I repurposed some old 5 gallon Hempy buckets into SIPs after seeing a video on self wicking SIPs and seeing a cheap roll of landscaping cloth at a local store. First outdoor grow in containers. End up with a bit over 1 gallon water res and a bit over 3 gallons of soil. My soil is made from decomposed woodchips from the power line trimmers, compost pile (grass and kitchen scraps), bit of leaf mold that was filled with nightcrawlers and perlite.
Sprouted some bagseed from September 2011 I’d labeled “fruity, pungent, resinous,” and vaguely remember the bud having really good results when pressed for rosin. I expect them to be “fems” and I’ll be keeping an eye out for nanners. I’ll be surprised if the seeds (3 of 4 germed) weren’t from hermies and a male or 3 pops out. I popped a couple fem Super Silver Haze from a local I got several years ago and have been putting in the ground every summer for the last several years. The SSH have been very stable in regard to no nanner production over the years.
I Always start around mid may to help manage size. Transferred all the germed seeds into cups around 5-20, left outside under a tree that gave intermittent direct sunlight throughout the day. Gradually moved into direct sun and topped them. Had a few problems with slugs, one chewed the stem of an SSH which stunted it quite a bit. Left them in the cups a bit longer than I probably should have, but finally moved to buckets around 6-20.
For nutes I’m using Osmocote and come flower time, I’ve got some AN Big Bud. In my search for the best hands off method, I’ve ran a plant from start to finish using only Osmocote indoors with pretty good results.
. I’m curious as to why you made SIPS, and didn’t just leave them as Hempys? I have made Organic Hempys with water only soil, but I have grown plenty of tomatoes in perlite only Hempys as well.
Hurrah for the Hempy Buckets!!! Like your adaptation, indeed. Gonna wander on over to that far right corner of your property, sprawl out (if that’s ok) and observe, occasionally taken notes (NO PICTURES!!). Wishing nothing but success, take care, stay safe, and be well…mister
Nice! Not worried about PH swings? That’s why I only did water only soils up top, the ph starts getting out of wack easy when I top watered nutes.
The osmocote should do really well though, I think it’s great for hempys. A little trick I learned was to keep it in pantyhose and stick that down so you can pull it out when you’re ready for flower.
It’s on my mind, but more of an observe and see what happens. I’ve got a bottle of calibration solution coming for my meter so I can get a better idea of where my soil is.
I’m not adding any nutes with the water. My tap water is from a well in the low 7 to dead neutral range. I do expect the pH to drift down as time goes on, I had a standard soil in a bucket grow (top watering, bottom soaking in a tray) a few years back indoors running only Osmocote that the runoff hit 5.7 a month into flower using pH adjusted water down to 6.5 that I started adjusting up the water to get it back.
So, I’m going to hold off adjusting my water as feel the pH of the soil will even itself out with neutral/alkaline leaning water going in and the acidity from the soil/osmocote.
Having said that, I’ve only added water once since I put them in the buckets ~3 weeks ago. Been getting a lot of rain and it’s futzing with the whole wet/dry cycle but so far hasn’t really had any observable negative effect.
Oh, yea. I didn’t consider that, but it is something I’ll keep in mind. The garden store hooked me up with a few cans of dry Big Bud the last time I emptied my pockets setting up my DWC around 10 years ago. I’ve always been pretty sparse with the application of it so I’ve still got about 6 oz of it.
Stuff smells like molasses. On my outoor, in ground grows, I’ve always mixed it (.5g per liter) with water and gave a liter or 2 weekly. But for this I’ve been thinking of top dressing with it dry, not sure how it will work out. If not, I would be top watering with that.
Thanks. I appreciate your engagement, hopefully if my rationalizations for some of this sound destined for doom, I’ll get called out on it.
The fabric dips down a bit between the bottles which I imagine aids in wicking. For now it’s pretty easy to see down the pipe, but as these things are bushing out, it might get a bit harder to look down in there. The tops are open, I used some shredded cardboard to act as mulch and to prevent the rain from packing the soil, so I can top water if they start drying out.
The Hempys were my first foray in growing under lights. I used that tiny perlite from wally world that would go flying everywhere each time I watered and some Dutch Master part A/B liquid. Overall it was a disaster from so many noob mistakes, from not owning a pH or ppm meter to the light timer being me manually plugging in a cord and sometimes forgetting to unplug it to no ventilation to harvesting early. My next run under lights was DWC and a lot less spray and pray.
The stacks of clothespins weren’t heavy enough for uk1, gonna tie on some weights.
It’s hard to pinpoint the smell coming off of them. I want to say there’s a subtle coffee smell, but there’s another more pronounced smell overall, kinda garlic. Anyhow, I’m pretty happy with them. As expected, some leaves are getting chewed on by bugs, gotta make a deal with some of those little aggressive ass jumping spiders.
Relocated the plants. My internet was out for about a week, had to get a new line ran, another benefit of containers outdoors. During that time, I noticed some white spots appearing on the upper leaves and the lower leaves yellowing. I drenched them in sulfur and tested the runoff pH to find it at 5.5. I’m at fault for the low pH and not testing the soil prior to planting. I also had something happen in life that bummed me out pretty bad for about a week and sorta just went on autopilot with day to day life.
The spots on the leaves are residue from the sulfur spray. Tilled in a handful of lime on the top and watered it in. After a week the runoff is at a respectable 6.3 and no new yellowing of leaves.
In other news, I noticed UK1 started flowering around 7-20 with the others showing pistils within a few days of each other. UK1 seems to be a different pheno, after topping, its 2 main branches were thicker than the other UKs and the lower branches didn’t stretch as much. UK3 being the last to show pistils on 7-28. UK3 is the smelliest of them all, get a pretty strong coffee smell within 10 yards of it. I FIMmed the SSH and inadvertently broke the main top with my clothespin weights but it’s trudging along. The stunted SSH from the first post got adopted out to a loving family and just started flowering as well.
On it’s 3rd week of flowering and UK1 looks to be stacking up pretty well compared to the others and has trichomes . UK3, the stinky coffee smelling one, seems to be the most sensitive to the previous pH issues. They all seem to be a bit hungry so I’m going to up the application of Big Bud to weekly and water it in. While I was out checking them, I heard a whirlybird off in the distance the entire time, so I moved them back to their sleeping spot for the time being. It’s getting that time of year.
There’s still a bit of insect damage which is to be expected as I haven’t done anything about it. So far it’s only leafhoppers and the occasional exotic grasshopper (that I’ve only ever seen on weed plants); haven’t ever had any mite problems in the past. I did notice an ally stalking a leafhopper, hopefully it sticks around.
I was worried I had lockout from earlier low pH negligence with my soil returning back to the 5’s. Fortunately the pH is between 6.4 and 6.5, so my best assumption is it’s starving for P, K or Mg.
Today marks the end of the 4th week since I noticed the plant above started flowering. It being the first of the group with the others ranging from 3-10 days behind. I’ve been feeding them all around a .5 gram of AN Big Bud weekly for the last 2 weeks and around .5 gram of dissolved Epsom salt last week. Gonna crank those up, try to get closer to a a gram of Big Bud and another dose of Epsom.
Forecast shows rain for the next 5 days, so that sucks. To shake or not to shake? If I’ve been around my outdoor plants after a rain, I’ve always given them a little shake to get the water off, but I wonder if it’s letting water further in the bud, setting me up for rot. I mixed up some LAB and sprayed them with it today after the rain, maybe it will work as a probiotic.
I hit my Super Silver Haze with some Sour Bubble pollen I got from a gracious member here on 8-14. I was bit fast and loose with the paintbrush application, so there’s likely pollen on everything.
Hidden, you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.
Got my first peak of unclouded sun in 11 days, it’s rained every day for the last 10 days and I’m sure it’ll rain at some point today. So far, not seeing any signs of budrot, but that’s how it gets you ain’t it? Doesn’t show it’s moldy head until it’s been there for a while. Been spraying labs every few days, so maybe I’ll luck out. I’m not seeing any sign of seed development after initial dusting on the 8th and subsequent on the 14th.
Most of my macro shots are blurred, gonna have go full manual mode and cut out all the light and rely solely on the flash for getting shots next go round. Discovered this little fellar hanging out. Dunno wtf it is, pretty sure its not a dog, probably an aphid.
