The BroomRoom...

[RetroGrow]

Depends of ur tap water... Around here pH9,4 from tap so gotta b adjusting it alot for hydro. RO is really good but waistes 50% of water so not really economical... Mate did a recycling system for RO and is filtering the waste up to 4 times by adding a bit of fresh water every round... Then the waste could go to garden or toilet flush...
U planning on running coco with chems or bio bizz?

Peace

Tap water is best for coco. It has the calcium and magnesium that plants need. PH has to be adjusted down. Draw the water a couple days ahead of time. Let the chlorine evaporate out of it, then add nutrients. Then wait a day as PH usually rises. Then readjust and water/feed. RO water is a waste of money, and it will require you to buy cal/mag. Completely unnecessary. PH up & PH down are necessary also. The hydro nutes are what you want, as coco in Hempys is hydro. You could mix rain & tap, or RO & tap if your tap is really high PH, but plain tap is fine. I never use anything but tap.

 

[Miraculous Meds]

Tap water is best for coco. It has the calcium and magnesium that plants need. PH has to be adjusted down. Draw the water a couple days ahead of time. Let the chlorine evaporate out of it, then add nutrients. Then wait a day as PH usually rises. Then readjust and water/feed. RO water is a waste of money, and it will require you to buy cal/mag. Completely unnecessary. PH up & PH down are necessary also. The hydro nutes are what you want, as coco in Hempys is hydro. You could mix rain & tap, or RO & tap if your tap is really high PH, but plain tap is fine. I never use anything but tap.

Whats the ec and ph of ur tap retro?

It makes a difference. If ur below .5ec or so u can use tap pretty easily. But my tap runs 1 to 1.2 ec. that is equal to the full strength of nutrients that I give my plants.

Smelly,

One of the important things to understand about coir is how the cations work. Coir releases more K and holds on to more ca and mg. This is why people add ca/mg supplements. This is also why nutrients tailored for coir use have less K and more ca/mg. So this is why it makes it a no brainer to chose a nutrient line that is coir specific, or tailor one that is. GH 3 part has been tailored already by gratefulh3ad and im sure others, but h3ad has a good thread in the coco forum. If u check out the first few pages and filter h3ads posts u will get the jist of it. Basically he found that 6ml of micro and 9ml bloom per gallon changes the npk to the correct ratios for coir. So long story short no need for anything extra. No extra ca/mg cause its already been balanced correctly. Nothing needed extra from tap. Just a perfect balance for plants. Tap water can be fine. But if its like mine, it can have way to much of certain minerals, throwing off the ratio I was trying to achieve to fill the cations of coirs requirements.

The trick to using coco coir nutes and having deficiencies is to drive the ph up or down slightly to make nutrients more available. This usually isn't required though. Most of the time its a environmental problem causing the deficiency or over/under watering.

U cant get much more simple than 1.2ec at 5.8ph. Just a heads up if u read h3ads thread, he started out using a bit of epsoms to up the mg slightly, but ultimately stopped using it cause it wasn't necessary.

If u use this recipe to the end of flower u will have happy healthy plants that u don't even have to flush cause u have never over fed them and caused buildups an accumulations of salts. All I do at the end of flower is reduce the concentration. Going from 1.2 ec down to .5ec by the last few days to help make sure there was no build ups. It burns clean and smooth as soon as it dries this way. don't even have to have a cure for the great flavor and aroma. Although cure time does make it better. The trick is in the dry where u don't want it too fast or too slow. It should take no less than a week, at 55 or 60% rh.

 

[SmellyFlorist]

@Mirac... Epic post! Great explanation... I think Im starting to grasp this....

 

[LSWM]

Tap water is best for coco. It has the calcium and magnesium that plants need. PH has to be adjusted down. Draw the water a couple days ahead of time. Let the chlorine evaporate out of it, then add nutrients. Then wait a day as PH usually rises. Then readjust and water/feed.

What you have said is only half true, and while this method may work for you, it entirely depends on your source water.

Tap water generally contains calcium/magnesium carbonate. Carbonates add alkalinity/water hardness to your nutrient solution. A nutrient solution has a balanced pH by using alkalinity, nitrate vs nitrite, and other pH adjusters/buffers to keep everything hovering at the pH the solution was designed for. Too much or too little alkalinity will lead to pH swings over time. Depending on the nutrient used, this added alkalinity from the tap may cause issues or not.

To add to this, the contents of tap water is completely unknown when measuring it by EC. You may be able to make an informed guess but until you get it tested you really don't know. What it contains could throw off the ratio of cations and make that added K from the coir a serious issue.

RO water is a waste of money, and it will require you to buy cal/mag.

If we repeat this enough then it must be true! I can't believe how often calmag is recommended and how often it is completely unnecessary, and in my experience only made things worse.

Assuming your nutrient has all the proper nutrients, in the proper ratios, there should be absolutely no need for calmag.

PH up & PH down are necessary also.

Jack's Hydro + CalNit in RO here. No additives, no adjusters. Works like a treat.

 

[LSWM]

The trick to using coco coir nutes and having deficiencies is to drive the ph up or down slightly to make nutrients more available. This usually isn't required though. Most of the time its a environmental problem causing the deficiency or over/under watering.

Can't tell you how many sick plant posts could be solved by that little gem right there! Throw that bottle of CalMag+ away and use what this man just said for every non-pest related plant problem in coco.

 

[RetroGrow]

Jack's Hydro + CalNit in RO here. No additives, no adjusters. Works like a treat.

Great! Except they don't have it in Africa!
Re: coco specific nutrients-nonsense. I've used every kind of nutrients with coco, including coco specific, and found no benefit as opposed to GH 3 part, which is the same as what is available to him. Works fine. Don't need to even worry about cation exchange. As far as his water goes, I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it can be adjusted by adding RO if he wants, and obviously, the PH can be adjusted. So he will need PH "up & down". My tap water is between 200 -300 PPMs, and it works perfectly with coco. If his is above that range, all he has to do is dilute it with RO or rain water if available. At any rate, the meters will tell the story. I don't know if it's different in Africa, but here in the states, you can get an analysis of your water from the water company. It's usually posted online. I'm guessing it might be different there.

 

[dociron]

Great! Except they don't have it in Africa!
Re: coco specific nutrients-nonsense. I've used every kind of nutrients with coco, including coco specific, and found no benefit as opposed to GH 3 part, which is the same as what is available to him. Works fine. Don't need to even worry about cation exchange. As far as his water goes, I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it can be adjusted by adding RO if he wants, and obviously, the PH can be adjusted. So he will need PH "up & down". My tap water is between 200 -300 PPMs, and it works perfectly with coco. If his is above that range, all he has to do is dilute it with RO or rain water if available. At any rate, the meters will tell the story. I don't know if it's different in Africa, but here in the states, you can get an analysis of your water from the water company. It's usually posted online. I'm guessing it might be different there.

Brother, this person lives in a shanty, lives on rainwater, I'm amazed at this ability to get some of the stuff he/she does get!
I wanna see wher you go from here my friend Smelly!

 

[Rooibard]

One thing havent caught my eye whilst in hydro shop is their micro... Gh has micro for soft or hard water... Not sure of this copy brand if they got options on that... Must take into consideration with coco, no?

Peace

 

[SmellyFlorist]

Its friday, feeling pretty lazy....

Dont really see a point in phoning them... I really bet they dont know what they do to it... I phoned in last week about plot numbers and building restrictions and grap for graft... I got told 3 calls in row to: "Phone back 2mrw" and then beeeeeeeeeeeep... they dont give a fuck what you wanna know or why... they're in-charge and thats all the fuck that matters to them.... theres people not far away who've had fucking brown water out the taps for the last 3months... and when I say brown, I dont mean cloudy, I mean u cant see through it coz it looks like river water... they paying for it.... they complain... and they just get told week in and week out... "Its been seen too..." beeeeeeeeep.... time for chicken....

 

[RetroGrow]

Brown? Damn. May need a filter. Start saving that rain water.

 

[SmellyFlorist]

@Retro.... yeah residents keep sending in pics to the paper of the water... some almost looks like mustard... lol... Iv always had real "crystal clear water" from my taps.... and I got 2 1000L jojo tanks filled with rain water...

Now the new thing is theres talk of no water... coz you need electricity to produce "drinking" water... but um yeah... we dont have much power here right now...

Oh well, life goes on... we do have Jbay... and The Donkey and the African Kirra are... well, you can get to those waves....

 

[jd4083]

this dude has no fucking power and brown water and he still grows better than I do fuck me


you're a boss straight up inspiring

 

[SmellyFlorist]

@jd... and I cant get the fucking lid back on my scrubber...

why, oh why is nothing ever simple....

Simple Smelly....

 

[SmellyFlorist]

Seriously what the fuck... Iv listened to Dookie 3 times now and I still cant get this fuck on properly... its just this stoopid lip inside the lid and I cant get it on properly.... thing just keeps sitting pissed creating a air pocket there... cant have that... why cant these fucks just make these things wifff screw on lids... easy peasy... tools

Iv even been jumping on the thing like a monkey... does budge a shit...

Im even thinking lube... the thing has to fit snug.... fucksakes

 

[SmellyFlorist]

Fuck it, I just packed it out wifff 8 single stockings...
Total time spent on lid = 3hours..... not bad... not bad at all....

 

[Miraculous Meds]

A bit of dish soap might make it easier to get it on. If there is a slight leak, u can just use some duct tape.

What are u talking about exactly? That metal end cap that goes on one end of the carbon filter while the fan goes on the other side? If so a rubber mallet works good, or a hammer with a piece of wood to hit against the end cap.

I think they are mainly making it as cheap as they can, not necessarily as easy as possible.

 

[SmellyFlorist]

@Mirac.... howzit brah.... I didnt try the soap... I did gob my finger and run it thoulol
I did the hammer/wood trick, didnt do shit but knock carbon out the filter... yeah thats the exact piece Im on about... the rims bout an inch deep but inside it it reduces 2-3mm and I could only get it half on... But all those stockings laid out in a circular patten has packed it out nice... Il post some pics probs...

 

[SmellyFlorist]

This silver tape is the shit!

 

[SmellyFlorist]

Right as some of you know Iv been busy the last few days...
Got all the girls into the broomroom... bit warm at 27dC and the RH is 62%... I can live with that.... Oh an shits actually not to noisy... I can hear it... but not over some of the traffic...

Lining them up... hadnt raised lights yet...

All in place... bitch to get the lights any higher...
HSO Blue Dream s1's on the left in blue buckets.... cut of "cheese" in orange buckets... the "cheese" is more squat while the BD's are more tall.... both these plants smell real good after a stem rub...

Floor fans are in place...

And lights are on... first "night" 2mrw at 6am...

Scrubber is working a breeze... couldnt smell a dead rat if it fell out your arse...

 

[SmellyFlorist]

Almost forgot.... the new Doorway Girl...