In love with the Coco !

[Grapefruitroop]

Sup yall!
Yes like the tilte says im stoked by the results of last run, after almost 5 years of perpetuals slow ass soil grows

Considering i managed to screw up few important things during the grow like some fluctuations on Ph / Ec.... i hanged the net too low on a zone having the tops folding on themselves....and a better deleafing...
Hit 2.2 grams per watt of top shelf nugs!



Nutrients i used, only Masterblend with epsom salts and calcium nitrate and some enzymes and aminos

EC 0.9 during flowering....

But only 2 fertirrigation events a day cause i have high RH and still i was getting prolly a gallon more than the ideal runoff...

When i took the soil ball from the pot the roots system was not that impressively healthy aggressive growth but just ok.....that makes me think i have to work on reduce RH
Anyway....wow....not bad considering thers many things to still improve!!!

Thanks y all for the all the tips my dear coconut headz!

 

[Bush Dr]

Got a picture of the roots?

Why do I fucking bother?

 

[Grapefruitroop]

Nope....would have been useful but my hands were dirty hahah
The pot was fully colonized and the roots were meeeeh ok....not infected or somethin but not those white thick strings that you used to see on coco grows.....they reminded me the roots i was having in the soil grows

 

[stiff]

First of all...this is a hectic growroom you got there. I'm jealous as fook. Keep it up,man!!!
About your coco issues:
Try using mycorrhizae and your wish will come true...best roots you can get IMHO.
If you want to protect them even further, also play with some trichoderma. Just don't mix the two.

I'd recommend 1 week you give mycorrhizae (one time) and the following week trichoderma (you might wanna go with two week intervals), same here..also just once per week.

I have fantastic roots with it. Sometimes I'm naughty and skip the trichoderma, but I wouldn't recommend it to others. That's me being stingy
I know those products sound like they're not made for coco..but it works just fine.

I absolutely love your setup, could you explain it a bit more,please?

About the high RH, maybe have the drippers and pots covered up,to avoid unnecessary RH raising from the pots themselves. I believe your table drys quickly after a soaking..I think you get the high RH from the pots themselves. Something like this, just made out of plastic.


I'm big in love with coco myself for multiple reasons.
Have you tried reusing the same coco for a few runs? The plants get even better

What I do is a big wooshka of enzymes to the end of a grow( double or tripple strength),so all unwanted salts are chewed up or flushed out,before the new plants go in..slowly eating those old roots.
I cut the thick stem out the old pots and straight away put new seedlings or cutting right on top the rootball.

Good luck for the future, I can't wait to see some more pics from you!
Cheers, stiffy

 

[stinkybudz420]

You are coco loco!!! So am I ! I bet you experience way less bugs than before ? Fat stack of flowers.

 

[stiff]

Other factors which convinced me to go coco are:
not to guess what's in my substrate.
It makes it easier to use fertiliser properly.

I drains beautifully, is inexpensive and reusable for many grows without much work needed at the end of the run.

It doesn't shrink much either, at least not a idiotic shrink like soils and yes, it doesn't attract that many pests.

If I can think of more factors, I'll add it..or please is there anyone else with a good point why yo use coco, give us your opinion please.
I just love the stuff, coco is great!

 

[stinkybudz420]

You covered some great points.

Great oxygenation, while also holding far more water/food than soil. It's the perfect blend between dwc and soil ..or It can be If done properly.

 

[Grapefruitroop]

Thank you all!
Yes absolutely less pest, i mean my problem was fungus gnat......sometimes was a real mayhem...this time just few flyers almost didnt even noticed em....

Thanks for the hint on beneficials is def something i want to add, but because i already transplanted the next crop i m planning on adding Orca that has also Mycorirrizae,....

in my organic days i was aware of the issue of dosing all the beneficials together cause they can fight each other, so i try to look for em separately otherwise ill go with the Orca

I drains beautifully, is inexpensive and reusable for many grows without much work needed at the end of the run.

Wow i may give it a try on reusing it....i was recycling my soil for like a couple years before it lost areation and was awesome...
And wow those coco fiber liners are super neat

Yea coco once diled in screams CONTROL and PRECISION all over, plus the ability of make up quickly for any mistake as far as PH and EC, its a superior growing media for sure.

I Hesitated a bit on building the dripping system but also that was much easier than what i taught...i think we should put up a sticky post tutorial on how to build your Drip irrigation that is easy and inexpensive for everyone to build and forget the slow soil dayz hahaah

 

[Hmong]

... I got it for the low low!

 

[StickyBandit]

I don't even test my salts mix anymore with coco. I have sauce bottles with the A and B and low N CalMag and use measuring spoons to mix a bucket and add 6 drops pH down

 

[stiff]

And wow those coco fiber liners are super neat

I thought of plastic to stop the evaporation, with just a small gap around the sides, like those coco liners.

But now I'm doubting my own thinking...would that then stop fresh air getting into the pot or would the suction effect from watering still bring enough to the roots if you use a dripper i mean?

I say that because in my case, i use 18L pots and water by hand.
I "dump" a big amount of nutes on top of each pot, that you can hear a slurp sound as the water rushes through the coco..drain to waste. It works pretty good for me, and i wouldnt want to change much, except the handwatering bit
A full automatic drain system would be nice too, I got no drain in the growroom

 

[stinkybudz420]

I don't even test my salts mix anymore with coco. I have sauce bottles with the A and B and low N CalMag and use measuring spoons to mix a bucket and add 6 drops pH down

You don't measure ph or ppm/ec? In or out?

 

[StickyBandit]

You don't measure ph or ppm/ec? In or out?

I measured and tested the mix a month or so back and I don't have much runoff. If my water changes I retest
I see you guys with your fancy high yield grows but I'm not there yet
I have more than we can smoke already

 

[stinkybudz420]

I'm not fancy, I'm actually very low budget. I make sure ph and ppm are on point otherwise my plants aren't taking advantage of all I'm giving them. I do it for precision and because I'm cheap

 

[Grapefruitroop]

But now I'm doubting my own thinking...would that then stop fresh air getting into the pot or would the suction effect from watering still bring enough to the roots if you use a dripper i mean?

I , infact, think that i have the opposite problem......very high RH on the 80s during flowering, the pots are 5 liters but filled with about a gallon of straight Coco.....
I need to lower that Rh and bring it to the 70s that with LEDs is about perfect...

Im goin to first add beneficials and then try to add another 50 liter dehuey for the flowering and see what happen...ill keep you posted!

Something makes me feel that i somehow "overwatered" em, even if we all know that coco holds a perfect amount of oxigen when saturated maybe the crazy high RH slowed down the oxigen exchange in the medium ?!?!
I taught also to get around this by adding perlite to the mix but i couldnt find it already bagged and it would have been a real PITA to mix it by myself....

 

[Kaskadian]

Wow looks great! Very impressive for 0.9 EC.

 

[Grapefruitroop]

Thanks but yeah i started at 1.1 in the first two week of flowering and then i had to back down to 0.9 .....
the genetic was mainly motorbreath and few plants of other random clones, but all showed burnt tip at 1.1
I def overestimated the buffering of the coco and the room with co2 and LEDs...

 

[flower~power]

Coco is great I agree ..do you find that the flavor is a little bit more bland when compared to in organically based and amended substrate?

 

[DunHav`nFun]

Impressive grow setup Grapefruit..........Gladta see more folks dialing in coco DTW.....It truly is the absolute easiest shit there ever was to a "set it and forget it" dope growing machine.....and.....Your 2.2 gpw says it all once you figure out all the rules......#1 rule if shit goes sideways is when in doubt flush it out with 1/2 strength nutrient solution and ph`ed water....now......

I learned over the yrs the best way to "help" control RH in full flower is to get rid of all fan leaves with a stem after the complete end of stretch is over , and doing it over several days so as not to stunt or shock the plants and cause a recovery period that causes the plants to take longer to finish , so be gentle but keep stripping leaves till they`re all gone .....also......

This crop steering fad that has growers using INSANE amounts of EC to make the plants be all they can be might work for commercial ops that can afford all the bells and whistles it takes to not FUCK UP , but for Joe Q consumer to try and shove crazy ass ppms up the plants ass is beyond ridiculous , ESPECIALLY with the fact that residual salt buildup in a coco substrate is SO easy to do and when shit goes sideways with ppms soaring and ph dropping out of sight , you have to flush EACH and every container with 1/2 strength juice just to keep em from shutting down and back within normal parameters for them to continue on and finish well , but I digress.....and....

You runnin .9 flower`s a tad low for my taste but pot plants are definitely resilient and can take crazy amounts of juice with certain strains in the indica wide leaf variety as to where if you shove too much up a sativa narrow leaf plant they`ll shut down and croak on your ass , bet on it.....that said.....My middle of the road juice blend was always 1.2/600 ppms and never more than 1.5/750 ppms depending on the amount of Cal/mag needed for some hungrier strains.....anyways.....

Didn`t mean to write a book , but there`s not many more experienced in Coco DTW here besides my old ass so.....

Good luck and holler anytime I can help.....

Peace.....DHF.....

 

[Grapefruitroop]

Thanks DHF!! Yes i definitely have to figure out a way to acces the plant and keep stipping em....
The problem is that i always use a net after two heavy pruning one at the beginning of flowering and another around week 2...then i pull the net on and i screwed as far as deleafing....

This run i have short indicas so i can use sticks instead or just be able to pull the plant out clean it and put it back under the net.....
Thats a great hint to lower RH thanks!!!

Coco is great I agree ..do you find that the flavor is a little bit more bland when compared to in organically based and amended substrate?

Man i have to say that, i grew some very sweet organics back in the days, around 10 yrs ago when i was absolutely fascinated by the science of soil biology and very bored by the cannabis bottled nutrient hype...but also some very bad tasting too that left me wondering a lot....

After reading some about the heavy metal content along with antibiotics and pesticides that can be found in our beloved meals, like fishbone meal, crab meal, feather meal soybean meal.....
rock phosphates....azomite....gracial rockdust....and what not in the Peat itself or store bought Composts,
i started to believe that organic weed can be much more contaminated than the one grew with plain clean mineral nutrients...given you are not overfeeding em

Cannabis is a plant that accumulates whatever finds in the soil, (i think its called bioaccumulator or somethin) not only nutrients so we need to be careful on sourcing the ammendments.....but hey...its wild in that industry its impossible to get info on contaminant content....

As far as the flavor now i just vape and it tastes delicious but i think that if you stick with a low level of mineral nutrients weed taste delicious as a properly done organic.....just my opinion!