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the Hand Watering coco thread

Justin_Credible

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary....
Veteran
Hi guys, been a while since I posted so forgive me if I make any newbie requests...

I have recently switched to coco but want to continue to use organic nutes. I have been using bio-grow and bio-bloom but am suffering from a nitrogen def in my vegging plants (red stems, stunted growth, light green small leaves).

Basically I dont know how much to use and when to use it? There is no schedule anywhere to help me...

Thanks

Hey man:wave:
Just a heads up...this thread is awesome for help in coco watering...but maybe you might want to go to the infirmary for this? :dunno:

Just made the switch myself...love it so far.:tiphat:
 
M

milehimedi

Hey guys. New to the thread and new to coco. My friend gifted me some rooted cuts in 3 liter pots of coco. I have been pHing the water to 5.8-5.9. My first question is, will the Fox Farm nutrient line be sufficient base nutes? I have been using those with Rhizotonic, Superthrive, and once with a magnesium supplement. Next question: When foliar spraying with plants in coco, does the pH of the solution need to be the same (5.8-5.9)?
 

MaynardG_Krebs

Active member
Veteran
Air Pots

Air Pots

Hey guys.. I just got half dozen of these Air Pots.. just wondering if anyone has messed with these things. Their propoganda is pretty interesting.. thought I'd give em a try for my last half dozen kids this season..
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mgk :tiphat:
 

joseaf

Member
Question: How many brick does it take to make one gallon of potting mix?

I purchased a 5kg bag of coir and I have a lot left over. Can I store it damp or should I let it dry out? My only complain with coir, it is messy! I mixed in a large storage container in my bath tub.

I am using CNS17 for coco (got 1 gallon for $5 so I got a lot). I started seeds in the aerogarden and transferred them yesterday into 3 gallon air bags. I feed them half strength nudes and this morning the plants look health and strong. I am using Trek T5 6 lights from veg to bloom in my new grown area. Experiment with T5. I have used 400w with 2x2 ebb/flow in the pass and got just under 1/4# with four plants. I want to see what T5 will do for me since it will cut cost and energy usage.

Here is my setup:
AeroGarden to start seeds, later it will be used to clone 7 clones.
A separate cabinet to house 2 mothers and clones.
Blooming area is 2X4 closet setup using 6 bulbs T5 HO lights. to grow 6 to 7 plants
I hope to harvest at least 300g of White Rhino and unknown seeds from friends.

I got seeds from some good stuff in the past (over 100 seeds from 3 sources of good stuff)

My last two harvest was from unknown and it turned out to be mostly sativa and the high was mostly energetic. I don't use it late at night or I will be up until 2 or 3 am.

The current unknowns are most indica, wide leaf.
 

psychodelicbob

New member
Best ever overview of mag def in coco

Best ever overview of mag def in coco

:thank you:
Coco isn't the kind of media you want to flush. It readily will release any salts or buildup in a good flush, even without clear-x.

The problem with salts in coco is a build up of sodium and potassium chlorides. This makes using RO filtered water appealing, due to the lack of chlorides.

Coco retains a nutrient buffer that is essential to the CEC of the media. The buffer is primarily calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. Once the requirements have been fulfilled these nutrients become very available in the media.

The problem many growers in coco experience is at a point around 2 to 4 weeks in to flowering. Over-abundance of available calcium and potassium compete for uptake with magnesium. Thus a magnesium deficiency can form quickly despite no changes in the nutrient regiment. I find that supplementing using something like cal-mag, magi-cal, etc, winds up adding 3x the calcium to magnesium, which is overkill for coco IMO.

Unfortunately there aren't many magnesium supplements on the market. Organicare Huvega contains more calcium and sodium than it does magnesium, despite claiming to be an Mg based additive. Humboldt Nutrients SeaMag is the ONLY acceptable magnesium supply I have found commercially. Otherwise, mixing up some epsom salt solution is another way of fulfilling the Mg requirements as bloom continues.

If you check out the Canna website they have several articles called "CannaTalk." One of the articles on coco explains why they only use one coco formula, rather than a veg and a bloom formula. I'll let you read it for yourself, but the long and the short of it is, if you flush you need to begin using a bloom nutrient immediately after the flush to rebuild your nutrient CEC buffer. Otherwise the coco's conductivity will actually extract cations and ions from the plant via a kind of reverse osmosis to establish electrical equilibrium with the plant.

Flushing+Coco = Bad News. Just be careful and understand the media well enough before being hasty.
 
S

Silky Johnson

Hey Maynard I didn't know you were going with Air Pots! As you saw I started a thread and I'm very excited to see what happens. So i assume you're going coco... are you doing a mix with anything at all or all coco? Check out this site about the air pots on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NUjNBKex0I
Are you in the states at all?
 

MaynardG_Krebs

Active member
Veteran
Hey Maynard I didn't know you were going with Air Pots! As you saw I started a thread and I'm very excited to see what happens. So i assume you're going coco... are you doing a mix with anything at all or all coco? Check out this site about the air pots on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NUjNBKex0I
Are you in the states at all?

I got 6 of the 2 gallon size. I'm going to do 3 of them in coco and 3 of them in hydroton. Both will be fed with recirculating drip type setups. I know a lot of guys say to not do a recirculate thing with the coco, but I've seen a couple do it with great results. My first hydro type grow was with a small drip system that absolutely rocked. I'm a little tired of hand watering, so I'm gonna try something different.

mgk :tiphat:
 
S

Silky Johnson

Yeah I was using bio buckets before I found these. I just didn't like the fact i wasn't in control of all my plants during feeding, plus water would stay in the bottoms which gave it root rot... Do you have a thread at all on what you're doing?
 

Justin_Credible

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary....
Veteran
I got 6 of the 2 gallon size. I'm going to do 3 of them in coco and 3 of them in hydroton. Both will be fed with recirculating drip type setups. I know a lot of guys say to not do a recirculate thing with the coco, but I've seen a couple do it with great results. My first hydro type grow was with a small drip system that absolutely rocked. I'm a little tired of hand watering, so I'm gonna try something different.

mgk :tiphat:

Look forward to seeing how this works out for you MGK. I am sick of hand watering as well.:tiphat:
 

70's rock

Member
Hi, thanks for all the info in here, i've learned a lot from it!

I've been growing in coco for just over a year and i love it. I grew indica and 50/50 strains in the beginning. I watered at least once per day and gave the plants nutes so they started to burn at the tips. Thing were fine, but then i started to grow more sativa leaning strains as SSH and Skunk (i always thought skunk was more indica but what i got was very satdom). They were all hanging and looked like they were growing out of control (don't know how to describe it, growth were good but leafes grew crooked and the plant was not beautifull).

So i cut down on both waterings and nutes, first on the sativas. It worked! plants wre starting to look great, so i tried it with the indicas aswell, and they too looked better. Yields increased aswell.

This goes against all i've read about coco. Has anyone experienced the same as me? I should add that since i let the coco get somewhat dry i flush every other watering to avoid salt buildup.






I think you see what i mean in the pics, first is good, second overwatered.
 
B

bonecarver_OG

ballance is the key :D watering frequency has a lot to do with ambient temperatures. when its hot its better to water more, since the plants use more water and leave a lot of nutes to build up. when the temps are lower, the plants need less water, and dont need to get watered as often.

poit size also affects it - bigger pots need less water, but at the same time are bound to build up more nutes and salts, because of the volume of coco.

in smaller pots also the plants finish quicker the water and have to be watered acordingly.

peace
 

JAY LENWEED

Member
Using coco for the first time. I am going to hand feed and water. Should I follow a water,water, feed, water, water, feed schedule ? Any tips would "highly" be apprieciated !
 

tokinblackguy

Active member
i'm running a nutrient profile modeled after what H3ad uses for coco, but with organic/mostly organic nutes and just wanted to double check if anyone here sees a problem with it and if any adjustments should be made or addressed. my medium is pure b'cuzz coco, no pre-rinsing or flushing, General Organics Bloom and Cal/Mg and Buddha Grow from Roots Organics. Trinity(bio-catalyst), Ancient Amber(fulvic/humic acid) OregonismXL(mychos and benefiicials), and Hygrozyme. nute profile is 107N-62P-140K-29Mg-66Ca. i haven't ph'd at all and plants look extraordinarily healthy going into week 1 flower. i plan to boost with Roots Big Swell. i should add, this is my first time with coco, less than 1 month experience. any help or feedback is appreciated.
 

woolybear

Well-known member
Veteran
Note to coco'ers: PH/EC Meter is MANDATORY! Went thru about $100 of seeds before finding out my tap is 8.0 ph! Serves me right, knew I should've bought it earlier... Live and learn!
 
B

bonecarver_OG

Note to coco'ers: PH/EC Meter is MANDATORY! Went thru about $100 of seeds before finding out my tap is 8.0 ph! Serves me right, knew I should've bought it earlier... Live and learn!

its only a lucky few in the world that have tap water suitable for growing with good results in coco.

ec and ph meters are a must for best results for most of us. its great tools..

peace
 

woolybear

Well-known member
Veteran
Thanks Bonecarver... rocking 5.5 ph now, this hanna meter is pretty cool! Luckily the EC of my tap is under 100... Off to water for round 2.0!
 

davyz44

New member
Hi ive come back to coco from soil and ive started useing
Canna coco a n b for veg and was thinking of sum kind of enzime
And a good root enhancer , later i was going to use pk 13/14
And canna boost, any help or suggestions welcome as best nutes to add
To my canna coco a n b,
Nice 1
 

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