The Hempy Collective

bicycle racer said:

next time im going to use those baskets to hold up the plants the one problem i have is plants leaning over under bud weight.

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You mean like this one?


Bud weight's a bitch man. I feel ya. Cages wouldn't work for me. I've got cramped quarters.

yeah thats exactly what i mean. currently i use bamboo stakes but thats tricky in hempy. having buds to heavy is not the worst problem better than little popcorn crap but still it would suck to come home to broken stems and dead plants. ill figure out a solution for next time hempy is the best though regardless imo.

I use Barricade as pH up when I water; it's potassium silicate which is supposed to promote strong branches. I haven't had any break yet. Fingers crossed, lol.

right i use diotamecious earth which is silicate as well. insects are killed by it but non toxic to mammals. it simply is fossilized algae mainly sillicate based cheap to.

bicycle racer said:

right i use diotamecious earth which is silicate as well. insects are killed by it but non toxic to mammals. it simply is fossilized algae mainly sillicate based cheap to.

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That's not something you put IN your plants is it? I thought it was for sprinkling around for pest control. It kind of wrecks their exoskeletons, I think. How does it make a plant strong?

as it works it way into soil or our hempy mix depending on ph and other factors it breaks down releasing silicate which is used by the plants similar to baricade or other products. though in the end proper support is the best solution imo. particularly outdoors where there is wind rain heat etc...

Tell me about outdoors. I just composted a cherry tomato plant I grew in hempy. I had a cage round it but whenever the res got light, the lightest breeze would throw it over. And what a nute whore! Sheesh. I'll never do that again! Sure you can grow tomatoes with weed nutes; just 5 times as much of everything, all the time, or the plants yellow up.

i m still dialing in outdoors but cannabis outdoors at least in cali suck up nutes like nothing i have seen the lumens are incomparable to any indoor grow. put it this way i have 9 plants and i go through 8 gallons of hand watering a day. nutes every day to every other day max strength. crazy growth my strains are all medical ogs urkels etc..

This is my buddies Satori in a 5 gallon bucket hempy-outdoors

I use 50 gallons a week indoors. But that's for 30-odd plants.

It's real work any way you grow. Nobody tells you that.

bicycle racer said:

i m still dialing in outdoors but cannabis outdoors at least in cali suck up nutes like nothing i have seen the lumens are incomparable to any indoor grow. put it this way i have 9 plants and i go through 8 gallons of hand watering a day. nutes every day to every other day max strength. crazy growth my strains are all medical ogs urkels etc..

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I wanna talk about hempy bucket root structure.


The grow I just finished was in two liter hempy's with 75 % perlite / 25 % vermiculite.

After harvest I took a good look at the roots and found that some tap roots went down into the reservoir, but the majority of the roots had propagated throughout the bottle of substrate mix. The root zone was not root bound and it had a very clean healthy root smell. This whole area above the reservoir stayed nicely damp and nutrient rich.


But I tested one hempy two liter with 100 % perlite. It did not have the same root structure as my other hempy's.

Its roots grew in a mat / mass of roots just above the reservoir line. It also had tap roots going into the reservoir but the roots were not growing in the perlite above.

Due to the 100 % perlite substrate mix the area above the mat of roots would dry out too much and thus it was not a good environment for roots to grow in.

This test hempy did not grow as well or yield as much as the 75% perlite 25% verm mix hempy's did.


The volume of root zone was much greater with the vermiculite mix as opposed to the perlite only mix.

This large root zone is much more desirable for my grow. So I will be using the 75 % perlite 25 % vermiculite mix from now on.


I have not grown in large buckets for hempy so it could be different...

But this side by side comparison of hempy mixes showed clear disadvantages to using 100 % perlite only.



So I have to ask, those of you who are using 100 % perlite do you see the same root structure that I saw in my perlite only hempy ?

A mat or mass of roots just above the water line. Or do your roots fill up the entire bucket like my 75% perlite 25 % verm mix buckets did ?

I grow in all perlite, 5 gallon buckets. My roots conform to the outside of the bucket and form a thick healthy mat that fills the entire 'reservoir'. Most of the center of the bucket is sparsely occupied by root matter if at all. I've never added vermiculite, although I have some; too lazy, lol. Next run I'll try it out. It IS the original hempy formula, after all.

its much better with verm added with perlite i have roots 1/2 inch from the top of my container all the way to the bottom i doubt i could do as well outdoor with heat etc with only perlite it simply holds too little moisture.

Yea about a half inch down you can feel the damp substrate mix and you can see roots just under the dry layer of mix.

Unlike the 100 % perlite hempy test I did. I could put my finger down in the pot and it would feel dryer. I didn't notice any roots near the top except the ones going directly down.

Also the dry perlite looses some stability and the plant wants to lean over alot more.

Xare said:

Also the dry perlite looses some stability and the plant wants to lean over alot more.

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Ain't that the truth. I haven't had one tip over or break on its own yet though. I'm definitely going to add vermiculite on my next run. I'm glad this topic came up. This thread still has its uses.

yeah ive been outta verm so i chucked a lil bit of peat in with the pearlite hoping to add a lil moisture buffer

First time grower here, hempy-style. A couple basic questions...I've read the first ~100 pages but not the last 75 or so, so forgive me if these have been answered:

1. I get bottled spring water sent to my home from zephyrhills. Will the ph of this "spring water" (no mention of it being r/o) be within the desired 6.5ish range? Until I get my ph tester it's either that or shitty well water.

2. From what I've read, most people are recommending GH "lucas" formula, starting diluted then working your way to full. Is this correct?

Thanks guys!

bucketgirl,

I use Lucas Formula with "Hardwater" Micro in conjunction with my hard well water.

And liquid drops are good enough for me to test PH.

I need the same amount of PH down every time for making nutes. Once dialed in I dont need to look at the PH.

My Well water is very alkaline and hard but the GH Hardwater Micro works good with my water.

The PH of my water starts off at like 8+ and I add PH down acid till 6.0 or so

You said your using Spring water, so you can get away without using a ph meter. But if you get sick of buying water think about the Hardwater Micro and Well water if you have a Well.


Yea I start my newly transplanted clones on a 1/2 strength 5-10 lucas formula and go up from there.

Xare said:

bucketgirl,

I use Lucas Formula with "Hardwater" Micro in conjunction with my hard well water.

And liquid drops are good enough for me to test PH.

I need the same amount of PH down every time for making nutes. Once dialed in I dont need to look at the PH.

My Well water is very alkaline and hard but the GH Hardwater Micro works good with my water.

The PH of my water starts off at like 8+ and I add PH down acid till 6.0 or so

You said your using Spring water, so you can get away without using a ph meter. But if you get sick of buying water think about the Hardwater Micro and Well water if you have a Well.


Yea I start my newly transplanted clones on a 1/2 strength 5-10 lucas formula and go up from there.

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Cool, I never knew using my well water would be even close to viable due to the variables and minerals and shit. I'll check out that GH hardwater stuff. Thanks!

yup the gh lucas based formula is an awesome one...the hard water micro is a must for people not wanting to get r/o.....latly i've been testing out a mix of half coco half perlite for my hempy mix an it's working the best of all the medium combo's i;ve tried so far in the bucket...peace az