Seedlings are sprouting in coco - what now? First grow!

[Guest]

Thanks guys, roDoad trip tomorrow to the hydro shop to pick up some supplies - coco and stuff. I'll flush either before or after I go. Buying some B'cuzz coco cause I can't afford the freight to get canna shipped to me. Don't know if it should be flushed or not before using it so I probably will. Supposedly it's from trees over 50k from the coast and all that shit. Steamed and washed with hot water and so on and so on. Anybody ever used it without flushing and had positive results?

Anyway I'll let ya know how the leaf problem turns out.

Thanks for stopping by vhGhost, good luck man. Lotta good advice and a little luck got me this far. Coulda gone the other way if folks hadn't chipped in and taught me. You're absolutely right about gaius. I'm lucky he took pity on me, hehe. I always do what he says, cept when I can tell he's been hitting his stash. Easy to tell, slurrs his letters when he writes and keeps telling everybody their plants are too green, lmfao. Just kidding Gdude. Wish I lived down the street from ya... I'd help you sample your recipe. But then my wife would probably start getting on your case, lol. Never mind. Seriously, she's not as bad as I make her out to be. Since my dog died, she's looking better and better. BTW, remind me to tell ya the story of how my 6 month old Rottweiler was killed and the great pit bull massacre of February '07. Miss the little fucker. A lot! No, man, more than a lot.






The wife's the one that's not black.
Peace

Well FUCK! Now I'm depressed. SHIT!

 

[Guest]

OK, got back into town with the bags of coco and 10" square pots for the upcoming drip system. Went with B'cuzz coco just b'cuzz, lol. No really, after studying up on what's out there as an alternative to Canna, it's the one who's propaganda sounded the best. Tomorrow I'm gonna take a handful of B'cuzz and a handful of Canna, put each into a couple of cups of hot RO water and see how the ec's stack up against each other after about an hour. Didn't have to do a damn thing to the canna before I stuck my seedlings into it and we'll see with the B'cuzz.

Now for the current rescue effort. I flushed the pots with about three gallons of water each and measured the runoff. ec was at 0.74 and pH was 5.8. Went ahead and mixed up some new nutes and fed them a gallon each to push out the flush water.


50/50 ro/tap water mix
pH 5.8
A+B 6mL/gal
PK 13/14 6mL/gal
Cannazyme 6mL/gal
ec going in 1.64
ec of runoff 1.94 (seems reasonable to me - residual was down from 0.74 to about 0.3)
pH coming out 5.8

Now I'll just feed them for a couple more days and keep an eye on the Aurora. Development of spots on leaves doesn't seem to be progressing or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. Nonetheless, the flush and fresh recipe of nutes hopefully will do the trick.

Edited: Btw, found out that my whole "bottom of the closet is one big catch basin" theory sucks. Walked out into the hallway after the flush and thought the toilet in the bathroom had overflowed. Water all down the hallway to the bathroom. Well, good news is the humidity won't spike in the grow closet, lol. Better news, the little woman was in bed so I still get to sleep in the people house, hehe. Best news, not a stitch of carpet in the whole house, all tile cause we're dog people, so she'll never know, lmfao.

 

[EddieShoestring]

alright Mojo

this is a great thread-packed full of good info/detail etc, nice imput from Gaius too-

sorry to hear about the indoor water feature-thats a standard growers nightmare-when the res comes downstairs to visit bit of a break with the wife sleeping through it and all

i thought that the leaf pics looked like the beginnings of a bugfest too-lets hope it turns out to be something else

keep up the good work-your buds look nice
gonna go through the thread to try and absorb more information

eddie

edit nice looking Rottie-sorry to hear about that. We've had a Rottie for years-she's a good dog but stupid.

 

[NPK]

Hey man, I feel your pain on the flooding...one of my pump connections got a little kinked recently, and I ended up with several towels' worth of water on the basement floor. Could've been worse but it still scared the shit out of me with all the electrical devices I'm running down there.

Regarding b'cuzz vs. canna, I did a side-by-side comparison grow and concluded that the two brands are virtually interchangeable. You can use either one straight out of the bag--no need for a thorough rinsing, just get the stuff nice and wet with ph'ed water and you'll be good to go.

Looking forward to seeing your new drip system!

 

[gaiusmarius]

oh shit ...... lol...... lucky you eh? honestly flooding the whole house as soon as your woman hits the sack, i don't know? hehe, just kidding, i hope you did no permanent water damage to the house? i always put down a layer f pond tarp with a layer of filt under it. this gets attached a few inches up the walls all around the grow area, even though my system is flood proof, as it's a closed circle from table to tank and back to table and so on. but still one can cause splashes, r if one is very stoned and doesn't stay by the tank while it's being filled......well, you get the idea. a great idea is to make a check list of things to check before you leave the grow area. like is the lamp timer on auto? is the pump timer back on auto? are the all the room lights off and what ever else that needs checking, heaters in winter, ac in summer, water tank heater if the water gets to below 17° etc.

it's also useful to keep a list of the temp min/max, rh min/max, tank ec and ph, return ph and ec. if you do this for a few grows, it will help you a lot to learn about dialing a strain in.

 

[Guest]

EddieShoestring,
Thanks for the input dude. Yeah I've looked at the leaves under a magnifying glass till my eyeballs are sore man and I absolutely can't see a speck of a bug or a bug speck, lol. Mites are small but you can still see them. Hell I've never even had to use a magnifying glass to see them. I even turned the leaf and looked at an angle across the bottom to see if I could see a web and NOTHING. So I've got to believe it was a nute prob. Flushing to flood point last night and feeding with a strictly controlled feeding right after should fix whatever ails them. Good news is though that they're probably within about 3 weeks from harvest and whatever hit them even if it's not fixed, is moving slowly enough that it shouldn't interfere.

Yeah and thanks for the condolences over the loss of my dog. Sorry to hear about the intelligence deficit of yours, hehe. Doesn't seem to come from your side of the family though. ;>)

I feel like shit about it though. I was in the grow room when the attack on him took place. Brother-in-law's 3 pit bulls went into pack mode, when I let all the dogs out to do their piss and shit thing. Noise in the grow room, a/c, exhaust fans, etc. covered up the sounds. Ten minutes after I found him, the pit bulls were no longer allowed to breathe in and out.


NPK,
Thanks for the feedback on the B'cuzz and Canna coco. I didn't think there was much of an issue switching from one to the other, but thanks for the confirmation. Makes me feel better, dude. I couldn't believe it when I was able to take the Canna and plant straight into it after gaius had told me I could without worrying about it. Nice info to have man, thanks again for sharing it with everybody.

gaius, sir.
I've been meaning to go back through the thread and condense all the info so I'll have it for future grows. Quit doing that weeks ago cause I was already being accused of spending too much time with my plants, lol.


Yeah, about the flood thing. I went ahead and told the wife I'd done it. And not cause I'm a pussy, dude. Here's my rationale for telling her about it. I figured at first that if I told her, she'd say something like "What do you mean you flooded the hallway? I knew it, I can't even go to bed and leave you by yourself for fear that you'll make a mess or tear something up." But then, I started thinking that if I told her about it she might just think that even though I'm a fuckup, I can fix it! Made sense to me! Guess it worked cause I'm still sleeping in the big bed, lmfao.

i always put down a layer f pond tarp with a layer of filt under it. this gets attached a few inches up the walls all around the grow area, even though my system is flood proof, as it's a closed circle from table to tank and back to table and so on. but still one can cause splashes, r if one is very stoned and doesn't stay by the tank while it's being filled.....

See, I knew you were smokin your new shit, dude. Probably thought you may as well fess up to it since I been mentioning it anyway, huh? lol. It's all good, I'll have some in a few weeks dude. Been a long dry spell, quit drinking October of 2005 and quit buying weed about 5 months ago. Got tired of each buy being a different quality. And the best I ever got was still shit. I take that back, when I was having a lot of pain due to the two blown discs in my neck, I found some high quality Afghan stuff and paid out the ass for it. I bet it wasn't as good as what I'm gonna harvest off my two plants.

Peace to all of you

 

[gaiusmarius]

Hey mistah mojo man, time for another oration, hehe. i know how much you love getting lectured.

so.....make sure and keep all the trim for making hash or some other concentrate. you can make bubble hash with very simple kitchen equipment without having to buy bubble bags, you just get 1 grade instead of 7 lol. but it still totally rocks your world when you hit it.

by the way mojo mate, even if i was high as a kite, making those charts IS a good idea to learn about nutrient uptake of a strain. it is specially cool, when you realize after the harvest is done, that you have broken your yield record. then you can compare fert and temp charts with other runs of the same strain and you will see which factors are important to what aspect of the plants characteristics. also you will know what ec levels you gave at which point, that ended up working so well. this kind of info can be a great help to get the most from your strains and set up.

peace

 

[Guest]

dude, I wasn't comin down on ya, I was just having fun wit ya, lol. I had a long post ready to post and hit the post button and ICM was off line for a sec and I lost it, hehe. In that post I had said I intended to go back through this thread and fill in the blanks on the diary I've been keeping so I'd have the things you mentioned and thanked you for bringing it up.

High is a good thing, right? if it wasn't, I wouldn't be growing the shit. lol. I'm just envious of ya. Gotta go in a minute but I'll get back on later today. Gotta send some money to seedbay today. Found my SD I asked ya about a while back, hehe.

Peace bro

 

[Guest]

Dude would you pretty please go to this thread http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=54663 and help this poor MoFo out before he kills his plants. I've been trying to but he seems intent on killin his grow, hehe. If you've got time, I'd appreciate it. I know how you hate to see people fuck up their plants, lol.

Thanks man, I'll be back later today to check in.

Peace man

 

[gaiusmarius]

no worries mojo, i know you enjoy a bit of fun just as much as i do.

anyway i checked out that thread, but i couldn't add much that hadn't already been said. posts like your one in that thread, show me just how well you have picked up the basic principles of growing in coco. mind you, your plants show that even more clearly

 

[Guest]

Dude, thanks for taking the trip over there. It wasn't that I didn't say what needed to be said. Fuck man, you've taught me really well! It was the fact that oldpeculiar and I had said it, and said it, and said it .... somebody slap me on the shoulder, I feel like a broken record ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... thanks.... anyway he wasn't listening. I gave up and old peculiar, sittin there whackin his banana, laughed and told me what I already knew. Damn I like his avatar, too fucking hilarious. He said I needed to spread some reputation around before people would listen to me and he's right. Thing is, this guy didn't have time for me to get famous, jeeeze I kill myself, lol. Anyway, you've got waves of reputation and credibility floating off of ya like stink on cat shit, may be a bad analogy but you catch my drift. I'm not so proud that I won't play Lassie and run home to get Timmy, dude! Not if it'll help the guy. False pride, man and I don't have to prove myself to anyone, much less myself. I'll swallow hard and do what it takes to help as long as somebody doesn't act like a smartass and piss me off. He didn't. He really needed help and I'll thank ya for him. Kudos dude for going above and beyond, again and again and again and..... somebody slap me again, hehe.

People that have been around here longer than me, already knew this about you, but you're a fanfuckingtastic person. I've learned that through your helping me, but ya keep doing shit that amazes me!

I'm fortunate you chose to take me to school with my grow and I know this thread couldn't be in any better hands. Seriously. And Gdude, just shut the fuck up and take the compliment. lmfao

Should be back in a while, mate. Pretty good, huh? Said "mate", how'd ya like that??? Felt a little like a pussy sayin it but hey, if that's how ya like to talk, I'll try it! Sorry dude, couldn't pass it up. hehe.

Peace out bro

Edited: I'll never fucking say "knickers" though. That's crossing the line, lol.

Edited again for fuck's sake. lol: Gdude, just read what you posted, man. Thanks for the compliment. Means a lot coming from you.

 

[Jerry Maine]

Great grow thread, just read through it all, and had my beans not have popped just this morning, would probably look about getting some of that coco myself. Living in Japan though, and the countryside at that, I don't like the chances of me getting any in time. But I'll keep an eye out for a local supplier for next time.

Gaius Marius is the guy who professionalised the Roman army, for any history buffs. Quite a character, and seems to know a bit on how to grow dope too Fantastic job helping point Mojo in the right direction. I am definitely on the lookout for a mentor myself now.

Take it easy, and looking forward to the final harvest and smoke report.

Jerry Maine

 

[gaiusmarius]

i'm afraid my brit accent is the only way you can get away with calling people mate, lol.

doesn't sound right with an american accent. so don't even try it, alright? rofl

australians can get away with it even better, every ones your mate over there

 

[Guest]

Dude, I'm fucking busted now, how'd ya figure out I was American. Notice the capital letter in America? I don't go dissin your country, man, lol.

Yeah, sorry bout the "mate" thing, dude. You're right it does sound a little strange when manly, men say it, lmfao.

Looking at that Aurora and her leaves, I noticed that the spots on the leaves, that btw don't seem to be getting any worse, are located only on the leaves on the top 25% of the plant. And not all the leaves at that level are affected. As a matter of fact, a seven fingered leaf might only have 3 fingers with spots on it. And if a leaf from above casts a shadow on the spotted finger below it, the spots stop at that shadow and pick back up on the other side of the shadow. I don't see how it could be related to too much light, but I can't figure out another explanation for why the spots are only on the fingers of unshaded leaves and a leaf that has spots on the fingers that are directly exposed to the light. The Aurora is under the 600w HPS and has about 16 inches clearance from it's coloa to the light. Didn't feel hot at cola level but it may not be the heat from the light but rather the intensity of the light that's contributing to the spots.

That sound like a possibilty to you? Moved the 600w up as far as it would go in the closet without doing a bunch of shelf moving and right now I'm just too fucking tired to do it. White Widow had 9" of clearance underneath the 400w but it's not showing any signs of stress. Had 9" but now has 7". The bitch is still getting taller. buds are thickening up all over both plants. Feeding 6mLgal a+b, 6mL/gal Rhizotonic, 5ml/gal PK 13/14 and pH'n the water to 5.8

Abut the PK, you ever given it for an extended period during the flower cycle? I know how you like to put your ladies on a diet the last few days before harvest but the buds are thickening so I could see where the possibility exists that they might need the PK.

 

[gaiusmarius]

the trouble with the pk is that it's totally mineral based, hence i don't like to use it closer then 3 weeks before harvest, so i can be sure that the plant has converted it. but that's just my reasoning why i never continue using it for longer then a few days towards the end. well, that and causing my plants to get leaf tip burn when i do use it longer, lol.

please don't start on me about the capital letters, i try and avoid using them if at all possible, it is not meant in a derogatory way

i only spell strains names with capitals on ic mag, hehe.

 

[Guest]

Just bustin your chops about the capitalization thing, man.

Came home today and my 400w ballast had blown - for the second time since switching to HPS and 12/12. That meant the Aurora got full lighting sitting under the 600w and the Widow got, hmmmmmm.... a cloudy day. Shouldn't matter too muck I wouldn't think as long as I get another in the next day or so, right? Gonna take me that long to either have one shipped to me or go pick it up.

Don't know what's up with that light. Expensive Project X light so I wouldn't think the ballast (digital) that came with it would be cheap. The hydro shop has been replacing it for free but I sent the owner an email suggesting that he switch it to a Lumatech (same price on his page) or the old magnetic/core type.

Dude, what do you use, digital or magnetic/core type?

 

[gaiusmarius]

my lamps are old "industria 600"by philips, green house support lamps. the whole unit is in one with the ballast included. that makes them heavy to hang, but it mans only one plug comes off the light. they are magnetic core, definitely not digital. i have had these lamps for years and they are so reliable that i won't change unless my whole sale buddy gives me the same kind of reference as he did for the "industria". a good quality hps lamp should not brake down, specially not twice, are you sure it's not the bulb?

i like the idea of the digi ballasts, the way they make more light with less watts is totally cool. but until i hear that they are 100% reliable i will not bother switching. in fact i will probably only switch when these brake down, which they haven't done yet, lol.

the WW will be ok for a day or two without direct light. although it would be cool if you could have the light thats left in the middle so they both get some light to keep them on track as much as possible.

 

[Guest]

Q

Q

Thanks for the info, Gdude. Got back from the hydro shop and the owner is a super nice guy. This is the second time the ballast has gone out. He agreed to let me return the fucked up digital ballast and he swapped it for a HydroFarm XtraSun magnetic core ballast. Took about 15 minutes to wire it in and get it situated and poof! Got my light back.

In the meantime, I hung my 200w cfl that I use for my seedlings vertical next to the cola and when I got home, the cola was leaned over towards the cfl at about a 20 degree angle trying to hug the light, lol. It was kinda leaning before as I scooted it out from underneath the 400w HPS to get more clearance due to the fucking plant's height. It's now 6 feet tall! Only grew 3 inches in the last 3 weeks.

Hey dude, I noticed today the white hairs on the Aurora are beginning to go amber on me, yummy, yummy. About 3 or 4 on the tips of each of the growth tip buds on the biggest of the limbs.

I need to know how far you think I might be from harvest on that plant. I'm guessing about 3 weeks. I'm going to stop feeding the PK 13/14 as I have given the plants that in their food for the last 4 days waterings. 6mL/gal, just like the A+B. I'm at day 43 of flowering. Plan on cutting back on the nutes to half what I'm giving now in about a week if I think they're within a couple of weeks of harvest.

Oh yeah, solved the light dilemma for the clones I plan to veg in the closet when I move the flower stage to the main room. I bought a 4 foot wide, 8 bulb T5 fluorescent fixture that should keep them happy for the 6 or so days I veg the clones. Low heat, close to the plants, tight internode spacing, and all that.

I plan to reveg the two plants I've got now so I can use them as moms. Got about 10 different strains of seeds and also got some Sour Diesel by Reservoir Seeds off seedbay coming so I might want to try and pop 2 or 3 of those so I can get a harvest and a mom out of them also.

The guy that owns the hydro shop has several locations and he showed me a 3' square X 6' high booth he has set up that has a 1000w HPS fired up inside and the temp inside the booth was under 80 degrees. Bottom of the reflector was open and almost no heat build up and a tiny little 50cfmfan to exhaust with. I noticed that it had weird protrusions on either end of the reflector and asked what they were. He told me to look up into the fixture at the bulb and when I did, I saw that the bulb was encased in a plastic tube about 6 or 8 inches in diameter and this tube ran the entire length of the reflector and the protrusions I mentioned before were actually the ends of this tube sticking out about 3 inches on either side. He told me to touch the tube the bulb was in and when I did, it was cool to the touch. Didn't even get a chance to finish saying "fucking son-of-a-bitch" when he told me it was a water cooled light and that he had developed it himself. This guy has a phD in plant physiology and started growing at the age of 15. He's 30 now and said that Cool Sun along with several of the other light manufacturers have already given him pre-orders for a ton of the lights. Thing uses a small cooler that draws 7amps. Dude, no noise, no need for exhausting outside the grow, virtually no heat build up in the room! Damn!!!! Surface of the water tube the bulb is in we measured with an infrared temp meter at 79.6F. He's already sold 175 of them to local growers for about $350 and they are extremely happy. Cuts down on their visibility, and electrical usage. No real need for an a/c to cool the room.

Just thought I'd let ya know about them. Sometime before too long, I may buy a couple of kits to modify my lights.

Peace dude

 

[highonthechroni]

Hi mojo

Best to harvest by trichome colour - not hair colour (unless you're referring to trichs when you say "hair"?)

Perhaps someone can post that popular trich-harvesting picture?

 

[gaiusmarius]

cool mojo, i have seen a water cooled light at my guys place. pretty amazing to think of water flowing around the bulb with 600 or 1000 watts going through it. i would be a bit worried to be honest. how the hell can that be safe, lol. i must say the price seems reasonable. specially if he gives you a guarantee. i wonder how he stops the water getting into the bulb socket? and why doesn't the bulb blow up when it is hot and touching water? maybe he has two tubes, one for the bulb and one just around the bulb so the water isn't touching the bulb it's self?

anyway i'd love to see pics and hear more about this lamp of his. will you try it out? would be wicked to have zero heat coming off the lamps, would make a sealed room a snap. but even unsealed it allows a much smaller ventilation and less AC, which is all to the good.