need help: 3plants in very early flower switching from promix to coco

[wickedpete66]

Hey guys/gals, I have 3 plants that just showed preflowers and I want to make the switch from promix to coco. first off can this be done and how do I go about doing it. My local shop sell 3 kinds of coco, biobiz and sunshine brands come in a 2cubic ft bags and the sunleaves brand come in bricks. The nutes I have been using is pbp pro for soil, but the hyrdo shop also carries the cns17 brand for coco. If necessary I can switch to the coco nutes. The plants are now in 2gl containers with drain holes on the bottom and sides. I normally transplant to 3gl containers when sexed , but I want to repot back into the 2gl using coco. Here is a pic of one girl , but all 3 are about same size


Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Especially doing the actual repotting

 

[wickedpete66]

I just went out today and got 2 blocks of compressed sunleaves coir its 12x12x4. directions say to let soak in 6-8 gallons of water for 20 mins. I used 7 gallons of tap water(ec 0.12, ph 6.3) I also added 30ml of cal-mag. I broke it up pretty good(consistency of bagged peat) but there is still about 1/2-3/4 gl worth of water left in the tub. I'm assuming(hopeful) that the rest of the water will be absorbed by morning.

Before I transplant do I have to let the coco dry out like the bag stuff. Also they didnt have any cns17 nutes so I have to use the pbp pro for soil until I can get some canna nutes.

 

[Guest 18340]

Dude, after you hydrate the coco, scoop it out and put it into the pot you're gonna grow in. The excess water will drain out the bottom. You don't need to let the coco "dry out".
As an example, (mind you, i use Botanicare bricks, imo, they're the same as sun leaves bricks), i put the whole brick in a 5 gallon pale and damn near fill the pale w/tap water 'til the coco is the consistancy of soup. Then i scoop it out by hand and put it in whatever bucket i'm growing in.
In general, you dont want coco to dry out, its not soil so dont treat it like soil.
It will only "absorb" so much water so you can leave it in the tub for weeks and it'll only absorb a cetain amount of water.
Yes, you can go from promix to coco. Just get as much promix off the roots and drop the plant in coco. Simple.
You CAN go all the way in 2gal pots, but imo thats pushing it. 3 gal pots (and up!) can take you all the way. Evl...

 

[wickedpete66]

I also have some ewc and dolomite lime. Should I be adding that to the cocoa as well?

 

[Guest 18340]

I guess you CAN add the 2. I personally dont add anything. Maybe someone else can chime in on this....

 

[Murphle]

TheCal mag will work in place of the lime. I've used PBP in the past on coco grows w/o problems. I'd repot up a size. You'll be dealing w/ a larger root mass very soon, thats what coco does.

 

[wickedpete66]

TheCal mag will work in place of the lime. I've used PBP in the past on coco grows w/o problems. I'd repot up a size. You'll be dealing w/ a larger root mass very soon, thats what coco does.

Did you follow the recommended doses or did you go by a meter. I use a ec meter and normally try to get an ec of about 1.0. usually this consists of 15ml of pbp flower(soil), 7.5 ml of lk and 5ml cal mag per gallon of water.

 

[PharmaCan]

I thought one of the benefits of coco was that you can go down a pot size. I have seen quite a few grows in this forum where people are flowering in 1 gal containers.

You can, but you need to water more often with smaller pots. You should see explosive growth as soon as you switch to coco and your plants will be hungry. You need to get soil off your mind - coco is whole different creature.

I do kinda the same thing as evlme2, but I have one five gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and I put that inside another five gallon bucket then fill with water. It's a little less sloppy to handle the coir after most of the water runs off. Once you hydrate the coir, never dry it out except perhaps for storage.

Personally, I don't use pbp, but lots of coco growers swear by it. You might want to do some research here to get the specifics; there's a lot of good info available.

Wuffo you using Cal Mag+ when you're using tap water?

Good luck! Coco rocks!

PC

 

[wickedpete66]

You can, but you need to water more often with smaller pots. You should see explosive growth as soon as you switch to coco and your plants will be hungry. You need to get soil off your mind - coco is whole different creature.

I do kinda the same thing as evlme2, but I have one five gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and I put that inside another five gallon bucket then fill with water. It's a little less sloppy to handle the coir after most of the water runs off. Once you hydrate the coir, never dry it out except perhaps for storage.

Personally, I don't use pbp, but lots of coco growers swear by it. You might want to do some research here to get the specifics; there's a lot of good info available.

Wuffo you using Cal Mag+ when you're using tap water?

Good luck! Coco rocks!

PC

I have the cocoa in a big rubbermaid container(31gl). I'm waiting for the soil the plants are in now to dry out a bit so It will be easier to shake the promix off. I just ordered the cns17 nutes and they will be in on wednesday. so thursday or friday will be the transplant day

Edit: I also wanted to add(frustration setting in) that I suck at cloning. I have a homemade bubler running at 75* and between 80-90% humidity. The cuttings are still alive but no roots yet and its been about 7 days now. I also built a wick style cloner and killed all 8 cuttings I put in to it. The stems went soggy and the leaves dried up. temps were about 74* and humidity is about 84% constantly

Bubble cloner


wick style cloner all 8 of those cuttings died

 

[Murphle]

Did you follow the recommended doses or did you go by a meter. I use a ec meter and normally try to get an ec of about 1.0. usually this consists of 15ml of pbp flower(soil), 7.5 ml of lk and 5ml cal mag per gallon of water.

No, I started w/ 1/4 strength PBP, then up to 1/2 strength PBP, then full strength. I always go w/ recommended dose of the LK, and CalMag. My tap water is 7.8-8.2 ph/300-500 ppm.

 

[Murphle]

I hand water 2-3 x's a day, depends. I use approx 500 ml h20/nutes per plant while in VEG, usually twice that much in flower in 6 inch pots. Like everybody else says, coco is not like soil.Good luck. Grow on/safe/green/happy/healthy!!

 

[wickedpete66]

Been doing some research and most of the coco growers state that if using the brick coco that it should be flushed to get the salts out. When I originally broke up the brick with 7gallons of water along with 30ml of calmag ( I figured since I have to expand it might as well condition it) the run off ec was at 2.0. The coco is in a 31gl container and still nice and moist. I just took another ec reading(water is naturally at an ec .12 and a ph of 6.3from the tap) of my coco and I got an ec of .70, ph is at 5.9. Do I still need to flush it more or is that ec fine to transplant in

 

[Murphle]

EC and PH sound good. I usually soak my Botanicare bales overnight in tap water, then rinse it real good, and go from there.

 

[wickedpete66]

I transplanted the 3 speed queen into coco today. I was surprised how small the root ball was. It was no bigger than .5gl which probably explains why my yields have been about1/4 gr/watt(600 hps). I fed them with some cns17 bloom at 15ml/2gl also added 5ml of cal mag per 2gl ec is at 1.20 and ph is at 5.8. hand watered till about 10-15% run off. seriously thinking about getting an ebb/flow type set up.

the 3 girls



I'm also battling a thrips infestation. Gave the plants a heavy dose of spinosad 15ml/qt. I'll give another application after next feeding

 

[blockhead411]

Hey if you are having a real problem ccloning, buy one of those "EZ Cloners". Those things are great...I had some problems with mine for a while, then I learned that you have to make sure you clean it out with bleach or whatever, then rinse the bleach off thoroughly. Also, I put the little Neopryn inserts in the wash with bleach. If your having problems with your current cloning setup, that might be the problem.

Been thinking of trying some coco, been using peat for a long time, it sure would be nice to be able to reuse it!!! Also, is it worth it? I mean is growth and yield all that much better?

Good luck...

 

[Greyskull]

Hey if you are having a real problem ccloning, buy one of those "EZ Cloners". Those things are great...I had some problems with mine for a while, then I learned that you have to make sure you clean it out with bleach or whatever, then rinse the bleach off thoroughly. Also, I put the little Neopryn inserts in the wash with bleach. If your having problems with your current cloning setup, that might be the problem.

Been thinking of trying some coco, been using peat for a long time, it sure would be nice to be able to reuse it!!! Also, is it worth it? I mean is growth and yield all that much better?

Good luck...

DUDE YOU ARE RIGHT ON WITH THE EZCLONER. Take your cut, swirl in CLONEX for 10 seconds, set in the collar and 7-10 days = roots.

I used to grow in rockwool cubes (4x4s) in the same type set up I use now... I didn't get as big and healthy, nor did I get as much flavor. Using coco in the round 8" containers I am get nice aggressive growth and am yeilding 50-60g per plant. I am vegging 24/7 under a 400mh & flower under 1K...
Peat is nice though. I've heard great things about peat.

 

[wickedpete66]

Hey if you are having a real problem ccloning, buy one of those "EZ Cloners". Those things are great...I had some problems with mine for a while, then I learned that you have to make sure you clean it out with bleach or whatever, then rinse the bleach off thoroughly. Also, I put the little Neopryn inserts in the wash with bleach. If your having problems with your current cloning setup, that might be the problem.

Been thinking of trying some coco, been using peat for a long time, it sure would be nice to be able to reuse it!!! Also, is it worth it? I mean is growth and yield all that much better?

Good luck...

Once you go coco you will never look back. Its amazing how fast everything grows in coco once you get a feeding regiment nailed down. here are some pics of the speed queen that was vegging in promix then switched to coco at flower