Huge experiment using 50 plants, coco mix, blumats, 5400W, Heath Robinson strains

[ekomsi]

Not using RO water just tap water my tap comes out at 110tds on .5 scale 7.7pH.
Iam using Veg+Bloom RO/soft water version

Rives how much veg bloom are u using per gallon? I weigh mine in grams

 

[rives]

I can't really help with a grams/gallon figure - I fill my reservoir with water and add V+B until I get to the EC that I want. I started out with an EC of .6 while they were vegging (I was leery of the full-time feed from the blumats), but they were starving out. I kicked it up to .8-.9 and they were much happier there. After going to 12/12, I ran them at about 1.5-1.6 for 4 weeks. I then added enough water over several days to run week 5 at 1.2, week 6 at .9, week 7 at .6, and have been on straight water for this last week.

As recommended on the label (!), I should have cut back at the end of the third week. The girls hit 8 weeks today, and look beautiful, but they are still greener than I would really like.

If you haven't had a water analysis done, perhaps you have more micros in there than the plants want with the RO formula and have hit lockout. Just a thought.

 

[irobot sd]

Plants may have been shocked during transplant. Ph in new coco mix may have been really out of range also. I've had this happen before. Add drip clean to the tap mix. Ph below 6.0 and try some silica regulary with watering. Get a dehuey going non stop to help dry the coco and stimulate healthy growth. Runoff helps once roots develop. I'd add this with the cal mag 3-5ml per

 

[rives]

According to my calculator, 5 grams/gallon of the RO formula will give you an NPK of 211-58-329, with 80ppm of Mg, and 242ppm of Ca. Adding 5 ml of CalMag takes you to 238-58-29, 96ppm of Mg, and 284ppm of Ca.

I think that you have something other than a deficiency going on. If you are on a utility for water, they should have a complete water analysis available for the asking.

 

[ekomsi]

I have never gave them 5g per gallon of veg bloom or 5ml of calmag

 

[rives]

The last 3 feedings were 5g/gallon vegbloom powder, 1ml/gallon drip clean small amount of ph down for a reading of 1.2EC and 5.8[H.

This is what I was going by when I mentioned 5 gram/gallon, and the reference to the CalMag was what people were recommending and where it would take you from here.

 

[ekomsi]

Oh damn thats wrong it should have been 2-4g per gallon the last three feedings

 

[ekomsi]

I will be watering the clones tonight gotta get this figured out. In the meantime the Black Rose and Black Rhino mother plants that I put into flower are looking great!

The little clone is a grapfruit I cant wait to see the giant colas its gonna produce it has very sativa looking leaves compared to most of the other strains I have ran.

 

[rives]

If you were as low as 2 grams/gallon, then the girls are probably hungry and exhibiting some def's as a result. Your pictures look very similar to what mine were showing, but a bit more advanced. When I kicked my EC up to the .9 area, it cleared right up. I know that is lower than what you have been feeding, but my water reads zero and the only other thing that I was adding was drip clean.

 

[Coco Sagan]

nothin wrong with a low EC once in a while!

 

[majestral]

Hey Ekomsi, sure wish you were done with this grow already so we could see how you liked the coco! Think we're still going to run it when our new room is done. But we may just hand water with some type of hose set up at least until we get used to the new medium. Thank you so much for documenting for everyone. We'll be watching this one for sure!

Peace,
The Majestrals

 

[ekomsi]

Hey Majestral nice to have you two join the experiment, I like coco so far, the roots seem to love the medium never seen such white fluffy roots before!

So yesterday I feed the plants with 4g/gallon of vegbloom and 5ml/gallon of calmag ends up being an EC of 1.6 I used a little ph down to make it 5.7 and feed the plants but I didnt water to runoff, the plants are looking a lot better. I think it will take another few waterings and they will be looking purdy.

 

[ekomsi]

Heres a little update in the veg room, got 7 600W hps and 2 600W MH beaming away Im hoping for only another 10 days of veg and flip but how ever long it takes will be fine with me I want to flip when the plants are all about 24-26in from top of soil to top of plant and end up with plants that are 36-50in tall I know there are some very indica plants in there expecially one of the Black Rhinos, but I also have a few sativa dominate plants that like to stretch 3x like Chem Dawg, Sour Diesel, and NYPD.

The stand for the elevated Rez has been built I need to cut holes in the rez for the grommets for the 1/2in blumat mainfolds and 3/4in overflow return lines at the top of the 25gal rez. Gonna get the plants on blumats very soon, just need to figure out the nutrient balance with the plants. I think I finally filled the Calcium and Magnesium problems but I also think I need to flush the plants which is almost perfect, In a couple days I will flush the plants with ph balanced 1/5 strength nutrient solution unless everyone thinks phed plain water would be better? I will flush the plants very well 2 to 3 times the volume of the 3 gallon pots. The same day I will fill the blumat sensors and soak them in water. The next day or two at the latest I will insert blumat sensors into the medium and fill the rezs with around 1.2-1.6 EC nutrient solution

Looking at the room shot you can tell the difference in color of the plants under the MH compared to the HPS......that shits trippy lol

Another thing thats trippy is the medium never seen so much root explosion better for ME then hydroton, Im gonna start feeding them EWC Tea just gonna hand water it but I have been lazy. Need to get on that asap!!!!

 

[rives]

In my communications with Chris from Hydroponic Research, he recommended never going below an EC of .2-.3 during the growth cycle because it can cause an imbalance in the root zone. Even when I got to the flush at the end of the cycle, I tapered off very slowly by gradually adding straight water to the reservoir.

 

[ekomsi]

My tap is 110ppm or .2EC Those plants have been vegging out of the cloners for 2 weeks today, I normally veg for 35 days Im hoping I will shave a week off and veg for only 2 more weeks. Im trying to decide if I should top the plants or let them grow naturally? I think Im gonna top them soon if I choose to top.

 

[ekomsi]

Been around 10 days 12/12 for 9 phenos of Black Rose from seed under a 600W what do you think I will pull? Plants were in 1 gallon of FFOF for a long time transplanted into 5 gallon pots used a the rest of the ffof I had left then used botiniacare coco for the rest prolly 7/9 were all coco. THey were flipped same day as transplant.

 

[ekomsi]

The experiment has officially begun for blumats, they are soaking under water. Manifold has been run and the kent unions are installed. I just need to cut the length of the 3mm line connect to union and sensor, insert and the plants will be auto watered oh shit I hope I dont forget to open the valves

The blue 55gal rez has a pump running up to the 25 gallon rez its the 1/2in line that Im holding and the 25 gallon rez has 2 3/4in overflow lines returning back to the blue rez.

I ended up using only 2 loops so 4 lines but I drilled 6 holes so I just did a mini loop for the unused 2 holes.

Hope the room blows up in the next few weeks!!!

Almost forgot I hand waterd the plants earlier today with 0.2EC /5.8pH water with about 20% run off just chillin in the trays bet the plants suck it up by the am, plan on insert the blumats tomorrow I got the mix circulatiing threw the rez's 1.2 EC 5.6pH

 

[dansbuds]

Even using dripclean ... i wouldn't let the pots of coco sit in the runoff to long . i have never used DC but i do know the problems i've encountered letting them sit in the runoff .... its not pretty . i use a 3 x 3 flood table with a catch pan under each tray to catch the runoff now & haven't had problems sense .

 

[ekomsi]

Even using dripclean ... i wouldn't let the pots of coco sit in the runoff to long . i have never used DC but i do know the problems i've encountered letting them sit in the runoff .... its not pretty . i use a 3 x 3 flood table with a catch pan under each tray to catch the runoff now & haven't had problems sense .

Thanks buds, they arent in the run off anymore, because the blumats are installed! I need to make sure I get these sensors dialed in, dont want them to get too dry but also dont want a bunch of run off in the trays, looking to keep emm heavy but with no mositure in the tray. I can see these babies roots are going nuts in this coco mix, thanks DHF

The blumat system is up and running Rez has an 1.2EC and 5.8pH, I added 4g/per gallon of Veg+Bloom powder, .5ml/gallon of Drip Clean, and not much ph Down.

 

[rives]

ekomsi, you might want to give some thought to using the remote drippers. After I changed to coco with blumats, I was having a hard time keeping the media uniformly moist. I wound up extending out the hose from the carrot per Lazyman's recommendations, but I've wound up with a number of runaways with this. I'm just finishing a run, but next time I think that I am going to use (3) drippers uniformly placed around the pot and see how that works.