Vertical coco trees in smartpots

[gardenbug]

5 gal smartpots (actually aerobags or something)
Sour diesel, Headband, and Blue dream.
House and garden coco nutrients. Using drip clean for pretty much no run off.
600hps and 400 cmh.

Seems easier than dwc with comparable growth so far.

 

[megayields]

WOOT another weed doughnut! Yes and I love Blue Dream, used to run it all the time, but went with faster finishing strains.

Nice setup, Grow ON!

 

[gardenbug]

I'm ready to switch up to some faster finishers.
All 3 strains are longer flowering. I usually take them at 70-75 days.
The blue dream makes great looking hard nugs and yields well but is not nearly as potent as the sour diesel or headband (diesel).

 

[gardenbug]

In the pics half have been defoliated a few days before after 14 days in flower. They have already somewhat grown back in. The other half were done later at 21 days. I usually don't take many leaves in stretch but decided to try it. I remove fans in veg and flower usually at about 21 days, 45 days, 65 days. Decided to try earlier this time.

 

[gardenbug]

Not sure when this was, probably about a week after the last set of pics. They are getting pretty big.

 

[gardenbug]

Not sure if its the House and garden nutes or the cmh but things seem to be leafier than when I was running lucas and hps. I've seen complaints of both of those contributing to more leaf in flower. First time in coco but I ran HG in dwc and had extra leaf too. HG seems to be nitrogen heavy.

So...
I replaced the 400 cmh with a 1000 hps.
Will be lowering the base nutes and using powdered kool bloom, this will drop the nitrogen down.

Setup is now 1000 hps on top, 600 hps on bottom.

Veg nutes:
HG coco as base
Drip clean
protekt silica
roots excel

Flower nutes:
HG coco
drip clean
protekt silica
multi zen first 4 weeks
calmag first 4 weeks
bud xl week 5 to 8
koolbloom week 6-8
Also some bud candy and diatomic humus occasionally (free samples so why not)
2 week flush for total of around 10 weeks

I'm testing out some dynagro grow formula with calmag and silica for veg. It worked well in dwc so giving it a try in coco.

Moved that 400 into the veg side setup horizontal. Put a hps bulb in it for now, but would like to use the cmh. The cmh bulb is vertical, so not sure if it will explode or just die early if I put it horizontal instead. Still doing some searching to try and figure this out.

 

[headseed]

If it can only run vertical and you want to use it like a horizontal get one of those small umbrella reflectors that hangs the bulb vertical. Vertizontal!

 

[Dudesome]

gardenbud, how are the temps inside and outside?

 

[gardenbug]

gardenbud, how are the temps inside and outside?

With the 1000 and 600 air temp going out is about 85f, most of the room is around 80f. With the 400 and 600 it never passed 80f. Running a 6" fan and another 6" fan that is split between this room and the veg room. Not enough air for a warmer climate but my incoming air during lights on is only at 70f at most. Vertical does make it easy to cool. I've also got cool tubes but it doesn't look like I will need them.

Humidity is more of a problem than heat.
Room is about 8x8 and I can barely walk in there now. With 7ft tall plants there is a ton of vegetation and the humidity goes to 70% without a dehumidifier. Defoliating helps this a lot.

 

[gardenbug]

If it can only run vertical and you want to use it like a horizontal get one of those small umbrella reflectors that hangs the bulb vertical. Vertizontal!

Thought about that but I've already got an air cooled horizontal hood. Would be cheaper to just get a new bulb.
Supposedly they just die sooner, but I'll probably give the company a call and see what they say. If it will last a few months in the wrong position that is fine with me.

Either way I went from a 100 watt t5 to 400 watts hps so it should still be an improvement. I think my low power veg lighting has been holding my yields back.

I don't like the cmh for flower, but they are awesome for veg.
They also run cooler than an hps.

 

[Dudesome]

awesome, bro! sounds perfect for summertime indoor. a good tip for the future i guess...

 

[gardenbug]

45 days or so...

 

[gardenbug]

I've had to add a lot of supports as branches started to break. This made them too top heavy and one tipped over at some point. It fell straight across, must have hit the bulbs, and landed on the fan in the middle. Amazingly no damage at all from a 7ft tall plant falling over. They are tied to the wall/ceiling now.
No pics of the one that fell but the short plants are the ones that have branches that have flopped over. Some pics are before supporting, some after.

 

[dancer]

Look really cool dude.
Good luck til the end

 

[Bababooey]

Wow, what do you estimate final yield to be? I'm thinking 1gpw, so about 2.5 elbows?

 

[madalasatori]

lovely trees in smart pots mate, how do you water them and how often? you got a drip running?

 

[gardenbug]

Wow, what do you estimate final yield to be? I'm thinking 1gpw, so about 2.5 elbows?

It had 1000 watts the first half of flowering and 1600 watts the last half, so hard to guess. It's looking like it's about 1.5 Lbs or so. Big plants just don't yield as well as lots of little plants. Something like bobbles setup is the way to go, I just can't go over 6 plants.

 

[gardenbug]

lovely trees in smart pots mate, how do you water them and how often? you got a drip running?

Drip setup waters once at lights on and again 6 hours later. It stops watering just before run off. I ran 1/4" tubing the whole way so it's a slow drip and takes about 15 minutes per watering.

 

[gardenbug]

About day 70.

 

[gardenbug]

Total of 1200g or 2.6lbs
1000 watts the first 35 days, 1600 watts the last 35 days.
1.2 gpw with 1000 watts, 0.75 gpw with 1600 watts, so average to 0.975? I'm sure someone else can do the math better than I can. Either way, I'm happy with the results.


When i broke up the root ball it hadn't expanded much from the size it was in the veg containers (1 gallon plastic). They had become root bound in veg so I switched to 1 gal smart pots in veg for next time. Without being root bound, having 1600 watts the whole time, and vegging under 400 hps instead of 100 watts t5 this next round should do even better.