First Coco grow with PH perfect

[Jydcoo]

Hello my Fellow growers. I have been on Rollitup and have learned alot from you all here. Time for my Give to the community with my first coco grow. I did 3 grows in soil with great results. It has been a year and a half since my last grow, but Many months of great prep & study. PH Perfect Coco grabbed me. I said what the hell. Running 2 400 watt cool tubes w/ a 6inch Inline fan from Hydro farms. MH for veg, hPs for flower. 60/40 Coco/perlite mix.
Rinsed reallllly well. Dropped 2 Black Diesel & 1 White Widow. Uhhh what else...oh 6in carbon Filty, big for my closet, but hey go big or go. Home. Ph'd 5.8 RO water for now.Will update with more info and pics when they pop. Any questions or advice is appreciated. Happy Growing

 

[Jydcoo]

Hand watering for now. I threw them in 5 gallon smart pots right away. No reason for a transplant. Reservoir is a 15 Gallon, looking into RO filters. Wells worth it. The math says so for great bud.

 

[Jydcoo]

Have not seen much on PH Perfect. I have Voodo Juice, B-52, overdrive...
Will get Big bud ( read about a Big bud coco formula?). Have a PH kit to check.. If it is wacky, easily will invest in a New set of nutes & meter to make sure this grow goes well.

 

[cannacultural]

Hey dude, welcome aboard. Not familia with PH Perfect, but looks like you're setup nice. Have you got your fabric pots on a hard surface? I keep mine elevated to allow air underneath.

 

[dabking]

I used ph perfect for a year. Stuff works but I switched from advanced to house and garden. Give a good long flush with advanced. What "level" are you running?

 

[Jydcoo]

Well no level particular, just using a Blend I think will do Nice. Ph Perfect sensi coco grow A+ B, voodoo Juice,just a Lil Sensizym, B-52, Cal - Mag ( in case) for Veg. PH perfect sensi coco Bloom A + B, Will get big bud soon. May also run Bud Candy for flower. I have Rhino skin, but read it will raise PH? When I get the hang of the nutes, I may throw some in. So I know I am running the Hobbyist lvl, but have a couple items extra. I read people using a line up I am using with great results, but also read it is best to use a whole line up and not tweek it? Only time will tell.

 

[Jydcoo]

Hey dude, welcome aboard. Not familia with PH Perfect, but looks like you're setup nice. Have you got your fabric pots on a hard surface? I keep mine elevated to allow air underneath.

Yea They are on the hard surface for now. Will raise them asap, ty for the tip. Yea man Hoping pH perfect sensi coco works well.

 

[dabking]

Well no level particular, just using a Blend I think will do Nice. Ph Perfect sensi coco grow A+ B, voodoo Juice,just a Lil Sensizym, B-52, Cal - Mag ( in case) for Veg. PH perfect sensi coco Bloom A + B, Will get big bud soon. May also run Bud Candy for flower. I have Rhino skin, but read it will raise PH? When I get the hang of the nutes, I may throw some in. So I know I am running the Hobbyist lvl, but have a couple items extra. I read people using a line up I am using with great results, but also read it is best to use a whole line up and not tweek it? Only time will tell.

you won't need the cal mag with sensi coco unless you're running og kush. I suggest the bud candy it's great! Try all advanced before tweaking the formula. So you have a true comparison. Rhino skin will not affect your ph. Its designed not to. Definitely use big bud coco major differences in size, finish with overdrive. You'll be happy with your results.

 

[Jydcoo]

you won't need the cal mag with sensi coco unless you're running og kush. I suggest the bud candy it's great! Try all advanced before tweaking the formula. So you have a true comparison. Rhino skin will not affect your ph. Its designed not to. Definitely use big bud coco major differences in size, finish with overdrive. You'll be happy with your results.

Yea I read I won't need cal mag. Just prepared. Big bud coco for sure

 

[WonderWoman]

after using the normal AN PH perfect (not coco) and using canna mono mg + cal supplements, I gotta say canna line works a lot better for me. seems like a lot less of hassle and no need to supplement with extra cal or magnesium.

 

[stoned40yrs]

Hey dude, welcome aboard. Not familia with PH Perfect, but looks like you're setup nice. Have you got your fabric pots on a hard surface? I keep mine elevated to allow air underneath.

With what do you elevate?

 

[Jydcoo]

I would assum you elevate with some sort of Metal Stand?

 

[stoned40yrs]

I would assum you elevate with some sort of Metal Stand?

The bottom of the fabric pot is still blocked unless the stand has holes in it. I elevate mine with a couple wood blocks but even then 50% of the surface area of the bottom is covered.

 

[Snow Crash]

Initial criticisms based only on the pictures:
"Those pots look big"
"Why you no vertical?"
"Ventilation ouchies, filter>fan>90>90>tube>tube>45>exhaust point."
"Runoff nightmare."

After reading through the thread:

Welcome to ICMAG! RIU was an interesting place but I definitely don't agree with the administration of the community there. We're glad to have your contributions here!

Coming from soil is common in the Cocommunity. Usually it's the "non-purists" who find their way over here (like myself) who couldn't help but try to use liquid fertilizers on their organic soil. Drain to waste is pretty straight forward but there are many differences when coming from organics into hydroponics that are important to be aware of. Doing your homework was wise, very wise.

Advanced Nutrients pH perfect technology depends on the chelation; molecular enveloping of ions, preventing precipitation and allowing the uptake of elements across a much wider band of pH levels. The RhinoSkin is rather dilute and while the solution is still fairly alkaline it will not interfere with the performance of the nutrients or require any adjusting.

Cool Tubes are nice because of the air flow but they don't have the best reflectivity or the most balanced footprint. To maximize their efficiency you should really consider a vertical arrangement with them, and remove that interior reflector. This will allow all 360 degrees of the bulb to be used, rather than just the half of the bulb that faces the plant while the other half in a horizontal position depends on the reflection. Here's a diagram to demonstrate just how much more efficient a vertical setup can be (and I think your area is perfect for this given the width x length.

I used to use that same Active Air fan. Noisy as sin. A fan speed controller on Medium will give you a good compromise on ventilation versus noise. Duct silencers are legit too. I'm a little interested in your ventilation design. Most people tend to put their fan after the lighting, but with your Cool Tubes I think the reasoning for that isn't quite as important for you. The air that exits these fans is very "choppy" or messy, so for a big open reflector the air just kind of swirls around. But those tubes aren't open so the air flow probably is about the same for you fan in front or back. But, those bends in the ducting after the fan are DEFINITELY hurting the air flow. Whenever you can, use hard (aluminum) 90 degree bends rather than just turning your ducting. Right out the gate you have a 90 and another 90. Definitely 1 of those can be avoided by pulling the duct tighter or moving the filter and fan a little.

Something I've had really impressive success with is running MH bulbs clear through the grow. If you go vertical try going full spectrum and run 1 HPS and 1 MH for the best results. Personally, I think that most HPS bulbs just offer too much of their spectrum outside of the very narrow band of Red light the plant wants. The MH bulbs, while lower lumens, offer a lot more energy in the more reactive blue side of the spectrum. With the new digital MH bulbs having enhanced red spectrum I've been seeing better results using them than the traditional HPS. I had to experiment on my own to find this out and since doing so have found many other gardeners who rebelled against conventional advice and had great success as well.

Another something I found was better results running just coco. Running a 60/40 coco/perlite mixture in 5 gallon planters, for me, is equivalent to running a 100% coco grow in 3 gallon planters. Just cut out the perlite and your plants won't really change size. Actually, I get better root development in pure coco and would have to consider 100% in 3 gallons might even out perform 60/40 in 5 gallons. I grow in 1 gallon planters these days. Because Coco is a hydroponic media you really just don't need all the dirt that you would with soil. Think of those 6x6 rockwool cubes with massive tomato plants growing out of them. Same thing, only coco and not rockwool. 5 gallon hydro planters are like 7-10 gallon soil planters when it comes to finished plant size indoors. Given your relatively low lighting levels (2x400 is like 90,000 lumens - about the same as 1 600w system but for 25% more watts) and the loss of penetrative power of the lights from the lower wattage sources I think your planters are larger than necessary. They can support a plant that will grow taller than the lights will penetrate. Great for 1000w trees, but definitely going to require training (topping and LST) and heightened awareness with your watering frequency to utilize them to their best potential.

Plain RO water does not pH balance very well and the readings from your meter could be skewed. CANNA nutrients, and myself, recommend using tap water or reconditioning the RO water with some hardness to provide stability. RO water is very reactive with the atmosphere and will produce bicarbonates in the presence of free elements over time. With Coco I will almost never use just plain water unless I am trying to upset the cation buffer and rinse it totally clean (like before harvest). During a grow, and particularly when seeding, a 0.6 to 0.8ec is perfectly healthy. The coco itself has it's own requirements and needs some cations to fill it's bank. Just because you're adding food doesn't mean it will cook your seedlings, and those nutrient levels will be very low considering a starting EC of around 0.2 to 0.4 after the RO has been reconditioned. If you're fear of chlorine is what drove you to RO units then I feel bad for you man. A Hydrologic Tall Boy or Small Boy with KDF filter would have been more than enough as long as your not on some funky city water (reclaimed waste) or have an EC over 0.6 (excessive hardness).

I think there are a lot of reasons to transplant. Mostly though, ensuring complete and even saturation of that much media, when an immature root system is present, will be difficult/interesting early on. Going from 1 gallon to 5 gallon would have been my choice when it comes to developing a solid root system as quickly as possible. You need to water not so often you damage the immature root system but not so infrequently that the supply of fresh dissolved 02 in the solution is depleted.

I've used Big Bud dry in coco before and had nothing but success and good things to say about it. That being said, I did use it to bump the K levels from what CANNA recommends with their base. The new Big Bud Coco is a liquid formula and is very diluted. I suggest getting the BB dry and running it at about 1/2 tsp per 5 gallons during weeks 2-6 of flowering. Keep an eye on your Mg levels when running this product, the Bud Factor X (while expensive) does contain Mg and a whole lot more (chitin).

Managing your runoff is worrisome for me. 10-20% every time means gallons of water you're going to be dealing with. That bit of plastic on the floor won't cut it over the long haul I think. Saucers are cheap and will really help out. A wet/dry vac can also be useful when emptying them. After a few "on the ground" grows with coco I followed a similar progression as you have. First with the plastic, then saucers, until I finally stepped it up and got a 3x3 tray for my tent. SUCH a wise investment. I used to spend an hour watering plants and dealing with the runoff. Now it's like 5 minutes. My time has value, and that tray was uber cheap. A 2x4 tray would be perfect for this setup and probably only cost you $80 and after a grow or two will more than pay for itself in time lost.

Best of luck hombre!

 

[dabking]

advanced is pulling all their dry nutes off the shelf. So if you want advanced powders get em while you can. The coco formula is different from regular big bud. I've done the comparison between the two liquids and the coco formula wins in coco.

 

[Elmer Bud]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vQaVIoEjOM

 

[Jydcoo]

So day 6 since I planted and My 2 Black Diesel look good. Replanted a northern lights blue in my WW because no sign of her :/. Elmer Budd thank you for all the insight. My next grow will be vertical. Temp is 79-84. Humidity is 35-47% trying to keep it up in 40's. I am cutting my water 50/50 RO/Tap water with a ppm of 150. More to come in the coming days. Ty all for comments.

 

[Jydcoo]

Second

 

[Jydcoo]

Been a Min Gents. I lost a Black Diesel and WW due to incidents. I replanted a Northern lights blue (fem of course). I Am feeding at 430 Ppm for the BD. And 220 for the Lil Blue. I will catch her up. They both are going nice, minor Brown/yellow Spots days ago so thats when i upped the ppm and watered really well. Sorry for the Delay. More to come later this week.

 

[Jydcoo]