Hempy Bucket Nutes?

Hey all! Only my second post here on Rollitup, but I'm an active participant over at the Growery.org, and lilmafia315 told me to swing on by and say hi!

So, I'm taking the advice (peer pressure?) of several and trying my first hempy bucket, but there's only two hempy growers over at the growery, so I thought I ought to bring my question over here for some help

Anywho, I've been growing in soil with great success using Alaska Fish Fertilizer (http://www.planetnatural.com/cgi-bin/planetnatural/alaska-fish-fertilizer) in combination with Earth Juice Microblast, Catalyst and Meta-K. Also doing occasional innoculations with Botanicare Hydroguard and Soil Secrets Earth Ambrosia and Earth Nectar.

So far everything is nice, and I haven't had any issues with lockout or nute-burn which is to be expected with soil I suppose, but I'm getting a little sick of constantly buffering pH (earth juice is a bitch sometimes) and I've seen some ridiculous results with Hempy buckets and I'm definitely ready to make the switch to hydro.

So my question;

Will these nutrients work with Hempy Buckets? I guess all the microbial additives I have are going to be best suited for my veggie garden, but what about the fish fertilizer and the two earth juice bottles? Any good in Hempy buckets or should I go pick up a line of regular hydroponic nutrients? Also, what's everyone's preference on best nutes for Hempy Buckets?

Thanks all! looking forward to hanging out with you here in the future.

use whatever you want for hempy. thats one of the beauties of the hempy method. whatever you prefer or feel is easiest to mix

Really? Even Organic soil fertilizers that require microbial assistance to break them into available nutrients? I didn't know perlite was capable of sustaining active cultures.

Good news, thanks!

Hey Ap welcome. I sure aint no exspurt on the topic but have had several succesful HB grows using mainly info I picked up on here. Can't say for sure what won't work but will be glad to say what will. All I have used is Botanicare Hydro nutes. Started out with Pure Blend Pro Grow and Bloom forumula (separate jugs). Found both versions of the product was fine for growing but was not real pleased with the bloom version for blooming. Seemed like not much difference in the N. on either product. Recently switched over to Botanicare NP 17 which come highly recommended by the dope head at the hydro store. I got the Bloom and Ripe version of the product and have high hopes. The Ripe version only has 1% N and think it will be better suited to making buds instead of leaves and stalks. It designed to be used the last few weeks of the grow. The stuff is fairly cheap and comes in big jugs. The Bloom version has the same percentages on both products..which I think would be fine for growing from the start. In fact somebody on here claimed to know a person who used the Bloom version from start to finish and didnt bother to flush..supposed to have the best dope in town blah blah blah. What do you plan to use for a growing medium? I have had good fortunes using Pearlite but its got hard to find any brand other than Miracle Grow which comes with some kinda nasty plant food which nearly killed my babies. Finally ran enough water through it to flush it out of there and all is well as we speak. My current grow is about half used Pearlite and some stuff called Turface. Its some kind of neutral Ph fired small clay pellets which looks about like red gravel and interacts with water about like Pearlite but its much cheaper. I am going to keep increasing the ratio till I eventually get to 100% Turface. You can buy it at Lesco for around 10 bucks for a 50 lb. bag. I water with stale tap water daily which takes about 2 cap fulls of lemon juice per gallon for a perfect Ph on my water supply. I also try to bubble the water with an airstone prior to using it. For buckets I use gallon sorta milky clear plastic jugs painted white which with my current set up I cant go much bigger on the containers. I can do 5 plants max. Do clones directly into the buckets. Hatch seeds in my Aerogarden if I go from seed and again direct to the buckets from there. Hope this helps. Holler anytime.

Hey man,
I actually have quite a few hydro stores around me, so finding plain perlite isn't a problem believe it or not. I have access to both the black gold brand and foxfarm (HUGE bag).
I liked your info on botanicaire, it was definitely one of the products I was heavily considering

Well never thought of trying to snag the Pearlite at the hydro place..kick kick Sure they be higher than a kite and they are on the far side of big town for me. Fella tried to talk me into buying some little rocks which looked sorta like Hydrotron but he claimed it some kinda new breed of cat. I bought plain Schultz Pearlite at several places last year until I found only one garden center which had it early this year but the old biddy who works there got a little too nosey for my taste buds. Went so far as to call Schultz as to where to buy some somewhere else and was informed they quit producing it. Now that Miracle Grow crap is showing up everywhere. I am rapidly falling in love with the Turface. Havent had a full grow on the latest nutes so can tell you more in a month or two. I just switched yesterday. Now I'm still using the the Pure Blend Pro Grow on the vegging batch and doing the NP 17 Bloom version on them which is about 2 weeks into bloom.

I've been growing some green veggies Hempy style, using nothing but fish emulsion and molasses. It's working great, my basil is growing faster, smellier and tastier then any indoor grow I've done before.

For the nutrients, I put a bubbler in a big jug filled with nothing but water, fish emulsion and molasses. To start it I used a bit of compost tea, for the microbes. I let the bubbler run continuously.

Whenever I use some ferts, I mix some dechlorinated water with some fish emulsion to replace what I took from the nutrient jug, add it to the jug, and let the whole thing sit for a few days before using it again.

Beauty of it is, my tap has a high pH, and my fert solution has a low pH, so I only need to mix about a 50/50 of each and apply it to my Hempy buckets when I fertilize 'em.

Different plants need different feeding schedules, so I had to read 'em carefully first few feedings, but other then that couldn't be easier.

u might wanna check this thread out https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/59705-hempy-collective.html

Wow great tips. I will have to get up enough nerve to try it like that one of these days. Thanks and +rep. Give us some ratios per gallon frequency etc. if you get time. Thanks. Also where do you buy the fish stuff?

vh13 said:

I've been growing some green veggies Hempy style, using nothing but fish emulsion and molasses. It's working great, my basil is growing faster, smellier and tastier then any indoor grow I've done before.

For the nutrients, I put a bubbler in a big jug filled with nothing but water, fish emulsion and molasses. To start it I used a bit of compost tea, for the microbes. I let the bubbler run continuously.

Whenever I use some ferts, I mix some dechlorinated water with some fish emulsion to replace what I took from the nutrient jug, add it to the jug, and let the whole thing sit for a few days before using it again.

Beauty of it is, my tap has a high pH, and my fert solution has a low pH, so I only need to mix about a 50/50 of each and apply it to my Hempy buckets when I fertilize 'em.

Different plants need different feeding schedules, so I had to read 'em carefully first few feedings, but other then that couldn't be easier.

Click to expand...

bigwheel said:

Give us some ratios per gallon frequency etc. if you get time. Thanks. Also where do you buy the fish stuff?

Click to expand...

The fish emulsion is the cheap high nitrogen stuff at Lowes. Cost about $5 for 32 oz. Been using the stuff for years on everything, indoor potted plants, outdoor garden, trees, bushes, etc.

For this grow when the plants were young I think I used about 2 teaspoons of fish emulsion and 1 teaspoon of molasses per gallon of water. I use more now, but I don't measure, just eyeball it. About one full second pour of fish emulsion, about half as much molasses in a cup of water, mix 'n pour it into the jug, top it off with a bit more water, and I'm done.

I like to go by feel, read my plants, make it a relaxed, intuitive type of thing. My cocktail doesn't burn plants nearly as easily as fertilizer salts, like Miracle Grow, so I can get away with this kind of lazy hippieness. Tis why I'm really diggin this Hempy technique, so easy. All I need to do is get the pH right, the rest just seems to work all by itself, like magic.

Just start light, half as much molasses, work your way up until you see some nute burn, then scale it back a tad bit.

I water about every 2-3 days right now. For MJ I'd follow this feeding schedule: water, water, heavy feed, water, water, heavy feed. My green herbs like it this way. If that's not enough food, at most I'd alternate: water, feed, water, feed.

Also, I do a flush just before every third or fourth feeding, to prevent any salt build up. Haven't had any problems.

lucas formula with general hydroponics works really well....

how much do you consider a "heavy feed?" I've been feeding at about 300ppms because she's only about 3 weeks old, but once she's mature, how far do you bump it up? 1000? I've seen bottles recommend up to 1500, but that seems a bit absurd....

rollanotherbowl said:

lucas formula with general hydroponics works really well....

Click to expand...

Go on.....

ApJunkie said:

how much do you consider a "heavy feed?"

Click to expand...

In my lazy-hippie-speak, heavy feed means just shy of enough to cause nute burn. With new plants, I start light with the first feed, work my way up every feed until I see some nute burn, then scale it back a bit.

I bought a TDS meter on ebay recently, still being shipped, so I don't have figures for nuthin, just a feel for what my plants want. When I get the meter, I'll be measuring stuff all the time, making notes on exactly what each plant likes... in case I need a babysitter.

i got two 4' tall trees in 5 gal. buckets whick are 3 to 1 perlite and vermeculite. i use GH nutes and straight tapwater, i nute every other day with about 24 oz. i have never ph.ed or any thing and these bitches are fat, hempy is by far the easiest way to grow. if only there was a way to hook up automated watering.

I see the potential in the Lucas formula but Im not 100% convinced, me being me. Rollanotherbowl, and anyone else have good results?

Teamo said:

I see the potential in the Lucas formula but Im not 100% convinced, me being me. Rollanotherbowl, and anyone else have good results?

Click to expand...

There are 10 years worth of 'good results' on the web... been using it for 10 years myself without any issues. Wouldn't recommend anything else and LOVE it with R/O water. Zero issues!

Stay Safe!

p.s. Drip, DWC, SWC, Peat-mixes, E&F and now.... Hempy! Lucas has served me superbly well throughout.