Coco Growers Unite!

BeaverHuntr said:

I'm growing coco for the first time. I planned on going Ebb & Flow on a 3' x 3' tray with 5 gallon air pots and coco chips ( not coir) looks like my coco isnt wicking up to the top of the air pots so I will have to install a drip system this weekend. I used chips and not coir becuase I wanted to flood it 5 times a day like you would hydroton and with coir you cant do that because it retains so much water. I'm using House and Garden nutes. I recommend washing the shit out of your coco like you do hydroton, they have lots of salts in them from the the factory. I also precharge mine with liquid Karna and Cal/Mag so I dont get any deficiencies or have to add it in my res.

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Hey beaver, if you use canna coco theres no need rinse or precharge its all done for you mate

BeaverHuntr said:

Dude you have some fat colas!!! lol no joke those things look as thick as a leg...Any coco tips?

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no big tips or secrets mate......i grow 12-12 from seed......biggest pot is 10 litres...hesi nutes and hammer pk......little seaweed now and again.........little superthrive now and again...............cheap coco bales from a garden store.............feed at least every other day and often more.....ph 5.7 ish - 6.5 ish...........purpose built cab 1.2m x 1m x 1.4m hi,.............1 x 600 dual spec......1 x 400 dual spec.........diamond mylar on walls, 1 x 4 inch and 1 x 5inch rucks pulling out.........

I had coco in conjunction with hydroton, using 5.5in netted baskets over a sprinkler system. The bottom half was hydroton and the top coco (as to keep the coco's particulate matter out of the pump), i used rock wool to germinate and i found that the roots took better to the coco rather than from rock wool straight to hydroton. The stuff works great, had no algae build up as you some times see with larger rockwool cubes or hydroton. I also find that for the first week or so (before the roots fall through) the coco works as a good ph and e.c buffer. It is also absorbent enough to wick water from the hydroton beneath to supply newly germed seedlings.

but it's just as messy.....

Heh. You have pretty much the EXACT same stuff I do, even down the Lowes 5 gallon buckets. I used Botinacare Coco Bales. I'm really struggling. All my plants in CoCo are dying an ugly death. Make sure you drill a lot of holes on the BOTTOM and SIDE. The other thing i've learned is to water as slow as possible. 80% of what I pour in, runs out and is just wasted nutes and water, I think this makes the margin of error with CoCo very small. My plants in soil are kicking ass, my plants in Coco are drying rapidly. If use the Botincare coco bales rinse them, then rinse them again, then risnse them again, then rinse.... Trying to break the back of the salt and PH in coco is hard as phuck. Hardest medium i've ever used.

behshm said:

Hey what's up coco growers
I have a few questions
This is my first time to grow in coco I have a couple of the large coocgro bales do I need to mix something with it or can I go straight coco? I will be using 5 gallon lowes buckets and was just going to hand water how oftyen should I water I will start veg under T5s and then a 1k mh I am flowering under 2 1k watt raptor hoods strain is ww and I'm using AN sensi grow and bloom with holland secret carbo blast bud boom bud start ton o bud etc and the gravity and snowstorm for enhancers. I am only growing 10 plants so I figured I could do 5 plants under each hood. I have grown in soil and dwc anda diy drip system. Any info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

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Anyone use bushmaster while in coco? Just bought a bottle of Bushmaster and overlooked the part that read should not be used with pure coconut coir grow systems. Doh! Trying to limit plant height. Anyone use the bushmaster as a foliar spray while in coco? Would love any insight you can give! How bout Dr.Nodes, anyone use this in coco? Can it be used in coco?

These are blackberry kush and orange kush at 7 weeks. first time coco grow. using full canna line. liking it so far !!

a buddy of mine is using bushmaster on his OG kush. works fine. ill ask him what exactly hes doing and try to get ya some better info. although he does mix coco with perlite.

hey trif, i would deff not water every day for such a young plant. espec the size of the pot one solid watering of that pot anbd there will be enough moisture in there to last at least 3-4days depending on how hot your grow room gets. so i would not reccomend watering every day for such a young plant. as it grows and develops it will require more water for sure but not now. as for nutes i would suggest mixing your nutes in a cup and feeding becasue you have no idea of exactly how much your giving them if your not following the guide lines from the directions. you are better of mixing up maybe 5ltrs of nute solution at 1/4 strength max and feeding them a cup out of that to begin with. once you develop nut problems early on its a bitch to fix them later. start of small that way you can never over feed and that means you can always give a little more when your girls want it. make sure you check your ph very often and i always give about 10-15minutes between checking my ph after i have put ph down in it for the water to stabalise. also if you can get your humidity up to around 50% from what i read and trialed the plants in such young stage thrive in 50-55%.....how far away is your light from the plants?? it should be around 40cm a 600w for a tiny plant like that could be very stressful

i wouldnt suggest mixing in a cup*******

johnbs8 said:

a buddy of mine is using bushmaster on his OG kush. works fine. ill ask him what exactly hes doing and try to get ya some better info. although he does mix coco with perlite.

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Hey thanks for the feedback, I'd appreciate any more info you could get from your buddy. I would love to try some Bushmaster but it says on the bottle not to be used with pure coconut coir systems. I've read and heard this stuff is the shizz! Right now I am adding some Nitrozyme into my mix. I fed them 7.2 ml of nitrozyme to 1gl of RO water. Anyone use Nitrozyme? Would love to hear any feedback ya got!

if you can put more coco on the top so just the leaves are sticking out of the top to give it more stability. if thats not an option then get a small stake or even a match stick and put 3 around it like a triangle and string it together so the sticks and string hold them stem in place, that way you give the plant a cahnce to take root without the added stress of trying to hold its self up. that should solve your problem.

hey buddy i think im right in saying first of that your ph coming out higher is a lock out of some sort. i wouldnt bother with epsom salts right now as the plant is very very young. what you can do if flush your medium 2-3times the size of your pot with phed water. i normally aim for ph to be around 5.8-6 that is a very stable ph. you can leave your nutes mixed for a week if you like but you will have to check your ph each day when you feed cos it will rise daily. but make sure you keep it in a dark place becasue the light will activate molds and fungus and eat your nute solution. the temp and humidity are perfect. also move your light to 16-18inch from the plant. also you dont need to be feeding every day the plant will not have a sufficent enough root system to utalise what your feeding and you will cause nute problems later on for your plant. you will deff be able to fill the closet if you get the basics right.

also when you feed make sure you wet the whole medium not just the area around the plant, that way you wont have to feed for at least 3-4 days to begin with. and i would keep the ec rather low to begin with. 1/4 strength nutes max is plenty enough. at least wait until your plants stem can support its self and your leafs start developing more to bump up your feeding and i would keep it between 50-75ec increase each time you up the does (becasue the best thing you can do is underfeed all you do to fix is feed a little more) overfeeding is a killer. my last grow which was my first i was similar to your eagerness in the begining but you have to member that the first 2weeks of life is allllllllllllll about roots. rooots roooots rooooots. get them right and your plants will go spastic when they are ready to grow.

Do you think his PH swing is from heavy salt build up in the medium. I always rinse my coco like I rinse hydroton. Coco from the manufacturer tends to have plenty of salts still in them.

yeah beav your deff on track for sure i think..this early it wouldnt make any sense that it would be anything but a salt build up. but its hard to tell 100% using a water test for ph. there are to man variables that will bounce the ph up and down its never going to accurate. depends how much your plants are eating too becasue if your run of contains a high volume of nutes then im fairly sure your ph will be higher. you must get a ph meter and an ec meter. there is a brand called ezitools and they are only 35$ each. but like i said earlier you must water your whole medium otherwise your going to get pockets through it soaking up more or less depending on where you have watered....if you flush you could also run a very very mild nute solution with it but i would opt for just pure phed water since your plant is so young. as for stretch it completly depends on the exact % of indica to sativa ratio. and you can top your plant when it has about 4-5 nodes which will normally make your plant about 20cm tall by time you do this. you can veg for as long as you want...if its a dom indica then you can expect 2x stretch in flowering, but it all depends how your other conditions are. for awesome results everything has to be on target, air exchange, light distance, temp+humidty, feeding strength. like i said if you can get the basics right you will be on your way

Just wanted to announce that coco coir is the ULTIMATE media. Though you guys probably already know. I'll go head to head with any media vs coir any day!

http://www.getbluelab.com/shop/Bluelab+Combo+Meter%99.html
If you are planning on growing for awhile I would invest in the Blue Lab meter, its $150 i think, but I've been using it for two years and never had a problem with it. I use it throughout the day; it's durable and only maintenance needed is the recalibration once every month or so. comes with a 5 year warranty as well

TrifelinJ said:

Yeeeaahhhhh maybe after a harvest or two lol thats kinda pricey and im already like 600 deep in this cab
and i was only planning on spending like 3 so that will have to wait but good look

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LOL Man do i feel the same way I got a ebb and flow ... cant wait to get a harvest in ... I definetly want that blue lab its so sweet lookin to .
I wish they just made a cheap meter with ph/tds ... but this is the game we play and this game gets expensive .

hey man i dont think you should add anything extra to your flush. you should be waiting about 2-3 weeks befor you keep adding more things to your plant. as for the flush i wouldnt flush yet either. if you have flushed within the last week or so then there is no need. the best thing you can do for your plant is keep things simple and to make sure its all routine. feed at same times keep temps the same all the little things are huge in the first few weeks. and keep a fan blowing directly on your plant so each time the fan rotates the plant gets pushed in the breeze, your stem will fatten up HUGE. im going to post some pics soon of my girls, they have gone bonkers in 1 and half weeks of flowering