Dust Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 coco high in K? isn't coco a sterile medium? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 So apparently the Quote and MultiQuote are not working atm, sooo....Tokage....I have stayed on top of the PH and it never really strays from 5.8 - 6.3. I think that I have discovered my issue. I was supplementing with CaMg, because I always have through veg and then dropped the amounts down about 25% per week through the first few weeks of flower. This time around I do not have an RO filter and have been using evaporated tap water. I got a water analysis for here and the Ca is about 150 - 180PPM which is plenty high if not too high. This leads me to believe that it was too high of Ca and was effecting P and K uptake. I have cut off the Ca supplements and the plants seem to be doing better. I will just up the dose of organic P so that it will offset the high Ca rate. I am hesitant to drop in too much salt based P and K because I do not want to be running super high EC. Will post a few pics later today or tomorrow.Dust....I am under the same impression about coco being pretty inert but have been reading things that are contrary, hence my confusion. Here is just one article on the subject from Rosebud Magazine... http://www.rosebudma...to-use-it-rightI am still trying to find the sweet spot with coco. I figure that it will take me one or two more cycles to get the optimal results out of it. I do not really bother with most of the suggestions that are on the net, because I am so tired of everyone telling me that EVERYTHING is a Ca or Mg deficiency. Most of these guys have no idea what a deficiency looks like, they are just recycling information that they seen on some board somewhere. That is not meant to imply that YOU do not know, just that there are quite a bit of people that think because they have one plant and some CFL bulbs they are growers . There is a learning curve with any new substrate, and it would appear that this is especially true for coir.I am open for any input that you may have on the subject. I have been trolling the coco grows to see different results with different setups and nutes. I am not gathering any real cohesive information though. i considered moving from the GH Flora Duo base nutes to Advanced Nutrients, but cant justify the cost. The "PH Perfect" can be accomplished with any nutrients if you are familiar with cations and anions to make the plant produce its own PH adjustments. I just have not been able to dial it in with the coco. In rockwool/hydro I had it figured out, but I am quickly finding out that I can not treat coir the same way because of its CEC (cation exchange capacity). Who knows right? If you ask 10 different growers, you will get 10 different answers for what the "magic formula" is. Like everything, a few experiments will figure out what works best. Hoping to dial in the coco soon, so I can up my plant numbers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 well what i remember from the time i used coco was that it was inert, so you had to feed every watering cycle from seedling to end of flow, (except for the final flush and i guess you can allow yourself some watering with only water few times during the grow, but that i'm not sure.About the PH as it's considered a soiless medium i think the ph to use is around 5.8 About that you can check franco's article you might find some infos http://www.strainhun.../grow-articles/Good luck man i don't know much more and don't wanna induce you in the wrong direction ^^Have a good grow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bam-Bhole Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 The crop looks fine but it is really not much. It is a gamble with Autos I know. For the Flora Duo i use it too it omes with a ph tester, so you can dial the ph in pretty good with a ph up or down liquid. Best prepare more water than you need for one watering to get a more even ph level. The nutes are good imo. Did you use RIPEN too ?Good luck with your plants..Peace + GrowBAM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 Here is a quick update on the few girls I have around the house. Seems like the adjustments that i made to my nutrients is working out for me. The only issue that I have had was losing a few leaves on one of the plants that are outside. I had brought them in in the morning to flush and water them and didnt put them in the shade outside before moving them back to the sun. so a few leaves got a little heat stressed from the 103 degree weather (40 celcius). Not an issue for me, there is plenty of foliage. So without any delay, here is a few pictures that I took a little while ago....Here is the largest Sweet Black Angel that is outside. It has been topped and I have been LST'ing it for about a week to 10 days. I cut off all of the side branching and am leaving 6 colas on it...*** WILL INSERT IMAGES LATER. CONTROL PANEL FOR EDITOR IS NOT WORKING.***Here is the three SBA clones that are inside...*** WILL INSERT IMAGES LATER. CONTROL PANEL FOR EDITOR IS NOT WORKING.*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 SBA clones... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 well what i remember from the time i used coco was that it was inert, so you had to feed every watering cycle from seedling to end of flow, (except for the final flush and i guess you can allow yourself some watering with only water few times during the grow, but that i'm not sure.About the PH as it's considered a soiless medium i think the ph to use is around 5.8 About that you can check franco's article you might find some infos http://www.strainhun.../grow-articles/Good luck man i don't know much more and don't wanna induce you in the wrong direction ^^Have a good growOkay so it would appear that you CAN "quote" posts I just have to ctrl+click to open in new window. The page will not automatically refresh on its own...ODD.I am very familiar with PH. I think I have it worked out now, it was actually an overdose of calcium. I am so used to using RO water that I normally put in 1ml/L of CaMg supplements. Now that I am using tap water, I had to track down a water analysis to see that the water has a little over 150PPM of Ca in it already so that is what was causing a lockout of Phosphorus.The PH is not as bad of an issue for me, 90% of the components of my nutrients are chelated so its not as specific of a range. I always PH my water before I use it though. I own a few digital pens, but honestly use the drops more often. I dont like to rely on the pens since it seems that I am calibrating them a few times per week and have had issues where it was off and I accidentally effed up my crop.You are correct in the assumption that 5.8 PH is preferred for hydro, but you can swing it up or down a few points to make some nutes more available. Certain nutes do better outside of the "ideal range". I find that if I am having a deficiency, I will adjust the PH to maximum absorption for that specific nutrient. I am actually checking out Franco's tips now. I like to learn more, and have been a fan of Greenhouse for a while. Ever since I saw the Malawi expedition, I was on it. I have not had a chance to grow any GH strains yet, but will more than likely throw a few in with my next order. Too bad they cannot ship to US. Have to check and see if they will ship to Mexico.I appreciate the advice though brother. These are all just new little issues to me with the switch from hydro. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 The crop looks fine but it is really not much. It is a gamble with Autos I know. For the Flora Duo i use it too it omes with a ph tester, so you can dial the ph in pretty good with a ph up or down liquid. Best prepare more water than you need for one watering to get a more even ph level. The nutes are good imo. Did you use RIPEN too ?Good luck with your plants..Peace + GrowBAMThat is cool that they give up the PH pen for the UK. They don't give anything in the US. I am familiar with PH and have PH pens, but normally just use the drops. I do not like to calibrate the meter, the drops do not need any calibration . I used to use the "Ripen" which is marketed here as KoolBloom. I stayed away from it in the coco because of the 0-10-10, going by what I was told about coco being high in K. I opted to go for an organic seabird quano from Earth Juice with a 0-8-1 instead. I am currently trying to get a feel for coco so I have decided I will do one round with no additional supplements than the FloraDuo unless I run into an issue. I will go back to adding the other stuff next rotation. I will change the timer on my clones in 2 more weeks so that I am running a perpetual with 3 plants every 3 weeks so that I can space my harvest appropriately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bam-Bhole Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Cool, sounds good.. They add the drops and a citric powder for hard water over here GHE that is. The nutes work really good. I bought a bunch of extra stuff this time and find the plants and soil smelling petty bad, because of the CANNa BIO rhizotonic, which stinks terribly. no more BIO for this man and that Bud Stimulator from Bio-Bizz I tried to enhance the start of flowering is pretty hardcore in the aroma dep. as well. The other is HESi PowerZyme, which ain't that bad on it's own, but taken all these together the plants must be flushed thoroughly every 2 to 3 weeks.Anyway, my prob. Beginners mistakes or wish to try out what works best.. The roots developed nicely and the flowering started fast, so IT is working..lolYour plants are bushy now and produce a lot of leaves, which is a good sign for a good crop.Good luck with your Coco, but I will use these Aero Pots next time, instead of dirt. 4 pots one big container for water - no soil, no mess add nutes to the water once a week and reap a LOT, Hydro style..As nice as playing around with dirt may be in this age Hydro makes so much more sense up to 4 times as much per plant speaks for itself. Better control, easier growing etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Cool, sounds good.. They add the drops and a citric powder for hard water over here GHE that is. The nutes work really good. I bought a bunch of extra stuff this time and find the plants and soil smelling petty bad, because of the CANNa BIO rhizotonic, which stinks terribly. no more BIO for this man and that Bud Stimulator from Bio-Bizz I tried to enhance the start of flowering is pretty hardcore in the aroma dep. as well. The other is HESi PowerZyme, which ain't that bad on it's own, but taken all these together the plants must be flushed thoroughly every 2 to 3 weeks.Anyway, my prob. Beginners mistakes or wish to try out what works best.. The roots developed nicely and the flowering started fast, so IT is working..lolYour plants are bushy now and produce a lot of leaves, which is a good sign for a good crop.Good luck with your Coco, but I will use these Aero Pots next time, instead of dirt. 4 pots one big container for water - no soil, no mess add nutes to the water once a week and reap a LOT, Hydro style..As nice as playing around with dirt may be in this age Hydro makes so much more sense up to 4 times as much per plant speaks for itself. Better control, easier growing etc.There are some definite advantages to hydro, unfortunately I am not in a position that I can do any real hydro system, that is why I am using the coco. It is only a few plants so I do not need irrigation or anything so it is not too bad. If I had a larger scale grow, then I think I would try to work out a coco/dwc hybrid. I am becoming a fan of coco for its CEC and drainage properties. I have had the greatest success personally with DWC, and think that I do a system to combine the two. Almost a bio bucket type of system. I see that the Tricaderma and Mycorrhizae love the coco, so I think that it would make a better base for a hydro system than expanded clay, rockwool, or peat. Rockwool was great but it is very picky about being maintained to get the maximum results. Peat was never an option for me, I have heard too many bad things. Of course this is just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Well it is once again time for me to post an update. I will begin with a few images of the SBA that is outside. I have been having to tie this thing down daily since I only have about 45cm of vertical space left before my neighbors will see it . I assume the colas will be pretty substantial, so I was trying to keep it tied down to allow them room. I was able to get rid of the mild P or K deficiency by stopping with Ca supplementation. Here is the SBA clones that have been vegging for about 10 days so far. I have about 15 days until I switch to flower. I will have to top and LST these so that I can get good use out of the LED. I let the last ones go natural to see if it would work and unfortunately I do not think that it worked out too well for me. These ones actually look a little better than the autos did, so I am pretty sure that this round should be fine. I am starting to acclimate to the coco and LEDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bam-Bhole Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Lovely plant ! The big girl is nice + bushy, the new girlies have that healthy green i love best. Good work. Well working with soil or coco is nice. I was just stressed out from heavy duty transplanting 12 plants and hundreds of litre of soil, what a mess plus the smell. Now it is better, some stras (esp. the WHITE family) just have a root stem drain, that smells bad esp. when you add nutes and the plants are in smaller containers.I fell in love with that simple AERO Pot system for 79,90 I saw. One 39 litre container and 4 13 litre pots all without electricity etc. Just add the water & feedings switch on the lights and all you gotta do is check for health and refill the container every 10 days to 2 weeks..Sounds too good to be true I guess.Here is a link in germanhttp://www.growfix.d...-inkl.-47L-FassIt is called AUTO POT and the price was adjusted to 98 € ..20 euro more atmStill a good deal for beginners I bet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 beautiful colors man, keep up the good work Have a good grow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 Lovely plant ! The big girl is nice + bushy, the new girlies have that healthy green i love best. Good work.Well working with soil or coco is nice. I was just stressed out from heavy duty transplanting 12 plants and hundreds of litre of soil, what a mess plus the smell. Now it is better, some stras (esp. the WHITE family) just have a root stem drain, that smells bad esp. when you add nutes and the plants are in smaller containers.I fell in love with that simple AERO Pot system for 79,90 I saw. One 39 litre container and 4 13 litre pots all without electricity etc. Just add the water & feedings switch on the lights and all you gotta do is check for health and refill the container every 10 days to 2 weeks..Sounds too good to be true I guess.Here is a link in germanhttp://www.growfix.d...-inkl.-47L-FassIt is called AUTO POT and the price was adjusted to 98 € ..20 euro more atmStill a good deal for beginners I bet.I have seen those and used something similar. There is one in the US that General Hydroponics has: http://generalhydroponics.com/site/index.php/products/systems/waterfarm/waterfarm_8_pack/If you are interested in that system, I would advise against the one in the link that you provided. There is no mechanical parts, pumps, or airstones. You will have your roots drowning in stagnant water for 2 weeks at a time. If you do decide that you want to do that system, then I would say invest a few dollars in aquarium air pumps and put an airstone in each of the 5 containers (including reservoir). Also, do not listen when they tell you to leave the water for two weeks. I have tried that before and it does not work well. The nutrients become imbalanced and leads to deficiencies and PH fluctuations. Change the res every week, you will not want to get root rot, it is not fun.I am sincerely apologetic if it sounds that I am being rude. I just have quite a few years exp with hydro, and know what not to do from personal experience. If you were to add the airstones to that autopot system, I think you will be very happy. Also, if going with a system, use beneficial bacteria. It will creat an immune system for the plants and will deter alot of potential problems. Some of the best results that I have gotten were in a recirculating DWC (deep water culture) system. The plants were only vegged for about 4wks and ended up yeilding over 350g each. They were monsters even with being tied down about 60-90cm.Also, be cautious with manufacturer claims that you will yeild X amount more in X amount of time. In general with hydro, plants grow faster, and yeild better in hydro, but sometimes it is pretty close. There is a substantial learning curve, but will definitely pay off if you stick with it. If you have any questions, I may have answers, or at least a source to get the proper answer. I do not at all mean to be offensive, as I do not know your level of experience with hydroponics. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 beautiful colors man, keep up the good work Have a good growThank you brother. Think I have a handle on this coco coir now. I had a little struggle with it in the last cycle, but that seems to be worked out now. Cant wait to flip the timer on the indoor ones to see if my lighting experiments are going to pay off. They have given me roughly 30% better growth in veg, hopefully that will carry over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 So I woke up this morning and went out to smoke a cigarette and noticed a few trails on my leaves. I did a quick inspection and found about 4 leaves with the trails on them. I will assume that it is leaf miners, so I dowsed the plant with some neem oil and soap to try to get a handle on them before they run rampant. I also pulled off all infected leaves in an attempt to expedite the eradication.I have never dealt with this particular pest before. As a precautionary measure, I sprayed the indoor plants with the neem oil as well. I usually spray them down in early veg and early flower. I honestly did not think to do it. Guess I will not have that oversight again. Oh well, its cheaper than college . If any of you have ever had a run in with leaf miners? Any suggestion that you can offer up? Here is an image if you have never seen it before. This was off of one of the leaves that I removed : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 good luck man i hope it won't become an invasion, but you saw it on early stage you should handle that Have a good grow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 18, 2012 Author Share Posted August 18, 2012 good luck man i hope it won't become an invasion, but you saw it on early stage you should handle that Have a good growThanks brother. I have been monitoring them and see no further damage, so I might have caught it early enough. This is why I tell people to check their plants daily for issues, saves time and plants . I will say that I was a little nervous about spraying them down with the neem oil with temps at 105F (40C). They seem to be handling it just fine though. Plus they always look sexy with the shiny leaves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 18, 2012 Author Share Posted August 18, 2012 OUTDOOR - 2 WKS FLOWERThe bud sites are starting to stack up. Flowering is kicking in pretty good now. Little bud sites at the tops of the branches, more white hairs visible. Next watering will be plain PHed water and then let them dry out for a few days. Will resume regular feeding mid-week coming up.INDOOR - WEEK 2 VEG.I topped the three that are inside, to get ready to LST them. I figure with the small footprint of the LEDs, I will go with 4 colas per plant. Shoot for a 40cm x 120cm canopy which is a little over .5 m2. Here are a few quick images, no big change since last. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bam-Bhole Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 nice and clean green - let it grow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 They look great mate. did you get rid of that leaf tunneling worm? Im talking about the photo on the leaf you took away. That was a worm that did that Thank you. Yessir.. pulled a few leaves that had damage and hit them with the neem oil and all is good for the last few days. I assume I got it before it was an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 nice and clean green - let it grow...Thank you thank you. Glad to have my mojo back after that last epic failure of a grow. That was almost bad for my self esteem . Working out this coco technique, so one or two more runs should get me good with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mopman Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Plants are looking great mate , I have only dealt with leaf miners on my tomatoes all I did was remove the infected leaves and then just monitor for more and remove immediately , helped me with not having to use any pesticide ect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 Plants are looking great mate , I have only dealt with leaf miners on my tomatoes all I did was remove the infected leaves and then just monitor for more and remove immediately , helped me with not having to use any pesticide ect Thank you. I think that is the best plan of attack with those things. I dont like using chemical pesticides and usually will only use it save the plants from something harder to treat. so far I have been fortunate to not have any pests that either neem oil or botanicals couldnt get rid of. I keep a few cans of Doctor Doom in the event that spider mites or something else just goes crazy . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giovanni831 Posted August 29, 2012 Author Share Posted August 29, 2012 I have been working and bought a new motorcycle so I have been MIA from the forums for about a week. Here is a quick update of the SBA that is outside. I will have to upload the images for the indoor probably tomorrow.Here she is at 22 days flowering.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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