Lucky 13 Hawaiian Puff LED Hempy

Back after a little eight year hiatus. I've wanted to do hempy since last year. I bought the chunky perlite, and put it aside for a quasi docbudhighbrix grow ... which was cursed. Some of my first times smoking in the mid '90s was pounding down food and really enjoying music with my headphones on. Hawaiian puff sounds like it'll recapture that feeling.

My 4x4 closet seems to want four to six plants. I got two sample packs and I started soaking the six seeds tonight. I'm taking a tip from Kevin Jodrey and soaking some wheat overnight, and will add a little of the enzyme water to the seeds. I could make fertilizer, but I got stuck with a bag of megacrop so I'll use that. I made a 480W COB LED fixture last year. Bridgelux 3000K. I'm still figuring out how high to hang the light. Hoping the Hawaiian will like 13 hr days.

I've been reading world of hempy and some ideas have been brewing. #4 perlite wicks water about 3.5" from the res, and holds 25-40% water (which is a lot more air than grodan). This will push generative growth.

Based on a 2.5 gal bucket (10" diameter) a 2" tall res is 2.5L. I'm going to use Rubbermaid Roughneck 11L totes (15.8" x 10.3" x 7"). The water level only needs to be 1" high. This also doubles the surface area for gas exchange (although buckets don't seem to have an issue). The perlite will be about 4.5" high total, so that water will wick all the way to the surface. I won't have to root in the seedlings. I'll pot them into solo cup filled to the top line (mini hempy).

Picked up the shot glass in Amsterdam in 2007. Seems natural to use it here.

All six seeds popped after 48 hours. I may just put them straight into their totes.

The totes are 9" x 13" on the inside. I added 2.5L of water to get the height of the 1/4" holes and drilled all six totes. It worked out to 1.14" from the outside of the tote to the bottom of the hole.

I've put just over 8 qt of perlite inside, which is 5" deep and well below the lid. Unsure how much water each will take, and how high water will actually wick up.

I'll be using tap water to make solution and just letting it sit overnight to stabilise pH. I'm picking up a new pH probe for my 8 year old bluelab combo metre.

Each tote takes a little under 3.5L solution to fill to the hole. Water wicks to the top. The seedlings are in amd will take a while to drink it up and spread their roots.

LED are 36" above the perlite. I dimmed them to 199W and temp is holding at 82F. Temp will drop once the plants start transpiring. I'll turn up the lights until they tell me to stop. RH is just under 65%. They made it through their first 13hr day.

Day 20. It's been a very slow start. No doubt 13 hr days didn't help. Dropped the light to 24". Even at the lowest power setting the plants didn't want to grow. Raised the light to 30" and they shot up overnight. Power has crept up to 267W. Fertigation is at 3.5g/gal of tap water, pH'd to 5.8. They hit their rapid growth stage at day 18. The leaves are green with a slight hint of yellow. Giving 4g/gal tonight.

There's some algae. The top of the perlite is moist. Going to top it off with perlite and put the covers on.

Pics are May 1 and May 5.

day 26 of veg with 13hr days. robust rapid growth stage. possibly bluing. responds well to topping. 4.5g/gal megacrop in a hempy bucket. Lush, fat, medium green leaves. Still not sure when to "flip" to 12/12. Dr Sprout says they double after flip, but that's probably from 18/6. Hawaii is at 13 hr days right now, and peak at 13.5 hr June 21st. I don't think they'll stretch that much from 13/11, so I'll let them get about 16". I don't know if they'll automatically flower in 13/11 once they reach a certain age. I think I'll flip after 2 months regardless.

One point I've read about 13/11 is that they get about 8% more DLI without increasing the intensity (and bleaching tops). 12/12 is not such a big change, so feeding and lighting don't change much either...more consistent environment, and easier to dial in. the LED is up to 360W and 30" above the canopy - I might raise it a bit now that they're growing taller.

I love perlite hempy "bucket" with megacrop. the only downside is all the runoff. g/gal is an awesome way to gage feed strength. I'm not using an EC metre at all (I'm going of how the plants look). Just pH water before adding MC. It holds pretty steady - maybe goes up a couple of points after adding food, then I adjust down to 5.8 again. Using tap water instead of RO is so much more convenient. No chance to forget the RO machine on and flooding the room

The lids actually have an injection nub on the underside, which makes it super easy to drill a pilot and use a hole saw (I used 1.75") to make a hole right in the centre. The tubs fit one more litre of perlite, and comes right up to the lid. Algae seems to be under control now.

They indicated sex at week 6. Still at 13 hrs light. Killed two males. The first was pretty skunky. The second was straight grapefruit. I considered using him for seed.

Still at 4.5g/gal. It's a little hard to see leaf colour under 3000K light. Should probably go to 5g soon to encourage flowering. I'll drop to 12.5 hrs after a month to simulate September in Hawaii.

Three of them smell skunky/chem. One smells like berries. I'll prune the weaker growth and take cuttings.

Still love hempys. Super easy. Wonderful growth. Fwiw I bought rope yoyos. Love them. The wire yoyos wouldn't hold the light or retract properly.

They're up to 5.5 g/gal of megacrop. They're turning forest green and shining up. The light is at 420W. They're drinking 2L per day now. #4 is short. #1 is berryish. The other two are very similar shape and skunkish smell. I killed a grapefruit male which Prof Sprout said is super duper rare :/

The roots practically filled the 11L at just 5 weeks. They just started to show sex at week 6. They could probably use a bigger pot.

I lollipopped them at what seems like week 2 of bloom, even though they're on 13 hours light. The leaves have very wide fingers. Not sativa at all.

They seem to want 6 g/gal. Nice, shiny, olive leaves. I put them on 12 hrs and they're shooting up now. #4 is still 15" tall and the other three are 35" tall. Starting to flower heavy...like week 2 or 3 of flower. They're drinking around 2.5L per day.

The light is at max - 480W. Temp is around 70F, partly because they're respiring heavier, partly because we turned the A/C on last week. I'll have to block the HVAC and get a large dehuey. Hawaiian is apparently succeptible to bud rot.

They're pretty much on cruise control now. I might automate watering - it's getting hard to water the rear plants with all the growth.

Week 3 of 12/12. Already seems like forever. Another 6-7 weeks to go.

#1 is 55" tall, full of bud sites. Showing trichs. Looks like a keeper.
#4 is 31"
#2 is budding well. Fruity/floral. Fav smell of the bunch. 46" tall
#6 is 51", lanky, and sparse

Just under three months of growing I wanted to walk away. I let the EC drift to 2.6+ and the leaves got a little toasty. I started taking care of them two weeks later when they started smelling and showing trichs.

Now they're at day 68 and just showed a few amber trichs. They're getting 2g/gal megacrop.

I'm realising that they should have been in 4 gal pails or six of the totes and kept them shorter.

They doubled in height when I flipped to 12/12 even though they were at 13 hrs. I didn't expect them to stretch as much as they did. A couple ended up at 4 feet tall. I can see how many full colas they can support and I'll adjust pruning next run.

#6 is purple and 36".
#2 is green and good calyx/leaf
#4 is too leafy
I like #1. All calyx. Good frost

We'll wait to see how they smoke for my keeper.

Looking good! Can’t wait to see the end result!

Thanks! The end is near