adequate as it is falling apart and he refuses to fix it, let alone correspond with me properly. I know, I could take him to court, but I am more concerned with moving into a better situation. Looking for a house with a basement somewhere nice where the cops aren't on that bullshit. The metros outside of Denver remind me of some of the rural areas of Georgia when it comes to cops and the law's mentality...

Enough back story. I have beans I am waiting on moving to drop, but I was gifted some things here and there and I am currently checking out Alien OG [Tahoe OG x Alien Kush]. I have three different phenos I have yet to flower, but we are going to take a look at one in particular. She looks promising, although I've been disappointed by Cali Connection gear before. I should mention I started from seed, however the girl we will be looking at is a clone. She's been in this bucket for 3 days now. Fimmed upon entry and given only water and a little Bolthouse Farms 100% Carrot and Daily Roots.

 

[Vishus]

4 gallon hempy bucket consisting of:
2" layer of Sunleaves Rocks [res]
5 parts Botanicare Coco-Coir
3 parts Perlite
1 parts Earthworm castings
1 parts Organic Bountea Living Alaska Humisoil
1 parts farm manure compost
Amended with Mexican bat guano, greensand, Kelp meal, bone meal, Lamb blood, pulverized Crab shell, Mycorrhizae and Azomite.

Watered thrice thus far, twice with plain water and once with the addition of the Bolthouse farms juices above. In about a weeks time, I should be hitting her with her first weak dose of ACT.

She has playmates: Female seeds C99 and G13 White Lavender [Attitude freebies] sitting together under a 400w MH. Under a seperate 400w MH are the donor Alien OGs and a reveg AK-47. They're making the living room in my condo look a tad crazy in addition to all the boxes prepped to move...

 

[Zen Medz]

Vishus, I'm glad to hear you're out of the deep south and in a legal state. I'm sitting here scratching my head looking at the last two pictures of your plant with what looks like a potpourri salad?? Using uncomposted leaves could be asking for trouble, diseases, mold etc. is a risk. I attempted to do organic hempy's years ago and didn't see any benefits compared to smart pots. The bottom rez can get swampy with low oxygen levels. Hempy's will do better with chemical based nutes with a very small amount of organics. I use Floralicious Plus which has seaweed, protein powder, humics, aminos etc. with good results. Good luck with your search for a new casa and the garden.

 

[Vishus]

Vishus, I'm glad to hear you're out of the deep south and in a legal state. I'm sitting here scratching my head looking at the last two pictures of your plant with what looks like a potpourri salad?? Using uncomposted leaves could be asking for trouble, diseases, mold etc. is a risk. I attempted to do organic hempy's years ago and didn't see any benefits compared to smart pots. The bottom rez can get swampy with low oxygen levels. Hempy's will do better with chemical based nutes with a very small amount of organics. I use Floralicious Plus which has seaweed, protein powder, humics, aminos etc. with good results. Good luck with your search for a new casa and the garden.

Lol thanks Zen. Dried Rose petals, leaves, stems and yellow and green fans collected from growing/flowering girls. 24 hours of light and the lift method for the first couple of weeks in a bucket. I've been doing this for over a year now and no ill effects. I understand your concern though. Guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

As far as organic hempys, I've never had a swamy rez afaik. When I dump a bucket into my bin, the roots are pretty clean. I have GO and Canna bottles but I don't use them for my trees anymore. Usually mix a couple things to expand my coco, but that's about it. This too, I guess I will have to prove in pictures.

 

[marrdogg]

I am also interested in your organic approach to hemp buckets. I would assume your plants consume the water in the rez before it can stagnate. Have you ever run an airstone in your rez? If so did it effect your ph? But I will assume it works similar to earth buckets.

 

[Vishus]

I am also interested in your organic approach to hemp buckets. I would assume your plants consume the water in the rez before it can stagnate. Have you ever run an airstone in your rez? If so did it effect your ph? But I will assume it works similar to earth buckets.

Yes, they do. I water lightly in the beginning and gradually increase after they take off. I tend to end with large bushes/trees [average height in my flowering space currently is 4'] so I have to water multiple times a day by mid-flower.

I have never run an airstone in a hempy and apologize that I can't satisfy your curiosity any further to that end.

 

[Vishus]

Ok, it's been a couple of weeks or so and I'm still in this condo on a month-to-month basis while I'm searching for the new spot. The price of housing comparable to back home is stupid since the influx of new residents, so I hear. I maybe should have moved here a few years ago when my cousin was trying to get me to. Oh well...

Been busy with life, but I have updates.

 

[Vishus]

These pics were taken a week or so ago. The "potpourri" is still there, but a layer of charcoal and lava rock are on top of it now.

Vanity shots:

 

[Vishus]

She's quite a bit larger now and I have her cage back on as I've been super-cropping and LST her with twist ties to the cage spline. Will take some new pictures in the coming days.

She is on a 2-1 cycle of water and tea. [Water twice and ACT once]. Her current tea consists of:
2.5gal water
2tbs Alfalfa meal
2tbs Peruvian seabird guano
2tbs Maxicrop liquid seaweed
2tbs EWC
2.5tsp blackstrap molasses
1tbs Bolthouse farms 100% carrot juice

 

[Vishus]

I have flower!

These buds were grown using this method. Female Seeds C99, which doubled in stature while undertaking the bloom phase. To each gallon of water, I gave her a cap-full [1-1.5tsp] of pure Aloe Vera juice, Blood Orange juice, Mango juice [sometimes] and Carrot juice all throughout flower. Her bouquet is that of fresh-squeezed citrus and even having been in jars for over a week now, it really hasn't gotten any sweeter than she was being cut from the stalk.

Treasure:

 

[Vishus]

Update coming. Still in the condo in Denver... Really hard to find a nice rental property meeting all the requirements of the wife in Denver. Might have to look into the metro. Anyone have any thoughts on Colorado Springs? Ugh...

 

[Vishus]

So I bought a tent... 5'x5' Apollo off of Amazon. Ran $130 iirc and it seems decent enough thus far. A few pinhole light leaks in some of the zipper seams but nowhere else that I can tell.
Currently have a 400w MH in a Luminaire hood over a couple phenos of Alien OG, C99 [x1], White Lavender [x1] and a baby Berry Delight seedling.

This is the original Alien OG from earlier in the thread. She has had a few cuts taken from her and has been supper-cropped and profiled extensively. Taking it like a champ!

The Berry Delight is in the beer cup. C99 is in the bucket behind her.

Another Alien OG.

Closer look. Being tied with thin copper wire.

Group shot.

 

[Mikell]

I found these posts helpful.



Hopefully you find a new situation soon!

 

[Vishus]

Thanks Mikell.