Upgrading my coco setup - need help!

[Kiwi Star]

I'll guess I'll start with what I'm currently using..

400w, 0.6 square metres, odorsok and 150mm axial fan. 2x 150mm intakes (intakes covered with pantyhose).

6x 16L pots, with 3 different strains.

I don't have heat problems, yet I'm going to swap around the exhaust and have the odorsok after the fan and run ducting right by the shade. Hopefully after a go in the drier the odorsok will work again, as it's not filtering out all smell. I'm changing to a monoculture of a nice blueberry (I've had celtic stone, white rhino and nepal baba. The genetics aren't the best so I like to change).

For nutrients I'm blindly following the canna schedule (including the expensive boost..)

I have also had budrot and spidermites. All in my first grow. Steep learning curve (budrot not because of airflow, but from contamination).

So a few questions..

Are the 16L (4 gallon) pots too big?
I want to run to waste, what's the easiest way to set this up?
Do I have too many plants?
Do I really need to use CO2?
I'm flushing for 5-7 days, is this enough?
I'm going to use a height adjustable screen to train the girls next grow. Has anyone tried this before?

Any comments will be much appreciated. Please help a first time coco grower!

Pictures will follow when I can find a digital camera and figure out how to make the pictures untraceable. I'll also post with how much weight I get off them all.

Thanks from NZ

 

[jocat]

read picos coco threads

read picos coco threads

i have been running coco for about a year now and feel like i got it where i want it, it was picos threads on run to waste and all his well documented advice that sped up the learning for me. i would recomend House & Garden nutrients, i'm a blueberry grower and have had my best results so far with their nutes.

 

[Bush Dr]

1 Pots are too big, 6litres max, for clones I only use 3.5 litre pots
2 Run to waste cuts the chances of pythium
3 8 plants max for a 400, optimum is 6
4 CO2 is not required
5 5-7 days flush is fine

As for any thing else your biggest upgrade will be going vertical, check the 600w Vertical thread here

To remove traceable details of your camera, etc, resize and rename it through a couple of programs, some remove they info some don't, when it's saved you can check the xf data and it should be meaningless

 

[Kiwi Star]

Sorry, I can't find either thread you were talking about.. I'll have to search more later tonight.

House and garden nutrients aren't avaliable anywhere near me to my knowledge. I'm pretty lucky I can get canna to be honest.

I'll change my pots next run. I've just started flushing my last 4 girls, so in 2-3 weeks I'll be ready to go with a nice looking blueberry monoculture. I've only got a choice of two types of coco also, so I'm going with canna. I think the other was canadian express.

 

[inreplyavalon]

Hi Kiwi. I hae a run to waste coco setup. It is constructed out of pvc and 1/4 tubing open ended for drippers. I have one tray in 1 gallon and the other in 3 gallon. different amount of plants on each tray as some were vegged a lot less time.
They are in a tent and each tray drains into a separate rubbermaid container. I need to empty it about every 4 days. It is super simple and relatively efficient.
Here is a sweet thread by Pico detailing how to make a dripper manifold http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=62654

Good luck, and canna should work like a charm, neer used it, but a bunch of pros on this site do with pro results

 

[kiwiboy]

cool, another kiwi here.

Get rid of the odorsok, they are a waste of time and money. From my research they are only good for very low humidy areas. Buy or make a carbon filter.

 

[Kiwi Star]

I wish I knew how crap odorsoks were before I started...

I think I'll hand water until I figure out the right amount of nutes etc.. best to keep things simple for now. I'm currently trying to figure out how to run to waste. Which means finding a tray that will fit in my wardrobe, putting it on a lean and connecting a pump to take the waste to an external reservoir.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it has to be pretty much soundproof. There's about 5-8mm of jib inbetween the wardrobe and my flatmates bedroom. Had one harvest with no sound problems

 

[Bush Dr]

Kiwi Star .... this is one thread http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=117026

Canna or Hesi nutes work pretty well, just put lots of P/K in

 

[Kiwi Star]

2 days off harvest, then once they're all dry it's all go with the blueberry.

I've tumble dried the odorsok, swapped it onto the outside of the grow and got ducting to run by my light. I'm going to buy more sound deadening, a screen, a tray and 8 or 10L pots tomorrow. I need to figure out how to setup a pump to drain away the excess from the tray, start new clones (I've left it wayyy too late) and clean the entire area with a bug bomb and lots of disinfectant.

Thank you for your knowledge. I'll start up a grow diary when it all starts (then you get to see how I'm going to train the plants, and probably fail)

 

[plumbum]

i second that the pot sizes are too big! i go 1.5 gal or maybe even 1 gal if you on a drip system.. but then again it also depends how long do you veg for = how big they get.. i've heard bad things about sock too.. carbon is way to go..

 

[Kiwi Star]

Just finished drying, just over 9 ounces on my first grow. I'm a little disappointed as it was a 400w, but then again only 0.6m squared.. too much budrot and spidermites huh.

I'm thinking about going for 1.5-2 gallon pots as i'm only going to be watering once per day (by hand). 6 of these in 0.6 square metres should be enough.. A bit of a difference to 16L (4.2 gallon) I was using.

My training will be very different to what was linked

The clones are rooting now for the next grow, but I'm having the freakout so not too sure I'll get going right away.