~25 200gal smartie coco grow, woah.

Green Fields · May 5, 2011

Top o' the ol hat to all ye resident growers.

First and foremost thanks to the seasoned veterans who've been posting over the years. The information you've shared is GREATLY appreciated.

So here's the general layout.

Gonna run 200 gallon smartpot knockoffs..don't recall what they are, but the 200gal's actually have these great straps...so semi-sorta-almost mobile.

The dirt:

~250+ Bags of Royal Gold Basement Mix

"Basement mix ingredients: coco fiber, coco chips, lava rock, earthworm castings, (rice hulls, straw, manure, grape pomace, and cocoa hulls) composted chicken manure, fish bone meal, bat and seabird guano, kelp meal, silica, alfalfa meal, humic acid derived from leonardite."

I've been using this stuff indoors for awhile, have to say I really love it. Done DWC, ebb and flow, straight soil, plain coco...and I must say I think amended coco is the money note. Definitely blows straight coco out the water.

The plan is to cut it w/ around 20% perilite, and I've also got some months worth of used coco in a great big pile, roots n all. Might send that through the chipper n mix it all in, we'll see.

Strains:

~5 x XJ-13
~3 x Diesel
~3 x Skywalker
~3 x Headband (707)
~2 x OG Kush
~3 x Lemon Amnesia
~2 x Purple Urkle
~6 x Space Queen (popped 20 of Subcool's beaners, see what pops up)

The plot is only like 60 x 60', which is limiting.
It also only gets maybe 8hrs of direct sunlight per day..which blows donkey.

Super secure location though, so I think it's a worthy tradeoff.

Thus far most plants are 2-3 ft...hangin indoors til I break ground.

Green Fields · May 5, 2011

So I've opted coco mostly because I'm afraid of soil, that and I know hydro/soil-less alot better.

I'm concerned that it'll be overly costly though.. I reckon 500 gallon batches of nutes are gonna get annoyingly pricey. I figure I'll just toss gallons of H+G in, containers n all...should save time of actually opening em.

So anyways, lemme know what y'all think. Maybe giant coco pots is retarded and there's a reason why nobody does it. Guess I'll find out the hard way if y'all don't speak up :wave:

Anywho, happy growing season to y'all. Lookin forward to sharin my fruits and failures :tiphat:

FirstTracks · May 5, 2011

Welcome to IC and best of luck with your grow :smoke:

looking forward to seeing the progress

Ganja D · May 5, 2011

Sounds great,but using coco might get crazy. You'll be using massive amounts of water. Do a little research on soil before you buy all that coco. Soil might be your best bet.
Good luck.

ithruxix · May 5, 2011

You will have to water EVERY day, during the hot months something twice.

It appears you are in norcal, judging by the strains you are running. Depending on there you are at, will decide how much water you will be using.

Closer to the ocean= less water daily. The closer you are to the valley, the drier the conditions which will result in more water used.

I won't use coco in anything larger than a 65 gallon pot, because like Ganga said, the watering just gets too hectic.

Plus, you will be limited on the amounts of nutrients you can use, because of the salt contents.

Green Fields · May 5, 2011

Thanks fasttracks.

Yeah, that's my big concern D.
Do you really think coco will use significantly more water than soil though?

I've done a good bit of research on soil. Not to mention I've read all your threads, tom's, nomaads..erbody doing what I'm trying to do here. I'm just fearful I suppose.

I've thought about going w/ this tango mulch.

$36.00 yard • $8.75 bag Tango Mulch Compost is an organic compost made with a blend of green waste and grape pomace fertilized with oyster shell flour, bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, Dolomite 10, greensand, soil sulfur pellets and Azomite. Good for landscaping and vegetable gardening. This is our manure free alternative to our most popular Mango Mulch Compost.

Then maybe cutting it w/ like 30% peat and a bunch of perilite + all my old rootballs of coco (prolly like 600 gallons)

It just makes me nervous because one little thing off and the plants go pooo...and I'm not confident in my abilities to gauge a proper soil.

It would be so great to be organic. That's the whole idea here is getting under the big ol' sun to spare some kwh's.

Advise me o wise one :cathug:

Green Fields · May 5, 2011

Yeah, Sonoma County.

Just moved here (sorry) lol.

That's a very valid point.

eek.

And this is why the pot gods invented forums.
Sounds like y'all might have saved me some headaches, much appreciated.

praisehim. · May 5, 2011

^^ when they get big enough, which im hoping they will for ya. you will definetely be watering a ton. I could confidently say that by week four in flower it will be daily.. at least.

try mixing soil and coco, benefiting from both. check out roots organics.. they have a good mix from wht i hear.

Shcrews · May 5, 2011

for cost effectiveness i would go dirt over coco.

sure the coco may dry out slightly faster, but main difference is price

if $$ isn't an issue, and you can keep up with watering, then coco may actually perform better.

Rob547 · May 5, 2011

Everytime I go to the local hydro shop they tell me to use coco outdoors cause it retains water better. But I've only heard the complete opposite around here.... And I definitely will take ppls opinion on here then them. I just don't know why they are always pushing it...

Green Fields · May 5, 2011

Cuz they're bias on the basis of making money.

Yeah the Basement mix is kind of coco soil hybrid. It's well amended. Mostly coco though. Maybe I'll cut in some more soil though. IDK.

Watering every day is okay with me. Gonna run hella drip line n run the place dry.

Yeah money isn't really an issue. I'm fine with investing a fat chunk of dough and getting skunked. Might be a good learning experience for the whole community.

We shall see.

Starting the backbreaking labor later next week, no rush since the plants are under light inside anyways. So I've got a bit to weigh the pro's and con's.

Thanks for the input y'all, much appreciated. :thank you:

BongRipkenJR. · May 5, 2011

Rob547 said:
Everytime I go to the local hydro shop they tell me to use coco outdoors cause it retains water better. But I've only heard the complete opposite around here.... And I definitely will take ppls opinion on here then them. I just don't know why they are always pushing it...

I would never listen to those people again. I grow in coco right now and my 22 plants in 2 gallon smart pots go through 6 gallons indoors. I was thinking of doing the same grow outdoors for a top feed coco outdoor run. However, i would only use 10 gallon pots.

http://www.sonomacompost.com/product.shtml

also check the "growing big plants outdoors thread" or something like that. Tom Hill gives his mixes in that forum and I believe he is somewhat close to Sonoma, maybe Mendocino. Dont quote me on that though. However for big beautiful plants outdoors go with a good amended organic soil, guano teas, and compost teas and enjoy healthy top notch plants.

I should add that there are a lot of insects and diseases outdoors. Creating a proper soil food web is pretty crucial for staving off bugs, mildew, and disease.

Green Fields · May 6, 2011

Yeah I've read the large plants outdoors thread, along with everyone else who grows tree's on this site's threads.

Yeah I grow in coco aswell. Alot of times it's about 1/3 the medium in water every other day...so a room w/ collectively 180 gallons uses near 60 gal's water every few days...at least that's in my experience.

I have several 10-15 light rooms that run 3 gal coco pots, so I do understand how it works.

Basically every plant will be a whole room worth of medium...so I expect I'd end up mixing 1,000 gallon batches of H20/nutes at a time.

I'm still considering doing 100 gallon pots instead. Maybe using a coco based mix they'd beable to perform on the same level as 200 gallon soil's. Still weighing the options at this point.

Thanks for the input mi amigo

Whatcha think about these : http://www.grabngrowsoil.com/pCompost & Amendments.htm

Green Fields · May 6, 2011

Been switched from 200 gal to 100 gal's..
Y'all made me double think those giant containers full of basement mix.

I had this bad daydream where I was tossing whole bottles of this and that into the giant reservoir, and then fell in. I could have drown!

Hopefully a few dozen 100 gallons can still fill the lil 60x60 plot half decent.

Yes4Prop215 · May 6, 2011

post up some pics of those 10 lighters and the plot!! can you tell us more about the irrigation you will use for those? how many res/what size...or just water straight from hose..

Green Fields · May 6, 2011

Thanks for droppin in

I'll toss some of the plot later next week. Still haven't "broken ground" so to speak. Cleared the space last week, it's in a bunch of brambles or something. Still more to be done before the pots even go up.

Your wish is my command.

There's a 6,000 gallon holding tank on the property, which has line buried to about 20ft away from the plot. The intention is to pipe from there to a reservoir behind the plot for actually mixing nutes etc.

Haven't bought that reservoir yet, been too busy harvesting rooms etc. I'm thinking around a 500 gallon should suffice. Does that seem a reasonable assumption?

I'm planning on just running dripline from the nute res..not sure how that'll work yet.

Tis still early and I'm not in much of a rush..seeing as the plants are in a room under artificial light anyways...and they've got 3-4 weeks before they need to be out.

Green Fields · May 7, 2011

So here's some shots of the veglings.

So in the foreground are the C99 x Romulan (Space Jill, Space Queen) from seed. Still unsexed, though I've labeled most the females already..gotta love the cindy, she ain't shy when it comes to struttin her stuff.

Back left are Lemon Amnesia recently xfered to 7gal smarts. Chubby ones in the center are Purple Urkle, recently xfered to 7gal's aswell.

Space Queens center, back left Lemon Amnesia

Back right is the XJ, Diesel, Headband, Skywalker, OG...etc.

Closer shot of the XJ, Diesel etc. 3 gallon pots right now, I'll toss em in 7's early next week.

Space Queen seedlings in the center, Lemon Amnesia on the right. A diesel or something on the left.

XJ is the closest. To it's right an OG. These plants are close to 3ft tall I'm guessing. Few roots coming out the bottom, nowhere near bound yet though.

So there's the vegetation, hopefully it'll be a great season!

shroomyshroom · May 7, 2011

loving it

I am so going back to coco when i get back into it

Green Fields · May 7, 2011

Yes4Prop215 said:
post up some pics of those 10 lighters and the plot!! can you tell us more about the irrigation you will use for those? how many res/what size...or just water straight from hose..

Here's one of the indoor rooms, didn't visit the others today..I'll take pictures tomorrow. They've all recently been chopped and are in early flower..but ask and you shall receive. This room just ended its first week of flower.

Right at lights on, right before they got watered so that's why the droop. The centers were definitely ready. Prolly coulda used a watering middle of lights on yesterday, too bad that's like 4am!

This room is all XJ-13 and Diesel. 12x750's. 60 plants total in 3gallon pots filled w/ Basement Mix from royal gold. Feed H+G.

Anyways, I'd like to keep this thread primarily about my outdoor exploits. So on with the show!

Yes4Prop215 · May 7, 2011

damn man quite an impressive set of rooms....wish i had that many lights! that veg room is epic, along the lines of GD's 6k veg room....thanks for the pictures man.

500 gal res wish i could get one of those....il probably just get a 100 or 200 gallon and just refill it every few plants....

~25 200gal smartie coco grow, woah.

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