Bonzo BoUnCeS back...:)

[Bonzo]

howdy shhh...budman...sprout

and welcome Payaso! glad u could make it! thanks dude!

yes indeed she was/is somethin else...i miss her...she may come back for a "trim" session soon!!!

I took a few pics with friends phone but i think they came out too big too post...

lets see...

 

[Bonzo]

well woo hoo the pics seem to size themselves!

they are just starting to show some growth/recovery...i should be getting my new meters tomorrow and eagle20...can treat them...get em out of quarantine, get em in better conditions and find out if my tap truly is 500+ ppm outa the tap...hook up RO if thats the case and get em feedin' properly...

they just had a foliar spray in pics

 

[Bonzo]

couple more...

 

[Bonzo]

i need a cable for my cam...oh! i got the motor and belt in the swamp cooler! that thing pushes some air! should have it in by tuesday or wedsenday...

 

[GIS]

SHORTS where u at?

Just catching up on your thread... I love AK47 for sure, lost that mom many years ago in one of my more paranoid moments unfortunately.

I had a lot of issues with coco when first starting out. My biggest issue was nutrient burning. I ran the nutrients WAY higher in the flood and drain buckets and figured it would be the same in coco. I killed many of plant in this fashion. After much frustration and failure I learned about GratefulHead's coco formula, and it saved my ass. All the other mixes would burn my plants, I even run GratefuLHead's a tiny bit lower on the Micro. I mix 20 gallons at a time and add 21 tsp hard water micro, and 36 tsp bloom. This is the liquid GH nutrients. I use tap water (mine is very hard water). This works perfectly now, no more burning or anything. I run this mix from day 1 of veg under HPS to end of flowering. (I use a different mix for newly rooted clones and moms under florescent lighting) And no additives are required, it's a simple mix. The GH mixing with tap water buffers it to the perfect PH. In fact I found that the RO I was using for years, mixed with GH would get a PH a bit lower than desired. I wasted a lot of time on RO water.

I also learned the hard way that it's easy to over water Coco (even though it's claimed this is impossible). At first I overwatered so much mushrooms started growing in the top of my pots out of the coco! After much research, failure, trial and error I have learned it's best to keep the coco relatively light, and not soaked. I usually only water when the coco starts to dry out. My bigger plants in flower I water once per day, I use a hose with a pump and a sprayer, I measure by counting how long I'm watering. The big plants require about 20 seconds of hose spray each day. Newly planted clones get a 3 second spray. Vegging ones get about 12 seconds.

This might sound crazy, but I actually stopped using drip trays under each pot for runoff. I found that watering with ZERO over run was much more effective. So when I water a relatively dry, 3 gallon pot of coco with a healthy big plant in it for 20 seconds, no water will run out the bottom of the pot. The roots at the bottom of the pot stay very healthy this way. The best way I've read it described about how to water coco is to think about it as a kitchen sponge. You want it to remain moist at all times , but not soaked. So if you put a sponge on your counter, and poured a bit of water on it, how much could you poor before it started to run out of the sponge onto the counter? This is sort of how I water my plants. It has helped tremendously. Again, sort of counters generally theory on coco (which is to water it like you would hydroton or something), but I found it to be much better. Plus water sitting in drip trays increases humidity, or dealing with runoff is a pain in the ass. So now my drip trays are sitting in a box in storage.

I also dealt with powdery mildew super bad for about six months a couple years ago. That clone that you asked in my gallery what that was, it's green crack. I picked up that clone from a dispensary which included a nice bit of PM on it, which I managed to spread like an idiot to my entire garden. I tried all the products. The best I found was neem oil. The best brand I found was at the local armstrong nursery center place. The one at the hydro store wasn't as good as it for some reason, the one from the hydro store would kill the pistils after spraying. The one I got from armstrong did not effect plants at all, even ones in late flower. I found that preventive spraying was key. I sprayed the plants and clones every couple weeks, and finally after several months I conquered PM. It's easier to deal with if everything is small and in veg. Just get a sprayer and some neem oil and try to keep all new growth sprayed regularly. It will prevent the spores from maturing on the neem covered foliage. Plus it's organic and non toxic.

I dealt with these same issues and struggled so much with it, I hope this helps some. Now that I finally have gotten the hang of coco I find it a lot easier than the flood and drain buckets. ALthough sometimes I feel like a slave as a hand waterer, but it requires me to be more in contact with the plants which seems to help. The gratefulhead mix works great with all my strains, and seeds I've run.

 

[Bonzo]

howdy Shorts! goddang thats alot a good info bro...when you say "very hard water" how hard? does hard refer to high ppm? calcium? my water reads 390 ppm with brand new meters (woo hoo new meters!) PH 7.2 ish...flora nova does not bring PH down...I like how simple heads mix sounds. You were allways good with the 3 part and if i remember right were never into a ton of additives. what PH does your mix come to?

As for watering i have cut my feedings to once a day as it just didnt feel right watering when they felt so heavy (wet)...do you use strait coco? what brand or does it matter? i mixed a bit of perlite in mine and feel like i should not have as the nutes run through so fast. The way you are watering sounds about how blumats feed....no runoff. You ever thought about blumats? I am considering them when i can afford em'. How big do you grow your plants in 3 gallon pots and what kind of pots are you using?

good info on the neem oil!

This all helps a ton bro! thanks for sharing!

soon as i get things in order im gonna pop some beens and AK will be in the first round along with Casey Jones....maybe we'll find a Cherry...

peace

 

[Guest02345]

your water is extremely hard if its at 390 straight outta the tap...you might wanna invest in a RO machine

 

[megayields]

Bonz didn't have time to read ur whole thread, you are using Blumats?

Awesome work what I've seen so far.....I am sooooo tagging this thread!

 

[Bonzo]

Howdy toxic i hear ya dude and i did just pick up a GrowoniX 300 gpd RO unit...couldnt pass it up...price was right...I duno yet...390 is pretty fuckin' high!

Mega dude! thanks! Glad you made it dude...not usin' blumats yet but im leaning that way more and more...you?

 

[Guest02345]

my water is hard...its like 240. i dont even drink it.

 

[Mountain High]

Git er done bonzo!!

 

[Mister_D]

Bonz you might want to try your water first, coco and weed both love calcium ya know. My water comes out of the tap at 0.6 ec, mostly calcium. Though the nutes I use don't have alot of calcium in them like floranova. Still might be worth trying, or use h3ad's recipe with hard water micro. Just some food for thought. Looking forward to more updates bro

 

[Bonzo]

Howdy MH! dude...just flipped through your DTW Casey Jones thread...great growin dude...cant wait to run some CJ!

 

[Bonzo]

MR D! How did i miss ur post...you snuck it in there dude! I agree and am going to give the tap a try for a minute...so far so good...the cuts are just now startin' to show some growth so this week should tell alot...

 

[GIS]

howdy Shorts! goddang thats alot a good info bro...when you say "very hard water" how hard? does hard refer to high ppm? calcium? my water reads 390 ppm with brand new meters (woo hoo new meters!) PH 7.2 ish...flora nova does not bring PH down...I like how simple heads mix sounds. You were allways good with the 3 part and if i remember right were never into a ton of additives. what PH does your mix come to?

As for watering i have cut my feedings to once a day as it just didnt feel right watering when they felt so heavy (wet)...do you use strait coco? what brand or does it matter? i mixed a bit of perlite in mine and feel like i should not have as the nutes run through so fast. The way you are watering sounds about how blumats feed....no runoff. You ever thought about blumats? I am considering them when i can afford em'. How big do you grow your plants in 3 gallon pots and what kind of pots are you using?

good info on the neem oil!

This all helps a ton bro! thanks for sharing!

soon as i get things in order im gonna pop some beens and AK will be in the first round along with Casey Jones....maybe we'll find a Cherry...

peace

The tap here comes out around 500PPM. I think the further south you go the worse it gets, but I looked at the city water report. More than half of that is calcium. The tap comes out at very high PH, like 8+. But when mixed with the nutrients it settles right around 6. When I mix it with RO water it goes down to 5, or even a bit below. I use the liquid drops and it comes out a really light yellow color now with tap. WIth RO it was coming out orange, sometimes pretty dark orange even. The tap is full on turqoise looking!

I use the big GH Coco blocks, I add 9 gallons of nutrient water (gratefulhead's mix) and mix the coco, then add in a bunch of chunky perlite. Probably like 20% perlite or something. The freshly mixed coco is pretty wet, so I don't usually water freshly planted clones very much the first week, if at all. I wait for the pot to get light, and the coco on top to start drying out. I'm kind of not in the know about blumats, but I will search and look around. I grow some pretty huge plants in 3 gallon pots, it seems plenty big. I just got a bunch of the air-pots which look like egg crates, it does seem to help root growth and also dry out the coco a bit faster, so I've been using those now. But I also use regular 3 gallons from home depot and they work great too.
The neem oil is called Gardener's Choice 3 in one Spray. It comes in a concentrate and this is by far the best neem oil I've come across. I took some pics of my watering setup in my album. Can't wait to see you blow the room up soon!!

 

[Bonzo]

DUDE! 500 hundred ppm!? wow thats high...390 dosnt seem so high now...I remember battling RO as well...pain in the ass...some of the newer nutes i think are more setup for RO...i dunno...my PH is actually 8.0 outa the tap...Flora Nova brings it down to bout 7.0...20 ml of GH PH down brings it to 5.9...plants seem to like it so far...I havnt watered since tuesday night, still pretty darn wet...no drying out on top...dont think im gonna water tonight...you still usin' drops!? thats OG bro! still usin a truncheon?

so you dont actually "rinse" your coco...sorta "condition" it with nute mix?

I checked your pics...bombarded you with questions...

that GC is killer!

 

[Mister_D]

20 ml! In how much water? Grab some "battery acid" from the local auto parts store. It's pure sulfuric acid. Works awesome as ph down (very concentrated) and adds sulfur for your plants to eat (they loooooooove it ). Cheap too, I grabbed a few quart bottles for 5 bucks each. I use ~1.5 ml per gal to go from 8 down to 5.7.


Oh yea and where are all the

 

[GIS]

DUDE! 500 hundred ppm!? wow thats high...390 dosnt seem so high now...I remember battling RO as well...pain in the ass...some of the newer nutes i think are more setup for RO...i dunno...my PH is actually 8.0 outa the tap...Flora Nova brings it down to bout 7.0...20 ml of GH PH down brings it to 5.9...plants seem to like it so far...I havnt watered since tuesday night, still pretty darn wet...no drying out on top...dont think im gonna water tonight...you still usin' drops!? thats OG bro! still usin a truncheon?

so you dont actually "rinse" your coco...sorta "condition" it with nute mix?

I checked your pics...bombarded you with questions...

that GC is killer!

I was using RO up until last fall, I got some of the hard water micro and started doing a side by side comparison, and to my surprise I noticed no difference. I know some people like RO, but for me at least, it's not worth the effort if I can't even tell the difference. I've saved so much time by switching to tap, it's crazy. My shitty tap water with gratefulhead's formula works great, the PH here is also 8+ out of the tap, with the liquid GH nutes it settles around 6.

I use general hydroponics cocotek blocks. I just mix 9 gallons of gratefulhead's mix and throw the block in (like the instructions indicate), and let the block expand and mix it up, then add the perlite at the end. Some of that coco (esp the coco at the bottom of the mix) is kind of soaking wet, so I don't have to water them for a few days usually. Wish I had a truncheon, those are nice.. my old one crapped out a while ago. BEen using the cheap $20 HM meters from the grow store, they only last like 6-12 months and vary several hundred PPM meter to meter... but that's the nice thing about mixing with set proportions and drain to waste, really no need for a meter.

 

[Bonzo]

Your pullin' my leg D! arent ya? I know 20 ml seems like alot...(6 gallons) GH's up and down are both kinda weak...kewl pics comin' soon...fun things happening!

Dude i hope these arent the HM meters your gettin for 20 bucks Shorts, these are waterproof they float and..... uhhh.... they do other stuff too! If they are the same boy am i a sucker! both meters and calibration solutions for 125 or so... i just checked a very old Milwaukee ppm meter against it and the Milwaukee is still only about 50 points off! pretty cool! yay Millwaukee!

these arent very exciting pics but the swamp cooler? ya had to be there...new motor, pump works, just needs new pads, prolly pushin' around 2500 cfm? pretty bitchen ...oh and it needs to be installed this weekend...

 

[Bonzo]

I had to do a lil write up on one of the forefathers of Art Nouveau, Alphonse Mucha for art class...while doin reasearch this tattoo of his work popped up...nice work...

oh the plants are very healthy...starting to veg i think...might water them tonight...i really think they are liking the drying out of the coco...