coco and air pots

[antheis]

high all,
i've decided to start a thread documenting my first coco grow, which also happens to be an air pot grow.

i'm growing in a small grow tent (20"dx35"wx60h")
i have a 400w mh/hps switchable ballast in there providing light.
i haven't decided on whether i want to put a scrog up for these yet, or wait and do it next grow.
i'm using magus genetics seeds, i don't know which ones, specifically, because i bought two packs of their assorted seeds. unfortunately they come unlabeled, so i have no idea what i'm growing.

i have planted three, and three sprouted two weeks ago. i have them in 1 litre pots which will be replanted into 9 litre pots after they show maturity (alternating nodes) and given a week to settle into their new homes before i flip to 12/12.

i think i may have goofed up already, but i have plenty of time to recover and get it right.
i switched to full strength nutes a bit early and have burned them or done something they dont like.
it looks like cal and mg deficiencies, to me at least, and flushed them to where the run off was reading 5.8 pH and 300ppm on all three plants.

i'm going to the hydro store today to see if they have cal mag, and see if we can't get these little girls (hopefully) back on track.

 

[antheis]

now with blumats

now with blumats

i repotted into my 9l pots saturday, and after a few days of shock they have finally started growing again.
brown brought me some blumats today so i got those setup, but it seems like i have set them up incorrectly because i can't get them to drip at all. like the instructions say for them to.
if anyone has any experience with blumats, i could use a few tips. pics to follow shortly

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

i repotted into my 9l pots saturday, and after a few days of shock they have finally started growing again.
brown brought me some blumats today so i got those setup, but it seems like i have set them up incorrectly because i can't get them to drip at all. like the instructions say for them to.
if anyone has any experience with blumats, i could use a few tips. pics to follow shortly

if you set up you blumats correctly you watered the coco before you installed the blumats... This will cause the blumats not to work... and if you do get them to drip when the coco is this wet you will flood them out because they are too far open...

also i noticed on some of mine that that little hose that gets pinched on the top of the blumats can be pinched closed... just pull it out and open it up and push it back.... i know that sounds confusing but if you used them at all you should know what i mean...
good luck bro...

 

[antheis]

so watering before installing the blumats will make them not work? i wonder why they'd say that in the instructions.
i'll play around with it, i had it tightened all the way then backed off around one full turn, maybe a little less
anyway as promised, pictures.

 

[AriesXX]

I've wanted to try both of those products, so it will be great to get your impressions of how well these work

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

you will have to have them damn near fully opened to get them to drip...

 

[Guywithoutajeep]

mine drip constantly, the line was pinched when i first got them like dude was saying but i still have my blumats set up so they are dripping every ten seconds or so, it takes about a week to figure out where you should have the dial at, different results with different size plants pots etc...

play with the adjusters until you get the right drip rate going, then back it off when you get a little run off, keep adjusting back and forth until its dead on for you

i like to think of the blumats as working within a certain range and that range is a f(x) of water uptake by the plant and volume of media

 

[antheis]

@guywithoutajeep
luckily i've been studying pre cal so i know what you're talking about.
thanks.
@ariesxx
i'm glad i can guinea pig this for you.
expect updates every monday.
@poopy
i got ya, i guess i'm worried about nothing, and i've got a while to set it up.

 

[antheis]

well, i have still yet to see a drop from the drippers.
the coco is still wet, however, and there is a slight water line visible in my rez (a 48qt office trashcan).
each pot has its own drip pan, and all of them still have water in them.
while this is normal and the water is usually there until the next evening, my blumats might be working perfectly.

 

[Herborizer]

Bluemat's seem cool, but my biggest issue is how you need the reservoir higher than the pots. No one else find this to be very difficult and limiting? Also, seems expensive in SOG setup. Thoughts?

 

[Work2much]

Bluemat's seem cool, but my biggest issue is how you need the reservoir higher than the pots. No one else find this to be very difficult and limiting? Also, seems expensive in SOG setup. Thoughts?

The initial cost of setup to do a SOG with Blumats is holding me back as well although I've only browsed prices so far.

It does take a certain type of setup to mount the rez substantially higher then the pots, I'm thinking of framing a box platform a few feet down from the ceiling along the wall outside of my flower room. The problem will be filling it up, I guess I'll have to have a rubbermaid brute as my R.O. floor rez with a pump in it and pump up to my actual flower solution rez. Kinda of pain in the butt, but once setup it should be good to go.

On the other hand maybe the rez doesn't need but a little more height then the blumats and I'm over thinking and over doing it...

 

[Herborizer]

The initial cost of setup to do a SOG with Blumats is holding me back as well although I've only browsed prices so far.

It does take a certain type of setup to mount the rez substantially higher then the pots, I'm thinking of framing a box platform a few feet down from the ceiling along the wall outside of my flower room. The problem will be filling it up, I guess I'll have to have a rubbermaid brute as my R.O. floor rez with a pump in it and pump up to my actual flower solution rez. Kinda of pain in the butt, but once setup it should be good to go.

On the other hand maybe the rez doesn't need but a little more height then the blumats and I'm over thinking and over doing it...

Yeah, you nailed it. Seems like a pain. My res is 60 gallons. Getting that sucker way up there is no small feat. Also, imagine mixing nutes into it. Checking levels, EC, Ph...

I really like the idea of bluemats but it seems like a lot of cost and effort. For now, I will drip/flow on timer with a pump.

 

[antheis]

i've got everything dialed in, getting drips and they can watch them slow down/stop and have seen them start up as well. the plants seem to absolutely love the combo in less than a week of re potting, i can see roots poking out of the bottom holes on all three pots.
right now they are only 5.5 - 6.5" (5.5,6,6.5 Left to right) but are bushy as hell.
hopefully they will begin showing maturity soon and i can put them into flower by monday, which will give me 10 weeks before the end of the year
(harvesting before the end of the year was my goal)

 

[antheis]

i flipped to 12/12 last night around 6pm and forgot to take pictures so here's my monday update on tuesday.
everything is going smoothly i was away this weekend and all my plants survived while i was away.
there seems to be some deficiency on the tallest plant but nothing is showing up on the other two, so i'm just going to keep going and see how it turns out.
i pruned some leaves away yesterday just to allow airflow between them better.
Left:


Middle:


Right (tallest):

 

[Work2much]

Looking nice and bushy man.

 

[Azzazal]

Excellent grow mate, I'm using air pots, the 10l ones here are a few pics of them at 3 weeks flower and i'm wishing I had went with some sort of autowatering.

All plants had some LST at start of flower, I snapped the one in the last pic to backed off from LST and let them go.

 

[antheis]

those are some nice looking girls you have there.
i've noticed that with coco they love constant waterings, almost like a hydro setup
i flipped to 12/12 monday and have had substantial growth since, roughly 3". my res is a very simple setup, a 48qt office trashcan with a 1/2" hole drilled near the bottom for the line into the tent.
i covered it with an empty box to keep dust and light out and called it a day.
the only i need to plan on is if one of the three is a male, how to take that particular blumat out of the line, but i'll cross that bridge when i get to it.
the tallest plant is now putting out its 9th or 10th node, is it too late to top or fim? i have a scrog made from pvc tubing that i'm thinking of putting in, i just don't know if i want to or not. if all three are female, that scrog would be jam packed but if i let them go, i have no idea how that would turn out.
i need to take some clones from all three so if/when i find a keeper.
sorry for rambling, just thinking out loud i guess.

 

[Azzazal]

those are some nice looking girls you have there.
i've noticed that with coco they love constant waterings, almost like a hydro setup
i flipped to 12/12 monday and have had substantial growth since, roughly 3". my res is a very simple setup, a 48qt office trashcan with a 1/2" hole drilled near the bottom for the line into the tent.
i covered it with an empty box to keep dust and light out and called it a day.
the only i need to plan on is if one of the three is a male, how to take that particular blumat out of the line, but i'll cross that bridge when i get to it.
the tallest plant is now putting out its 9th or 10th node, is it too late to top or fim? i have a scrog made from pvc tubing that i'm thinking of putting in, i just don't know if i want to or not. if all three are female, that scrog would be jam packed but if i let them go, i have no idea how that would turn out.
i need to take some clones from all three so if/when i find a keeper.
sorry for rambling, just thinking out loud i guess.

I hand water every second day, never flushed and they all seem to like it. My conditions are far from ideal, my growing skill knowledge could fill a stamp, but i would say that 10l air pot lives up to the company's hype, double the normal pot size.
In my space I flipped smaller plants and saw them explode in 28/30 days, think about 6/7 nodes.

For topping, I'm not sure as I wouldn't want to stress them, Others with more knowledge will surely help out
One thing though, The plant I topped via a nice sharp edge of another airpot was shoved into a 6.5l air pot. She regained after a week and now sprints for light, That was 7 days before 12/12 and was the day I was originally flipping them /sigh.

There i went into a ramble again!

Azza

 

[antheis]

well its been a week of 12/12 lighting, and i finally switched out my MH bulb for an HPS bulb last night. when i opened my tent i was greeted with a nice coffee smell.
they haven't gotten much taller, just really bushed up in a week. roots are coming out of the coco right where the blumats are dripping, eager to consume the nute goodness.


hopefully i get a little more stretch that i have now, it just seems like they aren't growing as fast. but no deficiencies to speak of, and the leaves seem happy. the only thing i don't have is a fan inside the tent circulating air to strengthen up the branches.

group shot


Left


Middle


Right


the right plant is still about 2" taller than the other two, and for being a 'grab bag' seeds they all are very similar in look.

 

[antheis]

finally showed sex today, a week and a half after flipping. two females and one male.
the male is in the middle so i have to figure out a way to remove the blumat from the line, but i'll worry about that later.
i'm just happy to finally have a viable female growing (i have been growing bagseed for the better part of a year and only grown out males >.<)