Need help growing in coco

[mikey187lfc]

Hi guys.
I'm new to this site and new to growing. I've one fairly successful grow under my belt but that was in soil. I've decided to try coco out but have a few questions.

My plants are about a week or so old and I'm doing 4 chronic (female seeds) 1 bubblegummer, 1 lemon kush and a skunk#1. I'll be using 10 liter pots, under a 600w sun master pro dual spec. I'll be taking my nutrient programming from the canna website but my questions are

Do I feed my plants every time I water?
How often should I be watering them?
How much water should I give them in any one time?
(I'm aware the larger the plants, the more water they will go through)
If I feed every time i water should I follow the canna website, or use less then what they say?

Just to let you know I'm doing 7 plants in 10 liter pots but I'll be using 50 litters of coco canna professional to 20 litres of soil mixed and shared between the 7 pots.

Any info would be much appreciated guys and thanks in advance.

Also I know chronic doesn't respond well to topping but does anyone know if Skunk, bubblegummer and lemon kush do?

Thanks for reading and hope some experience growers could educate me.

Mikey.

 

[LEX-UK]

Yes.
Depends on your environment.
Keep the coco moist.
If u can use a EC pen you can give them exactly what they need but their charts are pretty heavy but can handle it but less is more when hand feeding

I don't know about mixing dirt with coco so can't say.

Good luck.

Read some info on here as you got some coco gurus here.

 

[Mantra]

Hey Mikey.

Out of interest, why are you thinking of mixing soil with your coco? Going straight coco or a coco / perlite mix is the more orthodox approach. Coco is a great medium to grown in, and some of its advantages (wicking, oxegynation of roots etc) will be mitigated by adding soil in. I personally moved from soil to coco, and found coco the more responsive and forgiving medium. My feeling is that a coco or coco/perlite mix will give you less variables to worry about should you encounter problems.

Yes, you feed every water. You water according to how fast the plant is taking up the moisture - this will vary throughout the grow. Your different strains will suck up water at different rates probably too, so you will be checking this grow very often. Your different strains will respond to different nute schedules differently also, so a multi-strain grow in a new medium is somewhat ambitious - and in this case I would start with less than what canna recommends (say half strength to 70% strength to start) and edge up towards their full strength recommendation, keeping a close eye to see if any of of your strains are more twitchy.

Running H&G drip clean through with your other nutes will work very well in preventing salt buildup in the medium.

Can't help you with the topping question as I've not grown those strains.

 

[Mantra]

Oh, and in terms of how much to water - many people water coco to run-off at about 10% to 20%. If you are using drip clean, you can go for less run off.

 

[mikey187lfc]

Thanks guys for getting back to me so fast.

I've been on the canna website and think I'm going to go with the light feed as you can choose between heavy, light or normal.

About the mixing of soil and coco. Would it be better to grow 5 in coco and 2 in soil as I already have the coco and soil and I'm running at a tight budget?

I'm probably going to start off with half of what canna say on the light feeding as their products are so expensive, especially feeding everyday. I'll probably grow the chronic in coco as that's my biggest yielding strain and probably the skunk and do the kush and bubblegummer in soil.

 

[Mantra]

Oh, I gotcha! You were going to mix in the soil with the coco to try and save some money. Mate, honestly, try and buy another bag of coco. It's a bit of false economy to use up the rest of the dirt you have just becaue you have it. Consider this one aspect - you need different nutes in coco than you do in soil (different ph and so on too) so you will be running two sets of different notes, which will much exceed the cost of a little bit of extra medium. Also, there will be a lot to fiddle with with different media on the go at the same time, and as a newer grower you will already by busy with a multi-strain grow. Try to simplify everything you can I reckon

 

[mikey187lfc]

My first grow I did 7 different strains and that was a bit of a headache as I had to try and keep them the same size.
I'm running a tight budget as I've had to buy the full canna range as well as the seeds, the grow tent I had collapsed also because of the weight of the carbon and the plastic hooks snapping (due to moving the tent to a different room)
Out of that 50L bag of coco, I'll probably get 6 plants done so instead of forking out another £20 on coco I'm just gonna do one soil grow. I know there's a difference in pH levels and if I liable it then I feel confidant in be able to handle it.
I also need a new pH pen because the last one just stopped working after a few weeks.

I'll learn and buy better equipment after this grow.

 

[mikey187lfc]

Actually change of plan. I'm gona take your advice and buy a 20L bag of perlite mix and mix that to the 50L of coco. Then do them all the same.

 

[Mantra]

Sweet. That's a safe mix and a nice one to learn coco on. You'd have to try pretty hard to overwater that, so that's one less variable to worry about. Smart move, IMO.

 

[Jibé]

Actually change of plan. I'm gona take your advice and buy a 20L bag of perlite mix and mix that to the 50L of coco. Then do them all the same.

that's a good move. the easier the better.

 

[Swan Lee]

OR you could use smaller pots,but i assume you already have the 10 l pots.
But ,yes ,true what Mantra says,don't mix soil and Canna,it'll throw out all your nutes and for starters keep down to 2 or 3 strains and grow them out a couple times.Thats how i got used to Coco.

 

[mikey187lfc]

OK thanks lads.

They are looking pretty healthy. I watered them first and give them their first feed today. I had a lot of run off, I'd say about 30 %. That's 3 litres so can I reuse that or do I have to throw it away. Sorry if it sounds dumb but I've tried Google. Maybe I'm the dumbest grower ever Lol.

 

[mikey187lfc]

Sorry I was supposed to say in the 10 liter pots as I transplanted yesterday. I gave them their first feed in them pots today. God I'm stoned. Lol

 

[mikey187lfc]

Omg I must be stoned. I transplanted them this morning. Watered them and fed them when the lights come on at 6:30. Sorry its been a very long day.

 

[bmaster]

OK thanks lads.

They are looking pretty healthy. I watered them first and give them their first feed today. I had a lot of run off, I'd say about 30 %. That's 3 litres so can I reuse that or do I have to throw it away. Sorry if it sounds dumb but I've tried Google. Maybe I'm the dumbest grower ever Lol.

I'd suggest throwing it away, the salts and waste you're draining should not be reintroduced back into the coco.

That's why they call it 'Drain to waste.

 

[Reg Dixon]

OK thanks lads.

They are looking pretty healthy. I watered them first and give them their first feed today. I had a lot of run off, I'd say about 30 %. That's 3 litres so can I reuse that or do I have to throw it away. Sorry if it sounds dumb but I've tried Google. Maybe I'm the dumbest grower ever Lol.

I use waste water outside in the garden to water less important vegetation!

 

[dado912]

Hello everyone I have two seedlings brought up with seeds that had by I wonder if anyone is able to catalog it and tell me whether male or female , and unfortunately it is the first crop that I create and I have not much experience. Thank to all

 

[MoPho]

Those are unfortunately males.

 

[MickFoster]

Hello everyone I have two seedlings brought up with seeds that had by I wonder if anyone is able to catalog it and tell me whether male or female , and unfortunately it is the first crop that I create and I have not much experience. Thank to all

I know you're new so I'll be nice. It's rude to hijack someone's thread. If you have a question then start your own thread.

Peace