Blockhead in Coco

[bounty29]

Rosy, that bud looks amazing, I think it'll be years before I've got the equipment and skill to get stuff that nice. I'm sure these will turn out great though, I can't wait for flower to start, but I refuse to rush the plants, I want them vegged long enough so they fill out my cabinet, I'll probably do some light LST, no topping this run, and not enough plants for single cola.

Black Ra1n, SirSmokalot, ConceptOfSleep, MoleMcHenry - Thanks for stopping in, sorry about the wait between updates, got a few things going on and I want to wait until I can flower these out 100%, no more half ass jobs. Too much of a time investment to slack off a few times and screw up the whole thing, in one way or another.

Here's a picture I just took after the lights went off. The original seed plant is on the right, looking good. This is definitely the most stressed plant I've had, it's had more than one encounter with heat and underwatering. The plant showed definite female preflowers before I cut it up for clones, so lets hope they don't turn out male on me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Now that I'm thinking about it maybe I should start a few seeds just in case.

I had three successful clones. I was going to put them all in the coco hempy buckets while I figured out when to flower so they could grow up a little. I just about snapped the first clone off of it's roots, which made me pay a little more attention. That one is hopefully healing up from that, and the other one is still just hanging out in the little cup. The transplanted one is already showing growth, it's looking very good.

The combination of LST, long veg, hopefully no slacking off, a closer light, a pretty good idea of the total flower time, and much more coco to grow in should all give me a very good harvest.

 

[Huggie bear]

Looking good bro! I have been enjoying my last harvest and as of yet haven't even finished my PC grow case.
but I have been sharing my stash with some friends so its going a lot fast then I had anticipated. Therefore I will need to finish it up and get my micro SWC grow going pretty soon!

 

[bounty29]

Transplanted the other two clones, the first one is looking pretty good, almost doubled in size in the past 3 days since transplant. I chopped the mother up, there's not much left, but I just put about 6 clones into the cloner, might start a new mother with one of them if they root. I think I'll be able to veg these girls out pretty good in this cabinet in these containers before I put them in flower.

 

[bounty29]

Hempy Buckets With Coco: They Rock! - http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=93983
^^Thanks MoleMcHenry

I like the amount of healthy growth he got out of the three liter bottle, it's a great looking plant, I hope to be able to achieve similar results if I stay on top of things.

My 3 liter "Hempy Bucket" bottles are 100% fine coco from the top of the container to the bottom of the label, and 100% perlite up to the bottom of the label, and there's a 1/2" to 1" hole cut with the bottom of the circle right at the bottom of the label.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to do perlite to the bottom of the drain hole or to the top of it, so I think I did it both ways. I tried putting a screen over the hole but it just made a mess, the coco and perlite form a pretty good screen that won't fall out unless you poke at it.

I really like the concept and I think I'll see improved growth, even if it is only because I can have more time to water them, since they have a mini reservoir to drink from for a few days, which I can monitor the level of.

Here's the most info I found anywhere about hempy buckets, looks like a good read.

http://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/59705-hempy-collective.html

 

[MoleMcHenry]

bounty- I think you'll be happy with the hempy buckets with coco. Although hempy's with perlite don't get rot rot, hempy's with coco do get root rot if the temps stay high and/or the watering keeps them on the wet side. I suspect you'll be a rockstar with that though. Just be careful.

I had to apply some SM-90 to my girls last night because they were getting lockout/PH problems from pythium. The good news is that their sickness prompted me to go out and get a window fan for my grow room/bedroom, and now temps are in the 70s again. Live and learn!

 

[bounty29]

They look amazing now, I wish I could upload my pics. I'll work on that tonight.

 

[berryman]

keep those pics coming

 

[bounty29]

So it's been about a month since the last pics, they're doing good. I tried adding some Hormex into the feeding routine but they made it clear they didn't like it, but you can't even tell now! I'm going to be transplanting them into 3 gallon square containers, hempy style, in the next few days, or maybe even tonight if I'm feeling motivated. I plan on giving them at least a week or two to get comfortable in their new homes, and then flip the switch to 12/12! I'm very happy with how things are coming, the plants have nice strong stems and great growth. They were all topped at one point or another, one has 4 strong tops, one has 3, and the other has 2.

I'll probably do some light LSTing as soon as I move them into their final containers and help all the smaller budsites get some light, and then once they're done stretching I plan on trimming everything from 6-12" below the top of the canopy so that they can focus on making nice buds up top, and so that the coco has room to breathe. So anyways... here they are, followed by the one that started it all. The only plant to germ out of 5, that struggled for months to be a healthy plant, and now look where we are. I'm pretty happy, I can't wait to see what's in store for flowering.





All those droopy and crooked leaves are because they've overgrown the little veg cab, they're all cramped in there, so they should really take off once I transplant.

 

[bounty29]

So I transplanted the biggest girl, and also realized I'm only going to be able to fit two of the 3 gallon containers in there, not three as previously though. What I'm going to do to make up for that is let the transplanted one grow for a little bit, and then put the two from the veg cab in the same container and go to 12/12 a few days after that.



That's one brick of GH fine coco in the T shirt. I zip tied the arms and neck and it worked great, not a single piece of coco went through and I was able to rinse it very easily. I filled up that tote with about that much water three times and soaked and agitated the coco filled T-shirt for a while until the water looked like above. I did this three times, the first time the water was 1.07ec, the second time it was 0.44ec, and the third time it was 0.24ec, after that I started putting together the hempy (cat litter) bucket.



You can see where the hole is on the side of the bucket, there is perlite to just above the top of that hole. I put a whole brick of coco, plus 6~ more handfulls into it, and you can see where it's filled to. Since I burned the hole in the first hempy 2 liter I made, the plastic was warped, and I couldn't do a regular transplant. I had to cut the bottom out from under it, which didn't go too well. As most of you probably know, a good portion of the roots follow the outside of the container. This means I cut off a large amount of roots, so we'll see how the plant does. After I transplanted I put a gallon of nutes through it, about half through the top of the two liter part and the other half in the surrounding coco. There was a few cups of runoff, and she went into the big cabinet.



Vacuumed the cabinet out and cleaned it up today, need to get to Lowe's or HD once I get some extra cash and put the light on some chains so it's easily adjustable, that should be done before they go into flower, and a little stretch wouldn't hurt right now.

 

[eyes]

ahh the blockhead.i remember her.very good,but i miss my sweet tooth 3.

 

[bounty29]

Haven't adjusted the light yet. I'm wondering though, now that I've got the reflectix from the bulb down to the plants, is the amount of light I'm losing anything to worry about? Before my walls were a matte brown, which I think was pretty bad, but the light really has nowhere to go but down onto the plants... right?

It's been about 1 week since my last update, the transplanted Blockhead is doing well, has definitely grown a few inches so the root haircut didn't seem to slow her too much.

I transplanted the other two into a single container tonight, which of course couldn't go smoothly. I forgot I had the drain plugged on the new hempy bucket when I was watering them, and it eventually popped out, sucking out about 1/3 of the perlite on the bottom and a bunch of coco, all rushing straight for my bathtub drain. I didn't want another plumbing scare so I had to fight that back.

Overall I think it went well, I'll probably give the two girls a few days to adjust to their new home and then flip to 12/12, as long as everything is looking healthy. No rushing into flower this time, I want things to be 100% before the flip, no sense in rushing a few days and getting a worse harvest because of it.

I talked to Crazy Composer and I've decided I'm going to go with Rez's "Recipe" for a feeding plan, but feed them with PBP 3 times during flower, instead of the regular GH stuff. Once 2 weeks in, once 4 weeks in, and once as my last feeding before I harvest, which should be 8 weeks in. I was going to let them go for 9 weeks, but I think I want to let them go 10.

What the PBP feedings should do is throw in the taste and smell of organics, while maintaining the precise feedings of the GH schedule. I haven't tested any of this but Crazy Composer has grown many plants using GH and PBP so I trust his advice. I'm looking forward to seeing these beautiful ladies flower, and I hope to get some good pictures for everyone as well!







I just germed 3 Sour Diesel IBL seeds, hopefully I'll have some girls ready to flower when I harvest these ones. Thinking about using the same hempy buckets, but putting in 4-6 clones in each with little to no veg. That's a ways down the road and there's plenty to do before then, so I won't worry too much about it for now. Thanks for checking out my grow everyone!

 

[Mrs.Babba]

Lookin swaeeet bounty!! ...happy plants=big nugs
Ill be checkin back for this!!

 

[clowntown]

Pretty neat seeing the perlite stuck at the bottom; looks like some sort of marshmallow-chocolate snack from a distance.

 

[bounty29]

Yeah I wasn't sure if it was going to hold together or all fall apart. I watered both plants with 1 liter of nutes before transplanting, it got the coco moist enough so that it was solid but not soaked. I put about an inch layer on top of the perlite in the big container, so it goes, starting from the bottom...

(Perlite Reservoir - 2")(Coco - 1")(Perlite - 2")(Coco - 12")

I only got the root pics of the first one, the second one had much better looking roots. That one pictured in the middle of the transplant is the one I snapped a bit when initially planting them in the 3 liter bottles, made a pretty good recover I'd say.

Edit: Not sure if I mentioned it, I think I'm going to try to water every 3 days, more often if they end up needing it. I watered this first one when I transplanted it a week ago and it's going to get watered tomorrow night, it's just starting to dry up. If I water more often I think I'll get better growth, and I'll be able to get those PBP feedings in without messing up the feeding schedule too much.

 

[bounty29]

Watered the other one tonight, gave it about 1.75 gallons but there was plenty of runoff, 3 gallons should be good each time I need to water them both. I went to bend one of the tops over but the stem was more brittle than it had been and I snapped it right off. Not too big of a deal, I was planning on going a few more days before the flip anyways, so it should be fine by then. I'm going to see if I can clone the top I broke off, if I can that'll be the new mother. Here's some before and after pics...

 

[Herbalistic]

Splendid growing bounty


Here´s mine BH at coco in 5 L pot.

 

[clowntown]

Herbalistic, great plants as usual; quick question: do you hand-water your small coco pots? How often do you find yourself watering?

 

[krushonkush]

Hey bro your blockhead sure looks awesome!: Wont be long now.
I'll check back soon.peace

 

[bounty29]

I just fed both buckets (9ml Bloom/9ml Micro :: 6.01ph :: 1.7ec), about a gallon each. I'll try to get on the watering every 2-3 days schedule from now on, we'll see how things go.

Here's a side by side, oriented the same way they are in the cabinet, and a shot of one of the tops on the younger clones.


Trimmed up some of the undergrowth, I couldn't even get in to water so I had to make some space. This should help with airflow too, don't want to deal with fungus gnats again.

 

[clowntown]

bounty29, hope the new feeding schedule gets things back on track.