the Hand Watering coco thread

[bonecarver_OG]

i agree with gaius coco nutes gives the best results with less problems.

ph and ec

i allways measure ph -the most important part - but its obvious we are going to get an EC meter when we can - they are really usefull this far it has worked fine though. BUT its only because:

i mix my tap water with distilled or de-mineralized/de-ionized water and that definetly gives a really low ec from start. but having an EC-meter i would know better how much distilled waterireally do have to use. it gets expensive with the distilled water. i buy 150 liters a month of it. its 0.50 euro a liter. that on top of the electricity bill is the biggest costs in my grow. if u can, put in a RO unit - if u want to grow more than a few plants.

we here have really hard tapwater - its full of Calcium and other minerals - wich really isnt good ph-wise or ec wise at all. if u live in a areawith heavilly treated water - do use RO - or distilled water to mix it down. too much distilled water isnt too good - so dont go over a 50% mix. i use often a mix of 1 part distilled and 2 parts tap water.

tap water quality depends a lot from area to area.

in the long run a RO unit is much cheaper than buying bottled distilled water - cant stop to repeat that

here in the desert like conditions i live in too much water use is punished with fines - so i think i might continue to buy distilled water too. u know they are thinking of limiting water use to 60-80 liters per person/ a house hold per day...

we need rain

peace all

 

[gdawg]

hey BC i am crazy about this coco. i still got alot to learn but its going sooo much better than previous soil grows. i owe you too for gettin me interested and seein what can happen when treated right. started off gettin a couple of bricks to try it and then i found your thread and decided to change the whole getup! can't wait to take it out in the hills! hey look i am using a 2 stage water filter cuz my water is hard as hell and on top of that they are constantly workin on the dang mains around here, sometimes it comes out white lookin so i use no "tap' water. don't have an ec meter, ph out the filter 8. some of my girls towards the 6 or 7 week sstart to get bronze lookin fans toward the bottom. is this ok? BC that suxbig timeon your water situation. i pick on my friends that live in the desert about not having any dang water now i kinda feel bad about it.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

adjust ph atleast to 6 and most should be ok - the burn u talk about is mag def it seems - its because u have used non coco nutes

peace bro

 

[darrengary]

Hi folks! Just wanted to join in as we have been hand watering since the beginning of our grow, and, although we made a couple of mistakes at first, we soon got into a good rhythm.

Check our thread 4 pix of our grow.

Coco rules and that's that!
peace guys

 

[bonecarver_OG]

well done darren!

 

[gdawg]

thanx BC. i'm just waitin for the pbp bottle to run out. live three hours from the closest shop and they didn't carry the canna nutes last time i was there. i wanna post some pics bad but i read a thread in tokers den yesterday that kinda scared me. hey gary nice lookin girls!

 

[gaiusmarius]

gdawg there is no reason to worry any more today then there was last week. if you keep your own private info private, then no one can "out" said info, whether by accident or on purpose. that thread should be treated as a warning to all members to never give out private info to a unknown entity on the internet. read the security threads and make sure your own security is in order.
peace

 

[bonecarver_OG]

yeah - no paranoia needed

its enough paranoia inducing to carry slabs of coco to my flat in this scetchy neighbourhood - one day someone might realize those are for hydro

 

[Suby]

Hey Muddy,

I have just 2 things I noticed, it might be nothing but here goes.

1 That is very little medium for a flowering plant or even a vegging plant at that.
2 Coco does not buffer ph as well as peat or soil, it easily takes on the ph of what you feed it so beware of using ashes and other ammendments that easily sway ph.

Peace

 

[bonecarver_OG]

in coco the pot size can be much smaler than normal

but i think there was some specific reason he couldnt do it.

ashes .. yeah should let those break down in water for a long time - ash tea - and be very carefull since its highly alcaline, sieve it first. but ashes contains a LOT of nutricion i tried it in soil with other aditions and it workswell.. but in coco i know only about mudy here using it and this far it seems to go pretty well, huh?

peace

 

[bonecarver_OG]

i veg perfectly plants for one month in 2 dl cups - thats as big as a normal small plasticup for water. the drain of is the important part and not to overwater

do cut holes that goes UP on the sides of the cups to let more air in and let them roots breath.

 

[Suby]

I agree, pure coco in small containers is not a problem I used to flower them in 3gallon buckets and I'd get trees by the end.
From what I read though Muddy was using only a 1/4 mix of coco, the rest was soil, compost and perlite, not alot of nutrition there.

When I grew in coco I would put a 1" layer of hydroton in the bottom and a few small holes in the bottom, this worked well for especially during transplant, I hand watered every 2-3 days.

Peace
S

 

[bonecarver_OG]

3 gallon pots for coco is big - u can grow huge in them.

now im putting my moms in 12 gallon containers - the biggest indoor containers for single plant i have ever used.

also on the side i have 70 liter (almost 2 whole slabs in the container) which i filled up with clones it will be a small grove in the end of veg.

i have stopped using hydroton in small pots - since they hydro pots i use have good drainage. only in big containers do i ad something in the bottom to asure more aireation. now im using high density styrofoam cut to chunks. but only in the really big containers. its rock hard but has alot of air and also it can hold a bit of water.

peace

 

[Suby]

Yep they were monsters, I only needed 2 under my 430W closet setup and they filled the room nicely, I'll look into using styrofoam as I have alot of it and as of now I'm out of hydroton.
I have a soil mix with 25% coco in the works for next month so we'll see how it stacks up to an all soil mix.

Good thread Bonecarver, keep up the good work.

Peace
S

 

[bonecarver_OG]

make sure the styrofoam is of the high density - if not it might get squashed by the weight of the coco.

peace

 

[gdawg]

hey there BC and gauis sorry bout the earlier paranoia, i quit smokin cigs last week and it may be affecting my judgement anyhow here are some pics keep in mind they were transplanted from soil in 2 galls thats why they are in the 3galls. the first couple are unknown strain and the third is chronic. i think the chronic really needed more nutes than the others. i GOT to get on the canna!! last pic is the new batch in coco from the get-go! some chronic, nl5xhaze, and bagseed. thank you so much for ya'lls help!

 

[gaiusmarius]

nice work gdawg, it's looking like a nice and healthy grow. you are right to be cautious, make sure you never give out any identifying info about your self and maybe even use a proxy and always change the name of your jpeg, as your camera leaves identifying markers in the numbers it gives the pics. use common sense, no pics of your house, car or family etc, lol

anyway great looking grow man, it's gonna be quite a trim party when the time comes.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

its getting going

now hand watering around 105 plants all included

 

[gdawg]

lookin good BC its fuckin unreal how much water these girls use when happy and in the perfect medium! i'm about to move and set up a new room and definetly lookin into drip systems. maybe hand water through veg but for sure drip for 12/12. i'm watering every night now its gettin out of control!

 

[bonecarver_OG]

hehehehe thats why i allways transplant before flowering into much bigger containers - to be able to lock more water for the plants in the medium. its true small pots gets dry really quick in flowering

its hard work but it can be done!

with out any doubt drippers is less work hehehe

for hand watering coco in flowering i recomend at least almost 2 gallon pots or more - to work less

hehe im going to use a lot of 1,5 gallon pots this time i have still have a pump and drippers i can connect if necesary - atleast to the ones needing most water but im far from needing it yet

lets see as soon as i start trans planting.. in a few days

peace