Coco Growers Unite!

jela10

jela10

Well-Known Member
I use bagged Canna coco...and it comes in a large plastic bag with holes in it...it's lightly moist feeling and has never dried out completely in a 2-3 month storage between grows.. I would take a black plastic trash bag....fill it with coco and punch some holes with an ice pick around the top, middle section and lower 1/4 section. No coco will fall out and it will "breathe" so nothing fungus-wise or bacteria-wise starts growing. Opaque plastic is probably a must....if not black...for sure.
 
Grazzmon

Grazzmon

Well-Known Member
Switched from Hydroton to Coco and never looking back :D Running ebb&flow 1 gallon smartpots in a 250 CMH cab and I can't believe how much better the grow is. I was flooding 3x a day in hydroton, I cut back to 2x for a week and I'm goijng to try once a day few a week to see if it works out.

Grazz
 
B

BlazedMonkey

Well-Known Member
WattSaver said:
So I'm a long time perlite hempy grower, and I'm gonna give coco a try in my buckets. I got myself a brick of Roots Organic coco. So my question is.... is it best to hydrate the whole brick at once??? Or can I just break off what I need and hydrate that??.

I don't mind doing the whole thing at once but I wonder about storage for later, because I won't use it all at once.
So question # 2 is what is the best way to store surplus hydrated coco for future needs???
Click to expand...

Well obviously compressed dry coco would be really easy to store and wet soggy mushy coco wouldnt lol. Use a knife or man strength to break off a chunk as needed. imho.

Usually once you get the hang of it you wouldnt have alot extra. I usually just put it in a pot to save (nothing wrong with expanded coco drying out in a pot/trash bag for future use).
 
jonezin

jonezin

Active Member
You guys that are using H&G, do you go by the feed chart/calculator? 5.5/5.5A&B to start then 6.5 then 7.5 etc? I've been using Canna for 3 years and LOVE IT. I recently ran out though and can get H&G locally so I decided to try it out. A couple of my plants don't like the 7.5/7.5 A&B in week 3 of flowering. It's too much. I've read some people saying they go by the chart, then I've read some saying 5.5/5.5 A&B for the whole grow. I'm not interested in the additives because I'm still using Rhizo, Cannazym and Boost with the H&G A&B.

I'm just curious what strength you use.
 
Saltrock

Saltrock

Active Member
jonezin said:
You guys that are using H&G, do you go by the feed chart/calculator? 5.5/5.5A&B to start then 6.5 then 7.5 etc? I've been using Canna for 3 years and LOVE IT. I recently ran out though and can get H&G locally so I decided to try it out. A couple of my plants don't like the 7.5/7.5 A&B in week 3 of flowering. It's too much. I've read some people saying they go by the chart, then I've read some saying 5.5/5.5 A&B for the whole grow. I'm not interested in the additives because I'm still using Rhizo, Cannazym and Boost with the H&G A&B.

I'm just curious what strength you use.
Click to expand...
I don't think you should be using other brands of additives with H&G base nutrients. I dont think you can really judge H&G nutes if you are not using the full line. Sounds like all your problems started when you switched over to H&G base nutes, which indicates to me that those nutes should not be combined. 5.5ml per gallon is fairly low dose of nutrients and shouldn't be stressing the plant out. Best of luck!

Salt
 
Boyz N Da Hood

Boyz N Da Hood

Well-Known Member
I'm good bro! Damn it's good to see you around man!
Been a min since the club got closed down..
still doing my thing you know lol been working with coco now as well
How you been man? What you got goin on now?
 
brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
can i ask for a lil bit of advice. im new to coco. im growing 1 ak48 and 1 amnesia. both are growing really slowly. im handwatering in 11.5ltr pots. using lucas formula with straight tap water on a feed-feed-water schedule. they are on 18/6 with 2 x 65w cfls 2" from the tops. i started on 1/2 strength but burnt the ak48 so i dropped to 1/4 strength but ak48 is nearly 4 weeks from sprouting and its only just working on its 4th set of leaves. i have used soil and dwc in the past with good results. i was just wondering if there was anything i could be doing that would exponentially slow the growth rates as they dont seem to be advancing much. i fed yesterday. will give just plain water on friday. im pouring about 1ltr of water through these pots each time i water and about 1/3 of it runs off. ph is around the 6.0 mark. i dont have a ph pen. just a dropper kit so cant be exact. im using unbranded coco bricks.

only reason its bothering me is that im doing a scrog so i expect a longer veg period anyway but at this rate ill be growing this same crop the middle of next year lol. any advice would be much appreciated. i will be flowering with a 250w hps on a 3'x1.5' screen. please dont hate. its all i can manage, im on a budget.
 
Saltrock

Saltrock

Active Member
brettsog said:
can i ask for a lil bit of advice. im new to coco. im growing 1 ak48 and 1 amnesia. both are growing really slowly. im handwatering in 11.5ltr pots. using lucas formula with straight tap water on a feed-feed-water schedule. they are on 18/6 with 2 x 65w cfls 2" from the tops. i started on 1/2 strength but burnt the ak48 so i dropped to 1/4 strength but ak48 is nearly 4 weeks from sprouting and its only just working on its 4th set of leaves. i have used soil and dwc in the past with good results. i was just wondering if there was anything i could be doing that would exponentially slow the growth rates as they dont seem to be advancing much. i fed yesterday. will give just plain water on friday. im pouring about 1ltr of water through these pots each time i water and about 1/3 of it runs off. ph is around the 6.0 mark. i dont have a ph pen. just a dropper kit so cant be exact. im using unbranded coco bricks.

only reason its bothering me is that im doing a scrog so i expect a longer veg period anyway but at this rate ill be growing this same crop the middle of next year lol. any advice would be much appreciated. i will be flowering with a 250w hps on a 3'x1.5' screen. please dont hate. its all i can manage, im on a budget.
Click to expand...
I understand you are on a budget, but you have to get yourself a ph meter. Those drop meters really suck and are a pain. But anyways, the type of coco you are using could need to be washed. If you don't wash the salts out, it could be bad. Cheap coco can be a pain in the ass. Try canna coco it comes pre washed. House and garden has new coco out, I have never used it. Also having your light cycle 18/6, you are limiting your growth time. Also for only using 2 65 watt cfls and being 4 weeks old from seed, plus being on a 18/6. Sounds like your plants are right where they should be.

Peace
Salt
 
brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
appreciate the input. i did rinse the coco before i used it. i expanded the bricks and ran water through until run off was clear. no brown hue to it. im not expecting 1/2lb plants. im just wondering why so slow. everyone ive spoken to says you get same growth rates as hydro but by 4 weeks my dwc plant was a foot tall and had 12 nodes. not really getting the same experience here. i guess its all a learning curve.

i know people flame the cfl setups but it did me well for veg the last 2 grows. they are new bulbs as well. i know they have nothing on HID lights i just cant really afford to run a big light for 18-24 hours a day. someone else has suggested using dutch pro hydro nutes i might give them a go and see how i get on. and after this grow i wont be needing a ph meter anyhow as im gonna be going guerilla from next spring. the missus is fed up with me growing in the cupboard.
 
somebody1701

somebody1701

Well-Known Member
You should feed with every watering. You should also be using cal-mag. I grew two plants on my last grow with modified Lucas formula in coco but I was adding 5mg of calmag with each watering: 7.5mg micro, 15mg bloom, and 5mg calmag. I was also using RO water but I doubt that's your problem unless your tap is throwing off your PH. My tap water is extremely hard and comes out with 4ppm chlorine. I never checked my ph after the first time I mixed nutes. It came out at 5.8 with the RO water.

If you are getting 1/3 runoff with just a liter of water, it sounds like you are watering too frequently. I only watered when the pot was light and the top layer of coco was completely dry. If you stuck your finger in there was still a little moisture.

So I would check the PH of your nutes going in (should be 5.8-6.0) and only water when the pots are light but feed with every watering. Also, you need to flush every month or so. I flushed with 1/4 nutes every month.
 
brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
ok cool. thanks for the info. i was told feed-feed-water to help stop salt buildup. the ph of my tap water is 6.5 according to water company and im using hard water nutes. ph dropper usually sits on 6 so i figured that was ok. i cant seem to get calmag around here so im using 1tsp of epsom salts per gallon of water. its the same thing as calmag is it not?
 
somebody1701

somebody1701

Well-Known Member
No, calmag includes calcium and magnesium. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. If your water contains calcium you might be OK with just epsom salt. My tap water varied from day to day so I finally put in an RO system.

If the PH of your tap water is 6.0, I doubt it has any calcium in it. Or was that after you added the nutes?
 
brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
after i added the nutes, the water company say it should be 6.5 straight from the tap. its about 250ppm out the tap as well
 
BBB1974

BBB1974

Active Member
Do yourself a huge favor, get a PH meter/pen. They're not that expensive and it's very important to your plants. Don't take what the water company tells you, you have to know for yourself and be certain.
 
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