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Coco Tree's
- Thread starter DJM
- Start date
Thanks to the mods for making this thread a sticky. I'm honored. I'm equally honored by all the gratitude, kind words and support everyone has given me over the years. I have icmag and those that came before me (with the selfless willingness to share) to thank for my success and it warms my heart that I can have that same effect on others all these years later and contribute to this community in the same way.
thanks gnome!
ive used a ton of coco over the years..some of this threads grows were done with house and garden or plagron coco..they are pretty much the same thing and apparently come from the same manufacturing facility ..but since I left Colorado ive been using different brands..the haze run was canna coco, the motorbreath run pictured was done with hydrated botanicare bricks mixed with 30% hydroton..ive also did a run with charcior and I'm currently running tupur from royal gold at the moment and just finished a run in rockwool...id say out of them all charcoir is the best , cleanest pure coco ive tried, its just harder to get here....most coco is the same, the main differences I find are how well they are flushed/pre charged..but even the ones that aren't can be flushed and pre charged to make them better before planting..for example tupur comes too hot for my liking and run off can be as high as 1400 ppm when feeding at 700..so I have to flush and pre charge that myself..same with the bricks..the other brands ive used right out of the bag though...hope that helps
smell will be an issue if your room isn't sealed and you don't have a carbon filter on your passive exhaust..as said many times before , the only way a active intake works effectively without creating other issues is if your room is fully sealed and when I say full sealed I mean air tight...you are essentially creating positive pressure and giving the air only one way to escape, through the passive exhaust and carbon filter..but if your room isn't sealed, air will travel through every part of the room there is a hole and you will have smell and humidity issues in the rest of the location..same goes with the hoods wether you are pushing or pulling air through them, if they are not fully sealed, it wont work as well..when I ran air cooled hoods, I use to put aluminum ac tape along every crack and edge of the glass..hope that helps
^ with that said, if setting up a new room , keep in mind the temperatures outside through out the year..as it must be colder outside to cool a active intake room than it would need to be if running active exhaust..as the outside air is your ac, and if its not atleast 50F youd be pissing in the wind..i found that with the amount of lights I run, outside temps over 45F wont work well with an active intake..it will still cool lights but it will push so much air into the room to do so that it would displace too much RH and co2 and become counter productive..so if you live in an area where its not cold most of the year, atleast at night time, id weigh my options before designing a room around an active intake...for example, at 9000 ft elevation in Colorado I could run active intake all year, but where I am now, summers are hotter so I cant..I now design my rooms to run intakes in the winter, and acs in the summer...In the summer i then use my active intake ducting to evenly distribute the air around my humidifier and dehumidifier through out the room..if I didn't care about the cost Id just run acs all year but 8 tons of ac is expensive to run. If I just need to run a few lights and a small ac, I may do that before an active intake...hope that helps
I have always ran both organic and synthetic..i started growing outdoors 14 years ago in the deep south and only did water only recycled organic soils..i still grow outside and still use water only organics..id never use hydro or synthetics outside, its just a different world outdoors..and id never use organic water only soil inside for the same reason..an indoor room cant balance and benefit the biology of organic soil imo just as an outdoor grow cant withstand the environment, bugs ect with synthetics, as it needs internal immune boosters that synthetics doesn't deliver...with indoors, its more about efficiency, consistency and cleanliness than outdoors and more like a laboratory. So I love both organics and synthetics in different scenarios but I'm not a fan of mixing them..i either go full hydro or full organic
I'm trying to look back into the thread and find any questions I left unanswered to get caught up. If you had a question I failed to answer or have any youd like to ask , feel free and ill do my best to answer them
also, I wish I could thank every person individually for their kind words but it would clog up the thread with replies and take a while. But trust me when I say they do not go unappreciated or taken in stride. thank you all
also, I wish I could thank every person individually for their kind words but it would clog up the thread with replies and take a while. But trust me when I say they do not go unappreciated or taken in stride. thank you all
I changed up my whole set up because of this thread.
This is the #1 source for coco growing info I have found yet. I just copied as much as I could.
I learned a lot about how to properly set up a room. I was skeptical at first but the way it was explained here made so much sense as soon as I heard something similar from a reputable source, I was all over it.
I have way more control over the things that I can control now.
One of the major points I liked was we shouldn't be going below 65% rh (depending on...) but for the most part if we wouldn't want the drying process to get below 65 we should strive to keep it at least at that point.
I heard a very similar theory regarding temps. I listened to a wonderful lesson on drying and curing from the Wonderland nursery director and learned that 82 deg should be the upper temperature limit due to that being the point where we start to "burn" the terps.
It makes a lot of sense to me and was wondering, how do some of you all with controllers balance out your temps vs rh?
Big ups to DJM and the whole crew.
thanks for the kind words! I just set my controllers what I want the levels at. which is usually the temp at 10 degrees high than the RH...so 80f/70rh ect ect...I highly recommend a digital controller and to lower the deadpan of each parameter as low as it goes to prevent too much of a temp/rh swing between cycling, that makes a big difference to keeping the levels stable..if not your temps and RH will be swinging 5-7 degrees between cycles..id probably agree with that article. when the plant is in its final ripening phase I lower the temps and when drying I never go over 65f, mostly its 60f..however , in early to mid flower I don't think high temp effects the terpenes
HI and welcome back DJM. I'm on my first grow and am trying to incorporate as much of this as I can. THank you again for spending the time to explain you ideas so well and to answer our many questions so thoroughly. My biggest issue is you make it look so easy, lol. Take care and if you ever write the on line guide, i'll be first in line trying to memorize it.
Ona
Ona
yup, it did.
I remember you said you used black gold brand.
reason i asked is I'm far from hydro shops and very limited in the grow paraphenalia i can get.
FF OF and other stuff is about it,
they just started stocking black gold just coir.
again big thanks for taking the time to post your
wisdoms and failures here.
I'd have to say, in the 7 yrs since i started the indoor thing
yours is the most informative to date imho
lol and without all the BS drama!
you should write some sort of book, it would fly off the shelves.
with all the newbs starting up with the med scene/legalization gros going on there's armies of them thirsty for knowledge
Sorry to double post, I thought I had added this question but Was using my phone so I must have screwed it up:
Could you give some info on what controller's you use and why? do you use a system where there is an "overlord" kind of controller that runs the whole show or separate controllers for the different variables? I know my needs will be much different than yours as my scale is much smaller, a 5x5 tent. I still need to use controllers/timers/etc though due to time away because of work. as a luxury, it'd be really interesting to have a system that had real time logging of temps, RH, CO2 or whatever. at my level though, it's hard to justify the cost of those systems, especially the internet/cloud accessible ones.
appreciate any experience you have with the various systems.
Thanks,
Ona
Could you give some info on what controller's you use and why? do you use a system where there is an "overlord" kind of controller that runs the whole show or separate controllers for the different variables? I know my needs will be much different than yours as my scale is much smaller, a 5x5 tent. I still need to use controllers/timers/etc though due to time away because of work. as a luxury, it'd be really interesting to have a system that had real time logging of temps, RH, CO2 or whatever. at my level though, it's hard to justify the cost of those systems, especially the internet/cloud accessible ones.
appreciate any experience you have with the various systems.
Thanks,
Ona
My Saturn 6 is still doin a great job but they got updated versions next level shit now like the iponic6 that's just in its own class.... the iponics are excellent the customer support is great gives u complete control from anywhere ... worth every penny to have it all in a phone... for a 5X5 tent the practicality of one of these is pointless...
Thx Stoney. That is my dilemma, how much money to go in for given my grow size. I lean towards the "buy once, cry once" mind set but as much fun as it would be to have the iponics or the smartbee system to mess around with, it would a lot more fun to have the $1500 + those things cost. Even a Saturn 6 seems excessive money wise but I could see going that route, even just for my tent, if it was effective and reliable. I appreciate you sharing your experience.
Ona
Old Toker
Well-known member
Another question is how many environmental pieces do you need controlled? Are you running CO2 in a tent? Do you have both a humidifier and a dehumidifier? Heating and cooling? Do you need want your fan speeds automated? I think if you define what you want automated AND what equipment you need controlled....it will help with the decision making process. FWIW - I also have a 5'x5' tent and just use separate controllers.
You might get some suggestions in the Growroom Designs and Equipment forum: https://www.icmag.com/ic/forumdisplay.php?f=32
I use autopilot digital master greenhouse controller and blueprint digital atmosphere controller..they are pretty much identical and I use them both in the same way , some rooms have one brand some rooms have the other.
I run my humidifier , c02 and intake off the controllers. My dehumidifiers are the only thing I don't run on it because they have thier Own digital thermostat and I only run them at night anyway. When I use acs I have a ttrigger cord that controls the ac, that I plug into the cooling input that I run the iintake off of
If you are going to get a controller, get digital or don't waste your time. Analog controllers are tremendous pieces of shit. I've tried over a dozen , they are all in storage or thrown away. If you set for instance , your intake on a analog , set to 80. The controller will most likely not kick on till down to 75, and not kick off till around 85. Most of them have a huge dead band of 5-8 degrees and end up with a massive swing in enviroment which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. With digital you can lower dead band to 0.2 of a degree. That makes a day and night difference to the efficiency of a controller and how stabe the rooms is.
The rest of the grow, feed pumps, drain pumps, rez pumps ect are ran off titan programmable timers.
If I was in a 5x5 tent I really wouldn't bother things like co2. I'd just run sealed air cooled hoods with a thermostat set to 80, with ducts intaking outside the tent running through lights and back outside the tent keeping tent sealed. Then id run an exhaust on a humidistat set to 70% humidity. They sell "titan digital enviromental controllers" that just control temperature and humidity. They are only around 160 bucks and I'd recommend them over a controller with co2 for your situation. Controllers get far more expensive when it has co2 controls usually more than double . Doing that you can still run vpd at 80f/70% easily without many moving parts. In a tent it would be hard to try and replicate a 85f 75% room with humidifier. And if you werent running co2, youd want temps and rh lower. Since you are limited in space you need to approach things very minimally. With a simple design like that you can do very well in tent. Hope that helps
^ and if you'd want to keep an eye on the tent remotely , I highly recommend amcrest wifi or security cameras. I have a dozen of them myself and they are worth thier wieght in gold. I put one in each room, one in front of each controller and one over all the rezs. I can check them and rotate them 180 degrees remotely and mine have built in motion sensor detection that texts me if something moves where it shouldnt and nighT vision. Mine also record video from each camera for 7 days that I can look back on. I can check to make sure enviroment and rezs are good at any given time.
Both posts were exactly what I was looking for,, Thank you Don.
Another question is how many environmental pieces do you need controlled? Are you running CO2 in a tent? Do you have both a humidifier and a dehumidifier? Heating and cooling? Do you need want your fan speeds automated? I think if you define what you want automated AND what equipment you need controlled....it will help with the decision making process. FWIW - I also have a 5'x5' tent and just use separate controllers.
You might get some suggestions in the Growroom Designs and Equipment forum: https://www.icmag.com/ic/forumdisplay.php?f=32
OT, thank you also for answering. I am not running CO2, I did n't see it as practical in a tent, and this is my first grow ever, so I thought it was something to be approached later perhaps. Right now, Iam hoping to be able to avoid having to buy and run a dehumidifier and air conditioner. SoCal location. I am currently having humidity as my greatest environmental challenge. canopy is filling tent. I have a intake fan on a humidstat controller but it runs every 15 minutes or so for a minute. I can't create a range, only a single set point, so it goes on at that humidity and goes off once its below that. Leads to a lot of on/off cycles. I have a loud fan right now, Hurricane 6" with a Can 65, therefore I also have an irritated better half. I don't yet have a fan speed controller. I've been holding off while I try to work out if multi controllers and monitors are more effective/practical than one over-all kind of thing like a titan 6
Thank again to everyone.
Ona
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shishkaboy
>>>>Beanie Man<<<<
My post coco trees thread tent design.
Now I am thinking about getting a humidifier and co2 genny for the lung room. I may even be ready for a controller soon.
I normally would have had to turn off one light in the summer but I think I can make it this year.
Now I am thinking about getting a humidifier and co2 genny for the lung room. I may even be ready for a controller soon.
I normally would have had to turn off one light in the summer but I think I can make it this year.
sheik_yerbouti
Member
Hey DJM,
Did I read somewhere in this thread you have an automated dosing system for your nutrients? Tried to find it again but it's hard to sift through the 100 pages.
I'd like to automate the nutrients being added to my rez but in all my research I'm finding it's going to be $3000 to $4000 per rez to set up. Am I mistaken or is that something you've done?
My latest run is looking absolutely phenomenal strictly thanks to this thread. Can't thank you enough.
Did I read somewhere in this thread you have an automated dosing system for your nutrients? Tried to find it again but it's hard to sift through the 100 pages.
I'd like to automate the nutrients being added to my rez but in all my research I'm finding it's going to be $3000 to $4000 per rez to set up. Am I mistaken or is that something you've done?
My latest run is looking absolutely phenomenal strictly thanks to this thread. Can't thank you enough.
